English Dub Review: Rurouni Kenshin – Kyoto Disturbance “Drawing of the Forbidden”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kenshin faces Cho and is given a surprise gift to help him win.

OUR TAKE

We finish the fight with Cho and it’s basically a lot of what I already talked about last time. Cho is clearly the weakest of the Ten Swords but his being Kenshin’s first big win against them is important and symbolic for his character in a few meaningful ways. For one, it’s a win after his fight with Sochiro, which was a draw and destroyed his original blade, but now Kenshin has to fight here with the blade he has to show he still wants to protect people, even those who don’t want to help him specifically. But BECAUSE he chooses to fight even when it’s an uphill battle, he is effectively rewarded with a new sword, the last sword that the maker ever made. However, even once he gets that, he feels an internal struggle to keep to the code he decided on when his fighting days were over. He never wants to kill again, and having to do so would be a betrayal of that code, but with this new sword and this fight, he may have to break it. Fortunately, the new sword he gets is a Sakabato, a sword with the edges reversed, just like the one he used before.

So, his promise to never kill again is upheld, Cho is defeated, and Kenshin has the ability to fight once again with an even better sword…at least once this one is repaired. Honestly a pretty good fight, all things considered, and makes for a good milestone for Kenshing going forward. His morals were tested, his fights became harder, and his usual way of handling them was challenged, but he managed to reaffirm them and end up becoming stronger than ever as a result. That said, there’s still nine more swords to go, and that’s not even counting fighting Shishio at the end, and only about fourteen more episodes for this season, so he should really be getting a move on with beating the rest of them, assuming he even has to. But you would know all this if you read last week’s review because I essentially said all of this already! I mean they’re good points to make and this episode communicates those ideas well, but still! Give me something new to talk about, Rurouni Kenshin!