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Six Comrades
Dreams Arc
Faction
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memory Arc
Oniwabansh
opponents
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FoxyWebSite©Jackiebrownjr2004 AnimeShare. Made by Dark Lady. Image © We Love Anime. Brushes © DHD. All rights reserved.
Kenshin is born into a peasant family under the given name of "Shinta". After losing both his parents to cholera by age seven, he was later sold into slavery. However, when the slave-traders' caravan was attacked by bandits who killed all with the exception of Shinta. It is then that Hiko Seijūrō XIII intervened, killing all the thieves. Hiko decided to adopt Shinta into his Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū apprenticeship, and renames him "Kenshin" (with 'Ken' meaning 'sword' and 'Shin' meaning 'heart'), believing that 'Shinta' was not a fitting name for a swordsman.
After a few years under Hiko's guidance, Kenshin's wish to protect the people with his skills during the revolutionary movement clashes with Hiko's neutral standpoint, who claims that whoever acquires Kenshin would be granted victory. This results in his abandonment of both his master and his training. His sword skills soon attract the attention of Takasugi Shinsaku, commander of the Kiheitai, and is later transferred into the ranks of Katsura Kogoro, the leader of the Chōshū clan, Ishin Shishi.
Kenshin is sent to Kyoto and assigned the role of an assassin, sharing the common goal of the Ishin Shishi to deliver "Tenchu" (punishment from the heavens) upon the Tokugawa Shogunate. Within the first six months of his career, he kills over 100 people, and eventually became known as the Hitokiri Battōsai. At some time, he comes face to face with Yukishiro Tomoe, who although she wanted to avenge the death of her fiancé, a bodyguard whom Kenshin had killed, with whom he would fall in love. After the crisis suffered by the Chōshū clan in the Ikedaya Jiken, Katsura orders Kenshin and Tomoe to abandon Kyoto and flee to a remote village. He also orders them to put on the facade of a pair of pharmacists, as husband and wife.
Sometime later, Tomoe, who had initially intended to kill Kenshin for revenge, but did not realize she would come to love him, meets with the leader of the Yaminobu - a pro-Shogunate covert network that had formulated a plan to assassinate Kenshin. She realizes that all along they had actually used her to create Kenshin's weakness. Meanwhile, desperate to find his wife, Kenshin runs off, but is ambushed by several Yaminobu ninjas, each of whom manages to wound him severely and make him lose his senses by killing themselves with explosives. He eventually finds Tomoe along with the leader, and in a desperate attempt to defeat the leader, Kenshin blindly swings his sword, killing both his assailant and Tomoe, who had jumped in at the last minute to save Kenshin from a fatal attack. Kenshin was unaware of her intervention until it was too late. The knife had flown from Tomoe's hands into the air and coincidentally slashed Kenshin's cheek, creating the famous X-shaped scar across his cheek.
Following the death of his wife, Kenshin tells Katsura that he will never kill again once the Revolution is over. Katsura then replaces Kenshin's role as an assassin and instead has Kenshin fight as a guerrilla swordsman to protect the Imperialists. After many wars, Kenshin thrusts his sword into the ground and disappears.
The primary instructor of the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryū fighting style developed by her late father, Kamiya Koshijirō, Kaoru inherited a small dojo from her father after he was killed during the Seinan War (also called the Satsuma Rebellion) and operates it by herself. This is quite a feat, considering that she is seventeen (by East Asian age reckoning.) At the beginning of the manga, she has no students and she is likely to lose the dojo until Kenshin appears and helps her.
Naturally, she is independent, possessive, compassionate, courageous, feisty, strong-willed, and a great fighter to boot- with only the occasional mood swing. Kaoru is also known for her cooking disliked by her friends and family and her ability to see the good in others.
