In a fighting series from a popular boys' magazine, a mismatched group of companions prove to be perfectly matched and face off against a bevy of bizarre opponents and angst-ridden adventures... You know the formula, don't you. It's a familiar idea, but it still works.

This time, the setting is early in the Meiji era. The title character is a samurai of legendary prowess, but he has turned rounin, given up his old name, forsworn killing, and lives only to oppose injustice. In the first episode he settles in with a young woman running a struggling kendou school, and soon other companions fall in with them. Comedy, drama, and martial arts are destined to flow with equal power.

It's usually derogatory to call something a "feel-good show," but there is something interesting and appealing about an apparent oxymoron in Rurouni Kenshin, in that a samurai drama's prevailing mood is optimism, not sacrifice or fatalism. Is this point meant to be dashed in the later part of the series? I don't know, but I look forward to finding out.

Being a popular commercial release on VHS and DVD, Kenshin has a fairly large presence on the English web. These sites offer information and other things: