A few years ago I was a huge fan of Rurouni Kenshin(RK), so decided to check out Samurai X. I was extremely disappointed and, above all, -bored-. I was expecting to see my favorite RK characters in quality animation, but instead I got a surprise glimpse of Kenshin’s past portrayed in a boring fashion.

I recently rewatched this movie, having forgotten what it was about and why I didn’t like it. The story of his past is definitely a good one, however it is mostly implied. The movie is more like a series of events, leaving out much story to be told. This seems to be the standard for Asian movies(atleast the ones I’ve seen). We see nothing of Kenshin’s early childhood; he speaks one line about it. We see less very few scenes of Kenshin’s training(/growing up?), and the ones we do see are fairly scattered, seemingly for no particular reason. The list would be tedious and extensive were I to continue..

This movie, for the most part, evoked little to no emotion while telling its story. This combined with its odd presentation and extreme gaps in time make me wonder if it was supposed to be artsy, and I just completely missed the point..

That alone would not constitute two stars, since I thought the scenes it did have were pretty cool. For an anime movie made in 1999, the animation quality of Samurai X flat out sucks. A portion of the time, the scenes do look slightly higher quality than the anime series RK, but the vast majority of them are right at RK quality. There are also some scenes that look awkwardly computer generated, especially since I wouldn’t think they needed to be. Showing one scene of CG forest, then the next a non-CG scene of characters in that same forest seems pointless, since the forest had to be drawn anyway. This is very noticeable and distracting. This happens in showing the sky and water at times, also.

Watching this movie made me wish I could make anime and give it a quality update and fuller story.

All of that said, some of the scenes are pretty cool. I would recommend using this movie in anime music videos, or possibly in rearranging scenes and creating a homebrew anime.

Animation Quality – Poor

Sound Quality – Moderate(mostly non-existent)

Story – Poor

Cool Factor – Excellent

I made the mistake of expecting this to have more to it. first off I had been told it was more grafic that it actualy turned out to be. I also had been led to believe that more of it had to do with the pre-story behind the show it was based off of.

Despite this it is still a good story. The 1st disc is kind of depresing, but very well riten and with great animation. I was less impresed with the other discs, but they where still ok.

Trust and Betrayal …is a Masterpiece but I am not rating just that story. I am rating this Box Set. Reflection,yawn, another disc in the set, drags on and on and I fell asleep. Another disc..”The Movie” was a complete waste and seems geared towards an audience that is about 7 to 12 years old.

There are a total of 5 discs in this set. Trust and Betrayal….Reflection …and The Movie. “Trust and Betrayal” also “Reflection” give you the “Directors Cut” version as well. All in all 3 discs plus two “Directors Cut” for a total of 5 discs.

As for myself this set is not worth the money. If you can buy “Trust & Betrayal” by itself then you have the best that this set has to offer.

To tell you about “Trust & Betrayal”…there are no demons..no witches or Dragons or any bizarre animals. It is one the best stories that I have had the pleasure of watching. There are broken hearts and lessons learned the honorable and untrustowrthy with great action in between. After all it takes place in fuedal Japan so there is plenty of blood that sprays out of them like a busted fuel line under pressure….grin.

I would highly recommend this one disc.