rurouni kenshin!!!!!!! WAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! one of my favorite series!!!!! (BOTH anime AND manga!) ...of course, that has NOTHING to do with the fact that i'm in love with kenshin...;)hehehe
first off...the stuff is wonderfully drawn. even the bad guys. and the gory scenes. and nobihiro watsuki is very funny even in the chinese translated editions. the lil author's note inside the book jacket is very funny...plus the picture accompanying it...^_^
next. let me tell you the story. yeah, okay, if you're sick of my babbling you don't HAVE to read it...just promise to look up another site on this okay? ^_^ *gritted teeth* you better.
rurouni kenshin is a sort of historical fiction type manga series. it's around the time when the Meiji era had just begun in Japan. there was this one assassin, nicknamed "Hitokiri Battousai" because he killed thousands of people, and helped pave the way for the new era. but after the warring, he disappeared and left only a legend.
about ten years after the Meiji era began, in Tokyo, there lived a girl named Kamiya Kaoru. she lived in a doujo and was a master of....a certain sword technique which uses wooden swords, the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu (something like that?). she'd been the master since her father had died years ago. business was running low, and had gotten even lower when a strange swordsman came to town, killing people for no reason and claiming to be the legendary "Hitokiri Battousai" and also a disciple of "Kamiya Kasshin Ryu" technique. this not only soiled Kaoru's father's good name, but also made the remaining disciples at Kaoru's doujo decide to back out. Kaoru was determined to fight this swordsman, defeat him, and earn back the doujo's good name.
she came upon Himura Kenshin, a vagabond or "rurouni." at first she thought he was the "hitokiri battousai" she'd been looking for, and tries to charge him....only to slam him against a wall (he gets all bug-eyed) and find out that he is just a wanderer. she thinks he is the killer because he carries a sword (that's illegal in the new Meiji era) but finds that his sword is sakaba--it's reversed so that one fights with the blunt side and couldn't possibly kill anyone with it. plus it's really got no scratches or bloodstains.
just then she encounters the swordsman she is looking for. she can't fight against him with her wooden sword, as he has a real one that just slices hers in two. Kenshin saves her, and takes her home.
it turns out that some evil men (it's always men, geesh =) hehe) are trying to steal Kaoru's doujo away from her. first one will masquerade as one of the disciples from that doujo, and frighten away all the other disciples. then when there is no business and the doujo fails, Kaoru will be forced to give it up. Kenshin finds out in time to save Kaoru--and also to reveal that he, in fact, IS the Hitokiri Battousai of legend....he gave up killing people after the wars because his conscience smote him for all those innocent lives he took. after that he became a vagabond, carrying only a reverse blade sword and fighting to help those in need.
Kaoru asks Kenshin to stay at the doujo with her...and he does. life there is funny with kaoru's hot temper and horrible cooking skills (trademark of most anime girls). Kaoru's continually afraid that Kenshin is going to up and leave her alone, since he is a vagabond, which sorta shows how she's getting so attached to him, etc. etc.
A while later, they meet other characters....Sanosuke (Sano!), who was a gangster/fighter in the underground world known as Zanza. (He carries around this huuuge weapon..a 'zanbatou'? it's like a long handle with a fat blade at the end...er..you have to see it to understand.) He's hired by the first two guys who were trying to steal Kaoru's doujo to do away with Kenshin, but he has his own personal reasons for wanted to thwack Kenshin into ittybitty pieces. He used to be a member of this army that got wiped out during the warring...argh, that part confuses me, go look it up somewhere else. either way, he's really bitter at the ishinshishi (including Kenshin, who he knows is the hitokiri battousai) for all the stuff that happened, especially the death of his leader, until he realizes Kenshin is a lot more like his leader than he thought. (this is *after* kenshin like beats him to the ground and slices his zanbatou apart.) then he and kenshin become like best friends and fight together throughout the rest of the series. he also, without so much as a by-your-leave, moves into the doujo with kaoru and kenshin. (he's the type that just goes into restaurants and eats and leaves w/o paying the bill)
Another member of the doujo occupation is Yahiko, who was a samurai's son but was tricked into thinking his family owes gangsters money, and became a pickpocket to pay them back. he meets kenshin and kaoru on a bridge where he attempts to steal Kenshin's wallet. Kenshin offers to just give him the wallet, but when met with this kind of patronization (or at least, what he thinks is patronization) Yahiko refuses. Kenshin realizes that Yahiko has a lot more to him than the usual little-boy-pickpocket and clears up the misunderstanding with the gangsters (more like, beats them into submission w/ Sano, if i remember correctly. heh.), and brings Yahiko back to the doujo and tells Kaoru to teach him the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu technique. of course since Kaoru and Yahiko both have horrible tempers they're always fighting and bonking each other over the head with swords, but Kaoru wants to teach (no disciples anymore, remember?) and Yahiko wants to be strong like Kenshin, so they both have to keep going. it's sorta like a sibling-type relationship. though i doubt most siblings bonk each other over the head with swords. =) Both Yahiko and Sano have really weird short spikey hair, so when you only see the top/back of their heads you can't tell the difference ;).
...and then they meet Megumi, who is a doctor's apprentice and who is forced into making cheap opium for a deranged businessman; but who really does have amazing knowledge and healing skills. (and who is a bit flirty and calls Kenshin "Ken-san" to make Kaoru steamed) she, unlike Kaoru, can actually cook (*gasp*...). Sano calls her the "fox-lady" cuz she's sorta sly and cunning (well more so than the outright, blunt, and quick-tempered Kaoru) and i really can't tell what kind of relationship they have. They always end up in some sort of a sarcastic diss war.
The story continues as different people from Kenshin's past as the legendary assassin resurface and try to beat the crap outta him in various ways. they all seem to bear a grudge against him for something that was really not his fault (like none of them is actually coming after him saying "You killed my entire family as a heartless assassin! You deserve to die too!"....it's more like..."I am fighting you so i can take your title of "the strongest" fighter!"). and kenshin is sometimes at a bad disadvantage cuz trying not to kill anyone is making him a weaker fighter.
the art is niiiiiiiiiiice. the story is interesting! the anime is entertaining! i love it. go check it out.
Rurouni Kenshin--Velly nice page. Don't quite remember what was on it, but...yeah. Good links, if I remember correctly, and pretty comprehensive info.
Serizawa Kamo's Translation Index.--this site is GOOD! believe me...it's the best I've seen so far, and it's mostly comprised of a bunch of links. it's got the most comprehensive manga translations i've seen...
Shinomori's Homepage--this is a pretty good page too. good all-around stuff...rather than just translations. =)