If you began reading this post based on the title, I regret to inform you that there isn't one but, if you are a fan of the Rurouni Kenshin manga, you probably already knew that or at least had a guess that that might be an answer. However, this post isn't about whether or not a definitive adaptation exists, more about why I feel one doesn't exist yet. Keep in mind, I will be covering many key events from the manga, and though Rurouni Kenshin is old enough that I believe, with the exception of the Hokkaido arc, it is well past the statute of limitations on spoiler warnings, I'm going to offer one anyway. This post is intended for people who've read the manga up to or exceeding the end of the Jinchu arc. You'll know which one that is when it starts. If you have not done so as yet, much of what I say will fly over your head.
So when it comes to definitive adaptations, I don't think there's any better place to start than the Rurouni Kenshin anime. In terms of the overall messages and tone of this work, it is probably the closest to the manga overall but it still misses the mark in very key ways. To exemplify this, I'm going to call attention to two scenes in this anime that are made mostly with the same philosophy but are not nearly the same quality. The first is Kenshin and Kaoru's goodbye right before Shishio and the second is Kenshin vs. Sojiro Round 2.
Kenshin and Kaoru's goodbye is a scene in the manga that was very brief but had a very clear focus on Kenshin and his duty to the world that he created that forces him to abandon those that he cares for most. The anime interpretation puts a lot more focus on Kaoru's attachment to Kenshin and how she wants better for him and how she wants to keep him around. Not at all ground breaking but many have made videos about how the shot composition and visuals are very good at conveying the emotions in the anime.
In Kenshin vs. Sojiro Round 2, the major beats of the fight play out largely the same in both versions and greater emphasis is placed on Sojiro's past as his motivations for who he is now. This focus on Sojiro ended up giving Kenshin extra dialogue where he tries to pull the emotions out of him. This isn't bad on principle, the issue that I take with it is that it alters Kenshin's character in a way that detracts from the themes.
If you recall, in the manga, Sojiro breaks down pretty much on his own and doesn't fully collapse until Kenshin basically says to him "I wasn't able to help before but if it's not too late, I'd like to help now." This statement actually has more going on than one would think. Keep in mind, Kenshin's entire philosophy throughout the manga was that he'd use his sword to protect all those within his sight. Sojiro resented that philosophy because no one was actually there to help him initially, and though Kenshin had no way of knowing, he finally realizes toward the end of the battle that Sojiro was one of those people that ended up on a wrong path because someone like him never came along. More than that, Kenshin wasn't able to protect Sojiro then because Sojiro was not within his sights. However, Sojiro is right in front of him right now so to not offer a hand to this boy who clearly needed it and never received it is nothing short of absolutely the righteous thing to do.
This line breaks Sojiro not just because Kenshin is a contradiction in the philosophy granted to him by Shishio but also because this one line proves that this man is not joking or lying in any capacity, which was Sojiro's main source of confidence throughout the events leading up to this. He didn't believe someone like Kenshin could truly exist so he was able to remain stable but as soon as he realized that Kenshin is more real than anything else that tried to be kind to him, he snapped. He couldn't take the realization because if someone out there is willing to help him, he didn't need to turn to become an assassin. And if it wasn't necessary for him to become a killer, his life from the day he met Shishio all the way up to now is completely meaningless.
In the anime, there's only a few more lines of dialogue but this dialogue has Kenshin probing Sojiro for any psychological problems that may be occurring. However, at this point, Kenshin had not been given any real prompt for it. Keep in mind in the manga, Kenshin doesn't get a clue until Sojiro tells him that nobody came to save him. However, in the anime, Kenshin just kind of guesses that there's emotional turmoil in the boy, which he turned out to be right in the end but this focus on Kenshin saving someone that he's not really sure can be saved ultimately just comes off as a bit childish.
Kenshin spent so much of his life killing people because he believed in the revolution and when it turned out to not be what he thought it would be he resorted to refusing to kill anyone anymore. Although he wants to help out whenever he can, Kenshin tries to subdue anyone who is causing harm because he doesn't believe that a rescue is possible. Sojiro was an exceptional case because even though he was probably the single most dangerous opponent Kenshin had faced up to that point, he was also the one who was the most damaged by Kenshin's limited ability. This is why he ended up helping, not only because he could, because it'd be the right thing to do, but also because he feels some responsibility for the way he turned out.
In the anime, he comes off more like a heroic character trying to redeem everyone he can, which can work but that kind of character in Rurouni Kenshin downplays the grim reality of the story, that not everyone can be saved, and that a single swordsman, even the greatest swordsman, isn't strong enough to move the world.
