October 31, 2023 • 59 mins
Hosted by Chris Mayek and Alex Summers
Trick or treat! Moon Star drops our annual Halloween Special! Other than the episode coming out on October 31st, this episode has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween.
This year, Chris takes us on a magical deep dive into one of his all time favorite Animes: Rurouni Kenshin. How do you think Kenshin relates to Sailor Moon, if at all? Tune in to find out.
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Trick or treat! Moon Star drops our annual Halloween Special! Other than the episode coming out on October 31st, this episode has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween.
This year, Chris takes us on a magical deep dive into one of his all time favorite Animes: Rurouni Kenshin. How do you think Kenshin relates to Sailor Moon, if at all? Tune in to find out.
Boo!
Moon Star: A Sailor Moon Podcast is a Vintage Anime Video Network Production.
www.vintageanimevideo.com
Subscribe to VAV Radio
Subscribe
Official Website
www.MoonStarPod.com
Sponsored by Sailor Moon Video
www.SailorMoonVideo.com
Save 15% with offer code: MOONSTAR
Sailor Moon Another Story The Series AUDITIONS
https://tinyurl.com/2p93sd4a
Project Gaiden Card AUDITIONS
https://tinyurl.com/bduayevk
Casting is still open! Audition today. Limited roles available, so submit your auditions soon.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/moon-star-a-sailor-moon-podcast--5540871/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Moonstar, A Sailor Moon podcast ispresented by the Vintage Anime Video Network.
Visit US at www dot Vintageanime Videodot com. Japan eighteen sixty seven,
the Tokugawa Dynasty stands upon failing legs. An invincible samurai Kenshin Mura walks the
(00:31):
path of death and destruction, usheringin a new regime. Hated and feared
by many, he is known asHidukiri Battosai, the Manslayer. In retribution
for his deeds, he has takenan oath to protect the innocent and never
kill again. One Old memories seldomfaith, and bad habits die hard count
(01:00):
the Samurai I wasn't finished speaking.The premiere is Monday, Mark seventeenth at
six thirty. Only is, youknow, technically a Sailorman podcast. At
(01:38):
the end, we'll just tie itinto like we'll do a couple of like
maybe similarities and differences or something,so you can be thinking about that too.
But for people who are wondering whatis Roney Kenshin, It's a nineties
anime, manga and anime franchise thatgot popular in the US in the early
(02:02):
two thousands when it was that's whenit was brought over here and it was
aired on Cartoon Network in the sameblock of programming that Sailorman S and Supers
were aired. It's set in fieldof Japan. It's about a young man
named Kenshin Himura who he has aHe's a really beautiful, like androgynous guy
(02:25):
with long red hair, and hehas a cross shaped scar on one of
his cheeks, and he used tobe an assassin for the government and just
emotionless steel killer and now nowadays,in in the era of time where the
(02:47):
series is set, he is awanderer like atoning for his past. And
he's still really skilled and will useforce if necessary. But his sword,
his katana now is a reverse bladesword, so it can't it can't kill
people unless he turns it around anduses it the opposite way. And the
(03:15):
original anime has ninety something episodes,but it technically officially ends at episode sixty
two because the third season is allfiller. Oh why do you think they
did that? It was because fansin Japan didn't want to wait for the
(03:38):
Mangaca to finish like official work.They like. The series was so popular
that they just wanted more, sothe studio just made more and that's that's
the only reason why it's all entirelyfiller for season three. Does does that
(04:00):
mean that like it goes past wherethe manga actually ends technically, well,
like, yeah, like the episodethat it officially technically ends at that is
you know, canon to where themanga was at the time, as episode
sixty two, and then everything afterthat like sixty three through ninety four or
(04:24):
ninety six or something like that.It's all just original like studio created stuff.
So that's specific to the anime.Then Okay, that's kind of cool.
Actually, I think even though Idon't know, did you like the
last part of it? I likeparts of the of the final season,
(04:44):
but I mean most people who likeTension agree that season three is not very
good. Would you almost say it'slike, does it lower the quality of
it? Is it that bad?Or is it just kind of like,
man, it's right, oh,I mean the animation still looks fine.
It's just yeah, the stories aren't. The storylines aren't as interesting for the
(05:09):
most part, and some of themare just more comedic than the show really
ever is. So that's interesting.It reminds me of a parallel to something
we've talked about on here before.Maybe not you and me, but I
think I touched on it in aspecial with Renee. But in Rainbow Bright,
(05:29):
there's sort of a similar arc toit, even though it's a latch
fewer episodes, it's only technically thirteen, but like the beginning of it is
very serious and mystical and like fantasy, and it takes itself very seriously.
And then for some reason there waslike turnover in the writing, and the
last couple of episodes are very comedicand kind of wacky and more they took
(05:53):
some of the stuff away that madeit so intriguing in the beginning. So
I guess I kind of get whatyou're saying, where it's sort of like
you have something that feels so epicand then it ends up kind of like
hokey pokey, and you're like,what happened? So, yeah, I
totally get that. Keep going.Was there more about explaining just generally about
(06:15):
it, No, I guess thatwas like the basic summary of it.
Okay, So when it first cameover here, it sounds like it was
around the same time as Sailor Moon. Is that correct? It was the
same time as seasons three and four. Yeah, Okay, so it came
here probably like I guess two thousand. Yeah, so five years after we
(06:41):
got season one of Sailor Moon.Yeah, roughly. Do you know if
they localized the anime or the mangafirst or were they done together. I
think it was done. I thinkactually probably the anime was first, and
then the mango would have been prettymuch around the same time. It has
two dubs. Uh, the firstone is not as widely available. Uh,
(07:05):
it was more the guy that playedKenshin stayed the same, and a
lot of a lot of the actorsin it came back in the main like
widely released dub as other characters.But the first dub of Kenshin was called
Samurai X and it was more itwasn't as faithful to the Japanese And uh,
(07:32):
it's It's funny because the the guywho directed, Michael Sich who I
just mentioned in our last episode,who voiced two voices raised Grandpa and the
viz Rey dub, he he justdidn't think that when he was directing the
series. He did, he justdidn't think that it would ever become pot
(07:54):
like as popular as it did overhere, So he he had he did
things like having the voice actors whoplayed random side characters, and various episodes
use like totally out totally random accentslike Irish accents, and representatives from Sony
(08:18):
told him how popular the series actuallywas, and then it got that's what
that's what led to it getting redubbed with the more faithful translation and better
acting. And I don't I don'tthink you can watch like full episodes of
the first dub anywhere. There's alot of clips on YouTube, but well,
(08:41):
yeah, which one would have beenaired alongside Sailor Mood? Would it
have been the first dub? Whendid that one happen? It was pretty
I think there was only maybe likea year in between, so it was
it was very like they they theydid? They air it on the same
channel. Yeah, they were bothon Cartoon Network. Because I want to
(09:07):
say I remember Samurai X. Actually, okay, I want to look at
their like branding. Hold on,I don't know how to spell the word
Samurai learning. So are there evenany images from it? It looks the
same, it looks I just wantedto see what they did with the title.
(09:28):
Yeah, I remember this title image. Well, what you're probably seeing
is another it's a DVD cover,Yeah, because there was another. For
some reason, the Kensin anime moviewas dubbed and released under a different licensing
(09:48):
company than the than the TV serieswas, and for some reason they called
the movie Samurai Ax. But theyprobably had to because of like legal reasons,
since they were they weren't the originallicensers. I've got to dub it
that is. You're right, thatis the movie here. Huh. So
does that mean they probably never releasedeven VHS of the original dub Nope,
(10:11):
it's all just everything that's it's justgone. Yeah, that is really wild.
So that's kind of something interesting thoughfor anyone out there who's like an
Internet Nancy Drew or whatever you wantto call yourselves. People unearthed stuff like
this sometimes, like we know withSailor Moon, they eventually after how many
years, got the whole Sabon Moonthing or the tone makers the full pilot
(10:37):
episode, and we didn't even knowthat existed. Yeah, so we know
this exists somewhere in the world,and I'm sure someone out there could find
Like you said, there's clips onYouTube, but I'm sure someone out there
could find it and like you know, bring it to light. However,
they choose to do so, Soif anyone's listening who wants to take that
challenge, go for it. Thatmeans, though what you were saying,
(11:05):
any kind of official media from theshow is going to be the redub then
right, Yeah, okay, wherecan people watch it today? The like
widely released one. Yeah, officially, I know that you can watch it
on I'm like ninety percent certain thatyou can watch it on crunchy Role most
(11:28):
animals on there. Yeah, letme see if I can do it quick.
It looks I'm gonna say as ofwhenever this is being recorded, so
we're recording this over the summer oftwenty twenty three. We'll just say that
according to Google, it's available onHulu, crunchy Roll with the Funnimation subscription
(11:54):
and that's it unless you purchase,like, you know, stuff yourself.
