Rurouni Kenshin

Rorouni Kenshin (Rurōni Kenshin Meiji Kenkaku Romantan) is a Japanese manga. Manga is the term given to Japanese comic books. The popular manga are often turned into Japanese animes, or Japanese cartoons. Rorouni Kenshin was written by Nobuhiro Watsuki. He is most well known for Rorouni Kenshin and says that he is influenced by comics from Marvel. Rorouni Kenshin appeared first in the popular magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump. It has been released in the United States and has also been turned into an anime series.

Plot

Rorouni Kenshin is about a character named Himura Kenshin. Kenshin meets Kamiya Kaoru in Tokyo. Kaoru is in search of a man whom he has been told is the Battosai, the legendary man slayer. He gives Kenshin a sword and, after watching him fumble around with it, realizes that he could not possibly be the dangerous man. Kaoru finds a student who was a member of the Kamiya dojo who is trying to get even with the dojo for being expelled years ago. He is calling himself the Battosai. He captures Kaoru and prepares to kill him. Kenshin suddenly appears and reveals to the entire crew that he is the true Battosai. He destroys the gang without killing them using an ancient style of martial arts. The dojo asks him to stay with them and Kenshin agrees.

Characters

• Himura Kenshin – Kenshin is the main character in the series. He is later known as Samurai X. Kenshin was born into a poor family, but was orphaned by the time he was seven years old. He was sold into slavery at eight years old and was saved from that fate by thieves who attacked the caravan. At this point his name is Shinta, the name given to him by his parents. Shinta tries to defend the three girls that are with him, and is saved by a man named Hiko Seijuro. He leaves him alone with the bodies and tells him to head to the local village and seek shelter there. Hiko later goes to visit Shinto and finds that he has not made it there. Concerned, he heads to the site of the caravan slaughter to find that Shinto has spent the week burying all of the bodies. Hiko feels for the boy and adopts him into his family, renaming him Kenshin. Kenshin later fights in the Meiji Restoration and becomes a samurai assassin.

• Kamiya Kaoru – Kaoru is Kenshin’s love interest. She falls in love with him the minute she meets him and gets extremely jealous any time another woman comes near him. In the future of their relationship, they marry and have a child, but Kenshin wanders the world again, helping others, and Kaoru lets him go, knowing that he must help others. Kaoru runs a dojo and operates it alone, even though she is only seventeen. She has no students until Kenshin arrives. He helps her to get students so that she can keep her dojo operating.