714

Oh man, it’s a SAMURAI SHODOWN!

I watched this movie Gantz:0 on Netflix because some trailer I saw for it at some point looked interesting. Turns out it’s narratively incomplete, a tad misogynist, and totally bonkers. I know it’s based on a manga also called Gantz, and all I’ve ever really known about the series is that people who have just recently died are mysteriously resurrected by a black orb in a non-descript Tokyo apartment and told they have to put on tight black scifi catsuits and fight ‘aliens’ in a sort of life or death game where you earn points by killing the most enemies. The movie manages to completely fail to explain the motivation behind these aliens, or why they all look like creatures out of Japanese mythology, or what the black orb is or why it makes people who have recently died fight these aliens in a point based game format. Nor does it explain how this black orb or its creator provides the main characters all the high tech weapons they use or even how it brings them back to life. Basically, it’s an infuriating movie with lots of mysteries and no answers. On the flip side, it is a pretty darn good looking CG film where the characters feel very vulnerable (you don’t quite know who the plot armor is protecting until the very end), with some great effects and animations (outside of the obnoxiously ludicrous jiggle physics on the women). It’s a movie that runs almost entirely on predictable cliches utilizing a bunch of mostly one note characters and a lot of ham fisted melodrama, but if you’re looking for some eye candy that’ll leave you scratching your head, along with some fairly creative action scenes, maybe it’s worth a watch.

Gantz: 0 actually reminded me quite a bit of another Netflix anime movie based on a manga that I watched. BLAME is also a narratively incomplete story driven almost entirely be cliches and ending with almost every question posed by the film unanswered. The basic plot is that a bunch of generational survivors living in a superstructure that’s so huge no one knows how big it is make contact with a travelling guy who apparently is looking for a human with some gene that would allow them to control all the hostile robots in this super city. The movie fails to explain the origins of this mysterious traveler, or why everyone keeps calling him human even though he is very clearly a cyborg with re-attachable limbs, or what the ultimate purpose of the superstructure is, why it became hostile toward humans, and why dart guns are apparently a more effective weapons against murder robots than, say, an automatic rifle. At least its female characters aren’t treated like dainty, vulnerable eye candy, though.

Maybe these movies are meant to be the beginning of franchises, or maybe they’re just meant to be supplementary material to their respective manga, although I find it hard to believe these fairly high budget films aren’t made with the express purpose of being able to stand on their own and increase these franchies’ popularity! I’ll give both these movies points for only being an hour and a half each, though.

And while we’re talking about film adaptations of manga, the trailer for the upcoming Blade of the Immortal film looks gloriously accurate to the source material, which has my hyped. And although the Bleach manga ultimately turned into one of the most overstuffed, over confused shounen franchises of all time, its initial setup was wonderfully unique and compelling, which gives me some hope for the live action film adaptation. On the other hand, as much as I love Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and am currently reading through the manga, the live action trailer for that movie looks laughably cornball. Maybe keeping Al’s suit of armor design identical to the manga was not the best idea, as Al looks like a walking cartoon in world of competent cosplayers. Actually, ‘a world of competent cosplayers’ pretty much describes every live action anime adaptation I’ve seen, so maybe it’s fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT0FpghSNcw

Published on September 4, 2017 by Alex Kolesar

Sunwu

Looks like Yori got cut, is this the part where he turns into a titan?
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl526AECgz0
animalia555

Maybe it’s me, but I like to think that Yorikiro sees the stupidity of this approach, that it doesn’t prove who’s the better leader, that all it does is prove who’s strongest. And to top it all of it throughs away valuable assests becaues the ones who die won’t be the weakest, but the second strongest.

Hmm, maybe he DOES see it and THAT is why he is so mad?

