First Kenshin was surprisingly not bad except for the unnecessary Takei Emi monologue that made me want to slap her and Saito getting shafted. Having heard the sequels getting decent reviews, I was optimistic but alas, I fear reviews have been too kind.
WHAT I LIKED
- Continuing from the first movie, the one on one battles are great and Kenshin was cast correctly. The one on one battles were all different because the enemies fought different and the fights told stories.
- They really put a lot of effort into this.
- Normally not a fan of his acting, Kenshin's master was good casting.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
- Kyoto Taikahen is a bloated mess of a bridge to the third movie. There is so much unnecessary fat and they once again screwed Saito Hajime off screen time.
- Shit happens in movie 2 that are way too telegraphed starting with Kenshin's sword being broken. The bad guy just had to take the baby and Kenshin just had to come back to give the baby a present.
- Aoshi is a waste of time and space. Seriously he doesn't need to be in the movies. If you can't do a character service, don't put him in.
- Everytime always running into danger Takei Emi screams, "Kenshin, don't kill!" I want to slap her. Aoi Yu should have been Kaoru and a sexy actress should have been the opium doc.
- Unnecessary fan service last boss gangbang that bored me cause Shishio wasn't even trying to kill anyone. Zzzz.
- The 1 against 100 fights were really bad with the bad guys/stunt men not looking like they are trying to hit our heroes. Its a common complaint but the length of the fights makes it more obvious.
SUMMARY
The two movies are basically one movie bloated and split into two. *cough* Hobbit *cough* The definitive Kenshin work is still the Tsuiokuhen OVA about how he got the scar. The two not crap but a lot of editing would have made it much better. It should have been one movie or the second one should have been more stand alone with Aoshi and his gang.
There were two other girls watching movie 2 and I was all by my lonesome with movie 3.