Watch Samurai X - Trust and Betrayal For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

If there is one word adequate for describing "Ruroundi Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen", it would be "inconsequent". Although the story, storytelling and animation all suffer from a lack of balance, there are faint glimmers of brilliance to be found in the mini-series, explaining it being frequently mistaken for one of the masterpieces of Japanese animation.The first of four episodes serves as backstory for the backstory for the main plot, and with "backstory" (the first "backstory that is, for a lot more backstory is coming) I mean the protagonist's complete character development over the course of a small decade, conveyed through half an hour of exposition of differing subtlety and clarity. To keep the episode interesting, the chronology has been stirred somewhat by cutting between timelines, which mostly has the contrary effect of making the story feel convoluted, especially noting the shipments of minor characters dumped onto the screen with little introduction and the possibility of never showing up again.The second episode provides the more recent backstory, centering around the shogun wars during the late nineteenth century. Considering all of this is background information for the personal conflict of the second half of the series (the one with a plot), it should be noted a lot of time is spend on oblique dialogue concerning the geopolitical situation in Japan, which is mostly irrelevant for the central conflict. At the same time, the second episode features more action than the first, but most of it is disappointing. In my experience, the audience is usually interested in being able to *see* the action, besides a few flashes of blood (or tomato juice, for as far I could distinguish) illuminating the dark sky, and covering the dark streets, dark houses and dark corpses. And intercutting the fighting with stroboscopic black screens is not a way to heighten the tension, for the presumed majority of viewers who do not suffer from epileptic disease, that is.The third episode is the one that finally gets to the main plot, and the first episode to actually be good. The awkward action and shogun politics are brought to the background, shifting the focus to inner- and personal conflict. The protagonist's struggle with the question whether blindly killing people is truly the best way to create a better world (superficial as this conflict may be) is beautifully represented by the leitmotiv of a continuously reopening wound on his cheek, while the interaction with the woman he is sheltering with is subtle and believable. Their conversations always have an complex undertone of love, grief, doubt and fear, without directly addressing those matters. The audience is not informed of how their relationship develops, but shown through the sophisticated interactions, which is how the potential of film as a medium is fully realised. For a delightful thirty minutes, "Ruroundi Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen" was actually great.After the sudden increase in quality during the third episode, I bade: "Please, let the last episode not just be sword fighting and shameless melodrama." How I hate to be right. The deliberate understatement has been traded in for operatic betrayal and misconception, combined with the first two episodes' action, luckily somewhat more bearable because of the lighter backgrounds. The final episode still is a melancholic portrait of a samurai's stoicism, but ultimately, "Ruroundi Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen" has ruined its opportunity of nuance.The animation is hit-and-miss as well. Some characters look more realistic than usual for the medium, while others look like walking fish, with appropriate lip movement. The backgrounds are plagued by a similar imbalance: the ones are not obscuring brown and oppressive grey, are so brightly coloured they interfere with the characters, making the frames feel unbalanced, as it is difficult to decide where to focus."Ruroundi Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen" is cobbled together from ill-fitting elements, most of which were not very good in the first place. The mini-series has moments of beauty and even shimmers of genius, mostly in the third episode, but the structural ineptness undermines the impact, as the first half is tedious set-up and the second lacks decent pay-off. Many lessons can be learned from its triumphs and mistakes, and it should be watched by fans of the medium, although a certain moderation in critical response would be appropriate.

I got about halfway through this and had to stop and switch over to the Japanese version. For me as a Rurouni Kenshin fan it was a huge disappointment. I have for many years been trying to get my hands on a complete series of the original Samurai X Rurouni Kenshin. Being an even bigger fan of that series I was expecting an awful lot. Unfortunately I was expecting a bit too much. Though I found the animation to be as beautiful as I remember Kenshin always being. So very eye pleasing and the music to be magnificent. I was dissatisfied with the English dialog and I think even the voice acting direction. I felt the same way about the series so I wasn't surprised. As much as I love the way Watsuki san tells a story I was disappointed by the fact that this was nothing but the last five episodes of the last season of Rurouni Kenshin with a couple of effects added. If I hadn't switched it over to the Japanese version I may have shut it off out of sheer disappointment and utter boredom. So to sum it up for Kenshin fans skip it go directly to Reflection. For movie fans go for it. It's a wonderful story.