You know what would be awesome? If Yori manages to win without killing Tadashi he then goes on to give him a verbal smackdown explaining just that.
- Xinef
  
  I was wondering if Yori manages to completely destroy Tadashii’s sword, leaving him without a weapon, would this be enough for T to surrender. I mean… I can’t imagine him going for fisticuffs 😉
  Though I wonder how shattering his “soul” would affect T.
clogboy

Oh! Oh! Oh! Will he block with the long sword, and cut with the short one?

I watched the Blame anime and was disappointed. I guess the source material really doesn’t lend itself for a cinematic release.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  I think it’s more likely it was just poorly adapted, because there’s almost certainly a good movie in there. It just needed a better payoff/reveal at the end, instead of remaining steadfastly cryptic.
  - clogboy
    
    To make it work with such a quiet character, you’d need a very specific art style and story telling. One Punch Man is good reference material (also the quiet type with a catch-all, end-all attack), and so are several parts of Animatrix.
    I suppose it just wasn’t in the budget, was this from the same studio as Knights of Cydonia?
    - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
      
      The worst part about blame was that it was clearly meant to be a stand alone film, because all the point of view character’s problems are basically solved at the end (her village people are lead to a safe, plentiful location), and then we time skip to her grandchildren just so the audience knows for certain that they all continued to survive. That’s a pretty ‘final’ way to end a story. Sure, you could have sequels that follow the silent cyborg guy, or follow the perspective of other humans that encounter him, but that’s a very episodic storytelling method, and the cast from the first film was still just left behind with many questions unanswered, meaning a new cast would have to ask them all over again, I guess.
      - clogboy
        
        At least it did give some significance to the net terminal genes… I still don’t understand the last chapter of the manga.
  - clogboy
    
    Also checked the Gantz-O trailer. Can it still be considered live action if it’s 80% CG?
    - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
      
      I don’t know, do you consider the Star Wars prequels live action films?
      - clogboy
        
        Oh, from the quality of the video (grainy) you can barely tell at some points. The camera work also seems pretty vivid. Wonder how they did that.
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        Yeah, the biggest reason I watched it was because I was because it’s a visually impressive CG animated film! It may be worth a watch solely for that reason.
charles81

On Gantz:0 and Blame!

They’re done like that for reason’s similar to Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion 3.0/3.33 You can (not) redo.

Its supposed to be about putting the audience in the shoes of the main character/s or protagonist/s. In Gantz’ case the Gantz teams don’t understand whats going on, so we the audience never really do (Unless you look up the more encompassing manga). The same with Blame! The Electro-Fishers don’t understand cyborgs, the city around them or what this genetic history is. They’re frustrated and left to beg and ask “why?” with no answer and must simply push on to survive the adversities first and foremost. Eva 3.33 is similar where we experience most of everything through Shinji and are left as frustrated as he about the reasons all this is taking place and the lack of any forthcoming answers.

In Gantz and Blame!’s cases, they’re part of larger Manga universes where you can go and find out many of the answers. Even Evangelion’s 4th new installment is likely to answer much of what we experienced in the 3rd. But the animation studio were only given a segment of the story to tell in a movie and tried to use these techniques of letting the Audience experience the character’s frustrations and the reality of a world that doesn’t necessarily answer all your questions.

But it’s also a case that in these segments of larger anime/manga stories, the writers have turned the over-arching plot, and it’s details, into Macguffins, with the real story taking lace with the people, in the here and now.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  Providing a perspective from the main character may be what all those movies are trying to do, but they are literally terrible at it. The ONE THING you need to do when you’re telling a story solely from a single character’s point of view is have them ask all the questions the viewer is asking. That at least gives the story the opportunity to not answer the questions, because we as the viewer know that the story is well aware the questions exist but is choosing to leave them unexplained. But in these movies, there are literally a million questions that no one is asking. Granted, I will give you that in Gantz, the main guy does ask the big monster why they’re killing each other and gets a hilariously cryptic response, but where’s the scene where they’re all just yelling questions at the gantz orb? Where’s the scene where someone goes “why do all these aliens look like mythological Japanese creatures??”. Why are so many of the characters just accepting of their circumstance? No one is even questioning how they are where they are when they thought they’d died. It’s infuriating.
  