So, yeah, you've got threeoptions for where you can stream this one,
and I'm assuming all of those probablyhave the English and the Japanese options
there. Do you have a preference, Uh, I don't know, Probably
(12:15):
the English. I mean I lovethat, I love the Japanese a lot
too. Catching is voiced by awoman in Japanese, and I think that
was intentional because of how pretty heis, so it kind of just goes
to the and yeah, like warriormystique. But yeah, I like,
I like both. I have neverseen the Japanese version, okay at all,
(12:39):
so I would love to see whatthat's like because that sounds interesting.
And I actually recently got some vhsfrom this, which must I think some
of them are actually Japanese and acouple are the probably the redub I'm not
sure what episodes are on them,but I'll take a look when I have
time this summer and then we canlike chat about it in an intro.
Yeah, but so that's a coolthat they You have three options to watch
(13:03):
this online right now, either orlet us know in the comment somewhere what
your preference is and why and somethingelse. I want to know because it's
something I care about. I'm sureother people do too. But are there
video games based off of the series? Yeah, but none of them.
None of them were released in theUS. There the only the only appearance
(13:24):
that Kenshin has in a US gameis I think I don't. I think
it came out during COVID or ayear before COVID or something. It's a
video game for like PS three andmodern consoles like that called like Jump Force
Stars or something. It's like abunch of characters from the show and Jump
(13:46):
magazine and it's just Jump for Yeah, it's a fighting game with a bunch
of Jump characters in Kenshin is Kensinand then the main villain in Kenshin Sheishio.
They're both playable characters in it.It's like anime smash Bros. Yeah,
for people who want to know,there are actually several video games for
(14:09):
it, but like you said,they're all Japanese only. But it looks
like there's games for the DS PSP, PlayStation two, probably, like you
just said, the Jump Forced gameon the newer systems. So whoever wants
to like play them in Japanese becauseI know some people who will, you
know, get a Japanese switch anddownload stuff or whatever you can find those.
(14:30):
I'm sure they're probably on some ofthe Japanese what do you call it
virtual consoles or whatever. I'm notsure, but if you're one of those
people, that would be worth lookingif you want to do that. So,
yeah, there are several I don'tknow what kind of games they are
though, so most of them arejust like the highest rated one or like
(14:50):
the most the best one is theone that was released for PS two.
It's pretty much it's it's a hackslash style game, but it's a circle
of hell yeah follows It follows thestory of the of the anime, and
you're just like, yeah, yeah. It says it's a third person action
game for the PlayStation two. Cameout in two thousand and six, and
(15:11):
it goes through the story of eitherHumarakenson Cigarro Sinoske saidto Hajime and then Sheina
Moury say her last Oh she soyou have four playable characters? Oh,
(15:33):
and then I'll leave to unlock one. It's basically the plot of the Kyoto
arc. What does that mean toyou? That's the second season of the
anime? Okay, And then itsays an American version was planned to be
released by Bandai, but developers intwo thousand and seven canceled due to scheduling
(15:54):
conflicts and low profit prospects, sothey didn't think it would do very well
over here. Yeah, I'm assumingthe Sailor Moon video games have a similar
storyline as to why they weren't broughtover. Okay. It was said that
(16:23):
he was undefeatable. What was yourfirst experience with this series? It was
seeing like the first time that Isaw Sailor Moon was it was just seeing
it on Cartoon Network on Tsunami wayback then, and I just got hooked
(16:44):
right away because I love I loveany anime or manga that's set in feet
of Japan. I always have,and especially if I personally liked the art
style mixed with that, then it'susually like one for me. So yeah,
I've been I've been into Kension asmuch as I'm into Sailor Moon for
(17:04):
the same amount of time of mylife. What was it about it?
Do you think like that? Becauseusually when you watch something that sticks with
you that long, there's something inthe first episode specific that really grabs your
attention and you're like, what isthat? And for me with Sailor Moon,
it was definitely the attack like sequencesand the transformations because I'd never seen
(17:26):
anything like that before, and itwas just like the colors and the brightness,
and plus the music combined with it, it kind of made a pretty
perfect package. What do you rememberhitting you so hard about this? Uh?
It was probably Yeah, I guessnow that I think about it,
it definitely would have been the actionsequences and just the fact that Kension has
(17:53):
a murderous side to him that hekeeps in control for the most part throughout
the entirety of it, and there'sany time that you get to see that
slip through. It was just likesuper interesting from the get go, even
seeing it as a super super youngkid. I get what you're saying.
(18:14):
It's it's sort of that, likethis really really great person character and then
every now and then it's like thetotal opposite slips out, and I think
that kind of dichotomy can be reallyinteresting. Yeah, do you remember,
by any chance what the first episodewas that you saw. I don't think
it would have been the very firstone, but it was probably, Yeah,
(18:37):
it was. It was like somethingin season one. It was probably
one of the canon to the storyepisodes in season one, because season one
has like a little bit of fillerto but season two doesn't at all.
So yeah, I know it wouldhave been like one of the Ladder canon
and canon episodes in season one thatI saw on TV. There's something that
(19:00):
is just so specific about the timeperiod when this came over here too,
and it's like all of the animes. I feel like that dropped right around
that time in North America have asort of similar like schene of something extra.
I don't really know how to describeit, but it could have just
(19:22):
been like the time period where itwas, like the way we were consuming
media was specific enough that and likethe timing it was shown when we were
all sort of teenagers, when wewere supposed to be sleeping. Yeah,
you know what I mean. Idon't know what it is, but they
really for a lot of our generationforged whatever anime, you stuck to a
(19:42):
lot of really strong bonds. SoI love that we get to explore these
different avenues of it because this,I would say, is very different from
Sailor Moon totally, but I thinka lot of Sailor Moon fans would still
really enjoy because I know I lovedit whenever I watched it. Yeah,
before we do the character breakdown,what are what do you think is similar
(20:06):
about Sailor Moon to Kenshin And whatis like some of the glaring differences or
what are some of the differences.Yeah, it's definitely more different than they
are similar. Obviously, the typeof show that it is, the type
of audience that it caters to thesetting that it takes place. Similarities,
(20:30):
I guess there's there's several strong femalecharacters in Kenshin the co lead, like
Kenshin's love interest is you know,just as important. And then there's another
main female character in their in theirmain group that joins a little bit later.
(20:52):
And then there's you know, thevillainous female characters, and so they're
similar from that aspect. And thenalso, I mean Kenchin is not remotely
like he's older than Usagi by likealmost fifteen years I think, and like
he has a silly side too,but so they're both similar like that,
(21:18):
would you say his personality is moresimilar not maybe not personality, but his
design almost like character design is moresimilar to Saturn than Usagi if you had
to pick someone, uh, justbecause of you know, the Mistress nine
being in there. Oh that yeah, I guess that's that's a good correlation.
(21:38):
That's kind of what I was thinkingis it's like his murderous side can
be brought out by the right circumstances, I'm assuming, Yeah, what about
what are the like Well? Tome, the biggest similarity though is pretty
man, that was what I noticedwhen I was a kid it's like,
and I think I've said this onthe show for American or whatever you want
(22:02):
to call it, what are weEast or Western? Right? Western cartoons
are almost inherently drawn to be unattractive, Yeah, for some reason. And
I've never really understood that, andI never noticed it until I saw anime
and then I was like, wait, animation can be pretty. And I
(22:22):
think that while this show is kindof violent and has a lot of darkness
to it, like you were saying, the animation style is still sort of
pretty, isn't it. Yeah,very Yeah, And I'm not I'm not
remembering it one hundred percent, Butwould you say there are probably some moments
even in the action sequences that aredone in like an artistic way. Oh
(22:44):
god, yeah, I mean Idon't. I don't. I only own
one thing now, but I've ownedmore like higher end premium cells like animation
cells of of and from Kension thanany other anime like that I've collected.
Yeah, big. I mean abig reason is because of that, because
there's so many there's so many likeanimators and character designers that worked on Kenshin
(23:11):
that are now renowned in the industry, and there's just a number of especially
as the series went on, itlike the the art just got better and
better. That's kind of like howit is with Sailor Moon two. Yeah,
and I think that similarity to thatI'm drawing is some of it is
just anime specific, but not everyanime does like you know, pretty men
(23:33):
either. There are plenty of animesthat are more like Dragon Ball Z,
where it's like buff and masculine andlike, I wouldn't say they're ugly in
that, but I wouldn't describe themas like pretty either. It's a different
thing. Yeah, yeah, it'slike a totally different esthetic. All right,
let's do some character breakdowns. I'mgonna let you take the lead here,
but let's just start with Kenshin.Like I mentioned in the beginning,
(24:10):
Kenshin is I think he's in hislate twenties. When the series starts,
he's used to be an assassin forthe government and just didn't have any emotion,
And now when the series takes place, he's much he has emotions,
and he's much more happy and carefreemost of the time on the surface.
