Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen
26 July 2008
I’ve seen it. I didn’t cry. Somewhere between too much to say, too little say and just plain not knowing what to say, don’t really know what it is that I’m feeling. I have Taku Iwasaki’s scoring ringing in my ears, my speakers at full volume and I’m still just dying, dying to taste, as best I can describe it, intense, intense melancholic pain.
Sometimes, after I’ve watched something there’s this moment of quiet, there’s this rare moment of silence, when I’m caught in a purgatory of sorts, half in, half out, just hanging there, in the viscous amber of something so terrifyingly morose and beautiful that catches me completely off guard. I can’t feel the blood in my fingers and there’s this eerie, delicate sense of utter detachment, a sense of being unable to breath, a sense of trying to keep everything from squeezing together.
Kenshin Himura is a character I’ll never forget. Every note of Iwasaki’s score speaks to his character. Maybe the differences between the OVA Kenshin and the series Kenshin is just inherent in the approach and style, but this man, whose life is marred tragedy after tragedy, is able to walk and smile and live, it’s just, it’s just, there’s no real word to describe. Much like Iwasaki’s score, most notably Kotowari, I just can’t over how much these four episode, this one man, how much it just brushes aside all of this sarcastic, cynical, skeptical bullshit the world’s mired in and just cuts, like a searing, hot blade right through my heart, as fatal a wound as something will ever leave.
I’ll remember the music more than anything. There was just something grating, something that irked me, something that stirred discontentment in my little soul, but it was in the most amazing way. It wasn’t sad, it wasn’t sad as it was heartbreaking? Tragic? It wasn’t sad as it was inexplicable. It was almost predictable in the sense that trust and betrayal, the English moniker for the series, are veteran themes of anime, but it conveyed the most disconcerting, the most unsettling sense of grief, of this mute, internal grief. Recollection or reminiscence, the Japanese title, hits closer to home. The Kenshin in the OVA is not the man from the series, he’s younger, rougher around the edges, lost. How much I appreciate this man after Tsuiokuhen, how much more do I understand the intensity of emotion…
I think it’s a bit redundant to say that it was amazing, or to tack any adjective to Tsuiokuhen. It’s an experience I’m going to walk away from not fully understanding, but satisfied nonetheless. Would it be cheesy to say that maybe it was so deep and so profound that the beauty of it is that I won’t ever truly comprehend it? Tomoe, the porcelain skinned woman, scented of white plums and Kenshin, the battousai soaked in the blood of those he had slain, bodies entwined in blood and snow, there’s something distinct, something iconic, something best, in my opinion, characterized by the last two or three minutes of Kotowari, to all of it.
I’m going to bury all of my emotional unrest and pandemonium back where Tsuiokuhen found it, bury that pebble of my emotions elsewhere. Would it be cheesy, also, to say that just as Kenshin bears the cross-shaped scar, that maybe I’m going to bear some sort of a scar as well?
This is probably the shortest entry I’ve written, but it was the hardest. From a good while, I was like a blind man, groping a blank mind for words, trying to piece together a response, my emotions askew and thoughts in disarray. It’s like being knocked out of your own body by a wrecking ball and having to fill your own skin and flesh again, an out of body experience in every sense of the phrase.
Yup, it’s totally justified as one of, if not the, greatest anime of all time. Also, I know what you mean about the confusion, but as I’ve watched it a few times now, I’ve got more of a hang on the story, which is based on actual historical events and even some real people. For example, Saitō Hajime (the stern looking chap with the strange sword stance) and Okita Sōji (the young kid in the Shinsengumi who occasionally coughs up blood) were both absolutely real and helped to shape the future of Japan. Also, the guy at the end who replaces Kenshin’s role as assassin was later villain Shishio Makoto. It’s this combination of reality with the actual drama itself, sober Kenshin and his surprisingly brutal skills, the texture and depth of the story, that I love most of all about Tsuiokuhen. It’s so romantic, poetic, yet feels so true as well.
I know this isn’t the right place to post this, but i coudn’t find any e-mail address so i decided to write here in this post. Sry! 😉
So…i found a top 10 list with the best anime series of all tme! I don’t agree very much
with this list (i hate Gundam!), but i would like to see the opinion of you guys. Here’s the link:
http://www.weshow.com/top10/en/animation/top-10-best-anime-movies-and-series-of-all-time
Congrats for the blog!