The story of Rurouni Kenshin all starts off in the struggle to destroy the shogunate to bring about the Meiji era.
Long red hair, deep purple eyes, a cross-shape scar on his right cheek... he wears a purple and white kimono. He's a lonely and thoughtful guy, but if his friends are with him he turns very cheerful. At his side there is a sword, he never abandons it, it's his sakabato, the reverse-blade sword.
If you run into him through the streets of Tokyo, be careful. Be very kind with him, don't make him mad, do not take advantage from the weak. Because he, he is not just a wandering samurai... behind that nice face is hidden a great warrior, one of the greatest swordsmen of the Bakamatsu Era, the hitokiri of the legend, the killer Battousai.
It's 1878, the eleventh year of Meiji Era, following the Japanese calendar, and wandering through the streets of Tokyo it is not difficult to run into the man who matches this description, Himura Kenshin, wandering samurai.
Kenshin's past is enveloped in mystery and myth. All it's allowed to know about him is told by the 4 OVAs and by the flashback of the TV series and the manga. Remained orphan when he was still a little child, he's initiated to the secrets of Mitsurugi Hiten by the master Seijiro Hiko, who decides to take him under his own protection after having saved him from the bandits who had attacked the caravan Kenshin was travelling with. Great are the skills of the young Shinta (this is his real name, that he will change in Kenshin - heart of sword - following Hiko's advice) and he is noticed by the Ishin Shishi when, after an argument with his master, Kenshin leaves the mountains and heads towards Kyoto in order to serve the oppressed with his ability. But the Ishin make of him an assassin, and when Tomoe's love seems to lead him again to a life without blood and violence, her very true past brings him to draw his sword and her death takes him to war. During the war of the Bakamatsu Era, he gets the name of the killer Battousai, 'cause his fighting technique lies in cutting in half whoever steps in his way. With the restoration and the beginning of the Meiji Era, Battousai and his bloody sword disappear and give their place to Kenshin Himura and his sakabato.
Ten years have passed, ten years of wandering. Now Kenshin has arrived to Tokyo with the purpose to maintain the promise not to kill anymore, but using his sword in order to help the weaks. In the capital he meets a girl, Kaoru Kamiya, teacher assistant in the Kamiya Kasshin dojo, and he decides to stop at her in order to help her to rebuild her father dojo.
With this encounter, the adventures of the wandering samurai, told with great mastery and skill by the grand Nobuhiro Watsuki, start.
Episode after episode, adventure after adventure, Kenshin and Kaoru are joined by some new friends: the young Yahiko Myojin, through whose veins runs the blood of the ancient samurais, Sanosuke Sagara aka Zanza, a street fighter who hates the imperialists who killed his commandant, and the doctor Mrs. Megumi Takani. But besides the friends, Kenshin must face several foes: first the false Battousai, who wants to disgrace the name of the Kamiya, then Zanza himself and finally the Oniwabanshu, whose leader is the brave Aoshi Shinomori.
When finally is seems like Kenshin can now abandon his wandering and live an happy life together with his friends, a shadow from his past appears. It's Saito Hajime who's looking for the challenge with Himura, and because he needs his help in order to defeat the new enemy of Japan, Shishio Makoto, and because he's looking for revenge, on that young boy who over ten years earlier completely defeated his Shinsengumi troop.
The fight between the two is fortunately interrupted and "together" go and face the hitokiri Shishio and his army: the Juppon Gatana. The struggles get harder and harder and Kenshin must ask for help to his old master in order to learn the last secret of Mitsurugi Hiten. Strong of the new technique, he prepares, together with Saito and Sanosuke, to face the terrible enemy. But first he has to defeat all the ten members of the Juppon Gatana and Aoshi, who had swore he would have kill Kenshin in order to honour his fellows death. At the end of the amazing fight between Shishio and Kenshin, our hero is took back wounded but alive to Kaoru and all together return to Tokyo where they find waiting for Kenshin a new enemy, Enishi Yukishiro, Tomoe's younger brother who wants have his revenge for his sister's death. Kenshin is so forced to reveal his past and his feelings for her to Kaoru. Enishi results to be much stronger than any other opponents Kenshin had to face... Will be Himura able to defeat this last enemy and live in peace with the girl he loves? Or will Enishi take definitely away from him any hope for happiness?