What makes it different from others?

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

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 watched this when I was a kid in 2001. It was a show I could never forget. In 2013, I rewatched it moved me to tears and made me realize how special a scarf can be. Even though it was made in 1999, but the animation, story telling and details are impeccable. For a viewer who watches carefully (after a few runs), you see the little hints and inferences that when pieced together, tells a story of great love and sacrifice. I guess they are right, works of classics can never die.Cheer to that.And I'm going to add 1 more line just to hit IMDb's requirements of 10 lines -_=

What you would call me if i say there is no true love? ...A fake? a fool? i was watching the ninja scroll OVA before this ...halfway down the line i got bored with all the mechanical gadgets used extensively in the scroll . I felt disappointed , and decided to quit it.Then, i just thought .."lemme check this so called kenshin as well" (sarcastically). To my amazement i was glued to my seats after experimenting the first few minutes . what a score ! man o man. what a storyline..boy o boy! what a scenic..girl o girl! Believe me . i was so touched by the movie that i missed my dinner ! i wonder how people make such movies that can take your soul away..

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.