English Dub Review: Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Disturbance “Portrait of the Ambitious”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kenshin and Saito confront Shishio, learning of his plans to disrupt Japan.

OUR TAKE

Finally we get an episode with a pretty good fight! I mean we’ve definitely had a few small skirmishes here and there this season but they’re not at all at the level of what this series is known for. Again, I have not been able to watch the first season of this version, but from what I vaguely recollect from the 90’s version, the fights could go pretty hard when they needed to. Thankfully, in Kenshin’s first big scuffle with a Senkaku, an upper minion of Shishio, this season shows that it can live up to its predecessor pretty dang well. I mean, this Senkaku guy isn’t even on the main group of Shishio’s goons, the Juppongatana, AKA the Ten Swords, but he’s a good sacrificial lamb for Kenshin to take out and show he is not someone to be taken lightly. He also apparently has a massive pointy head that fits perfectly in his giant pointy helmet, if that does anything for you. Personally, I’m just kinda looking forward to when the Ten Swords actually get involved since I like specialized villain groups like that. I don’t imagine it will take that long for that to happen, but we’re four episodes in now so we should really get a move on with it.

Anyway, aside from the fight and Misao witnessing the kid from earlier swear revenge, the main thing from this episode is Kenshin’s first true encounter with Shishio, the main antagonist of this arc. He gets to go on a massive rant about how he was part of the same historical upheaval that Kenshin was a part of, only he got massively burned and crippled as a result and has sworn revenge against the newly installed government who couldn’t be bothered to put him out of his misery. Also it seems his horrible scars and disfigurement have not impacted his self-confidence since he was at least able to pull the hot lady next to him who I’m sure has a name but I’m not really thinking of it right now because it’s not all that relevant. Point is, this guy has a massive chip on his shoulder that could lead to the downfall of the government, which thankfully does not sound like any former and/or incoming world leaders that I could name. So, we’ll continue to see how Shishio’s plans barrel forward next time. Or maybe we won’t, who knows!