In addition, the probing for Sojiro's emotions came off as a ploy to be able to read Sojiro's movements so that he could fight on equal ground, making this seemingly noble act a completely tactical maneuver that is simply underhanded when put under this lense.
Next will be the OVA Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal. Now, many people who've viewed this OVA without knowledge of the manga, have said that it's a masterpiece of a story. However, as an adaptation of the manga, it's lacking in many areas.
For context, the Trust & Betrayal OVA covers the Tomoe flashback from the Jinchu arc of the manga and only the flashback itself. This is a problem because that flashback in the manga was not intended to be a stand alone story, but rather something that gives context to a greater arc. Specifically in relation to the villain, Enishi Yukishiro.
You see Enishi is unique as a villain in Rurouni Kenshin because he is the only one who has a personal vendetta against him. Every other character that went up against Kenshin did so because of what he represented, not who he is.
Sanosuke fought Kenshin because as the legendary patriot, he is something that he can lash out at as revenge for the Sekihotai. Jin-e went up against Kenshin for the thrill of a life or death battle that he could not get anywhere else. Aoshi went up against Kenshin to give his allies glory for their lives and to give meaning to their deaths. Raijuta saw him as a personification of power and wanted to defeat him when he wouldn't join him. Senkaku saw Kenshin as someone to be stomped on to prove himself to Shishio. Cho didn't really want to fight Kenshin at all, he just wanted to get Shakku Arai's final sword and Kenshin got in the way of that. Sojiro fought Kenshin specifically to validate his own existence. And Shishio wanted to crush Kenshin so his plans could go forth unimpeded.
Enishi, however, is set up right from the word Jinchu to be someone with a personal grudge against the former assassin. Even the word Jinchu roughly means "We will punish you even if the heavens will not." And the flashback was given as a means to establish context for that grudge because Kenshin already knew what it was and it was important that everyone else knew so that they could decide for themselves whether they wanted to stick around for the final battle.
The reveal of Kenshin's hand in the deaths of both Tomoe's former fiance and Tomoe herself were reasons Enishi wanted to punish Kenshin but this entire incident is also the deciding factor in Kenshin's current lifestyle. His regret over the death of someone he loved by his own sword was enough to convince him that the sword that kills is incapable of protecting. So he says to Kogoro Katsura that he will continue the battle he began until it is over but then he'd put his sword down forever to try to find a means to atone. This eventually turned out to not be the case as Shakku Arai gave him the Sakabato but regardless this event calls Kenshin's motivations into question as well.
Not to question whether or not he truly feels guilty, that much is obvious. But rather, if Enishi hates Kenshin for the same reason that Kenshin hates himself, does Kenshin even have the will to fight? If he wants to protect those he loves while trying to make peace with Enishi, will he even survive this knowing that he'll attempt to take everything on himself? And if Kenshin can't find a way to resolve Enishi's grudge with his own desire to atone, is there anything he could even do in the first place?
By separating out the flashback as its own story, this changes the focus of the events tremendously. You see, normally, if the only thing that changed was that the context of the flashback was removed to make this standalone story, then all that would change is that rather than a story that contextualizes present events, it would simply become a story of idealism and tragedy. This isn't bad by itself but a bigger issue as an adaptation are the changes made to the conveyance of the same general story.
There were a few notable changes to tone and presentation that cause concerns for me. The first and most immediately obvious of these is the artstyle difference. The Rurouni Kenshin manga written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki has a very traditional anime artstyle used for the purposes of expression and juxtaposition of humor and serious to give the more dramatic moments more weight while preventing the manga from dipping too much into despair. The Trust and Betrayal OVA takes on an artstyle that is still classified as anime but is very close to realistic, which takes away a lot of the expressiveness and also makes it harder to fit comedy into the story organically.
This means that scenes that were intended to be comedic in the manga, like Kenshin's exaggerated reaction to the lovebirds joke, and Tomoe hiding her diary from Kenshin due to distrust had to be removed. That's disappointing for me because these moments were very charming in how they illustrated that these two people, though borne of bloodshed and during a time of war, are still just teenagers that are stumbling their way through life. Kenshin's threat to kill his allies over a simple tease is funny in how immature it paints Kenshin as, in spite of his attempts to be seen as an adult and an equal, he still reacts the way a teenager would in that situation.
Obviously, these scenes were removed in the OVA but honestly that leads to a much bigger issue with the OVA and that is the rewriting of Kenshin and Tomoe's personalities to fit the story rewrites. In the manga Kenshin's overall demeanor while idealistic is nonetheless very serious and driven. In essence, he's a man on a mission and he will not allow himself to stop until that mission is complete. In the OVA his personality is rewritten to be incredibly forlorn, as though he's already been damaged by the killings he's had to do. Or more likely that he's in a constant state of despair due to having an entire life surrounded in battle.