(24:33):
Besides, when he's fighting, hehas a reverse blade sword, so he
can't kill anybody. Just seriously,injure them unless he turns the sword around,
which only happens whenever he gets broughtback to his past self. The
(24:55):
main female lead is Kaudu, whois a young woman who's a little bit
younger than Kenshin that they meet inepisode one because she thinks that he's just
wandering through where her she runs adojo of like teaching swordsmanship and uh like.
(25:18):
The first episode starts with him justwalking by. He's just wandering and
walking by her dojo, and thenshe comes out all of a sudden pointing
a wooden sword at him, accusinghim of being the perpetrator of like murders
that have been going on in thearea. And then that's how they meet
(25:38):
and they end up falling in loveand having children by the end of the
series. Say the that's her lastname or her first name? What's her
last name? Kamya Kamia calroot andcan you describe what she looks like?
(26:00):
Yeah, she's probably about the sameheight as Kension or maybe a little shorter.
And she has a long like blacksometimes depending on the angle or like
the artists ort'll have like very darkblue, but it's like black hair in
a ponytail. Yeah, and itlooks like she wears a kimono. I
(26:22):
don't know, it's just the imageI'm looking at. Yeah, most of
the time, that's what she's wearing. And she has something pink in her
hair. Is that like just orsomething? Okay, she's pretty all right,
keep going. Then, the theother big male coleead is a Sinoskee.
Who he is? He's He's introducedin episode five, I think as
(26:48):
an antagonist originally, and he's inthe beginning. He's sort of the same
thing as as what Kension was.Like he's a fighter for hire for but
he wants to like get back atthe government, so he's like a rebel
against against the government that Kenhen originallyworked for. And he he has more
(27:12):
of a like older action anime artstyle like design, and he uses his
fists too whenever he fights. Hehas spiky brown hair. He wears a
red ponytail. He has a white, white and black jacket on all the
(27:36):
time, and his arms and hiswaist start wrapped in bandages. Uh.
And yeah, he's He's introduced asan antagonist and then once Kenchin defeats him,
then he joins them as one ofthe main male colleades. Yeah,
(27:57):
and looking at him a reference pointin some images here. His hair reminds
me of Yu gi oh characters becausethey do a lot of the spikes like
that too, but it's a littlemore i would say, artistic than that
and less goofy. Yeah, forsure, he looks really cool. What
(28:17):
is it? It says under thename Zanza. What is that? Oh?
That's yeah, that's the name thathe goes by when he's introduced as
an antagonist and he has a heoriginally has this giant sword that's like really
cumbersome, and he only uses thatwhen he's introduced when he fights Kenshin,
but then like Kenshin easily gets ridof that, and then from then on
(28:40):
he always uses his his fists tofight anybody. And I'm seeing on the
wiki they list affiliations and stuff.I'm assuming that's like what you were talking
about. Yeah, if it's thegovernment or whoever. Uh, And then
the this is funny to me,they list his occupation as fight merchant past
and then present. Bum Does thatjust mean he doesn't do anything? Now?
(29:06):
Like? Are they are they justbeing funny? Like I don't know
what that well? Yeah, Likeonce he joins Kenshin's UH group, he
just lives at Cowru's dojo like Kenshindoes, and just he just joins fights
whenever he is in that position.Okay, looks like he has a sword
(29:27):
at some point too, but it'sreally funny looking. It's huge. It
looks like a paddle. They cando paddle. Oh, I love that
picture of him. Sometimes they drawhim with stubble and sometimes they don't,
and there's like this looks like it'sfrom the manga. He's got like a
fishbone in his mouth or something.Oh yeah, he's He's usually in at
(29:51):
least in the in the in theearly season, like when things are more
comedic and not as serious. He'seating a lot. I think I would
enjoy him. We'll have to gosee, all right, who's next?
The other male one of the maincharacters is that it's a boy. I
think he's probably a tween and yahiko. He's short and has like naturally tan
(30:15):
skin with the like spiky black hairin a different way than Sano's spiky hair.
He is also introduced very early onin the series. I think even
before Snowski is he just bumps.He bumps into Kaoru and Kenshin when they're
walking in the street. Buying thingsand he Yahiko intends to steal from them.
(30:37):
Yahiko also wants to get back atI think he wants to get back
of the government too, because he'sthe son of the samurai that was killed.
He wants to become as strong asKenshin. He ends up joining their
group after Kenshin, like Yahiko getslike kidnapped for ransom or something, and
then Kenshin saves him, and thenthat's how he then because he doesn't really
(31:02):
have anywhere to go, so thenhe lives with Kawaru and joins the main
cast, and he practices the samea fight style I guess that Kawu and
Kenshin do, and he doesn't reallyget He doesn't really get his time to
shine in his own battle on hisown until later in the series. But
(31:22):
yeah, that's the everything about Yahiko. He looks like sort of the apprentice
character. Like you were saying thatthe black hair is a lot shorter,
it's more shaggy style to me,like it hangs down. It looks like
he's holding I don't know what youcall this, but it's like a practice
sword. Yeah, he never henever has like a sword sword in the
(31:44):
series or in the manga. It'salways he always fights everybody with one of
those practice swords, like those practicebamboo swords. Yeah, I kind of
figured that was his thing. Interestingit says he was born in June of
eighteen sixty eight, if anyone wantsto put an actual year on like when
this took place, and it sayshe starts at the age of ten and
(32:07):
ends the series at fifteen. Yep, and like what is this? Okay,
list his weapons as the sheeni,the bocan, and the sakabato.
Do you know what those are?The sword of the two of the same
people will turn Yeah, the firsttwo would be wooden swords, and then
(32:44):
the sakabato is an actual sword becauseby the time that he's older, he's
using an actual blade, Okay.And his occupations were swordsman, ken jutsu
instructor, and then Akibaco, whichis technically an air boy. So I'm
assuming he just like did random tasksfor whoever, probably Kensin And you were
(33:06):
saying, oh yeah, Episode twois when he gets introduced, so that's
very early yeah in the series.All right, who's up next? The
last of the main supporting protagonist's castis a Maguomi and she doesn't come in
until episode ten. I think heralias is fox Woman. People will like
that she has long green black hair, like the same color and length that
(33:31):
Setsuna would have. She's a littlebit older, I think than Kenshin,
but not much or maybe she's aroundthe same age, says twenty two.
Okay, so she's a little bityounger, but she just looks she just
looks more mature, and she's shedoesn't ever fight, she's just she's the
healer character out of the cast.Again. She gets introduced because she gets
(33:53):
saved from being held for like ransomor held for held hostage, for almost
being murdered. She doesn't have likea huge, huge role in the series
once her arc passes, but shestays with the cast like throughout the rest
of it. And she's rivals withCawru because she always Maguomi always acts like
(34:15):
she's in love with Kenshin and wantsto like steal Kenshin away from her.
And that's like one of the mainparts of comedy relief in the series is
between Cawru and Magoomi. Is itmeant to be just silly and she's not
like serious about it? Yeah,okay, that sounds like fun, it
says She was born in December ofeighteen fifty seven. She what is the
(34:40):
fox woman thing about? Do youthink? Oh, that's because Saito,
one of the other initially antagonist,but is like he becomes an anti hero.
He he always says in the seriesthat Magumi is like a fox,
Kwori was another animal, and thenMissal who was another one of the big
female el supporting characters in season two, is like a weasel. So it
(35:04):
comes from him comparing all three ofthem to different animals that like fight with
each other in wildlife. Oh ohthat's funny, Okay, I get it.
I like that. That's cute.I think you said that she's a
doctor, right, yeah, likeyou were saying, with the hair and
everything, I see some similarities tosailor Pluto. Where is it sooner?
It lists three voice actors for her, that would be I think that would
(35:29):
be the case with pretty much everybody. It would It would be like the
original Japanese then whoever whoever played herin the first English dub what's reflection?
Oh that's uh yeah, that's theso with the with the movie that got
a different licenser. The uh thethere's there's two kenchin OVA's one of one
(35:50):
of them is Reflection, and theyalso got dubbed by the same licenser,
so that that's that's why that's whyit's saying that too. Yeah, it's
saying there's an anime twenty twenty three. Did you know about that? Yeah,
there's a remake of the of theseries comes out in two months.
Are you excited for that or areyou nervous? No, I'm excited.
