Himura Kenshin
Himura Kenshin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the manga Rurouni Kenshin created by Nobuhiro Watsuki. Kenshin's story is set in a fictional version of Japan during the Meiji period. Kenshin is a former legendary assassin known as, more properly named Himura Battōsai. At the end of the Bakumatsu, he becomes a wandering swordsman, now wielding a —a katana that has the cutting edge on the inwardly curved side of the sword, thus being nearly incapable of killing. Kenshin wanders the Japanese countryside offering protection and aid to those in need as atonement for the murders he once committed as an assassin. In Tokyo, he meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru, who invites him to live in her dojo, despite learning about Kenshin's past. Throughout the series, Kenshin begins to establish lifelong relationships with many people, including ex-enemies, while dealing with his fair share of enemies, new and old.
When creating Kenshin, Watsuki designed the androgynous and small Kenshin to be physical opposite of the bulky Hiko Seijūrō, a character that appears in his first one-shot manga, "Crescent Moon in the Warring States". As a result, he was given a virile appearance with long red hair as well as cross-shaped scar in his face. He was also based on the hitokiri Kawakami Gensai. In Japanese, Kenshin has been voiced by Megumi Ogata for the drama CDs and Mayo Suzukaze for the animated adaptations. In the live-action films he was portrayed by Takeru Satoh. For the English dubs of the series, Richard Cansino voiced him in the first anime, J. Shanon Weaver replaced him for original video animation, and the duology film New Kyoto Arc. Micah Solusod did the dub for the live-action film trilogy.
Kenshin's character was well received by fans, with his holding the top spot in all reader popularity polls for the series. Critics of the series praised his strong personality and backstory which most critics found appealing. However, though some complained about his development during the OVA series; while his role in the prequel OVAs were praised, his role in the anime-only sequel OVA series resulted in criticism by various critics including Watsuki himself. Satoh's acting in the live-action film received positive comments due to how he fits the character as well as his fight choreography. A variety of collectibles based on Kenshin have been created, including figurines, key chains, plushies, and replicas of his sakabatō sword.
Creation and conception
Manga author Nobuhiro Watsuki discovered and used the story of Kawakami Gensai, a executed by the Meiji Government. Watsuki enjoys drawing Kenshin due to how he tends to sacrifice himself for others. While writing the series, once he thought Kenshin should think more about his future since he is more connected to his past. He also stated he would like to be as Kenshin but he does not believe their lives' style match. Kenshin's morals in regards to having the strength to protect others were influenced by Miyamoto Musashi's questions about the meaning of strength.Ever since writing his first storyboards for the manga, Watsuki did sketches of Kenshin's appearance and noticed that he looked like Kurama from Yoshihiro Togashi's manga YuYu Hakusho. Watsuki considered himself younger back and that he preferred always drawing goodlooking men in contrast to Hiko Seijuro from a previous one-shot. When competing with these series, Watsuki felt Rurouni Kenshin competed more with YuYu Hakusho that focused more on drama rather than action like Dragon Ball. In contrast to the YuYu Hakusho young lead Yusuke Urameshi, Kenshin was written as an adult with a dark past based on the Edo period in order to make the series stand out. Nevertheless, the manga managed to compete well against other Weekly Shonen Jump manga from the 1990s including Slam Dunk, Dragon Ball and YuYu Hakusho. Kenshin's age was also a departure from common archetypes in manga as the themes and lore in the story made him an adult in contrast to other young protagonist besides City Hunter. Nevertheless, he was careful with how writing these characters as they get old.
During the development of the series' pilot chapter, Rurouni, Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story, Watsuki and his editor argued over Kenshin's speech patterns, settling for a "slangy" one. For the final version of the first Romantic Story, Watsuki adjusted the dialogue; in his view, he made Kenshin sound "more as I prefer him now". Nevertheless, Kenshin was concerned about how Kenshin's manner abruptly changed when facing his opponent. Watsuki added Kenshin's trademark as a placeholder to be an expression of the English speech disfluency "huh". Watsuki notes that he was surprised at how well it caught on, and how much he ended up having Kenshin use the sound during the series. Watsuki also planned to make Kenshin older than 30 years old; his editor commented that it was strange that the main character of a manga for teenagers to be of such an age, so he instead made him 28 years old.
