The Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Trilogy finishes up with The Legend Ends. While I guessed a bit wrong on a few things, I’m not upset by it. It does, after all, have some excellent fights on tap. And, what is technically an ancient meme.
Things start off with Kenshin waking up in his old master’s house in the middle of the woods. You can actually see a difference in him from his source appearance. For one thing, he’s way less insufferable. Granted, he was badass enough to back up his attitude and then some. But here he winds up being a more appropriate parental substitute, even if it’s implied that his training regimen was just as harsh. They did get rid of his Spawn-like cape, though.
The other change to Hiko Seijuuro XIII is that he doesn’t really teach Kenshin the final technique, really. In the manga, the final technique of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū is implied to cause the death of the teacher, since it is the only counter to the move the teacher is using upon their student. Here, it’s (in Kenshin’s case) the will to continue living. Basically, Kenshin needed to stop fighting under the assumption that it was going to be the death of him. The “Final Technique” does make it into the film, though.
I was wrong about the revenge arc being wrapped into Aoshi’s subplot. Considering the slight changes made to the ending, that’s okay though. It also gives us a really nice fight between Kenshin and Aoshi. I have to say that the staging for it is beautiful. The path they fight on is excellent scenery for a sword fight. It also lets Kenshin start doing what he does best: psychologically breaking his opponents post battle. It’s a trend that doesn’t stop until he hits Shishio.
Speaking of, I know I mentioned it before, but they really nailed it with him. The meal he throws for the new Homelord really seals the deal on that. He plays them like a fiddle, and he’s super intimidating throughout. I have no clue if the implication was imagined or not, but I found the roast they were eating highly suspect. It would not have been beyond Shishio to serve a meal of long pork, if you follow my meaning. Especially given the way it was heavily charred on the outside.
The Ten Swords lamentably get flushed. As a matter of fact, Saito ices most of them. Only two of them get more than one or two lines, to boot. Usui, in particular, gets sworded in the face by Saito just about as hard as possible. You get at least one moment of Saito caring for one of his men out of it, though.
As I guessed, Sanosuke’s fight with Anji is diminished by a significant amount. That being said, they knew what they were doing. Giving him a ton of stuff to make a mess with is tops in my book. It’s not as good as it could’ve been, but they more than make up for that.
Concurrently, Kenshin’s fight with Soujirou mirrors their fight in the previous movie. The fight overall is pretty slick, with enough of the acrobatics you’d expect out of two fast characters. Kenshin gets payback for his sword, and then just destroys Soujirou’s worldview.
But the real draw is the collective fight against Shishio. He starts off by taking a bite out of Kenshin, as expected. He then proceeds to fight off Saito, Sanosuke, and in a real Hail Mary play, Aoshi. Shishio was a tough opponent in the manga and all, but his movie version is a step beyond. He is literally tough enough to take everything each of them had. His flaming human fat blade, Limitless, is rad enough that I’m not going to really question how the hell it actually works. Honestly, if he wasn’t working on a strict time limit, he probably would’ve won. Aside from the sweat glands, the guy has Ants In My Eyes Johnson levels of pain resistance.
Nonetheless, Kenshin scores his deciding blow: leading with his left foot. The Ultimate Technique lands, still isn’t enough to drop Shishio. But it was a war of attrition, and swinging around a flaming bar of metal probably didn’t help him all that much.
Ultimately, the Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy wraps on a much stronger note than its source did. And since Kenshin didn’t totally wreck his body fighting Shishio, there is room for another sequel. These Movies are absolutely worth your time if you get the chance to see them.
Final Thoughts:
– After two movies of his… enthusiastic cheerleading, it was good to see Sano pop Hoji one.
– I just realized that most of Yahiko and Kaoru’s fights got jettisoned with the Juppongatana.
– Much like the first film, you don’t know whether any of the villains that weren’t explicitly dead made it off the ship alive.
“The Rurouni Kenshin live-action trilogy wraps up on a much stronger note than its source material did.”
4/5
‘Great’
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