(36:10):
It looks really good, are likeanimation wise? So you don't think they're
going to give you Sailorman Crystal seasonone? No, it's what we're saying,
You're gonna get a good one.I hope. So I might actually
watch it when it drops. Thatwould be fun. I had no idea
they were doing that. Is thereany other characters you think that we should
(36:32):
highlight here? Yeah? I meanin terms of the main supporting cast,
I mean I did. I didmention Syito and Aushi, who they start
out as antagonists, but then theybecome like anti heroes, Like they're not
they're not fighting against the good guysanymore, but they're not like they don't
want to be associated, they don'twant to have the title of like being
(36:53):
a good guy necessarily but the lastlike big supporting protagonist character is Misao who
joins. She joins in season two, like early on in season two,
she's probably I think she's like inher mid teens. She has long black
(37:17):
hair and a long a long conytail in a different way that than Kau
wears. And she's a ninja andshe was trained and raised by Aushi,
and she's also in love with Aushi. And she meets Kenshin when Kenshin leaves
(37:38):
early on in season two, whenhe leaves for Kyoto to fight the main
bad guy of the second season,Kenchin just encounters her when he's on the
way there, when he's walking there, and she originally tries to steal things
from him too, but then heends up saving her from like a group
(38:00):
of thugs that ambush her, andthen she joins him and then joins the
main supporting cast after that and isinvolved in the larger fights and all that.
She's the weasel girl. Yeah,And the first thing I thought when
I saw her was Naruto, becauselike you were saying, she's a ninja
and she has I guess it's likethe traditional ninja yeap outfit her her as
(38:22):
pink. I can't really tell.I think it's mostly blue, but I
think like the outlines of it arepink. This might just be a funny
picture, but she looks like herjust art style. To me, she
looks like she has a very kindface for some reason, just the way
she's drawn, yeah, versus theother one you were describing. Looks a
little more severe to me, notin like a negative way, but do
(38:45):
you know what I'm saying, it'sjust like a little bit more like she
would be very yeah, straightforward.I don't know. I think her face
is round. Her is what itis. It says she was born in
November of eighteen sixty three. Whatis her on on Meet Sue? What
is that on Meet Sue? That'sher occupation? Oh yeah, she's she's
(39:06):
part of a larger group of goodof good guy Ninja's so she kind of
let she broke off and like doesher own thing. Okay, And yeah,
you were saying she comes in later. It's episode thirty three. Is
when she's introduced. She looks likefun I'm looking at there's like a little
she has so long it looks likeher hair is in a braid. Is
(39:27):
that correct? Okay? Any othercharacters we should go over, I guess
since I've mentioned them already. Thelast two like technically protagonists, Sayito Pajime
who he's older. He's a policemanfor the government, like a secret a
secret spy slash policeman for the government. He fought against Kenshin back when Kenshin
(39:50):
was in his murderous assassin mode.They I don't remember if he lost against
Kenshin the first time or if theywere both equally powerful. Well, I
think they were both equally powerful,so it ended in a duel. And
he gets brought back in the verybeginning of season two and he has a
(40:10):
rematch with Kenshin that makes Kenshin revertfully back to his demonic side, which
is a lot of people think theepisode that it's from is like it's one
of the best fights or not,if not the best fight or slash episode
in general in the entire original anime. And then after their fight their rematch
(40:32):
is interrupted by police, he technicallybecomes a good guy and he agrees to
fight fight against the main bad guyin season two, and then he stays
on friendly enough terms with Kenshin andhis and his friends for the rest of
the series. Okay, and whatwas his name again, Psito Hajime.
(40:55):
Okay, Yeah, he's very seriouslooking. Yeah, he's thirty four is
when it starts, ends at thirtynine, and he uses a katana.
You said he was the police officer, right, yeah, in in in
the modern like where the series iscurrently taking place. He's like a secret
spy or like a secret or ha secret officer for the current government.
(41:19):
Yeah, because it has both.And then it also says hittokiri, Yeah,
can you talk what's that? That'sthe technically that that's the Japanese word
for assassin. Oh, okay,that makes sense. And yeah, he
comes in in episode twenty eight.Yeah, I mean he seems interesting.
He seems sort of like a seriouskind of guy. Yeah, not going
(41:43):
to be like, I don't know. To me, he wouldn't be that
memorable. And then the other oneyou wanted to talk about was Aushi Shina
Mouri. He's he comes in inepisode ten. He's initially an antagonist too.
I think he's I think he's aroundthe same age as Cansinger, a
little bit younger. He's a tall, attractive guy with short black blue hair.
(42:06):
He has a long white coat witha yellow inner lining. He uses
twin twin small small swords in battle, and he's the leader of a cutting
away another group of ninja, andhe raised Masau. Kenshin fights with him
for the first time in very earlyon in the series and wins. And
(42:29):
then in between that time how shebecomes brainwashed by and found and brainwashed by
the antagonists into just being an emotionless, you know, killer pretty much.
And then he he fights when hefights Kenshin again in the episode fifty something,
(42:51):
he after that when he loses thesecond time, then he becomes a
good guy. Oh good, okay. I was worried he was going to
die for some reason because I thoughtmaybe they weren't going to be able to
fix it. He sounds more interestingto me than the other one. His
story, I think, I don'tknow, maybe it's more developed, but
(43:12):
says he was born in January ofeighteen fifty three, and his fighting style
is listed as kempo which when orKodacci nito ryu. Yeah, those are
the Kodacci are the names of thetwo small like twins twin blades that he
uses, Oh my, gotcha.And his occupation is on metsu, which
(43:37):
I think you told me what thatwas. That's the same as Misaliah,
right, and he comes in inepisode eight, so he's another early one
to join. I like the twosword fighting style a lot. I always
enjoy the way they animate that I'mgoing to pay attention to him when I
watch. And yeah, there's oneother character I want to know about before
(43:58):
we talk about like do our wrapup here? But who is? She's
Hio Makoto. Yeah, he's themain antagonist of the second season, and
I guess the season overall because hehis his arc lasts the longest. He
was like Kenshin. He was anassassin that killed people for the government in
(44:22):
around the same time as Kenshin was, and I think it was something that
he messed up a job or somethingsimilar to that, and then he was
to be killed and he was seton fire and he survived. But ever
(44:44):
since then, his body is entirelywrapped in bandages and he has like he
has permanent burns and scarring all overhis body, and he pretty much just
wants to because of what happened tohim by the government. He wants to
overtake it and rule Japan as awhole. And he has a bunch of
(45:05):
a bunch of various warriors working forhim that are called the Jupon Gotta that
you know as the As season twoprogresses, each character has their own fights
with each member of the Jupon gotThen Kenshin ends up fighting him near the
(45:25):
end of the season two and againit's like it's a it's a three episode
fight, and the climax episode ofthe fight is another one that most people
remember as like the best animation,like most iconic of the whole original series.
But he's yeah, he's he's prettypopular for a villain character, Like
(45:47):
there's a bunch of merchandise of himas much as there is Kenshin essentially,
and yeah, he's a he's avery good villain as far as anime goes.
I was gonna say his character designis what made me ask, because
it was definitely really interesting, andhis story is compelling because I think most
human beings can relate like the eventsthat led up to it, aside being
(46:12):
set on fire and surviving would fuckwith anyone, do you know what I
mean? Like, I don't thinkany human being on the planet could go
through that and come out the otherside not a little bit upset, to
say the least. So I thinkthat's like immediately a really relatable thing to
(46:35):
think about, and then you haveto kind of weigh It's like, well,
he did sort of put himself there, but does that warrant that level
of cruelty and all that? Andthen you kind of empathize with it.
And I think that that's what makesa good villain, is when you can
sort of empathize with them, andthe idea being you don't necessarily approve of
everything they're doing, but you cansort of see maybe why they went over
(47:00):
the edge, right, Yeah,And I think that makes him very interesting.
So I don't know, maybe seasontwo will be my favorite, most
people's favorite. Yeah, I wasgonna say it's probably the big one,
Okay, Yeah, which will bekens now in two years the recable for
(47:34):
the wrap up. I don't knowif I'm correct, but is ken jutsu
technically like his brand of ability orlike the thing that they use for the
most part in Kenshin? I meanthere's no, there's not really any like
supernatural ability. I mean Kenchin haslike Kenhin has like God likes speed when
he gets super serious, and alot of people think that, like when
(47:57):
they're fighting him, they think thatit's some thing, you know, otherworldly
uh, but there's never for theyeah, like for the most part,
everything that everybody uses and in thein the series, it's it's all just
it's never like magic or like energyor anything like that. Oh. I
think this is like a misleading imagethen, because it's from the manga and
(48:19):
there's like a thing that looks likehe used a similar ability to like the
burning mandola thing from Sailor Mars.Oh no, yeah, so I was
like, what is that? Sono, it's just like their fighting style,
I guess yeah. Oh okay.I think it's almost like you were
saying, though, when you cantake something that is not relying on magic
(48:42):
and abilities and like the kind offlashiness of that and still make it artistic
and pretty in that moment, Ithink that takes a really high level of
ability to do that. Yep,all right, what what do you what
do you want to end this specialwith? Like, what are some final
thoughts you want to leave people with? Kension, I would just say that,
you know, if you if you'reour age or older, or even
(49:07):
if you're younger and you like alittle bit older anime that isn't too old,
but was you know, super popularin mainstream in the early two thousands,
late nineties, early two thousands,And if you've seen anything of Kension
and you were always curious about it, and you also like things that are
set in you, like manga andanime that is set in field of Japan,
(49:28):
then I would highly highly recommend italso sticky. It might seem a
little bit like it's not going toget very serious, or it might seem
kind of light and just okay asit starts early on, but once season
two comes around, it gets somuch more intense and gruesome and amazing fights,
(49:51):
amazing animation performances, all of that. And I think too that the
remake in July of the the asfar as I know, it's a remake
of the entire original anime because they'regoing to be able to adapt the the
rest of the manga that people didn'twait for to get animated back then.
