Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno is the second part of the live action anime of the same title, and it stays true to the Anime.
Like many of you who are reading this, I've watched the anime years back, and watching this again in live action does bring back some good memories. The casting, set and costume if pretty fabulous, except for the fact that you get to see Shishio's face before he was all in bandages.
For me, Tatsuya Fujiwara has been type casted as the Death Note guy, and it felt weird that he is now Shishio.
I would say, the editing and conversion of such a long anime into a 2 hour movie is no easy task, and the director has done a superb job. Much of the side story that does not move the plot is removed, leaving behind key scenes.
I would share some spoliers as there is little deviation from the anime. The plot to get Kenshin accept to go to Kyoto with the death of the Home Minister is done pretty well, and the fight between Sojiro and Kenshin where Kenshin broke his sword is short and sweeet.
Then the scene where Kenshin got the true reverse blade sword by visiting the son of the sword maker and fighting the guy with 4 swords is done pretty well too. The whole build up between this story arc and the next is superb and luckily for us, the final episode will be in a month.
I was quite surprised that this movie was above my expectation, and I'm really looking forward to the last part of the movie. The fight scenes can be a little brutal but overall, the pace of the movie and story flow is very good.
This is definitely a MUST watch if you are a Kenshin Fan. If you watched the first movie, why not try catch this one too!
Overall: 8/10
-- Robin Low
