Forum - View topicREVIEW: Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection Blu-ray
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barrelroller
 Posts: 104 Location: Maryland |
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I always heard that this movie was hated among Kenshin fans, but I never understood why. If it was a conclusion to the series, why did it have an original (or some would say a filler) ending? Was the manga still ongoing or what? I only watched the anime past the whole thing with Shishio so I'm sure you probably have to finish the show to watch this.
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Most people who like Reflections are non-fans. What little they did take from the Jinchuu Arc was done rather poorly and all the original material was just terrible. Fans revile this OVA for a very good reason. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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The reason that fans hate this ova is best said by the creator of Rurouni Kenshin "Kenshin went through so much crap and deserved a happy ending"
http://www.mania.com/anime-expo-friday-report_article_86123.html The manga was finished but Furuhashi went off on some tangent that didn't fit the series. Reflections is in the tone of the Trust and Betrayal OVAs and not the tv series or manga. The problem is that the Trust and Betrayal worked because the Remembrance arc was about Kenshin's past and why he became a wanderer looking for atonement. Sure Rurouni Kenshin could be depressing, but it was always about having hope for a bright future. Reflection is the ultimate example of confusing art with cynicism. The manga Rurouni Kenshin was about redemption leading to peace, and happiness, while Reflections is about spoiler[death] being the only peace. |
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gatotsu911
Posts: 457 Location: US of East Coast |
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Uh, didn't Reflections end with the conclusion that the next generation can learn the lessons we teach them and be better people? It wasn't all doom and gloom.
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mufurc
 Posts: 612 |
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It's quite inaccessible to fans, too, at least a great number of them. As a fan of the manga and the anime series, I kept going "what? what?? why?? wtf?!" while watching Reflections. Truth to be told I'm a bit miffed when people refer to the OVAs as a legit part of the Kenshin series (yes, yes, I know that they're part of the franchise). They're so very different in tone from the manga/anime series, they pretty much form a series on their own that has no connections to the manga/TV series. The OVAs might as well have "inspired by that manga by Watsuki Nobuhiro" on the covers. (No, I don't believe Trust and Betrayal was an improvement on the original.) But yeah, as Charred Knight mentioned above, Trust and Betrayal kind of worked (not for me, though, but that's an entirely different rant) because under all that gloom and theatrics it was still a very recognizable adaptation and involved the basic themes of Kenshin. Reflections, though, doesn't even try. Enishi and his Jinchuu get a sad cameo, Kenshin and Kaoru go completely out of character for the sake of drama, the story is an original creation, and the conclusion and the moral of the story stray faaaar away from those of the manga. It's like they decided to completely disregard the manga and continue in the vein of the Trust and Betrayal OVAs, only adding even more melodrama (story aside, this time the music is painfully overwrought) and make Kenshin (and now Kaoru, too) even more out of character, for no good reason whatsoever. So no, as a Rurouni Kenshin fan I don't consider Reflections any sort of conclusion or capstone. I have the last volume of the manga for that, thankyouverymuch. (Whew, sorry for ranting...) |
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AkiraKaneda
Posts: 61 |
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I thought Reflections was excellent...but then again, I was not a fan of the manga or TV show. Everyone I've met who adored those disliked this ending. When I watched parts of the TV series, I found it a bit silly. Reflections makes a great ending to Trust/Betrayal and makes perfect sense, even if it would make more sense to loyal followers.
I really think that these two shows should be seen in the same manner to RK as the Rebuild films are to Eva or Gaia is to Escaflowne, or even the two FullMetal Alchemist series. Same characters, vastly different settings and retellings. YMMV. |
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blackseer
Posts: 94 |
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I was a die-hard Kenshin fan when I watched Reflections and I really liked it. The main reason for that may be because the ending of the manga was rather disappointing.
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sainta
 Posts: 989 |
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Not that I remember after the credits, spoiler[they just showed Kenji with his girlfriend talking about unrelated things.] Last edited by sainta on Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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maus
 Posts: 84 Location: The Netherlands |
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I hated this video when I first saw it, and I still do. The things that made me fall in love with Rurouni Kenshin was the comedy (Oro?!) and the lightheartedness. Both are replaced bij melodrama, gloom and brooding. Reflections should be erased from existence. Deleted from our collective memory. Let's pretend it never got made.
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DarkFusion
Posts: 74 |
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Having been a big fan of the anime, when I first heard about Reflection coming out, I was excited as I thought it would be like the Rurouni Kenshin movie, except follow the manga to the end since it was advertised as a conclusion to the series. Boy was I disappointed at the OOC-ness of the characters I'd come to love and the downer of a story that basically made it that all of the things Kenshin and co. went through over the course of the series was all for no reason. It's the complete antithesis of RRK's core principles and quite frankly it did more damage to my childhood memories than the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy. You have no idea how happy I was when I heard Watsuki confirm it wasn't canon, and I really hope the upcoming movie leads into us finally seeing the Jinchu arc (and hopefully the epilogue with Yahiko) animated for real
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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No it didn't. Kenji spurred his father for most of the OVA and didn't learn anything other than fighting from the previous generation. What happened to the next generation was inconclusive as the ending was focused around Kenshin and Kaoru. Now if you want a conclusive ending that actually does what you say then read the final volume of the manga. |
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blackseer
Posts: 94 |
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spoiler[But by the end Yahiko beat Kenji, proving that his resolution was stronger than the empty technique, making way for Kenji finally learning what was important.] |
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ArsenicSteel
Posts: 2370 |
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And Yahiko is part of the previous generation? Kenji only learned that killing was bad and that he sucks at swordsmanship. Those are not a really profound life lessons for the audience.
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blackseer
Posts: 94 |
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Everything Yahiko is he learned from Kenshin, Kaoru and Sanosuke. So it's his turn to teach young Kenji and he does it symbolic by giving him the sword. The focus of the OVA is not this transition of generations, but presenting the fact that Kenshin continued to save people even without Hiten Mitsurugi, so it couldn't waste too much time passing every single life lesson from the manga. If you want to learn about it, go back and read it again. |
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ArsenicSteel
Posts: 2370 |
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The OVA only had Kenshin saving people in flashbacks. What was showed was a piece of melodramatic tripe that Kenshin even after years of atonement was still for some odd reason still attempting to sacrifice his happiness because of his past. His journey to the new war had him bed ridden for nearly the entire boat ride to Korea and he was quarantined in a shack away from everyone else once the boat docked. At this point he was physically unable to do anything for himself, there was no saving others at this junction he was simply waiting to die alone.
Tell that to the person I quote who said the OVA was about the next generation and the lessons we teach them. These lessons were absent in the OVA and Yahiko was part of the same generation as Kenji. In order to get this particular message a person has to read the manga. |
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