Rurouni Kenshin Wandering Samurai - Premium Box 1 [DVD]

It is an uncontestable fact that Rurouni Kenshin is a great, great series; and I will say up front that this box set is worth buying despite its faults. The show has everything; silly comedy, political intrigue, real, complex emotion; fascinating character development and conflicting purposes; and of course crazy-beautiful over the top, landscape-destroying, bouncing-off-the-ceiling swordfights.But: there were several issues with the box set that buyers should know.One: the DVD encoding quality is not great; it doesn't get in the way too often, but you can see it.I preface Problem Two by saying that it is not worth buying this OR ANY ANIME (only exceptions being Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service) if you are only going to watch the dubbed version. The American voice actors are all completely atrocious; please disregard anything you have heard to the contrary, and imagine a bad porno movie with no sex. The American voice actors have apparently never heard of Japan, or listened to the Japanese dialogue they are dubbing over; the DVD's "outtakes" consist of the voice actors demonstrating their inability to pronounce japanese words, and these outtakes are not much worse than the takes that made it into the presentation. Regardless, none of the characters in Rurouni Kenshin can be separated from their original voice actors except for an occasional generic villian; the show makes no sense when Kenshin is played by a gravelly-voiced caucasian punk trying to sound badass and not succeeding. I'm sure Richard Hayworth has his talents, but he has no business trying to be Himura Kenshin when he can't pronounce his own name.On to Problem 2: Only 95% of the dialogue is translated into subtitles. This is irritating. Someone will be saying something and you read the line underneath and understand. Then they will follow with a setence that inexplicably lacks a subtitle. This seems to happen at least once almost every episode. Definitely not worth switching to English for. But sometimes you can just tell that what that guy just said was pretty important.Problem 3: Partly my fault for not researching a little better, but this box set cuts off before the end of the major story arc, the Kyoto Arc (Shishio). It stops after Sanosuke fights with Anji in Shishio's fortress, which those who know the series know is a painful place to have to stop.Problem 4: If you buy from a customer "used and new" because you don't have 145$ to burn, expect to get the bootlegged version (like I did). Bootlegged anime is very common and the quality is still good; I hear it is somehow legal in Hong Kong and Korea where this happens, but whatever, lower prices, woohoo! This is the version shown in the "customer photos" above; it has all the episodes, but not all of the extras that the legitimate version has. It has a sort of crappy photo gallery/character bios feature (only Aoshi and Megumi have bios and the gallery is really pathetic) and the aforementioned outtakes: essentially nothing worth checking out. No character greetings, no attack list and no liner notes. To me, that's worth the difference of 80$, though.And one last thing: the second half of the first disk and the first few episodes of the second disk are filler episodes in the series. While hardcore fans might make themselves endure these, they are not canon, they are not in the manga, and they are really terrible. The animation in these is the worst you will see in the series and you will skip them if you value your time. :) Knowing the quality of the series overall makes it painful for a fan of "good Kenshin" to watch Kenshin foiling a band of train robbers on horseback, or teaming up with circus sideshow actors.All that said, the Kenshin box set is still 5 stars because the quality of the show--much like _true love_--conquers all.

Japan, after a long and bloody civil war, is now trapped between the ideals of the past and the promise of the future. Swords have been outlawed yet the survivors of the revolution are waiting in the shadow. The defeated wait for their chance to strike back while many of the winners now use their power within the government to gain power and wealth.Kenshin Himura, once a Imperial assassin, is now the only man the stands between peace and renewed war. Can a former killer with an outlawed weapon be faithful to the new ways or will his violent ways take control again?Six DVDs with 27 episodes, outtakes, art work, notes on Japanese history and terms, this is a great collection to have. Includes the English voices of the very good Richard Hayworth, the independent Dorothy Melendrez, the young Elyse Floyd, the serious sounding Lex Lang, the sexy Wendee Lee, the delightful John Billingslea, the always sweet sounding Rebecca Forstadt (also known as Reba West) and the evil Steve Cannon (the voice of Harry McDougall from the Outlaw Star). Please note that Elyse Floyd is ALSO Wendee Lee and the cute sounding Sandy Fox also sings the English version of the opening song.And while not a fan of any ONE Japanese voice actor, the Japanese voices are good too!I got it used, in so-so condition, so I got a REAL deal. Some of the episodes are stand alone, but many of the stories are two or more episodes long, with lots of cool fights and tons of humor. The artwork is so-so, but the rest of the features found on the DVD make up for it.

Thanks to someone that provided a picture above you get to see what the box really looks like. A perfectly put together Box set you get the first 48 episodes of Rurounie Kenshin Wandering Samurai but the only problem is this set will leave you with a hunger for more. I hear some reviews saying that if you buy this used and new from a seller than most likely you'll get a bootleg and that's true in a way but you just have to make sure whom you buy from has good reviews from other buyers. If Cartoon Network replays this series again don't watch it because they take all of the good stuff out.I also have seen some reviews that say this set only contains the first 27 episodes and wow did those guys get cheated cause this is a set with 48 episodes. If you've never seen the series this is a perfect place to start, you save so much money on this box instead of spending tons of cash on those individual volumes fans love so much and won't sell for a nice price. The first episode introduces the kind hearted Kenshin who bumps into his future named Kaoru but neither know it and you have to buy it to know the rest cause saying anything else would ruin this masterpiece. The subtitles are a little off but the voice actors do a pretty good job so I would recommend just watching the English dubbed version.

This is the best anime out there. I also have all the Samurai X movies. Samurai X if you dont know is the an anime of everything that happened before the series. I highly recomend them too. But they are both great because they have fighting, Conflict, freinds, and Romance. I watch the series on tv every time it comes on. I got this mainly to see all the stuff that they didn't let on tv and so I can watch it whenever I want.

It's ok, great quality (video), poor quality in the box, printing not even plastic all is cardboard (shame, I simply expected more for the price). 3 stars 'cause of the quality of the playing/viewing only.

A great anime show and these first 27 episodes are great considering they're ice breakers to introduce the concept of the show and the characters. Quick overview:Its been 10 years since the Meji Revolution and when the legendary Hitokiri Battosai, the 1 man who tiped the balance of power during the bloody feud, was last scene. He reapears in Tokyo in time to encounter a martial artist in need, Miss Kaoru, whose style of swordsmanship was being tainted by a fake Hitokiri Battosai. He then befriends a number of others; Yaiko, son of a samurai whose family was forced into service by a local gang. Sanoske, who was part of a group working for the Imperialists during the revolution but was inevitably betrayed by them. Miss Megumi who came from a family of doctors but was forced to develop opium for an underground businessman.You also meet a bunch of other characters you'll see later or their precense and/or impact is felt later like Aoshi of the Obiwan group. A lot of the episodes in this 27 pack are linked to a bigger story you seee in the second collectors box containing episodes 28-46.The animation is excellent, very beautifally detailed. Fight scenes are lacking but are quite amazing when you see them but this show isn't about fighting rather the story behind fighting. I highly recommend this for anyone from ages 12+

This is good, but its not a DVD like advised but a game for your play station. the graphics' are good through.