, also known as Rurouni Kenshin: The Movie and Samurai X: The Motion Picture, is a Japanese animated martial arts film premiered on December 20, 1997. It is based on the Rurouni Kenshin manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki. Set in the Meiji Era, the plot follows the clashes between the two warriors, Himura Kenshin, a pacifist who wishes to stop a rebellion from Takimi Shigure and a band of desperate rebels who have sworn to settle one final score with society. The movie takes place somewhere after the Kyoto arc.
Plot
During the Bakumatsu, two hitokiri warriors from the Ishin Shishi, Himura Kenshin and Gentatsu Takatsuki, face each other which ends with Kenshin's victory. The story then moves to the Meiji period where Kenshin is now a pacifist travelling from Tokyo to Yokohama with his friends Kamiya Kaoru, Sagara Sanosuke and Myojin Yahiko. There, Kenshin befriends the former samurai Takimi Shigure while stopping a group of sailors from attacking the young woman called Toki. The former Shinsengumi captain Saito Hajime, now a policeman, warns Kenshin not to get in touch with Shigure as the government's intels finds him suspicious, as he is linked with criminals and terrorists.
Yahiko befriends one of Shigure's underlings, Yasuharu Musashino, and learns that they are rebels preparing to take down the Meiji government. Yahiko insists on joining them to carry the honor of his late father who died during the war in service to the Shogun. However, Shigure knocks him out and Kenshin, Sanosuke and Kaoru search for him in Tokyo. Sanosuke gathers information in regards of Shigure grabbing Ishin clan survivors from previous wars in order to create an army and is surrounded by military leader Eibin Tamano and Shigure's right hand man Sadajiro Kawaji. After finding Yahiko, Kenshin locates Shigure's forces attacking Tokyo in order to murder the Minister of Law and start a new rebellion in compensation for failing to do it in the Bakumatsu. Kenshin, Saito and Sanosuke enter the area and stop try stopping the terrorist attack. As Kenshin and Shigure exchange blows, the latter realizes that the former was Gentatsu's murderer and becomes enraged as he was his best friend and Toki's brother. However, Shigure escapes from when his forces suffer several casualties including Musashino. As the policemen are ordered to kill the rebels, Kenshin requests Yamagata Aritomo, general of the Japanese Army's ground troops, to give him time to stop Shigure alone and avoid bloodshed. Toki also becomes concerned about Shigure and begs Kenshin to save him.
Kenshin and Sanosuke find that the rebellious group cornered in an area with his wounded soldiers. Kenshin and Shigure have a rematch. As Shigure has remembers Kenshin's moves used against Gentatsu, he takes the upperhand until his enemy creates his own variation of his fighting style. Defeated, Shigure tells Kenshin to kill him, but he claims he will not kill anymore. As Toki appears to request Shigure to give up, he accepts to give in to the police. However, Tamono arrives and orders his troops to gun down everybody in the area. In order to save Toki, Shigure uses his body as a shield, dying in the process. An enraged Kenshin takes down the corrupt official while Yamagata stops the other men. Meanwhile, Saito kills the other traitor, Kawaji. In the aftermath, Kenshin confesses to Toki that he killed his brother in the Bakumatsu but she does not hold hatred towards him for that. Toki returns to Yokohama to carry on the dream of the man she loved.
Cast
Production
Eizo Sakamoto of Animetal who sings the song for the movie. According to the artist, the ending theme is only possible because of the main story as he found it fitting for the story as well as the style of his previous works.
Release
The film was released in Japan on December 20, 1997. It uses the song by L'Arc-en-Ciel as its opening theme and by Animetal as its closing theme. It was released on DVD on May 24, 2000, and on Blu-Ray on October 26, 2011.
ADV Films released the film in DVD format in English regions on under the title of Samurai X: The Motion Picture on March 27, 2001. Following ADV's closure in 2009, Aniplex took the license to re-release the film under the title of Rurouni Kenshin: The Movie on October 26, 2011.