One of my favorite movies in recent years happens to be an adaptation of one of my favorite mangas, and I was probably a very good girl all year because my early present in 2014 is two back-to-back movie sequels slated for a Summer release. The live-action movie of Rurouni Kenshin was both a critical and box office success and I couldn’t be happier since a butchering in adapting this story to a live action format would have left me bereft. The first movie was just called Rurouni Kenshin and dealt with the first story line in the manga, but the sequels will cover the remaining two major arcs and complete the movie as a trilogy. The first one to drop in early Summer of 2014 will be Rurouni Kenshin: The Great Kyoto Fire Arc (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen) followed by Rurouni Kenshin: The End of a Legend Arc (Rurouni Kenshin: Densetsu no Saigo-hen). The final movie is what the manga fans are familiar with as the Jinchu arc. The awesome director of the first movie Otomo Keishi will be returning to helm both sequels along with indispensable main cast members Sato Takeru as the perfect titular Himura Kenshin, the serviceable Takei Emi as his love interest Kamiya Kaoru, Aoi Yuu as the lovely and resilient Takani Megumi and Eguchi Yosuke as Saito Hajime. The new big name actors to join this franchise are Fujiwara Tatsuya as the villain of the first sequel Makoto Shishio, a former assassin like Kenshin with burns over his entire body and aims to take over Japan after suffering at the hands of serving the government masters. Additional nemesis include Iseya Yusuke taking on the character of Shinomori Aoshi while baby-faced Kamiki Ryunosuke will be Seta Soujirou. I’m still in a state of euphoric bliss anytime I think about the first RK movie not to mention the utter joy of watching Kenshin beautifully brought to life by Sato Takeru. To think that I get another 4 hours worth of this amazing story with a top-notch cast and director is happiness that must be shared. Have the first teaser preview for the first sequel The Great Kyoto Fire Arc and be prepared to gasp.
Thank goodness I can rely on you Koala for such updates. Really looking forward to these sequels.
Watched the first movie after reading your recommendation, It was so awesome. Knowing now that there will be 2 more instalments coming, OMG, this is my Xmas present! Thanks so much for the updates. Here’s wishing you and family, a Happy Christmas, enjoy your holiday.
Yeah when the trailer came out there was great joy at Arama lol.
I love Kamiki…I’m diligently waiting for someone to get a good copy of the two new SPEC movies out to the world
waaa…my eyes going sparkling upon seeing this…really can’t wait for kenshin to show up now!!! >.<
I haven’t read the manga but I loved the anime and watched it several times. I can’t wait for both sequels to come out.
Thanks for the update! I loved RK and watched it three times. Can’t wait for the sequels. Sato Takeru was ab fab in the role and I can’t see anyone else play it as well.
Gosh… it looks soooo good! *_* <3
Thank you for the article. The summer of 2014 is too far away.
Yesssssss! I am so excited for these movies. RK has always been one of my favorites and the adaptation to LA was so well done, it defied my expectations. I have complete faith in this director handling the rest of the material, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
On a side note, this past summer I got to see RK in HD on a big screen with a ton of RK fans at an anime convention. There were two showings and I went to both because it’s such an amazing movie that even though I’d already seen it, I didn’t want to miss any opportunities to see it on the larger screen. At the first showing Nobuhiro Watsuki’s wife came out and intro-ed the movie and I was fangirling so hard. Later that day she was down in the artist’s alley (and I got to meet her! and it was awesome!) with a showing of original RK artwork that was actually used in the creation of the manga. It was amazing, to be able to see the original artwork like that. I was basically in RK heaven. 🙂
Yayyy… Cant wAit!! Love the 1st one. It was amazing. Finally.. Live action tat doesnt suck.
I just finished watching the first one (literally), and it is WONDERFUL. I had it on a list from last year when Koala mentioned watching it amongst other in flight movies; but I lost the list. Thank goodness for the holiday and the time to wait for the slow downloads. I will be purchasing a copy with the amazon.com gift card I got for Christmas. And yes, Sato Takeru’s lips are as eerily perfect as Koala proclaimed last year, but the music and the fight scenes and the bromance and the hilariously large sword are my favorite bits. I cannot wait for the sequels.