Watsuki based most of Kenshin's abilities on a real swordsman of the Tokugawa period named, who was skilled in acrobatic techniques. However, one of Kenshin's moves where he stops an enemy's flamethrower by rotating his sword received multiple complaints with Watsuki admitting the move as somewhat out of place and "not really organic" to his world. By early publication of Rurouni Kenshin, Watsuki was unsure whether or not Kenshin and Kamiya Kaoru would become lovers in future chapters. Sagara Sanosuke was created to be Kenshin's best friend who would punch him order to make him retain his composure. However, Watsuki did not think the idea worked as much as possibly. For the final fight between Kenshin and Shishio, Watsuki admitted he expressed more joy in drawing Shishio than Kenshin. During this arc and mostly the final fight between Kenshin and Shishio's fight Watsuki kept listening to the song "In The Blue Sky" from the video game Virtual On; the song's title was used in the final chapter of the Kyoto arc. Additionally, the final shot of Kenshin returning to Kaoru's dojo was inspired by the final shot of the Rurouni Kenshin anime's first opening theme:"Sobakasu" by Judy and Mary.
In the next and final arc of the manga, the story took a darker tone as most of the characters believed Kaoru was killed by Yukishiro Enishi which made Kenshin question his own way of living and escape to a village of wanderers. Watsuki did not enjoy angst in Kenshin so his friend Myōjin Yahiko took the place as the series' protagonist until Kenshin recovered. A similar dark event occurs in Kenshin's memories involving how he accidentally killed Tomoe which the author is ashamed of for making him similar to Shishio's murder of Komagata Yumi. In order to make Kenshin recover, Watsuki introduced Tomoe's father, who is simply referred as "Geezer", who assists him in finding an answer to atone for his sins. Once Kenshin recovered, he runs back to the city in order to save Yahiko from Enishi's former comrade, Kujiranami Hyōgo. The fight was originally planned to last longer than the one-chapter shot but due to difficulties in drawing explosions Kujinarami made with his weapons, the fight ended with Kenshin cutting Kujinarami's weapon. In this arc's climax, Watsuki kept listening to the song "Hurry Go Round" by late musician hide which felt it suited the relationship between Enishi as well as Kenshin but in his darker persona. The author also commented he would like to have given both Kenshin and Enishi's characters a bigger contrast. A reader also asked Watsuki whether Kenshin could defeat his rival Saitō Hajime since they never got a final duel. Watsuki responded, saying the two are equally matched but the result might depend whether or not Kenshin had something to protect.
Design
Like several characters, Kenshin was influenced the Shinsengumi with Kenshin being affected by Okita Sōji and Saitō Hajime in order to give him an air of mystery. According to Watsuki, when he found that Kawakami maintained a duty to his dead comrades, he decided to create the title character. Since Watsuki's debut work contained a tall, black-haired man in "showy" armor, he wanted to make a character "completely opposite" to the debut character; the new character ended up "coming out like a girl". According to Watsuki, he used "no real motif" when creating Kenshin and placed a cross-shaped scar on his face "not knowing what else to do." During his fight against Shishio Makoto's army, Kenshin is given a new sword with a sheath made of wood. Though it is more difficult to draw, Watsuki decided to redesign the sword to make it look like the first one Kenshin had in the series.At the end of the series, Kenshin appears with short hair. Initially, Watsuki had planned to make his hair shorter before the end; however, he found this to be similar to the character Multi in To Heart. Additionally, Himura Kenji was introduced in the finale as the son of Kenshin and Kaoru; even though the character was "cliché" Watsuki felt that Kenji had to appear.
