English Dub Review: Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Disturbance “The Abandoned Village”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kenshin tries avoiding Misao once he learns she knows the deceased Oniwaban, but she proves to be persistent.

OUR TAKE

We all have our early cartoon crushes from our childhoods. Jessica Rabbit, Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo…that one hot squirrel from animaniacs. Well, Misao was definitely one of mine. I can’t say I know what exactly I liked about her aside from her attitude and specific haircut, but she definitely struck a chord that has influenced my taste in women to this day. Now, with that tangent meant to eat up some of the word count out of the way, we should probably also talk about the episode that she happens to be in. And this episode, it’s mainly about Kenshin feeling guilty about how the Oniwaban group were killed in the previous arc (which I still need to watch and/or rewatch) and now being unable to admit that he saw them die. What seems like just a rambunctious thief is someone with a connection to an old rival that he would really rather not deal with right now as he heads to Kyoto, but it seems she was trained pretty dang well since she is able to keep up with him at just about every turn. Their traipse through a deadly village controlled by Shishio also proves to be a bit of a nightmare.

So now, Kenshin has a new traveling companion who will be…somewhat helpful? Misao seems to at least be a better fighter than Yahiko, though that sets the bar pretty dang low. Sannosuke is probably about to catch up to something close to Kenshin in terms of strength and physical distance, and then there’s Saito and Shinomori who are very likely going to be major parts of this and the fights ahead soon enough. Plus, we have a whole new crew of side villains waiting in the wings for Kenshin to fight, namely Shishio’s elite crew of right hand men. Honestly, because I haven’t seen the first season of this (or the original adaptation of it) in a long time, my mind really just blended them and the oniwaban group together, so it’s nice to know that I won’t have to deal with that again! Regardless, it’s clear things are slowly but steadily ramping up to the next big stage of the arc as everyone converges on Kyoto. And we’re due for our first truly big and climactic battle any time now, so I’m sure looking forward to that.