Rurouni Kenshin 2023 Mid-Season Review

Key takeaways from Rurouni Kenshin 2023 mid-season review:

• The remake maintains the original story but adds depth through nuanced characters, new scenes, and explored sword styles, creating a more engaging narrative.
• The addition of occasional new characters and details provides a better understanding of the time and world, all while maintaining a commendable pacing.
• The author expresses a strong preference for the 2023 remake over the original due to its fresh coat of paint, improved pacing, and anticipation for the upcoming content.

The original Rurouni Kenshin was an anime full of highs and lows. It could be one of the most engaging things you’ve ever watched with an awesome fight or something, and then go back really slow SoL segments the next episode. Rurouni Kenshin 2023 reboot though, seems to have improved on the original series quite a bit.

And it’s not like they completely cut the SoL parts of the anime or anything, they just improved on them. The remake is very loyal to the original anime while improving on the pacing and stuff.

So welcome back to another one of my mid-season reviews, today we are talking about Rurouni Kenshin the 2023 remake. So let’s get started.

What do I think of Rurouni Kenshin 2023 Remake?

I’ll be honest, so far, I’ve enjoyed the remake way more than the original. The fresh coat of pain along with the much better pacing is helping the remake a lot. Yes, the story is the same, nothing has changed in the story on the surface. But the story is a little more nuanced now, adding new characters where necessary, adding some new scenes that weren’t in the original, adding new lines, and even exploring the sword styles a little more.

The sword styles and different moves of the sword styles were just mentioned in the original anime. Here, we actually see Kenshin explaining the moves/styles. He even knows what style his opponent is using and exploits its weakness as much as possible. This adds a lot more depth to his character as he really does come across as someone who has seen wars for years and fought countless people. Not to mention, it adds more to world-building as we learn more about different styles and techniques.

Speaking of world-building, the occasional new character or two they have added really gives us a better picture of the time. As I said, the overall plot of the series is the same, the major events are the same but things are a little more detailed now. They managed to add all these details without messing up the pacing of the show. That is really cool and that deserves some praise. Also, the new opening theme is awesome. Focuses more on the edgy aspects of the show and I really like it.

Conclusion

That is all for now. As you can tell, I’ve been really enjoying the 2023 remake of Rurouni Kenshin so far. I cannot wait for the remake to get into the meat and bones of the original series. I hope they also adapt the flashback OVA along with these new episodes. That OVA was awesome. With that said though, I will take my leave here. See ya!

Also, check out this week’s manga recommendation here!