In the first Rurouni Kenshin ''kanzenban, published in Japan in July 2006, Watsuki included a draft page featuring a redesign of Kenshin's character. To make his X-shaped scar more notable, Watsuki made it long enough to cross his nose. Kenshin's hair is tied in two tails, which are flowing to make him look younger, and shorter, and less androgynous. Watsuki also added a Habaki to Kenshin's sword to make it easier to draw by simplifying its structure, while also emphasizing strength. Kenshin's hitokiri'' look was also redesigned slightly, by making his clothes more worn and giving him Yukishiro Tomoe's neck scarf.
Portrayal in other works
When the live-action of the manga was made, Watsuki had several ideas about Kenshin's mind about his early appearances in the series. This resulted in the manga reboot Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration where Kenshin's characterization was expanded by the author who thought in retrospective about what he could add to him. He also wrote a prequel chapter to the original series which helped the readers to understand why Kenshin would stay in Kaoru's dojo. He challenged himself to express Kenshin's inner feelings. Watsuki compared Kenshin's role in the original manga to that of Kōmon in Mito Kōmon or Yoshimune's in Abarenbō Shōgun, where the supporting characters built the drama and he was the hero who would defeat the villains. This made it easy to express the thoughts of the surrounding characters but not Kenshin's, so he wanted to "dig deeper" into Kenshin this time. It turned out harder than he imagined. Although drawing it was not difficult, when he tried to make it entertaining the story got gloomier due to Kenshin's regrets. By chapter four he got worried it would be a repeat of the Jinchū Arc of the original manga. This is when he gave up digging deeper into Kenshin's thoughts.Watsuki tried expressing more of Kenshin's inner feelings in Restoration; a man who brought about a peaceful new era can not find his place because of the acts he committed in the past. He tried expressing this with the "pool of blood" theme. The author said this version of the character seems slightly more immature than the original because he is more reserved and excitable; "perhaps he isn't too hero-like." Watsuki changed the way Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū and its techniques are written purely for fun. The editorial office even got a phone call pointing this out. The most noticeable change in his appearance is the addition of a white scarf, "scarf = hero." Watsuki also changed his cross-shaped scar; leaving it white for Kenshin, but shading it black when his Battōsai persona takes over. The author said because of the way he draws now, he struggled with Kenshin's hair, unable to get the original bushy feeling it had until the end. Alongside Restoration, Watsuki decided to write a prequel to the original series set before Kenshin's first meeting with Kaoru. Watsuki elaborated on the common question of "Why would Kenshin, who wandered for ten years, suddenly stop in the First Act?" In Act Zero an elder notices Kenshin's unhealed emotional scar and her kind advice has a slight effect on him, becoming the motivation for his actions in the first chapter.
The fact that the original manga ended with Kenshin as a family man bothered Watsuki as he was not sure if Kenshin should fight again now that he happily married. Upon watching the Rurouni Kenshin musical, Watsuki was convinced to write Hokkaido as soon as he finished writing his recent work Embalming. In order to keep the cheerful feeling of the original series, Watsuki wrote the new characters who are nicely treated by Kenshin and Kaoru. Upon helping the staff from the live-action films, The Final and The Beginning, Watsuki came up with new ideas to give Kenshin's story a happy ending despite his hitokiri actions. Watsuki believes that Takeru Satoh's portrayal of the main character stands out as stronger than the manga one, most notably in The Final. He felt that Kenshin was a "King Type" character similar to Monkey D. Luffy from Eiichiro Oda's One Piece as a result of how heroic they are. Watsuki also reflected on Kenshin's pacifism which became a common trend in other heroes in Weekly Shonen Jump protagonists like Luffy and Naruto Uzumaki who fight but are against the idea of killing their enemies while in the case of Dragon Ball dead characters are often revived. He believes newer series like Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Jujutsu Kaisen explored more the concept of death. Nevertheless, the Kenshin Watsuki was still written for the Hokkaido Arc with the idea of sparing his enemies.