Story Arcs

The Tokyo Arc makes up the first part of the manga and the first season of the TV series. Basically it's what starts the RK ball rolling.

It begins when Kenshin Himura, the legendary 'Hitokiri Battousai' meets Kaoru Kamiya and she invites him to stay at her dojo. The two then meet Yahiko Myojin, who becomes Kaoru's only kenjutsu student and second live-in border after they rescue him from a local yakuza gang. Shortly after that the trio meet Sanosuke, who becomes a constant fixture at the Kamiya dojo after Kenshin turns his perspective on life around when he defeats him in a duel. This group of four, which has come to be known as the 'Kenshin-gumi' gains yet another member when they rescue Megumi Takani, an aspiring doctor from the greedy buisnessman Kanryu Takeda and the Oniwaban ninja group, lead by Aoshi Shinomori. Although Kenshin has settled down for the time being life is anything but peaceful. There are lots of adventures to be had, lives to save, trouble to get into and so on.

There isn't really a strong ongoing storyline in this arc, but it's still very good and it's when you can basically get to know all the characters. There are a lot of memorable and endearing moments in this arc (like in the circus episode where Kenshin sings ^_^x) that allow you to get more attatched to the characters.

The Kyoto is the second part of the manga and the second season of the TV show. Unlike in the Tokyo arc it has a very strong ongoing storyline.

Kenshin is very content with his new life at the Kamiya dojo, but this happiness doesn't last and before long his past as the 'Hitokiri Battousai' comes back to haunt him with the return of his long-time adversary, Hajime Saitou. It turns out that a man that was thought to be dead is secretly making plans to take over the new Meiji government. That man turns out to be none other than Kenshin's successor from back during the Meiji Restoration, who is a heavily bandaged lunatic named Makoto Shishio. For the sake of Japan, Kenshin is forced to make an allience with Saitou and leave the Kamiya dojo and depart for Kyoto in order to defeat Shishio. Not wanting anyone to get hurt by following him, Kenshin leaves without saying goodbye to anyone but Kaoru. However, everyone has gotten quite attatched to Kenshin and they aren't exactly peachy-kean with the idea of him leaving and possibly never coming back. Kaoru and Yahiko travel to Kyoto to look for him and so does Sanosuke (although he has trouble finding the way). In the meantime while traveling to Kyoto Kenshin meets the spunky Misao Makimatchi, who is a female ninja from the Oniwaban-shu. Misao is trying to find and reunite with Aoshi Shinomori (one of Kenshin's enemies from the Tokyo arc). Aoshi in the meantime is also back in the picture and he's willing to go to great lengths for a chance to defeat Kenshin. As the insane Shishio assembles his fighting force, Kenshin also has to make his own preparations for battle, including returning to his old master, Seijuro Hiko in order to finish his training (he never finished, can you believe it?!). Kenshin must also find a way to defeat Shishio and his band of followers while still maintaining his vow to never kill.

The Kyoto arc is definately a must-see. If you're going to watch it, I strongly suggest that you not watch it on Cartoon Network and that you buy the Japanese version. I actually didn't really have a problem with the dubbed version during the Tokyo arc but during this arc the English actors start to slack off.

The Jinchuu arc makes up the third and final part of the manga, but it was never animated. So where did the anime-style picture on the left come from? I really have no idea, but enough of that...

Life seems to have settled down after the ordeal in Kyoto and Kenshin seems to have to finally settled down for good. And then suddenly a lot of people who are close to Kenshin are being attacked. It turns out that the attacks are being lead by Enishi Yukishiro. Enishi hates Kenshin with the flaming passion of a thousand suns (I just had to put that in somewhere) because he holds him responsible for the death of his sister, Tomoe. Enishi has been waiting all of this time to exact his revnge on Kenshin, along with his group of skilled fighters who each want Kenshin dead for one reason or another. Enishi wants to hurts those around Kenshin so that he will suffer as much as possible. Kenshin decides to tell the others about what happened in his past. It turns out that Kenshin was actually married to Enishi's sister Tomoe but he accidently killed her when she jumped in front of him during a battle. Enishi was present when this happened but he didn't see everything and so to him it looked as if Kenshin had killed Tomoe on purpose. With some help from Aoshi (who decides to actually take some time off from meditating) and Misao, the Kenshin-gumi hope to defeat Enishi and his group as well as make him see that Kenshin didn't intentionally kill Tomoe.