Oh, I think that'll get peopleinto the series as well, like want
(50:15):
to go back and watch the original. That's a really good point actually,
that now that they're doing it nowit's done, so they could just do
the whole story that way. Yep. I think there's a lot of stuff
in Tension for Sailor Moon fans toenjoy. And I think that sometimes people
think of Sailor Moon and they onlylike their brain stops at like the pretty
(50:37):
transformation sequences and they forget about thegrittiness of season three. And I think
if you're a Sailor Moon fan wholoves that part of the series or any
of the really more serious moments,Kenshion is definitely going to resonate for you,
especially if you're someone who appreciates thehigher quality art style, because that
is something I remember sticking out tome watching it on I think it was
(51:00):
Adult Swim probably back in the day. There were several other shows on around
it, but Kenshin stuck out tome as being one of like the pretty
ones. Yeah, and I wantto say the one that was nearest to
it would be Tenshi Muyo, whichhas pretty moments, but it was more
like something about tension. Muyo tome just screams like standard Japanese anime.
(51:20):
I don't know why, Yeah,but something about that art style, it's
like it's not bad, it's notgreat, it's just very good. But
yeah, I think there's a lotto dig into here, and I hope
you guys will check it out forsure. By the time this drops,
July may have passed already, soyou should be able to find Do you
know where they're going to be ableto watch the new one? Yeah,
(51:43):
I'm pretty sure it's I mean,if it's not streaming on Crumchy Role,
then it'll be streaming on like someother service in the US. Does it
have a special name. Uh no, it's not gonna Do you mean like
the anime itself? Yeah, becauseyou know how they did Sailor Moon Crystal.
Oh no, I no, Ithink it's just Roney Kenshin. Again.
(52:04):
I would just put in Roney Kensiontwenty twenty three, then in Google
and you guys should find what youneed. All right, Well, thanks
for doing this. I think thisis going to be a fun one for
everybody. Is there anything else youwant to add? Uh? Yeah,
Just one other little thing is thecast that dubbed Kenshin was an LA cast,
and a lot of them are peoplethat are in the Sailor Moon redub
(52:29):
like Dorothy Fond who plays cawdu Is, the redubed voice of On and also
Sir Brennan Pederol Wendy Lee who playedYahiko. Is I mean, of course,
she's using a little boy voice,but she's Queen Serenity in the Redub.
Oh cool. Uh yeah, likea lot a lot of people that
(52:52):
are in Kenshion that are still workingtoday, We're also part of the Redub
in some way. I think that'sreally fun. One of my favorite things
to do with shows like this isif I have a voice actor that I
think does a great job, wheneverI hear them in something else, I'm
like, there they are. Andfor me, the first one I started
(53:13):
picking up on because of how distincther voice is the lady who did Izzy
from Digimon. Do you know whoI'm talking about? Yeah, I've interviewed
her. Mona Marshall. Yeah,her. She was the first one that
I was ever able to really pull, like just by audio, just oh,
that's that one. And I thinkshe just does a fantastic job with
like every character she has. Whoelse has she done that we might know?
(53:37):
Yeah, she was. I meanshe still works today, but she
was kind of like for anime dubsback then. She was kind of like
the woman that did boy characters forother people listening that would probably know a
lot of the same shows. Shewas. Toboe and Wolf's Rain. She
(53:57):
actually played the young version of Kenchinin all of the any time that he
appeared as a little kid. Shewas when and Cowboy Bebop, who's a
that's a one episode character, butit's like she was the plot of the
episode will from and Kio karamal Kitein the dot Hack video game series.
She's Doraiman. People don't know whatDoraiman is. That's a super old still
(54:22):
going today Japanese kid show, andDoraiman is the name of the main It's
like a mascot kind of looking character. And it's like a little blue cat
alien thing that has a helicopter likepropeller on its head. Oh, I
know what you're talking about. Thatthat thing is so funny. But yeah,
she's I mean she's had like hundredsand hundreds of anime and like anime
(54:45):
video game roles. So if you'rea fan of the Vizda, when you
go watch Kenshin, see if youcan clock those characters because we said them
here. But I know you're gonnaforget because I would whoever's listening, you
know, But yeah, see thatwould be a fun game to play and
a fun way to kind of tiethe two together. Have you interviewed.
(55:07):
Who have you interviewed from Kenshin ifyou want to list those? Oh,
yeah, a lot. I've doneRichard Cansino, who played Kenshin in the
TV series Dub and then I've alsodone Shannon Weaver, who played Kenshin in
the the movie in Ova Texas Dubs. I've done Dorothy Fon who played Kawru.
(55:27):
I've done Wen Yu Lee who didYahiko. I've done Lex Lang who
did Snowski. I've done Kirk Thorntonwho did Sayto. I've done Terrence Stone
who did Aushi. Yeah, I'vedone like tons of people who played large
characters in the cast. Okay,let's put one out right now that you
haven't done yet that you would loveto do, just you know, throw
(55:49):
it into the world. Okay,Yeah, I guess the voice of Shishio
Steve Bloom, who is like SteveBloom is like a hugely famous voice actor,
but he's not a bunch of animeand most people know him immediately as
Spike from Cowboy Bebop, the maincharacter. I want it. Okay,
now I'm interested, So I guessyeah, he's he would be like another
(56:13):
wishless person for me. All Right, you hear that Steve Bloom, you're
going to do an interview for Chris. I'm glad he's listening. Could you
imagine if Steve Bloom knew what ourshow was, that would blow my mind?
And of course he doesn't. Whoknows. Maybe he's like a secret
Deep Sailor Moon fan. That's like, Oh, I've been waiting for something
(56:35):
like this. Okay, no,that would be great. I would love
to hear from him. All right, I think we'll leave it there,
and when we when we're going toactually put this out, what I'll probably
do is happen. We hope you'veenjoyed this very special episodisode of Moonstar,
(57:00):
a Slor Moon Podcast. If youliked what you heard today and are interested
in more vintage anime and video gamefocused content, both Sailor Moon related and
otherwise, search your favorite podcast appfor vav Radio and subscribe now. Valvradio
will premiere January of twenty twenty four. For more of Chris, you can
(57:27):
find him on all platforms at ChrismaM A Y e K. For more
of Alex, you can find himon Instagram at Alex Summers SFE. Moonstar,
a Salor Moon podcast, is sponsoredin part by slor Moon Video dot
Com. Shop authentic vhs and DVDsstraight from the nineties today at www dot
(57:52):
slormoon video dot com. Be sureto follow us on YouTube under slor moon
Video, where you can also liststo full episodes of Moon Star. Moonstar
a Sailor moon Podcast is intended forinformational, educational, and entertainment purposes only.
(58:14):
We claim no ownership over any licensedand or copyrighted audio clips, sound
effects, or other materials used duringthe creation of our show. All audio
clips, sound effects, and anyother licensed or copyrighted materials used during the
creation of this show, or anycontent created in relation to Moonstar A Sailor
(58:35):
Moon Podcast belong expressly to the licenseand copyright holders. She left those styles
(59:07):
she made on me to kee IttoStabs, She saga shackeeth to stab or
Little Canada bott ans and then
Moonstar, A Sailor Moon podcast ispresented by the Vintage Anime Video Network.
Visit US at www dot Vintageanime Videodot com. Japan eighteen sixty seven,
the Tokugawa Dynasty stands upon failing legs. An invincible samurai Kenshin Mura walks the
(00:31):
path of death and destruction, usheringin a new regime. Hated and feared
by many, he is known asHidukiri Battosai, the Manslayer. In retribution
for his deeds, he has takenan oath to protect the innocent and never
kill again. One Old memories seldomfaith, and bad habits die hard count
(01:00):
the Samurai I wasn't finished speaking.The premiere is Monday, Mark seventeenth at
six thirty. Only is, youknow, technically a Sailorman podcast. At
(01:38):
the end, we'll just tie itinto like we'll do a couple of like
maybe similarities and differences or something,so you can be thinking about that too.