  In BLAME they at least point out that no one knows the history of the superstructure, until, of course, they meet a woman cyborg who existed when the superstructure was still under human control. You’d think that’d be a great time to start asking some freakin’ questions. Or maybe even ask this wandering guy why he has a Death Star hand gun or why he’s a cyborg and not just a human. Instead the story basically goes “we were trapped in a mysterious place full of danger, but then a mysterious man with a mysterious past lead us to a slightly less dangerous but still mysterious place and we never saw him again, but I believe he’s still out there, searching for a thing.”
  
  And, well, Eva 3.0 is just a bonkers movie that makes no sense in any context, and Shinji is literally the king of not asking questions, especially in the Eva films, so as a point of view character he’s literally the most terrible. I still love those movies, though, because they are the most nonsense bonkers things ever with incredible production values and mecha designs that are slick as hell.
  - charles81
    
    Didn’t say it was a good strategy or method 😉
    
    Essentially I agree. It’s an infuriating method of storytelling they’ve adopted. There are excuses for all those movies. The guys who stopped to ask questions in Grantz died, in Blame! They didn’t know about cyborgs and had priorities of surviving and eating now, asking history questions later (not that the cyborgs really had the answers either though, especially the bloke) and Shinji is eventually passed off as just being sick of it all and barely cares any more.
    
    But all those are, as stated, excuses made up by the authors. They control if the characters have the relevant information and if they can, or do, ask the questions, etc but create the story to avoid it and infuriate the watcher. While I can agree with Anno in concept of what he was trying to do with Shinji re-emerging with no knowledge of what the heck has transpired or what the heck is going on and no-one explaining it to him or answering him (essentially nothing making sense for him and therefore the audience), it was a bad move to then have him turn melancholy and not have Kaworu explain things properly with some flashback to assist.
    
    Gantz and Blame! have better excuses in that they’re a movie covering one part of much longer anime. In both cases, the answers are completely unknown at those points in the series to anyone. Blame’s Killy has no idea about even his origins (barely even understands what he sees in his HUD) and simply found the gun (which he did get asked about and answered), Cibo is in the dark on where and what the mega structure has grown to or the why of the disease which locked them out from controlling it. Gantz has all sorts of memory wipe excuses to the extent the rest of Earth don’t even know about it but ultimately the manga marks the Gantz down as nearly a complete Macguffin/plot device.
    - animalia555
      
      I haven’t seen the live action Gantz (as I never bother with live action versions of anime/manga anyways) but I have read the entire manga. If it is an adaptation of a manga arc I may be able to help.
      - charles81
        
        Kato returns to Gantz. Don’t want to say much more to give away things to others. But thats not necessarily the point. The issue is that watch an anime/cgi movie and don’t get all the necessary answers with any promise of a sequel to address and answer them. Essentially, you shouldn’t have a great need to seek out the manga if you’ve watched the anime. It should either stand alone or be acceptably addressed in prequels/sequels (which I guess Eva 3.0 might be, but it took it too far).
        
        I know the manga essentially answers the question about the Gantz but even that is a relatively hollow answer IMHO. Really, the Gantz is just a Macguffin/plot device. Even the “Enemy” and the excuse behind it is fairly hollow. The meat is much more in the character interactions and development in a game-like combat system.
      - animalia555
        
        That was a horrible excuse for an arc to adapt. Arcs 1-4 when Kurono regains his humanity by the end would have worked best even if they took more then a few films to do it.
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        All I want to know is who built gantz, and what its purpose is, and what the goals of the ‘aliens’ are. I mean, these mysteries are basically the hook of the story, much like Attack on Titan’s mysterious titans and their origins. If the Gantz story can’t answer those questions satisfactorily, then its pitch to the audience is falling short. Also, feel free to spoil those question for me because I want to know but will likely never read the manga and can’t find a nice concise spoiler thread online.
      - charles81
        
