Many believe these films are the best live-action adaptations of a beloved manga/anime series to exist.
Grab your swords and get ready to fight, because everyone’s favorite wandering samurai who seeks to atone for his bloody past is back!
The first trailer for the upcoming live-action Rurouni Kenshin: The Final theatrical film was released by Warner Bros. this past week. This film is the fourth of five installments following Rurouni Kenshin (2012), Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014), and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014). It’s slated for release in Japan on April 23. The trailer promises breathtaking visuals and action sequences set in a fantasy version of Japan’s Meiji era (1868-1912).
▼ Rurouni Kenshin: The Final trailer
Takeru Satoh has starred as protagonist Kenshin Himura in all five films, a role now spanning almost an entire decade of his acting career.
Of particular interest is that the fourth and fifth films were produced at the same time. Rurouni Kenshin: The Final adapts the final storyline of the original Rurouni Kenshin manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki in which Kenshin is targeted by Enishi Yukishiro, a man with a mysterious link to his past who’s pursuing a vendetta against him.
▼ Enishi Yukishiro, portrayed by Mackenyu
The Final‘s trailer also reveals that J-Rock band One OK Rock’s song “Renegades” serves as the film’s theme song. One OK Rock has provided the theme songs for all three previous live-action films as well.
The fifth and final installment in the series, Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning, is slated for release on June 4 of this year. The Beginning will actually serve as a prequel to the story depicted in the first four films, focusing on Kenshin’s role as the notorious hitokiri battosai assassin during the Bakumatsu, which were the final years of the Edo era (1603-1868). It will also reveal how Kenshin received the famous cross-shaped scar on his cheek.
2021 is a good year to revisit the Rurouni Kenshin series in general as it’s the 25th anniversary of the debut of the Rurouni Kenshin TV anime series. Various celebrations are occurring throughout Japan which include the display of a real-life forged sakabato reverse-blade katana which just wrapped up exhibition in Tokyo and will be on display in Kyoto beginning on April 23 to coincide with The Final‘s release.
Source, images: YouTube/ワーナー ブラザース 公式チャンネル via Otakomu
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