Rurouni Kenshin Tsuioku-hen

If you like listening to soundtracks, I have a good one in store for you.

I’ve been interested in Japan and Japanese culture since primary school, but what got me interested in the first place was anime. Rurouni Kenshin Tsuioku-hen is one of my favourite anime of all time not only because of technical aspects like animation, but also the plot, the characters and their development and of course music – which one can really enjoy listening to off-screen.

Let me shortly describe you the gist of it so that you can fully immerse yourself in the music (although it can be skipped, I think it’s better to plunge deeper to have the wholesome experience).

As most anime, Rurouni Kenshin Tsuioku-hen is based on manga series Rurōni Kenshin : Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (also known as Samurai X in the western countries) written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. It tells a story of a vagabond, swordsman and a former assassin, Himura Kenshin, during the Meiji period (a crucial period in the history when Japan, no longer isolated, began to adopt Western culture and the whole country underwent some drastic changes in its structure, politics, military etc). He wanders to different places, as he swore to himself to protect people from harm (as a sort of atonement), he once afflicted.

There have been many anime adaptations of it, and Rurouni Kenshin Tsuioku-hen is one of them, though it rather serves as an origin story. Situated in the Bakumatsu era (the final years of Edo period, when Japan was divided between pro-imperial nationalists (anti-shogunate activists and assassins such as Kenshin) and the shogunate forces (shinsengumi swordsmen included, which was sort of a police who protected the  military government at the time) it unveils Kenshin’s past as a boy who got involved into the war with peace in mind but became a legendary assassin instead.

The soundtrack of Rurouni Kenshin Tsuioku-hen not only perfectly embodies the inner conflict of Kenshin and unobtrusively complements the visuals we see on the screen (the historical canvas) but it has the Japanese spirit, accentuated by traditional instruments, such as the taiko or the shakuhachi.

Here you have a short documentary about traditional Japanese instruments, if you’re interested in expanding your knowledge. It’s interesting to see the musical heritage of Japan and how much effort and soul they put into music itself to convey a story, but that’s a totally different topic and as tempting as it sounds I’m not going to develop it in this post because it’d take too long.

Interesting fact : Rurouni Kenshin was also adapted into live action trilogy, so if you like watching movies, here you go. They’re quite entertaining and I really like the soundtrack. Here’s the trailer : 

As usual, feel free to comment!