Though she is short tempered and possessive, Kaoru is incredibly selfless. She took in a 10 year old pickpocket, a 19 year old street fighter, and a wandering vagabond who used to kill for a living without thinking twice over their pasts. She began the 'kenshin gumi' out of willingness to help others. She is considered naive to be so trusting, but she has the maturity to handle the consequences. Kaoru's beliefs are held strongly and proudly, almost stubbornly, particularly her beliefs in the sword.
Kamiya Kaoru adheres to her father's ideal of "Katsujin-ken" or "Swords that give life," which teaches that swordsmanship should be used not to kill, but to protect. This belief is a slap in the face to many swordsmen, who advocate that a sword is for "mastery and death," and nothing more. Himura Kenshin, however, feels that her beliefs should, in fact, become reality: "If this one had a wish, it would only be that her lie become the truth of this world."
When some female readers told Watsuki that they could not decide on whether Kaoru exhibited strength or weakness as a fighter, Watsuki responded by saying that Kaoru is a national-level champion at least but appears weak compared to Kenshin and Sagara Sanosuke.
Yahiko is a samurai descendant. Yahiko's father died during the Battle of Ueno during the Boshin War, slain at the Keneiji Temple. His mother died of syphilis in a brothel to put food on their table not long after giving birth to her son. Yahiko was originally forced to live as a thief for the local Yakuza, who tricked him into believing that he still had to pay off the money the gangsters gave to his mother to buy medicine. With the help of Himura Kenshin and Kamiya Kaoru, he becomes an apprentice of the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu style.
A hotheaded child, Yahiko is arrogant, cheeky, a user of profanity, and bad-mannered; and he already bestowed upon himself the title 'Tokyo Samurai'. As the years go by, Yahiko learns the principles of Kasshin Kamiya-Ryū, which coincides with Kenshin's ideals. Even though he overrates himself, Yahiko defeats several enemies - even one of Shishio's henchmen.
In time Yahiko becomes a master swordsman, whose skills are nearly equal to Kenshin's. He also becomes an assistant master of the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu dojo, which has become prosperous again. On the day of his fifteenth birthday after battling Kenshin in a one-strike match, Kenshin gives him the Sakabato. By this time, he has grown into a level-headed, contemplative, and caring young man.
Yahiko has a friend/rival, Tsukayama Yutaro, who is a rich boy who was tricked into believing his sensei, Isurugi Raijūta, cared about him and a brief student of the Kamiya dojo after he revealed that he was never trained by Raijuta (In the anime, he was quickly defeated by Yahiko, while in the manga, the battle was halted as Yutaro could not hold his shinai properly).
Yutaro, however, was hit by Raijūta's Tobi Izuna (a huge gust of wind from an overhead swing that can kill someone), in his right arm and his nerves were damaged so he could never use a sword again. Yutaro moved with his father to Germany so that his father could seek treatment for his arm, thus allowing Yutaro to one day use that arm again. Before he left, Yahiko swung his bamboo sword at him and he blocked with his walking cane and said "Even without my other arm, I can still use a sword" and promised that he'll return to Tokyo to challenge Yahiko.
He has a sweetheart, Sanjo Tsubame, who works at Akabeko (a restaurant where Yahiko also works) as a waitress.
The second short story chapter of Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story, Kamiya Yahiko is referred to as the younger brother of Kaoru and Megumi, and the explicit successor to the Kamiya dojo.
Megumi was born in December 1857 during the Bakumatsu period of Japan. That would make her twenty-two years old (by East Asian age reckoning) during the start of the anime. Like the rest of her family, she is adept at "rangaku" (Literally "Dutch learning") medicine, although she mixes this Western learning with Eastern medicine as well. The fact that Megumi bore the last name 'Takani' spoke of her family's higher class level - peasants during that time were forbidden to carry family names.
Megumi was portrayed both in the anime and in the manga as having long, dark hair and dark eyes. In the anime particularly, she usually wore a blue haori worn over a lavender kimono. She was introduced in Volume 2 of Rurouni Kenshin and was learned to be a maker of 'Spiders Web' opium.