Just to get this out of the way before I start my rant: I *love* 'Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku roman tan: Tsuioku Hen'! I fell in love with the film the first time I saw it and I can watch it over and over again without losing any of my initial enthusiasm for it. In fact, I seem to like it more with each viewing.'Tsuioku Hen' is the combination of a coming-of-age story and a love story, wrapped in a tight package of vicious battles and political ploys. The animation is flawless. The sword fights are short, brutal and very convincingly portrayed. The characters are drawn more realistically than in the television series and especially Kenshin looks better than ever. The more I see of him, the more I believe he's one of the most interesting and complex fictional characters ever created. And Tomoe is a beautiful, mysterious character, and even though she comes across as quite stoical, it's impossible not to see her appeal.In the manga volumes that cover the storyline of 'Tsuioku Hen', Kenshin was pushed forward as the sole protagonist with Tomoe performing as one of the more (most?) important milestones in his life. She was as a catalyst that shaped Kenshin into the person he was destined to become. However, I must admit, at the time I didn't regard her as much beyond that. Not that I didn't like Tomoe in the manga, but it was only after watching the film that I genuinely started to feel for her. The film gave her character more breathing space than the manga had to offer and allowed her to bloom into something more. She effortlessly managed to steal some of Kenshin's limelight and took up her rightful place as a second protagonist.Another thing I admire about the film is that it isn't afraid to be slow. During the second half of the story, when the couple exchange the dangerous streets of revolutionary Kyoto for the 'boring' country life, the film takes up a much more leisurely pace. There is such a big contrast to their previous life, that as a viewer you find yourself adapting alongside the characters to this sudden change of pacing.Also, I simply can't review 'Tsuioku Hen' without mentioning the music, which is positively one of the most outstanding features of the film. It gave me chills. Especially mind the music during the breathtaking epilogue. You think the music can't get any better, but then it suddenly does and lifts everything to a wholly new, superior level.Something I really got a kick out of is that most of the characters in the film are based upon people that have actually existed during that time. And I love that they sporadically put Saitõ Hajime in the film (another historical personage). His short appearances throughout the storyline, leading up to his fight with Kenshin at the end of the film, weren't necessary to the story and could easily have been omitted. I'm glad they decided not to. Saitõ's fight with Kenshin during the Ikeda-ya affair, which had previously been animated in the television series in a slightly alternate version, presented mixed feelings of both deja-vu and foreboding. In an odd way it provided me with a satisfying sense of completion, like everything had come to full circle. Personally, I've always had a thing for Saitõ Hajime. He's a smug, cold-hearted, sadistic bastard, but I just adore him.Now, to be fair, I will also discuss the few weaknesses of the film.If you haven't read the manga or have watched at least a few episodes of the anime, the political aspects of the storyline will most likely pass you by. I also believe the secondary characters might not get enough screen time to satisfy the people who haven't 'met' them before. These characters might seem to be whizzing by, leaving viewers to wonder who they were, what they were doing and what they might mean to the story. The dialog gets a bit dreary at times, but I believe that's mostly because of the limits of subtitling. If you get twenty people to translate the same text, you get twenty different interpretations and the original meaning behind the author's words gets lost in the translation. It's sad, but it's true and can't be helped much.But in the end, the positive aspects more than outweigh the negative. 'Tsuioku Hen' isn't just good as an anime, book-to-film adaptation, prequel, OVA, or whatever box you want to put it in. It's just *good*! I believe this is the kind of film that is so excellent it transcends its genre. Throughout the entire film the sheer beauty of it radiates of the screen, at times to a point it's almost blinding. There's only one word to describe this film, it's 'art'. 'Tsuioku Hen' highlights the fact that, beyond doubt, Nobuhiro Watsuki is one of the greatest storytellers of our time.Now, I truly could ramble on for several more paragraphs on why I'd recommend this film, but I suppose I've taken up far too much space as it is. So, I'll shut up now and leave you all with one final piece of advice: Watch this film!

First and foremost my goal is to write a review about a movie, not an anime. Many people consider this one of the greatest anime ever made but it kind of saddens me that people only treat it as an anime and recommend fans of anime to watch it. I see Kenshin OVA Trust/Betrayal as a movie and recommend every movie fan to watch it.If you are looking for a summary, read somewhere else. If you are trying to find out why this is a great movie, I will try my best to convince you.Kenshin OVA is a character driven movie with excellent character development. The two main characters, Kenshin and Tomoe, have humane and non exaggerated personalities, they are conflicted with their emotions, and they grow and change. I guess what I am trying to say is that the two main characters are not cliché.The stories' setting takes place during the late 1800's in Japan, where a civil war is taking place, where the samurai era is coming to an end, and the shogunate is fighting to keep its place. People who don't know Japanese history of that time period probably going to get a bit confused, but the historical setting provided the movie more depth and political intrigue. Like the current trend of war movies, the historic conflicts are not presented in black and white, but rather shades of gray.The action sequence is something to behold of. It is violent, gruesome, bloody, but does not feel gratuitous, due to the mood and setting the animators have created. The sword fights short, but quick, intense, believable (realistic), and original in presentation. Far better than any live action choreography.Finally there are many subtle touches that makes the movie feel more like a work of art, rather animated violence. The animators are created a lot of scenes with nature. Whether it is the subtleness of snow flake or sakura leaves falling, or the glistening of the lake from the sun, the animators created a world of beauty. On top of that, the soundtrack just masterfully sets up the mood of the scene. The soundtrack is haunting, kinetic during battle, and subtle and poignant. Most importantly the soundtrack is memorable.Kenshin OVA Trust/Betrayal is on the top tier of anime, however if the movie had gotten greater exposure, it would belong in the top tier of movies.