        Who Built Gantz: “God Aliens” more advanced than the various ones attacking
        What is Gantz’ purpose: The “God Aliens” decline to give a full answer but essentially they sent the plans for the Gantz to some german guy because they could. It really sounds like they did it on a whim and don’t really care.
        What are the goals of the Aliens (attacking): First thing to know is that there are numerous species of aliens and not all of them are even attacking. Some of them are even sort of refugees fleeing the invasion of their own planet by other aliens, but the Gantz seems to setup even these as eligible targets. Eventually the “Giant Aliens” attack and it turns out they turned to invade Earth after a failed attempt to attack the “God Aliens” essentially driving lesser aliens before them who were either fleeing or acting as their advanced agents. There doesn’t seem to be an incredible reason for them to have picked Earth. It’s possible Earth would have been just another planet to be swept forward or away with the other worlds they invaded and fleeing aliens if the “God Aliens” hadn’t provided Earth with the Gantz.
        
        Honestly it’s a pure plot device. There’s little rhyme or reason to it all. Considering how the Gantz works I wouldn’t put it past the “God Aliens” to have “helped” Earth this way for the sole purpose of creating some kind of reality TV show for themselves, but their “godly” nature and apathetic interest suggest they really just did it on a whim.
        
        Its much more about character interactions and development and explorations of morals and situations. For absolute SPOILERS: The “God Aliens” end up explaining that flesh and bone are nothing. Some portion of a human (read soul) goes to another dimension when they die and eventually return as a new born human. Some of the main characters die in the end (killed by the “God Aliens”, one to prove their point on the pointlessness of flesh and bone, another because he attacks in rage at this) but the “God Aliens” apathetically explain that one will be naturally reborn in a few years and some years later the other will be born as her child.
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        Well, that is an infuriating explanation! If they’d actually set it up so the god aliens really WERE creating a reality tv show for themselves, that would’ve been an infinitely better reason for it all, and played up the moral ambiguity of what’s going on.
      - charles81
        
        I agree. I could have been sold on a reality TV angle where the God Aliens were like “Q” in Star Trek NextGen and did things, in good part, for some sick entertainment value.
        
        All the trials and triumphs of the cast.
        In one sense they died in the real world anyway, so their family is denied them
        in another sense they’re returned with all memories and knowledge of who is missing them and how their needed but forced to play by the Gantz rules or simply die permanently and be back where they would have been had the Gantz not revived them. Then there’s the continued loss of friends and sacrifice to resurrect them rather than self interest to get better guns or personal freedom from Gantz. Not to mention death starting to loose it’s meaning when your friends can die and you can bring them right back with enough effort and finally the complete apathy of life and death where you die but this data (soul) which goes to another dimension eventually returns naturally anyway.
        
        It’s all good stuff and I can understand some of the hollowness of the God Aliens in the end and the Giant Aliens seeming to be naught more than conquerors who expected to view the humans as flesh for consumption or exotic fauna. It brought it back to the main cast being the centre of attention in it all, but I think it went too far with making them hollow.
        
        Blame! SPOILERS – I barely remember but essentially when Cibo was around these robots and the city we’re impressive but relatively ordinary. By the time they’re dealing with all of this it’s supposedly grown bigger than a Dyson Sphere and is well past Jupiter’s orbit in the Solar system. There were some mutant/cyborg guys (I forget exactly) who I think were responsible for the virus that removed human’s access and set the machines to just grow the megastructure and treat the humans as pests. Killy (cyborg guy) turns out to be a full machine of the pest control machines (can’t remember their name), the pest control girl you saw him fight turns out to be some human that was integrated into them. I think they eventually get her on side somehow (was done in a decent way) and somewhere along the way she or cibo become pregnant with what I think is a child of their combined genetics (or maybe there was a mutant/cyborg’s genetics in there as well). That child ends up having both the gene for access and the access rights necessary although I can’t remember the exact commands it gave or if we even saw that or simply were left with the knowledge it would growup to eventually give commands. The mutants/cyborgs who set the city builders to grow the structure, pest control to kill humans and stopped human access seem to just be arseholes. I think a few of them had some depth but again, can barely remember.
        
