English Dub Review: Rurouni Kenshin – Kyoto Disturbance “As If in Flight”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kenshin, Sannosuke, and Saito speed towards the climactic battle with Shishio. As if in flight!

OUR TAKE

Seriously, take a drink everyone says “As if in flight!” in this episode. You’d get…well, probably a little buzzed, but you still couldn’t legally operate a motor vehicle! Anyway, this is pretty much just about everyone making final preparations for the big final battle of the season, which will spread over the next three episodes as “The Great Kyoto Fire”. Shishio’s full plans are basically uncovered, as Kenshin and Saito determine that this isn’t just about setting a big fire and causing chaos, but using the currently forming stability of the Meiji Government. Instead of going after Kyoto, the old royal city, they intend to use ships to fire upon the new capital of Tokyo, which will THEN throw the nation into chaos! See, chaos was definitely a big part of it, but there was a method to the madness! And since this is going to take place over the course of three whole episodes, I’m guessing they’re gonna at least get part of the way into it before things are stopped. But that’s where our heroes come in, with both Kenshin’s group of strong fighters ready to face them head on, and Misao’s newly reclaimed Oniwaban planning to provide support.

I have to commend the episode for helping me feel the tension rising as we get to the point that it finally breaks.  I can still feel how things are slowly reaching a boiling point and, to mix my metaphors a bit, how the tinderbox is about to go off. I dunno, I just have a lot of heat on my mind for some reason. Couldn’t possibly be because the next three episodes all have fire in the name, no way. Also, I never noticed before how Sannosuke is the rival character of the story for Kenshin, but he has a lot of the traits that a more typical Shonen Protagonist would have in terms of being kind of jokey and airheaded, while Kenshin is the one who tends to be more serious and scary. Wow, I guess it goes to show why this show and its story have managed to be so enduring and remained popular!