What is Rurouni Kenshin?
Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story is a manga series by Nobuhiro Watsuki which was first published in “Shonen Jump” magazine from April 1994 to September 1999. Since then, it’s gotten two different anime adaptations. The first anime adaptation came out in Japan in 1996 and aired on Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” programming block in 2003. The more recent adaptation came out globally in 2023, and, at the time of writing this, has concluded its first two seasons and is confirmed for a third.
The two adaptations are tonally and structurally different but tell the same story, and since the aspects we’ll be focusing on are largely the same, you’ll find the themes I’m about to discuss in either version. I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I have to spoil some things, so, this is your warning.
**SPOILER ALERT**
The story takes place beginning in early spring of 1878, the 11th year of the Meiji Era. A wandering swordsman named Kenshin Himura, arrives in Tokyo and is confronted by a local young woman named Kaoru who accuses him of being “Hitokiri Battousai” or “Battousai the Manslayer”, a legendary assassin during the Meiji Revolution who disappeared in the chaos.
Little does Kaoru know, Kenshin is in fact Hitokiri Battosai, though he abandoned that title, along with the sword he used on the battlefield years ago. He now carries a reversed-blade sword, which he uses to protect others.
Many characters, particularly his former comrades, view Kenshin as a war hero. His former commanding officer, who is basically in charge of Japan’s military, offers him a commission as a high-ranking officer, but Kenshin turns him down. He views his actions during the war as his greatest shame, not something he should be rewarded for. It’s at this point that the audience learns that when Kenshin deserted the Imperialist forces, he took a vow to never kill again.
As the story progresses, Kenshin is tempted and his commitment to his vow is challenged, both by enemies who hold a grudge against him due to his past, and by agents of the current government who beg Kenshin to use his sword skills to clean up their messes for them.
One incident has Kenshin fighting a death match with a rogue manslayer who tries to drag Kenshin down to his level. He tells Kenshin that they weren’t so different and that at the bottom of his heart, Kenshin was still a manslayer: “A manslayer is a manslayer until he dies. He can never be anything else.” Kenshin is, indeed, brought to the edge of breaking his vow during their fight, but returns to his senses just in time. Then he recommitted to his vow, promising himself that he would never return to the ways of an assassin.
Let’s look at Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’”
There’s no question that despite the reasons behind it, Kenshin’s actions during the Meiji Revolution were sinful. He killed dozens, possibly hundreds, of people. That he never took a life for personal gain and left non-combatants alone doesn’t change that. However, at some point, the gravity of his actions hit him. They disgusted him, and he repented. He completely changed his ways, he left the Imperial Army, he stopped using the street name ‘Hitokiri Battosai’, he vowed to never take another life and kept that vow. If that’s not repentance, I don’t know what is.
However, there are a couple more pieces to this. Just because Kenshin left his past behind him, that didn’t stop others from continuing to see him as his old self. His old enemies see him either as a challenge or a monster, and his former comrades view him either as a war hero or as a tool. All of them, for their own reasons, expect him to be Hitokiri Battousai. Not everyone can accept the humble, peace-loving man Kenshin has become.
This is human nature. Often, when someone makes such a profound change, it takes time for us to believe that change is real. Many of us who came to Christ later in life might have experienced this, the people from your old life, both friends and enemies, have certain expectations of you. They don’t understand that whatever patterns you’ve broken away from, just aren’t you anymore. That can make it really easy to give in, to bow to temptations or expectations and slip back into old patterns. That’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with people who know and believe in who you are now.
Kenshin does this. Once he left Kyoto after leaving the battlefield, he didn’t return for ten years, because people knew him there. He wanted to go where he could be a new face and not have judgements or expectations placed on him based on his past. Eventually, he settles in Tokyo and finds a found family of friends who love and support him for who he is in the present. When he is forced to return to Kyoto, enough time has passed that he’s able to find a few more supportive people.
Kenshin consistently avoids worldly acclaim, especially if it’s connected to his past actions. When his former commanding officer tries to give him a commission as an officer, he declines, but what Kenshin says in this moment is interesting. “I’m sorry Sir, but I’ll never again use my sword to kill, however the noble the cause. It wasn’t for power or government office that you and I took up our swords. No, we fought to create and defend a world where people could live in peace. If we forget that…. then we’re no better than any other murderous little upstart.”
Let’s look at Matthew 16:26: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Kenshin already sees himself as having lost his soul because of his past actions but has repented and is trying to carve out a new identity and new life for himself. The last thing he wants, or needs, is to be treated like a hero for all the sins he committed during the war. He rejects that outright, but even when he receives praise from his friends, he reacts with humility, not to a self-deprecating degree, but insisting that they “think too much of him”.
Kenshin also practices something called unconditional positive regard, which basically means he looks for every possible opportunity to praise or appreciate others. This is true even in the way he speaks, being extra polite and showing deference in the way he addresses others. This is especially clear in the English subbed version of the 2023 anime.
Kenshin does struggle with self-worth though. The reason he sometimes struggles to maintain his vow is because in all his effort to protect the lives of others and repent of all the murders he committed, he forgot that his own life has value.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Sometimes we repent, we’ve changed our ways, we’ve asked for forgiveness from God and from the people we’ve hurt, but we still can’t forgive ourselves. As believers we must remember the words of the prophet Isaiah.
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.” – Isaiah 1:18
To bring this together, Rurouni Kenshin may appear on the surface to be your average shonen war anime with a romantic subplot, but it’s so much more than that, especially in terms of the internal journey of its main character, and there’s a lot about Kenshin’s redemption arc that Christians can learn from. So, if you haven’t watched either anime adaptation of this story before, I highly recommend checking it out.
Watch the 2023 version of the Anime here —> https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G0XHWM1NK/rurouni-kenshin?srsltid=AfmBOooVePwXoOeR0ys9OfsbUDSQcn4fZSZUf0sd1kTDz7TKzGpTfRJE