        All together the rhyme and reason are ultimately unsatisfying again but I do half recall being interested in the logic and journey behind getting the girl out of the pest control corps, the creation of the child and the reasoning behind why this child would have all the access and credentials necessary due to it’s parentage and such. Sorry I can’t remember it with any great clarity.
      - charles81
        
        Netflix Anime recommendation: “Yuki Yuna is a Hero”
        You’ll think it’s the classic “Sailor Moon” or even modern “Sparkle Force” style magical girl anime, and it starts out that way a little, but doesn’t take too long to take some turns and has the best (IMHO) explanation for only granting powers to young, innocent girls and all the monsters attacking that one town/precinct.
        
        Heads up that you do have 2-3 episodes of what comes across as more ordinary magical girl anime. For me, it was worth it (but then I have young girls and suffer through “Sparkle Force” regularly anyway…)
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        I actually added that one to my watch list just recently because it looked interesting! I’ll take your recommendation to heart. Gotta finish Little Witch Academia first, though.
Turul

Aww. On the one hand, if Yori offs Tadashii now, we’ll mourn him, but on the other hand, we’ll get one of those extra neat Demon of Sorrow death splash pages, which will go a long way towards comforting us.
Major Tom

Next page single stroke battle! Single stroke battle I’m calling it!
LordBolanderFace

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a198c117101bff0174b37d4cc7bac30e8e55429f0ff4acd95e7352ecd22eaea.png
- LordBolanderFace
  
  As for live action anime movies… yeah, I’m not too crazy about them. Not even the FMA one, and FMA:B is the only anime I’ve ever loved unconditionally. I dunno what it is about it, but it just looks wrong somehow. Maybe it’s how they put a blond wig on an obviously Japanese boy. On a side note, what did you think of the Netflix Death Note? I haven’t seen the whole anime so I haven’t watched it, but I’ve heard literally nothing good about it.
  - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
    
    Yeah, the FMA movie would probably work better if it were a straight up CG film like Gantz. When they adapt a series that uses such garish colors, it just looks silly when they translate it so accurately into live action.
    
    And I did not nor do I have much intention to watch the live action Death Note. Joe watched it, though, so maybe he’ll share his opinion. I enjoyed maybe the first fifteen episodes of the Death Note anime, and then it all fell apart. I assume the manga does the same (I’m pretty sure I read the end to see the differences). I vaguely recall watching the live action Japanese Death Note movie and thinking it was possibly the best version of the story. Death Note is a series with a really great hook but a failure to live up to its full potential.
    - Nos Rin aka CTCO
      
      I honestly don’t understand why deathnote has sooooo much hype.
      Personally I felt it had a lot of psuedo intelligence and too much over thinking. just a lot of convoluted crap that claims to be way smarter then it actually is.
      and that one mary sue in the second half just makes me groan.
- Kid Chaos
  
  Do not forsake me, oh my darlin’… 💀
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5an9OuXKxBw&ab_channel=fritz51139
Nos Rin aka CTCO

I dont know what to think of the FMA film. it looks fun and terrible at the same time.
and how much of the manga are they going to shove into one film?