But for people who are wondering whatis Roney Kenshin, It's a nineties
anime, manga and anime franchise thatgot popular in the US in the early
(02:02):
two thousands when it was that's whenit was brought over here and it was
aired on Cartoon Network in the sameblock of programming that Sailorman S and Supers
were aired. It's set in fieldof Japan. It's about a young man
named Kenshin Himura who he has aHe's a really beautiful, like androgynous guy
(02:25):
with long red hair, and hehas a cross shaped scar on one of
his cheeks, and he used tobe an assassin for the government and just
emotionless steel killer and now nowadays,in in the era of time where the
(02:47):
series is set, he is awanderer like atoning for his past. And
he's still really skilled and will useforce if necessary. But his sword,
his katana now is a reverse bladesword, so it can't it can't kill
people unless he turns it around anduses it the opposite way. And the
(03:15):
original anime has ninety something episodes,but it technically officially ends at episode sixty
two because the third season is allfiller. Oh why do you think they
did that? It was because fansin Japan didn't want to wait for the
(03:38):
Mangaca to finish like official work.They like. The series was so popular
that they just wanted more, sothe studio just made more and that's that's
the only reason why it's all entirelyfiller for season three. Does does that
(04:00):
mean that like it goes past wherethe manga actually ends technically, well,
like, yeah, like the episodethat it officially technically ends at that is
you know, canon to where themanga was at the time, as episode
sixty two, and then everything afterthat like sixty three through ninety four or
(04:24):
ninety six or something like that.It's all just original like studio created stuff.
So that's specific to the anime.Then Okay, that's kind of cool.
Actually, I think even though Idon't know, did you like the
last part of it? I likeparts of the of the final season,
(04:44):
but I mean most people who likeTension agree that season three is not very
good. Would you almost say it'slike, does it lower the quality of
it? Is it that bad?Or is it just kind of like,
man, it's right, oh,I mean the animation still looks fine.
It's just yeah, the stories aren't. The storylines aren't as interesting for the
(05:09):
most part, and some of themare just more comedic than the show really
ever is. So that's interesting.It reminds me of a parallel to something
we've talked about on here before.Maybe not you and me, but I
think I touched on it in aspecial with Renee. But in Rainbow Bright,
(05:29):
there's sort of a similar arc toit, even though it's a latch
fewer episodes, it's only technically thirteen, but like the beginning of it is
very serious and mystical and like fantasy, and it takes itself very seriously.
And then for some reason there waslike turnover in the writing, and the
last couple of episodes are very comedicand kind of wacky and more they took
(05:53):
some of the stuff away that madeit so intriguing in the beginning. So
I guess I kind of get whatyou're saying, where it's sort of like
you have something that feels so epicand then it ends up kind of like
hokey pokey, and you're like,what happened? So, yeah, I
totally get that. Keep going.Was there more about explaining just generally about
(06:15):
it, No, I guess thatwas like the basic summary of it.
Okay, So when it first cameover here, it sounds like it was
around the same time as Sailor Moon. Is that correct? It was the
same time as seasons three and four. Yeah, Okay, so it came
here probably like I guess two thousand. Yeah, so five years after we
(06:41):
got season one of Sailor Moon.Yeah, roughly. Do you know if
they localized the anime or the mangafirst or were they done together. I
think it was done. I thinkactually probably the anime was first, and
then the mango would have been prettymuch around the same time. It has
two dubs. Uh, the firstone is not as widely available. Uh,
(07:05):
it was more the guy that playedKenshin stayed the same, and a
lot of a lot of the actorsin it came back in the main like
widely released dub as other characters.But the first dub of Kenshin was called
Samurai X and it was more itwasn't as faithful to the Japanese And uh,
(07:32):
it's It's funny because the the guywho directed, Michael Sich who I
just mentioned in our last episode,who voiced two voices raised Grandpa and the
viz Rey dub, he he justdidn't think that when he was directing the
series. He did, he justdidn't think that it would ever become pot
(07:54):
like as popular as it did overhere, So he he had he did
things like having the voice actors whoplayed random side characters, and various episodes
use like totally out totally random accentslike Irish accents, and representatives from Sony
(08:18):
told him how popular the series actuallywas, and then it got that's what
that's what led to it getting redubbed with the more faithful translation and better
acting. And I don't I don'tthink you can watch like full episodes of
the first dub anywhere. There's alot of clips on YouTube, but well,
(08:41):
yeah, which one would have beenaired alongside Sailor Mood? Would it
have been the first dub? Whendid that one happen? It was pretty
I think there was only maybe likea year in between, so it was
it was very like they they theydid? They air it on the same
channel. Yeah, they were bothon Cartoon Network. Because I want to
(09:07):
say I remember Samurai X. Actually, okay, I want to look at
their like branding. Hold on,I don't know how to spell the word
Samurai learning. So are there evenany images from it? It looks the
same, it looks I just wantedto see what they did with the title.
(09:28):
Yeah, I remember this title image. Well, what you're probably seeing
is another it's a DVD cover,Yeah, because there was another. For
some reason, the Kensin anime moviewas dubbed and released under a different licensing
(09:48):
company than the than the TV serieswas, and for some reason they called
the movie Samurai Ax. But theyprobably had to because of like legal reasons,
since they were they weren't the originallicensers. I've got to dub it
that is. You're right, thatis the movie here. Huh. So
does that mean they probably never releasedeven VHS of the original dub Nope,
(10:11):
it's all just everything that's it's justgone. Yeah, that is really wild.
So that's kind of something interesting thoughfor anyone out there who's like an
Internet Nancy Drew or whatever you wantto call yourselves. People unearthed stuff like
this sometimes, like we know withSailor Moon, they eventually after how many
years, got the whole Sabon Moonthing or the tone makers the full pilot
(10:37):
episode, and we didn't even knowthat existed. Yeah, so we know
this exists somewhere in the world,and I'm sure someone out there could find
Like you said, there's clips onYouTube, but I'm sure someone out there
could find it and like you know, bring it to light. However,
they choose to do so, Soif anyone's listening who wants to take that
challenge, go for it. Thatmeans, though what you were saying,
(11:05):
any kind of official media from theshow is going to be the redub then
right, Yeah, okay, wherecan people watch it today? The like
widely released one. Yeah, officially, I know that you can watch it
on I'm like ninety percent certain thatyou can watch it on crunchy Role most
(11:28):
animals on there. Yeah, letme see if I can do it quick.
It looks I'm gonna say as ofwhenever this is being recorded, so
we're recording this over the summer oftwenty twenty three. We'll just say that
according to Google, it's available onHulu, crunchy Roll with the Funnimation subscription
(11:54):
and that's it unless you purchase,like, you know, stuff yourself.
So, yeah, you've got threeoptions for where you can stream this one,
and I'm assuming all of those probablyhave the English and the Japanese options
there. Do you have a preference, Uh, I don't know, Probably
(12:15):
the English. I mean I lovethat, I love the Japanese a lot
too. Catching is voiced by awoman in Japanese, and I think that
was intentional because of how pretty heis, so it kind of just goes
to the and yeah, like warriormystique. But yeah, I like,
I like both. I have neverseen the Japanese version, okay at all,
(12:39):
so I would love to see whatthat's like because that sounds interesting.
And I actually recently got some vhsfrom this, which must I think some
of them are actually Japanese and acouple are the probably the redub I'm not
sure what episodes are on them,but I'll take a look when I have
time this summer and then we canlike chat about it in an intro.
Yeah, but so that's a coolthat they You have three options to watch
(13:03):
this online right now, either orlet us know in the comment somewhere what
your preference is and why and somethingelse. I want to know because it's
something I care about. I'm sureother people do too. But are there
video games based off of the series? Yeah, but none of them.
None of them were released in theUS. There the only the only appearance
(13:24):
that Kenshin has in a US gameis I think I don't. I think
it came out during COVID or ayear before COVID or something. It's a
video game for like PS three andmodern consoles like that called like Jump Force
Stars or something. It's like abunch of characters from the show and Jump
(13:46):
magazine and it's just Jump for Yeah, it's a fighting game with a bunch
of Jump characters in Kenshin is Kensinand then the main villain in Kenshin Sheishio.
They're both playable characters in it.It's like anime smash Bros. Yeah,
for people who want to know,there are actually several video games for
(14:09):
it, but like you said,they're all Japanese only. But it looks
like there's games for the DS PSP, PlayStation two, probably, like you
just said, the Jump Forced gameon the newer systems. So whoever wants
to like play them in Japanese becauseI know some people who will, you
know, get a Japanese switch anddownload stuff or whatever you can find those.