Sometimes, Megumi appears to have fox ears popping out of her head, an allusion to her nickname kitsune, which means "fox". Sanosuke especially likes to call her kitsune-onna (Vixen in the English manga, which is the name of a female fox) meaning Fox Lady, though Yahiko and Kaoru sometimes call her this as well. The nickname actually has two meanings: 'Fox' to describe Megumi's wily ways and 'fox' as in a compliment - "foxy lady" or beautiful woman.
Like Kaoru, Megumi is a strong-willed woman, but she is also depicted as a more mature and cunning compared to the younger Kaoru.
Misao is a fairly skilled ninja from the Oniwabanshū clan of onmitsu (ninja) previously based in Edo. Her weapons of choice are the kunai. Misao is about sixteen years old when she is first introduced, though she appears younger.
According to Watsuki, Misao's character was initially a combination of Kamiya Kaoru and Myōjin Yahiko: upon her introduction into the story, she acts somewhat childish and innocent. However, as the story progresses, she becomes more mature and empathetic without losing her cheerful attitude. Misao is short-tempered, but also free-spirited and energetic. She is loyal and strong-willed and will fight for what she believes in.
Saitō has become a better-known figure among young anime fans in the West since several anime and manga series used him as a character. The popular Rurouni Kenshin series portrays him as an anti-hero, Saitō Hajime, once a mortal enemy of protagonist Himura Kenshin, and eventually an uneasy ally. As portrayed in Rurouni Kenshin, Saitō is very tall and plain-looking compared to the other characters and has a cold and quiet disposition, following some of the very few descriptions of his personality in real life. In Rurouni Kenshin, Saito is granted special permission to carry a katana. The Gatotsu sword technique that he uses in the series is similar to the description of his original sword technique, but is purely fictional, and not entirely accurate to real swordfighting. The real left-handed thrust is used, in most sword styles, as a surprise maneuver. It is executed as a tsuki or thrust while stepping through, releasing the right hand at the last moment, leaving the left holding the end of the hilt. The grip-change and the step grant an extra foot or more of reach, completely changing the spacing of the fight, but it must be done suddenly to be most effective. The "Aku Soku Zan" motto he lives by (悪即斬, most literally, "Kill those who are evil immediately," but more poetically translated as "Swift death to evil," or "Slay Evil Immediately.") is similarly unverified beyond its use in Rurouni Kenshin, but fits with Saitō's reputation for killing corrupt Shinsengumi members.
In Peacemaker Kurogane, another historical manga and anime that tells the story of Ichimura Tetsunosuke who joins the Shinsengumi to avenge the deaths of his parents, he appears as the captain of the third troop and is rather laidback and mystical (like a shaman), with a perpetually sleepy expression.
He also appears in Kaze Hikaru, in which he is portrayed as a quiet and serious character, who was friends with (and bears a striking resemblance to) the main character's older brother.
Saito is the protagonist in the manga Burai, a fictional story about the Shinsengumi during the late Tokugawa shogunate.
In the 2003 Japanese film When the Last Sword Is Drawn (Mibu gishi den), Saitō is played by Koichi Sato. At first, Sato portrays Saitō as a cold, dark, uncaring captain of the Shinsengumi. However, Saitō changes as a man through his interactions with Kanichiro Yoshimura (played by Kiichi Nakai) during the last years of the Shinsengumi.
A Kenshin series look-alike named Keiichiro Washizuka was featured in The Last Blade series of games. Again, he was characterized by a cold and quiet persona, along with a fierce loyalty to the Shinsengumi. His appearance was consistent with the Saito featured in the Rurouni Kenshin's Trust and Betrayal OVA, and fights with a series of "sliding charge" attacks resembling the Gatotsu.
Saito is also featured in Getsumei Seiki (manga), Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi (video game series} and in Code of the Samurai (Video game series)