Btw I own the entire manga and finally got and watched brotherhood. Definitely in my top ten.
- clogboy
  
  I collected the manga from the moment there were only ten volumes out, and got the next one whenever it came out. When I picked up the final volume of the manga, the store only had it as part of a collector’s edition box that a client who ordered it, never bothered to pick up. So the store owner cannibalized the box, sold me the last volume and shelved the others, and threw in the box as a gift.
  - Nos Rin aka CTCO
    
    interesting.
    before I moved in 2010 (end of the year) I had gotten up to volume 10 in Rurouni Kenshin and Full Metal Alchemist, and had also been buying novels of the dresden files series. all at borders with those coupons. after that I tried to buy used copies where I could them but after a long time, I gave up with the last two of RK and just nabbed them off amazon.
    Honestly both are a really good read.
    turns out though some of my earlier volumes of FMA had been water damaged and warped, especially 5. I think I’ll have to track down some replacements. D:
    - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
      
      Public Service Announcement: Rurouni Kenshin recently got a continuation arc that recently began its English run through VIZ Media! Needless to say, I am SUPER HYPED about this.
      
      Here’s a link to the free-to-read prequel chapters leading in to the new Hokkaido arc: https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/chapters/rurouni-kenshin-side-story-the-e
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        WHAT?! NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He better not die in it!
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        Unlikely. I don’t know how canon the OVAs are, but Watsuki had nothing to do with them, and specifically stated that it’s not how he would have ended it, as he prefers happy endings. So it’s unlikely we’ll see Kenshin die in this new arc. Based on the preview chapters that introduce some new characters, the story arc is likely to focus on these new members of the Kamiya Dojo, with Kenshin and co. being secondary characters to the plot, although I’m sure they’ll still all have big roles in the story.
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        hmmm, i thought i heard he liked that movie that I refuse to ever watch, but I’ll accept the happy ending stuff.
        but ya, anything from RK will be good.
        I want to track down the OVAs that covered the last part of the story that they didnt do in the anime, with Enishi, who is ironically named.
        ya, season 3 was pure filler.
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        Well, the OVA that ‘sort of’ covers the Enishi arc was what I was referring to. SPOILERS (and rant), Kenshin dies of some disease that he acquired offscreen. It’s absolute bullshit (even the writers acknowledge that they didn’t have a particular real disease in mind, it’s just a plot device for the DRAMA), and he also gives the disease to Kaoru UPON HER URGING and they die in each others arms in the street. Nobuhiro Watsuki didn’t necessarily say he didn’t like it (because he’s very polite), but did say in an interview that he prefers a happier ending for Kenshin because of all the crap the guy had to go through.
        
        The only part of the Enishi arc that is covered in the OVA is Kenshin’s final fight with Enishi, with basically all context removed so that anyone who hasn’t read the manga would be like “who dis guy?”. The rest of it is about a dying Kenshin trying to get back home to see Kaoru one last time, and various brief flashbacks to his biggest fights.
        
        There’s this insanely frustrating scene where sickly Kenshin, who was providing medical aid (?) in a Japan/Korea war, runs into Sanosuke, who pretty much just puts Kenshin on a boat back to Tokyo and says “I’ve got other obligations here so I can’t see you home”. Sanosuke was ready to die for Kenshin MULTIPLE TIMES because he thought of Kenshin as the man who awakened a new purpose in him. I can’t imagine what obligations Sanosuke could have that would prevent him from taking a dying Kenshin home to see his wife one last time. Conveniently, the OVA does not tell us.
        
        Also, APPARENTLY between the ending of the manga and Kenshin randomly deciding to go provide medical aid (???) in an unjust military conflict, he also decided he felt so shitty for having a happy life with Kaoru and his son Kenji that he should just go wandering the country again, helping random people. Kaoru was apparently TOTALLY COOL WITH THIS, but his son Kenji grew up resenting his dad for leaving them. Also Heiko Seijiro, who totally said he would not continue to pass on Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, decided to train Kenji in the technique (I just, ugh, WHAT??). About the only part I like in the OVA is when Yahiko fights Kenji in a duel and beats his ass with the sakabato (mostly because I love grown up Yahiko and the music in that scene is super epic).
        