(14:30):
I'm sure they're probably on some ofthe Japanese what do you call it
virtual consoles or whatever. I'm notsure, but if you're one of those
people, that would be worth lookingif you want to do that. So,
yeah, there are several I don'tknow what kind of games they are
though, so most of them arejust like the highest rated one or like
(14:50):
the most the best one is theone that was released for PS two.
It's pretty much it's it's a hackslash style game, but it's a circle
of hell yeah follows It follows thestory of the of the anime, and
you're just like, yeah, yeah. It says it's a third person action
game for the PlayStation two. Cameout in two thousand and six, and
(15:11):
it goes through the story of eitherHumarakenson Cigarro Sinoske saidto Hajime and then Sheina
Moury say her last Oh she soyou have four playable characters? Oh,
(15:33):
and then I'll leave to unlock one. It's basically the plot of the Kyoto
arc. What does that mean toyou? That's the second season of the
anime? Okay, And then itsays an American version was planned to be
released by Bandai, but developers intwo thousand and seven canceled due to scheduling
(15:54):
conflicts and low profit prospects, sothey didn't think it would do very well
over here. Yeah, I'm assumingthe Sailor Moon video games have a similar
storyline as to why they weren't broughtover. Okay. It was said that
(16:23):
he was undefeatable. What was yourfirst experience with this series? It was
seeing like the first time that Isaw Sailor Moon was it was just seeing
it on Cartoon Network on Tsunami wayback then, and I just got hooked
(16:44):
right away because I love I loveany anime or manga that's set in feet
of Japan. I always have,and especially if I personally liked the art
style mixed with that, then it'susually like one for me. So yeah,
I've been I've been into Kension asmuch as I'm into Sailor Moon for
(17:04):
the same amount of time of mylife. What was it about it?
Do you think like that? Becauseusually when you watch something that sticks with
you that long, there's something inthe first episode specific that really grabs your
attention and you're like, what isthat? And for me with Sailor Moon,
it was definitely the attack like sequencesand the transformations because I'd never seen
(17:26):
anything like that before, and itwas just like the colors and the brightness,
and plus the music combined with it, it kind of made a pretty
perfect package. What do you rememberhitting you so hard about this? Uh?
It was probably Yeah, I guessnow that I think about it,
it definitely would have been the actionsequences and just the fact that Kension has
(17:53):
a murderous side to him that hekeeps in control for the most part throughout
the entirety of it, and there'sany time that you get to see that
slip through. It was just likesuper interesting from the get go, even
seeing it as a super super youngkid. I get what you're saying.
(18:14):
It's it's sort of that, likethis really really great person character and then
every now and then it's like thetotal opposite slips out, and I think
that kind of dichotomy can be reallyinteresting. Yeah, do you remember,
by any chance what the first episodewas that you saw. I don't think
it would have been the very firstone, but it was probably, Yeah,
(18:37):
it was. It was like somethingin season one. It was probably
one of the canon to the storyepisodes in season one, because season one
has like a little bit of fillerto but season two doesn't at all.
So yeah, I know it wouldhave been like one of the Ladder canon
and canon episodes in season one thatI saw on TV. There's something that
(19:00):
is just so specific about the timeperiod when this came over here too,
and it's like all of the animes. I feel like that dropped right around
that time in North America have asort of similar like schene of something extra.
I don't really know how to describeit, but it could have just
(19:22):
been like the time period where itwas, like the way we were consuming
media was specific enough that and likethe timing it was shown when we were
all sort of teenagers, when wewere supposed to be sleeping. Yeah,
you know what I mean. Idon't know what it is, but they
really for a lot of our generationforged whatever anime, you stuck to a
(19:42):
lot of really strong bonds. SoI love that we get to explore these
different avenues of it because this,I would say, is very different from
Sailor Moon totally, but I thinka lot of Sailor Moon fans would still
really enjoy because I know I lovedit whenever I watched it. Yeah,
before we do the character breakdown,what are what do you think is similar
(20:06):
about Sailor Moon to Kenshin And whatis like some of the glaring differences or
what are some of the differences.Yeah, it's definitely more different than they
are similar. Obviously, the typeof show that it is, the type
of audience that it caters to thesetting that it takes place. Similarities,
(20:30):
I guess there's there's several strong femalecharacters in Kenshin the co lead, like
Kenshin's love interest is you know,just as important. And then there's another
main female character in their in theirmain group that joins a little bit later.
(20:52):
And then there's you know, thevillainous female characters, and so they're
similar from that aspect. And thenalso, I mean Kenchin is not remotely
like he's older than Usagi by likealmost fifteen years I think, and like
he has a silly side too,but so they're both similar like that,
(21:18):
would you say his personality is moresimilar not maybe not personality, but his
design almost like character design is moresimilar to Saturn than Usagi if you had
to pick someone, uh, justbecause of you know, the Mistress nine
being in there. Oh that yeah, I guess that's that's a good correlation.
(21:38):
That's kind of what I was thinkingis it's like his murderous side can
be brought out by the right circumstances, I'm assuming, Yeah, what about
what are the like Well? Tome, the biggest similarity though is pretty
man, that was what I noticedwhen I was a kid it's like,
and I think I've said this onthe show for American or whatever you want
(22:02):
to call it, what are weEast or Western? Right? Western cartoons
are almost inherently drawn to be unattractive, Yeah, for some reason. And
I've never really understood that, andI never noticed it until I saw anime
and then I was like, wait, animation can be pretty. And I
(22:22):
think that while this show is kindof violent and has a lot of darkness
to it, like you were saying, the animation style is still sort of
pretty, isn't it. Yeah,very Yeah, And I'm not I'm not
remembering it one hundred percent, Butwould you say there are probably some moments
even in the action sequences that aredone in like an artistic way. Oh
(22:44):
god, yeah, I mean Idon't. I don't. I only own
one thing now, but I've ownedmore like higher end premium cells like animation
cells of of and from Kension thanany other anime like that I've collected.
Yeah, big. I mean abig reason is because of that, because
there's so many there's so many likeanimators and character designers that worked on Kenshin
(23:11):
that are now renowned in the industry, and there's just a number of especially
as the series went on, itlike the the art just got better and
better. That's kind of like howit is with Sailor Moon two. Yeah,
and I think that similarity to thatI'm drawing is some of it is
just anime specific, but not everyanime does like you know, pretty men
(23:33):
either. There are plenty of animesthat are more like Dragon Ball Z,
where it's like buff and masculine andlike, I wouldn't say they're ugly in
that, but I wouldn't describe themas like pretty either. It's a different
thing. Yeah, yeah, it'slike a totally different esthetic. All right,
let's do some character breakdowns. I'mgonna let you take the lead here,
but let's just start with Kenshin.Like I mentioned in the beginning,
(24:10):
Kenshin is I think he's in hislate twenties. When the series starts,
he's used to be an assassin forthe government and just didn't have any emotion,
And now when the series takes place, he's much he has emotions,
and he's much more happy and carefreemost of the time on the surface.
(24:33):
Besides, when he's fighting, hehas a reverse blade sword, so he
can't kill anybody. Just seriously,injure them unless he turns the sword around,
which only happens whenever he gets broughtback to his past self. The
(24:55):
main female lead is Kaudu, whois a young woman who's a little bit
younger than Kenshin that they meet inepisode one because she thinks that he's just
wandering through where her she runs adojo of like teaching swordsmanship and uh like.
(25:18):
The first episode starts with him justwalking by. He's just wandering and
walking by her dojo, and thenshe comes out all of a sudden pointing
a wooden sword at him, accusinghim of being the perpetrator of like murders
that have been going on in thearea. And then that's how they meet
(25:38):
and they end up falling in loveand having children by the end of the
series. Say the that's her lastname or her first name? What's her
last name? Kamya Kamia calroot andcan you describe what she looks like?
(26:00):
Yeah, she's probably about the sameheight as Kension or maybe a little shorter.
And she has a long like blacksometimes depending on the angle or like
the artists ort'll have like very darkblue, but it's like black hair in
a ponytail. Yeah, and itlooks like she wears a kimono. I
(26:22):
don't know, it's just the imageI'm looking at. Yeah, most of
the time, that's what she's wearing. And she has something pink in her
hair. Is that like just orsomething? Okay, she's pretty all right,
keep going. Then, the theother big male coleead is a Sinoskee.
Who he is? He's He's introducedin episode five, I think as
(26:48):
an antagonist originally, and he's inthe beginning. He's sort of the same
thing as as what Kension was.Like he's a fighter for hire for but
he wants to like get back atthe government, so he's like a rebel
against against the government that Kenhen originallyworked for. And he he has more
(27:12):
of a like older action anime artstyle like design, and he uses his
fists too whenever he fights. Hehas spiky brown hair. He wears a
red ponytail. He has a white, white and black jacket on all the
(27:36):
time, and his arms and hiswaist start wrapped in bandages. Uh.