Tomoe is more or less unchanged between the two versions, though the changes to Kenshin's personality change the dynamic of their relationship from strained but cooperative to just flat out two emo kids talking about their limited understanding of philosophy. Mind you, I'm not saying that there's no place in writing for something like that, just that if we're taking the OVA as an adaptation of the manga, it only helps to further divorce the two.
As I said before, many who've seen Trust & Betrayal in a vacuum tend to call it a masterpiece so if you want to watch it in isolation feel free to do so. Just know that the experience you get from it is not the one Watsuki intended.
That said, the next OVA, Samurai X: Reflections is easily the worst adaptation of these three for largely similar reasons to Trust & Betrayal. It changes so much of the source material it's working with, and even adds enough new on its own, that you may as well just call it it's own entity. If you've completed the manga, you've completed the story portrayed in the manga. If you've completed Samurai X: Reflections, you've completed the story as presented in Samurai X: Reflections.
Now, as I said Reflections suffers from all the same problems that Trust & Betrayal does, shift in tone, shift in artstyle, removal of comedy that balances out the mood, removal of most shounen elements including the hype in the fight scenes, and removes context from many of the scenes from the manga it chooses to use. But if you want new complaints, don't worry, there's actually a lot that Reflections does terrible entirely on its own merits.
Firstly, Reflections uses many iconic scenes from the manga due to the narrative it's trying to portray. You see, the primary story it's trying to tell is about Kenshin going on a trip with a bunch of soldiers for a boost in morale for an oncoming conflict and how many of the characters cope in his absence. This plot is divided up into three sections: Kenshin, Kaoru, and Yahiko. Kenshin's plot is all about his time in China after having lost his memory after the ship he was aboard sank due to turbulence. Kaoru's plot is all about coping with Kenshin's absence by reminiscing about the times they went through together. And Yahiko's plot is about bringing Kenji back home from Kyoto so they can meet Kenshin when he comes back home.
The scenes in which the iconic moments of the manga are used are during Kaoru's portion of the plot as a way for her to power through her light headedness so she can meet Kenshin upon his return. Or at least that's the idea I speculate based on what I presume is author's intent. In terms of application, however, it simply amounts to using and altering many iconic moments from the manga to get brownie points from the manga readers, most likely as a response to criticism of Trust & Betrayal given that both have the same director and are made by the same studio. And the biggest problem with this in terms of Reflections as a standalone product is that these flashbacks offer nothing of value to the story. Firstly, because all of the flashbacks are from Kaoru's perspective, much of the context we're granted in the manga due to following Kenshin is removed, so if you're watching this OVA you're probably not even going to understand the point of these scenes unless you read the manga first, which defeats the purpose of an adaptation but more than that it does nothing to portray any of the characters in any meaningful way.
Okay, this is about to turn into a "What if this OVA were good?" segment but bear with me. What if, instead of these iconic moments appearing in Kaoru's mind for no reason, we have these scenes come up in relation to Kenji specifically. Keep in mind, Kenji is in Kyoto training in Hiten Mitsurugi with Hiko mainly just to avoid having to face his father, which seems petty in this OVA but even in the last chapter of Jinchu, Kenji never really liked his father for some reason so it's perfectly within character. However, Kenji always loved his mother and that could tie both the Kaoru and Yahiko portions together. What if when Yahiko goes to meet Kenji, instead of fighting him, which given the director we're dealing with, is going to be a disaster no matter what, we instead have Yahiko tell Kenji to come back because they're not sure Kenshin's going to come back before Kaoru breathes her final breath. This would serve as motivation for Kenji to go back to Tokyo to see his mother.
Then, upon arriving at her bedside, he asks her what's on her mind, to try to get her as mentally active as he can to keep her from going into an eternal slumber and during this time she tells Kenji about the experiences she had with his father during the events of the Rurouni Kenshin manga. This would better justify why all the of the scenes would be exclusively from Kaoru's perspective, since they're a story she's telling based on her own knowledge, these scenes that come up could be lessons to Kenji about Kenshin's life path and also help him to appreciate his father a bit more than he had previously. It's not much but it's better than what's currently here.
Of course, as I said, many of these scenes from the manga are altered in ways that are just straight up baffling to me, like Kenshin using Kaoru's favorite hair tie as a gauze to soak up blood and to tie his sword into his hand, or Kenshin's Sakabato cutting straight through Zanza's Zanbato going straight into a strike onto Zanza's chest, which somehow doesn't cut him in half despite the blade clearly cutting straight through metal but I think the bigger issue is just how much of the manga needed to be altered for this story to take place from the getgo.
