Aside from the thoroughly singed Shishio's menacingly bandaged visage, audiences also got to see the Jūppongatana (Ten Swords) group, including fleet-footed Seta Sojiro (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a ruthless young killer who could almost give Kenshin a run for his money. Or, as Trevor Johnston of Time Out described it, a "disappointing" entry with "a less-than-exciting grand finale."įor starters, "Kyoto Inferno" brought quite a few fan-favorite characters to life. Roxy Simons of Eastern Kicks praised actor Tatsuya Fujiwara, whose Makoto Shishio served as the main foil to Takeru Satô's Kenshin, for "portraying a nuanced version of his character and vulnerabilities that made his end all the more satisfying." Ultimately, however, "The Legend Ends" is, for many critics, the lowest point of the series.
Arguably, it was a two-parter that could have been just one. Leaning heavily into the fantastic techniques and elements of Kenshin Himura's world turned out to be a double-edged sword for "The Legend Ends." Despite his description of the sword fights as "handsome choreography," The Guardian's Mike McCahill called the film "a demonstration of the modern movie business's absurd gigantism: seven hours of set-trashing for a story that needed two tops." Indeed, what was supposed to be an epic conclusion to the film version of a popular story arc ended up being a bloated, thinly spread story with only the barest of substance, as Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter pointed out. Its popularity spawned an animated series, multiple OVAs (Original Video Animations, separate from the main show), and even a quintet of commercially successful live-action films released internationally over the course of nine years. With an estimated 72 million copies in circulation, "Rurouni Kenshin" was one of the top-selling manga titles of its time, becoming so successful that it actually helped keep its then-struggling home magazine alive. Also known as "Samurai X" in other countries, "Rurouni Kenshin" follows the adventures of Kenshin Himura, a former revolutionary assassin with a cross-shaped scar on his cheek who, for initially mysterious reasons, turned his back on killing and re-emerged as a wanderer with a reverse-edge sword (or sakabatou). Since its 1994 debut in the pages of Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, "Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story" has grown from a promising manga to a pop culture phenomenon. What does it take for a cold-blooded assassin, the very best in his line of work, to turn his back on killing and become a pacifist? Can true peace be obtained by force, and can violence truly be curbed with more violence? Perhaps most importantly, how can a retired swordsman hope to survive against a seemingly never-ending stream of vengeful villains out for his blood, when all he has is a sword with a reverse edge?
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