        I also dislike the OVAs because there is basically ZERO humor, and they are extraordinarily depressing and everyone looks sad and upset the entire time, especially Kenshin, who shows no emotion other than a vacant stare. It’s the antithesis of the manga, which is full of messages of hope and striving toward a better future. SPARE ME THE CONTRIVED MELODRAMA!!!
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaB43jSKLYU
        
        (Taku Iwasaki’s soundtrack is easily the best part of the OVAs, even if most of it sounds very melancholy)
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        I heard that his kid kills him although at the time someone mentioned it to me I thought they were talking about an official manga ending I never found so i guess not.
        So that’s reflection? I have that in a two pack. never watched it.
        I heard the disease he is dieing of comes from his body not being able to handle his fighting style.
        
        Then what was the other OVA I saw that had enishi and had a far different art style, I think. There might be another out there.
        I need to look and see if there’s another OVA, the art style in what little I saw was quite subpar.
        
        I did like Samuari X, which is surprising that I actually enjoyed the massive blood shed normally I don’t care for overly violent stuff but it’s war and just lots of blood and no guts I don’t know. blood isn’t so bad.
        
        I guess I have research to do that I probably never will. x.x
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        Speaking as a self proclaimed Kenshin fanatic, I can safely say there is no other OVA that in any way covers the Enishi Arc, Reflection is the one you’re thinking of. Also, the disease he has and dies from in Reflection is not explicitly related to his body’s inability to continue using Hitenmitsurugi Ryu. In the manga, Megumi explains to Kaoru that Kenshin’s slight frame (he’s a pretty small, frail dude) is showing signs of the intense combat and extreme fighting style that pushes him to human limits. She basically tells Kaoru that if Kenshin continues to fight using Hitenmitsurugi, it’ll kill him. So at the end of the manga, after he’s beaten Enishi, he gives his sakabato to Yahiko and we’re lead to believe that he no longer pushes himself to such extraordinary degrees. The disease he has in Reflection is definitely something contagious, as he gives it to Kaoru through intercourse, and they die in each other’s arms.
        
        Now there IS another, more recent OVA called the New Kyoto Arc, that basically does a ho hum job of retelling the Shishio arc in two episodes. As you might imagine, they have to condense everything down considerably, and there are a lot of logic leaps and weird story decisions. The weirdest is probably that Kenshin LITERALLY splits Shishio’s head in half (like, full in half, as in the two halves separate) and then Shishio pushes them back together and then dies. So Kenshin certainly kills Shishio in this version, which is, of course, the exact opposite of everything Kenshin stands for.
        
        https://youtu.be/1iqE7FdDw74?t=1h18m42s
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        I have that kyoto arc, thought about getting the english version because I have a malaysian copy but, what, two episodes? that’s it? I should just take a look at it. also that thumbnail is gross. wtf. XD
        So I take it this kyoto arc is non canon cause that’s definetly not a kenshin thing to do.
        
        As for RK, it was one of my first manga, that and inuyasha, but I didn’t really get into it or realize how much I liked it until after the anime was off of the saturday block. ironic. I remember watching it back to back with yuyuhakaso.
        Ah childhood memories.
        But I have the entire manga and at one point I had a really bad bootleg my brother got me that half was pixely and the other half missing subtitles but a while back i payed like, 83 for the full 96 episode box set.
        season 3 was disappointing and my favorite episode wasn’t half as funny as I remember it. (actually I havent touched the box set but I have a single disc with my favorite episode on it. Which is the wedding ring episode where kenshin doesn’t realize the important of the ring and “freaks out”. and, ya.
        
        But rambling aside Kenshin was one of my all time favorite characters for a long time with his peaceful combat and stuff.
        
