English Dub Review: Rurouni Kenshin – Kyoto Disturbance “On the East Sea Road”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kenshin approaches Kyoto and encounters a thief named Misao.

OUR TAKE

Things are still building up slowly as we delve deeper into the Kyoto arc, though it seems how I remembered this story going has failed me. Misao is a character I remember quite well, with her actually being one of my first anime crushes when the previous version aired on Toonami decades ago. But I guess all the stuff with the Oniwaban, the group who worked with Aoshi Shinomori happened in the first season of this, much earlier than I thought it did off the top of my head. Which I guess is even more reason that I need to go back and watch that previous season so I’m as caught up as possible with THIS version. Characters are still licking their wounds with how that season ended and we haven’t encountered many of the major antagonists yet, though we’re seeing glimpses of the kinda mummy man Shishio and his band of special baddies, who will no doubt become more of a presence as we continue forward. And all the while, Kenshin’s friends and kinda sorta allies continue to build their strength as they work towards joining him over in Kyoto, among them Aoshi Shinomori who is himself going to be a major player in events moving forward.

And…yeah, that’s honestly most of what can really be said here at the moment. We’re building up until the first major turning points of this story, but for now all we have is building up to things. Kenshin is fine because he’s Kenshin and he can beat just about anyone right now, everyone is trying to catch up to him, both in fighting strength and literally as they follow him to Kyoto, and the bad guys like Shishio are ahead of him and still working on their own next big steps. And then there’s Misao, who will (again if I remember correctly) end up mainly being Aoshi’s morality pet as he too edges closer to darkness like Kenshin once did. Again, even if it’s based on very faded memory, I at least know for a fact that big things are coming for this story in future episodes…but unfortunately that’s about all I can say for sure. Maybe it’s for the best so I’m not spoiled in experiencing this story properly for the first time in awhile, but it would sure help to get me something to talk about this week! Man, all three episodes for today ended up being pretty uneventful, what are the odds.