This arc is called the Jinchuu arc because of Enishi always refers to his mission to kill Kenshin as his 'Jinchuu' or 'divine justice'. The meaning behind the word is basically 'even if Heaven spares you, we will bring you to judgement'. This arc was supposed to be animated as the next season, but the TV series ended up being cancelled before it could be. There are various petitions around in order to get the Jinchuu arc animated, although so far there has been little success.

The Tsuioko Hen originally appeared in the middle of the Jinchuu arc. It later became the subject of the first Kenshin OVA series which was four episodes long.

The OVA follows Kenshin's life before the beginning of the Tokyo arc starting from the time he was a child and was rescued by Hiko from bandits. Shortly after parting ways w/ Hiko over a dispute on how the Hiten Mitsurugi style should be used Kenshin joins the Choshuu Inshin Shishi as it's shadow assassin. One of the men that he assassinates along the way is a man named Kyosato Akira who gives Kenshin the first half of his cross scar before dying. Not long after, Kenshin meets Tomoe, who witnesses him killing someone and then faints. Unknownst to Kenshin, Tomoe was engaged to Kyosato before Kenshin killed him. He decides to take her back to his headquarters where she stays and works. Kenshin's boss Katsura tells Tomoe to become Kenshin's 'sheath' and protect him from becoming an unrepentant killer. Eventually things become very bad for the Choshuu Inshin Shishi and Kenshin and Tomoe are forced to flee Kyoto and hide in the countryside, posing as husband and wife. As time goes by Kenshin and Tomoe fall in love but things turn ugly when Kenshin's supposed friend Iizuka betrays him and turns him over to the Shogunate. It also turns out that Tomoe was also working as a spy for the Shogunate against Kenshin but now that she loves him she doesn't want him hurt. Could a story like this ever really have a happy ending?

The Tsuioko Hen OVA is much more dark and serious than the regular TV series. Afterall, there are less guidelines. The animation is a much more realistic style as opposed to the big, shiney-eye style of most animes. The point of the Tsuioko Hen is to show the reasons why Kenshin chose to become a wanderer in the first place. It's really good and I highly recommend it.

This is the second Kenshin OVA that was released after both the TV series and the manga series had ended. There are only 2 episodes in this OVA.

The story mainly focuses on Kenshin and Kaoru and their history together both during and after the series. While the episodes actually take over a decade after the Jinchuu arc ended there are many flashbacks and memory sequences, but it's not hard to follow the story. Flashbacks include the most memorable moments from the different arcs as well as rather surreal dreams involving certain characters and events.

I'm trying to do as good a job explaining this arc as possible without giving anything away. But the problem w/ this is that almost everything that happens in this arc is a spoiler for one of the other arcs. The animation is in the same style as the in Tsuioko Hen OVA and is also more serious like the Tsuioko Hen. If you watch this, DON'T WATCH IT DUBBED. I've only seen the Japanese version but my friend Miss Kaoru bought it on dvd and watched it dubbed. She said that Kaoru, 'sounded like she was on prozac' and that was one of the nicer things she said about it. So watch it in the original Japanese version.

After the end of the Kyoto arc, Watsuki needed more time to finish the Jinchuu arc. So to bide time Sony had it's own writers write the episodes instead. There is no real ongoing plot that lasts through the entire filler arc season, though there are several smaller stories.

The first one is where the Kenshin-gumi have to stop a man named Shougo Amakusa who says he is the son of God from building a Christian empire in Japan (and killing a lot of people in the process.) There's also a side-plot involving Shougo's younger sister Sayo, who's dying of Tuberculosis and Sanosuke (It's rather predictable how it will turn out since she's dying. So rest assured SxM fans.)