You see, the time frame of this OVA seems to be around 10 years after the last chapter of Jinchu based solely on Kenji's age being 15 from the looks of it in spite of the fact that everyone else looks identical to the way they did in that chapter, which would make Yahiko in this OVA a 25 year old that looks like he's 15 but I digress. The bigger issue is that the manga ends on a rather hopeful note, with Kenshin having forgiven himself, made peace with the past, and living a life with his family knowing that the next generation can carry on his legacy in the form of Yahiko.
This OVA changes that ending by having the ending of the Jinchu arc scar Kenshin permanently to the point that even as early as his very first line in the OVA he speaks as a man who is simply waiting for death, not as a man who wishes to use his remaining time to the best of his ability. And though Kenshin's physical degradation is documented in the manga as an overuse of abilities his body simply can't handle, the OVA seems to suggest it's actually syphilis or some other kind of STD because, firstly it seems to have a very large degrading effect on a large amount of Kenshin's skin and, secondly, he seemingly gave it to Kaoru in a night of passion just before he set sail. Not particularly uncommon in this setting, mind you, just really out of place for this particular franchise.
And of course because a large majority of this OVA, even the parts that reference the manga, are unique to this OVA in some way, watching it will have absolutely no bearing on your understanding of the manga or its themes.
Then of course, if we're going to talk about OVA's, we have to talk about the New Kyoto Arc. Okay, I'm not going to beat around the bush with this, the New Kyoto arc is by far the worst adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin to date. And given that the previous two adaptations turned Kenshin into a hyper depressive with syphilis that's saying something. The New Kyoto arc is such a departure from what the manga stood for that I honestly don't even know who it's supposed to appeal to.
Okay, so the major change that is the very premise of this OVA is that it takes place in the Shishio Arc at the Battleship Rengoku. However, it deviates from the manga where instead of sinking the ship, Kenshin and Saitou simply battle Sojiro and Shishio while aboard the ship. Now because this is just the premise, I have a few problems with this just in terms of potential.
Okay so first of all, the fact that the Kyoto Arc retelling takes place entirely aboard the Rengoku, it seems that the studio knew right off the bat that this OVA was going to take place entirely within the span of a single night and without the context of the arc leading up to it. So firstly, how did they plan to establish and resolve these characters within the span of time they were given? Secondly, how would the battle on board this ship resolve the entire Shishio arc on its own if it's not going to give the chance for any of the other characters in Kyoto to be contributors? Thirdly, how would they handle these events in a way that stay true to the source material while still being a deviation?
The answers I received were "Not at all," "By killing Shishio and Sojiro," and "By not even trying."
Because the thing is, the entirety of this OVA's plot is basically just Kenshin fighting and killing Sojiro and Shishio while on board the Rengoku, so it not only reduces the entire runtime to just a bunch of meaningless fights but it also writes the characters as completely contradictory to who they are in order to make the plot work.
Just the fact that Kenshin kills by his own sword in the first place is a contradiction because based solely on the information in this OVA, we're led to believe that the deviation takes place as Kenshin and Saitou board the Rengoku where they choose to end the conflict right there instead of being satisfied with the destruction of the Battleship. You can argue that deviations might have occurred earlier up to make Kenshin relent on his vow to never kill again but that requires assumptions with no actual support in the OVA itself so it's much more plausible to assume that the animators used the manga as a reference for character designs and movements and literally nothing else.
This has every problem of the previous two OVA's with none of the upsides. Altering of established character personalities, changing of events for the plot to work, removal of any context that makes manga references meaningful, but without any of the additions that made either of those alright as standalone products. Hell, even the name New Kyoto Arc implies that it's made for people who've already seen the entirety of the Kyoto Arc in the manga.
So again, I ask myself who is this for? Is it for fans of the manga? That can't be, because fans of the manga will instantly notice the discrepancies and dislike it even if they can't articulate why. Fans of samurai anime? Well, if that's the case, why not just use original characters and ideas like The Sword of the Stranger? It worked well for that movie. Is it simply to capitalize on brand recognition? Well, the Rurouni Kenshin series at that point had been outside the public view for over a decade, so what would be the point in that?
Regardless, if you want to appreciate Rurouni Kenshin, read the manga. It has the most content and it has the truest intended experience. Unfortunately, I don't know that there will ever be an ideal or even good adaptation of this manga that I hold so dear.
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