Rurouni Kenshin 08: Ice Blue Eyes

In addition to Misao, Aoshi comes back! He was one of my favorite characters from the first season (and considering that I liked almost everyone but the villains, that's saying a lot). So, he's back, and I can't wait to see what happens when he and Misao (not to mention he and Kenshin) meet up again.

The animation is wonderful, and the fights are still majorly cool. Kenshin doesn't get to fight much in this one, but I'm still recovering from his awesome fight with Saito in the last volume, so I didn't feel the loss too much. And I am looking forward to seeing more Misao-action.

Like always, the subbed version is magnificent and the English dubbed version needs to be destroyed. I cannot get over how HORRIBLE the English voice actors are!

I recommend this to any and every Rurouni Kenshin fan!

To recap for newbies, the Rurouni Kenshin series follows Himura Kenshin, once the most feared Hitokiri or assassin of the Bakumatsu, a violent era in feudal Japan where power was up for grabs. He has and continues to wander Japan keeping his vow not to kill and fighting with a reverse-edged sword.

This is the first dark step in the series as the chance upon the bloodied corpse of a man, his unconscious younger brother in his arms. Kenshin, Saito and Misao get to confront Shishio, but only get to fight the beast left in the village, a tights-clad, axe-knuckles-wearing hulk named Senkaku. We are also first introduced to Shishio's right hand man, and perhaps the most dangerous of his Ten Swords, Soujiro.

This is a complete emotional volume from a complete series. The light-hearted moments in the beginning are tempered by the serious and heartbreaking scenes in the middle; the tension is on a constant high throughout all the episodes featured here. Kenshin's urge to return to his darker, killing side doesn't quite surface yet, but the young, talented Soujiro, will create a tremendous obstacle during their first swordfight.

Highly recommended and necessary for Kenshin fans; there's also enough of flashbacks and information for you to view this DVD on its own, and have some, but not a complete idea, of what is going on. Get the series if you can.