        OH and one cool note, when I was in highschool, they found a Samuari X wall scroll left behind by an old teacher and a lot of kids offered the current anime club teacher money for it. I told her I can’t pay her but it’s from my favorite anime and I would love to have it.
        Yup I got it at the end of the year.
        Now that we’ve all moved though we don’t know where it is at my mom’s house. hope we find it. :S
        
        Anyway, I’ll see if I can find that OVA I swear I saw. it was pretty low quality.
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        https://matthew903.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/rurouni-kenshin-seisouhen_02.jpg so I take it this is from the Reflection movie, what I saw was inferior quality to this.
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        wait, so there’s a free teaser of a prequel and then it will pick up at the end of the original series?
Nos Rin aka CTCO

Hey Suburban? Have you seen the Hitman’s Bodyguard with Samuel L Mother F***ing Jackson and Ryan Reynolds?
Plan on seeing it at least?
I highly enjoyed it, save that one poor sap, he was almost a badass.
Very violent. Very funny.
Samuel L Mother F***ing Jackson was amazing in it.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  It got a lot of bad reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, so it’s kind of off my radar. I’ll probably check it out when it hits Netflix, which I suspect it inevitably will. I do generally like buddy action comedy movies.
  - Nos Rin aka CTCO
    
    It was a really good buddy action comedy film.
    I dont want to discuss to much about the story but I was pleasantly surprised.
    Of course I know we have different tastes but, ya. There was one or two scenes where I was like, how’d they get there so fast, but, sometimes it’s more about action and character development than avoiding plotholes.
    
    my only real complaint is one of the good guys (who did have a face) died painfully but it’s not like the plot could let him live. still, a talking bleedout scene would have been nice for him. he was pretty badass.
  - clogboy
    
    It’s something between 48 Hours and Eurotrip. With lesser actors, I think it would’ve gone straight to DVD. It’s not their best movie, but for action it’s decent. Seeing how I live in Holland (where half the movie plays) I probably look at it differently, I enjoyed it, but a lot of it was fairly cliché and predictable.
Nos Rin aka CTCO

Has anyone seen the Rurouni Kenshin live action trilogy? Not that great but not all that horrible either.
My biggest grip was the dual sword guy wasn’t in the first film and instead it was just a look a like of ONE of his lackies and a guy who looked like a guy from the very end of the manga. the fist guy.
He was kind of a big part of that arc and he wasn’t introduced until the second film.

Otherwise it was relatively enjoyable.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  I still haven’t watched the third film even though I’ve got the trilogy on Bluray! (the only thing holding me back is setting aside a 2.5 hour time slot). I think it’s the most solid live action adaptation of a manga/anime I’ve seen and I thoroughly enjoy it. I liked the first movie best, the second one is a lot of fun, but the narrative gets pretty sloppy near the end. I’m hoping the third film doesn’t let me down.
  
  I understand why they didn’t put Aoshi in the first film, because they didn’t know if they’d get to make sequels, and because they wanted Jinei to be the main antagonist so having Aoshi’s whole character arc and backstory in there would muddle the narrative, but I do wish they’d just tossed Aoshi in there and let him be a second tier bad guy that comes back as a bigger threat in movie 2. If I were adapting the manga, for film Aoshi would be an easy character to excise, even though he is a fan favorite.
  - Nos Rin aka CTCO
    
    That does make sense. and I’m glad you liked it.
    I feel like getting a new set since either the first or the third is a different copy is from a different company. (also because I got Malaysian dvds. )
    I may re-get certain movies on better qualities once I have a better job.
    excise?
    - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
      
      Ha! Excise, as in remove/cut from the story, since his whole arc doesn’t really add anything to Kenshin’s arc, even if it’s cool and compelling in itself.
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        Ah yes, that is true, he’s mostly just an opponent for kenshin. A shadowy dude who doesn’t do too much but go down his own path of discovery.
Insane Disciple

Full metal has a live action flick? Cool
umbrallycan

Been following this comic for awhile and love it!The comments section as well esp. the Monty Python, Spaceballs references. Those always make me laugh. I also love the fact that you based Ken’s zanbato from Sanosuke Sagara’s first weapon! Speaking of Sano the last panel reminds me of one of those Rurouni Kenshin scenes from the anime with the matching soundtrack.

Specifically 0:33 or 3:10 of this vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y9ZNOe5RjI

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