And yeah, he's He's introduced asan antagonist and then once Kenchin defeats him,
then he joins them as one ofthe main male colleades. Yeah,
(27:57):
and looking at him a reference pointin some images here. His hair reminds
me of Yu gi oh characters becausethey do a lot of the spikes like
that too, but it's a littlemore i would say, artistic than that
and less goofy. Yeah, forsure, he looks really cool. What
(28:17):
is it? It says under thename Zanza. What is that? Oh?
That's yeah, that's the name thathe goes by when he's introduced as
an antagonist and he has a heoriginally has this giant sword that's like really
cumbersome, and he only uses thatwhen he's introduced when he fights Kenshin,
but then like Kenshin easily gets ridof that, and then from then on
(28:40):
he always uses his his fists tofight anybody. And I'm seeing on the
wiki they list affiliations and stuff.I'm assuming that's like what you were talking
about. Yeah, if it's thegovernment or whoever. Uh, And then
the this is funny to me,they list his occupation as fight merchant past
and then present. Bum Does thatjust mean he doesn't do anything? Now?
(29:06):
Like? Are they are they justbeing funny? Like I don't know
what that well? Yeah, Likeonce he joins Kenshin's UH group, he
just lives at Cowru's dojo like Kenshindoes, and just he just joins fights
whenever he is in that position.Okay, looks like he has a sword
(29:27):
at some point too, but it'sreally funny looking. It's huge. It
looks like a paddle. They cando paddle. Oh, I love that
picture of him. Sometimes they drawhim with stubble and sometimes they don't,
and there's like this looks like it'sfrom the manga. He's got like a
fishbone in his mouth or something.Oh yeah, he's He's usually in at
(29:51):
least in the in the in theearly season, like when things are more
comedic and not as serious. He'seating a lot. I think I would
enjoy him. We'll have to gosee, all right, who's next?
The other male one of the maincharacters is that it's a boy. I
think he's probably a tween and yahiko. He's short and has like naturally tan
(30:15):
skin with the like spiky black hairin a different way than Sano's spiky hair.
He is also introduced very early onin the series. I think even
before Snowski is he just bumps.He bumps into Kaoru and Kenshin when they're
walking in the street. Buying thingsand he Yahiko intends to steal from them.
(30:37):
Yahiko also wants to get back atI think he wants to get back
of the government too, because he'sthe son of the samurai that was killed.
He wants to become as strong asKenshin. He ends up joining their
group after Kenshin, like Yahiko getslike kidnapped for ransom or something, and
then Kenshin saves him, and thenthat's how he then because he doesn't really
(31:02):
have anywhere to go, so thenhe lives with Kawaru and joins the main
cast, and he practices the samea fight style I guess that Kawu and
Kenshin do, and he doesn't reallyget He doesn't really get his time to
shine in his own battle on hisown until later in the series. But
(31:22):
yeah, that's the everything about Yahiko. He looks like sort of the apprentice
character. Like you were saying thatthe black hair is a lot shorter,
it's more shaggy style to me,like it hangs down. It looks like
he's holding I don't know what youcall this, but it's like a practice
sword. Yeah, he never henever has like a sword sword in the
(31:44):
series or in the manga. It'salways he always fights everybody with one of
those practice swords, like those practicebamboo swords. Yeah, I kind of
figured that was his thing. Interestingit says he was born in June of
eighteen sixty eight, if anyone wantsto put an actual year on like when
this took place, and it sayshe starts at the age of ten and
(32:07):
ends the series at fifteen. Yep, and like what is this? Okay,
list his weapons as the sheeni,the bocan, and the sakabato.
Do you know what those are?The sword of the two of the same
people will turn Yeah, the firsttwo would be wooden swords, and then
(32:44):
the sakabato is an actual sword becauseby the time that he's older, he's
using an actual blade, Okay.And his occupations were swordsman, ken jutsu
instructor, and then Akibaco, whichis technically an air boy. So I'm
assuming he just like did random tasksfor whoever, probably Kensin And you were
(33:06):
saying, oh yeah, Episode twois when he gets introduced, so that's
very early yeah in the series.All right, who's up next? The
last of the main supporting protagonist's castis a Maguomi and she doesn't come in
until episode ten. I think heralias is fox Woman. People will like
that she has long green black hair, like the same color and length that
(33:31):
Setsuna would have. She's a littlebit older, I think than Kenshin,
but not much or maybe she's aroundthe same age, says twenty two.
Okay, so she's a little bityounger, but she just looks she just
looks more mature, and she's shedoesn't ever fight, she's just she's the
healer character out of the cast.Again. She gets introduced because she gets
(33:53):
saved from being held for like ransomor held for held hostage, for almost
being murdered. She doesn't have likea huge, huge role in the series
once her arc passes, but shestays with the cast like throughout the rest
of it. And she's rivals withCawru because she always Maguomi always acts like
(34:15):
she's in love with Kenshin and wantsto like steal Kenshin away from her.
And that's like one of the mainparts of comedy relief in the series is
between Cawru and Magoomi. Is itmeant to be just silly and she's not
like serious about it? Yeah,okay, that sounds like fun, it
says She was born in December ofeighteen fifty seven. She what is the
(34:40):
fox woman thing about? Do youthink? Oh, that's because Saito,
one of the other initially antagonist,but is like he becomes an anti hero.
He he always says in the seriesthat Magumi is like a fox,
Kwori was another animal, and thenMissal who was another one of the big
female el supporting characters in season two, is like a weasel. So it
(35:04):
comes from him comparing all three ofthem to different animals that like fight with
each other in wildlife. Oh ohthat's funny, Okay, I get it.
I like that. That's cute.I think you said that she's a
doctor, right, yeah, likeyou were saying, with the hair and
everything, I see some similarities tosailor Pluto. Where is it sooner?
It lists three voice actors for her, that would be I think that would
(35:29):
be the case with pretty much everybody. It would It would be like the
original Japanese then whoever whoever played herin the first English dub what's reflection?
Oh that's uh yeah, that's theso with the with the movie that got
a different licenser. The uh thethere's there's two kenchin OVA's one of one
(35:50):
of them is Reflection, and theyalso got dubbed by the same licenser,
so that that's that's why that's whyit's saying that too. Yeah, it's
saying there's an anime twenty twenty three. Did you know about that? Yeah,
there's a remake of the of theseries comes out in two months.
Are you excited for that or areyou nervous? No, I'm excited.
(36:10):
It looks really good, are likeanimation wise? So you don't think they're
going to give you Sailorman Crystal seasonone? No, it's what we're saying,
You're gonna get a good one.I hope. So I might actually
watch it when it drops. Thatwould be fun. I had no idea
they were doing that. Is thereany other characters you think that we should
(36:32):
highlight here? Yeah? I meanin terms of the main supporting cast,
I mean I did. I didmention Syito and Aushi, who they start
out as antagonists, but then theybecome like anti heroes, Like they're not
they're not fighting against the good guysanymore, but they're not like they don't
want to be associated, they don'twant to have the title of like being
(36:53):
a good guy necessarily but the lastlike big supporting protagonist character is Misao who
joins. She joins in season two, like early on in season two,
she's probably I think she's like inher mid teens. She has long black
(37:17):
hair and a long a long conytail in a different way that than Kau
wears. And she's a ninja andshe was trained and raised by Aushi,
and she's also in love with Aushi. And she meets Kenshin when Kenshin leaves
(37:38):
early on in season two, whenhe leaves for Kyoto to fight the main
bad guy of the second season,Kenchin just encounters her when he's on the
way there, when he's walking there, and she originally tries to steal things
from him too, but then heends up saving her from like a group
(38:00):
of thugs that ambush her, andthen she joins him and then joins the
main supporting cast after that and isinvolved in the larger fights and all that.
She's the weasel girl. Yeah,And the first thing I thought when
I saw her was Naruto, becauselike you were saying, she's a ninja
and she has I guess it's likethe traditional ninja yeap outfit her her as
(38:22):
pink. I can't really tell.I think it's mostly blue, but I
think like the outlines of it arepink. This might just be a funny
picture, but she looks like herjust art style. To me, she
looks like she has a very kindface for some reason, just the way
she's drawn, yeah, versus theother one you were describing. Looks a
little more severe to me, notin like a negative way, but do
(38:45):
you know what I'm saying, it'sjust like a little bit more like she
would be very yeah, straightforward.I don't know. I think her face
is round. Her is what itis. It says she was born in
November of eighteen sixty three. Whatis her on on Meet Sue? What
is that on Meet Sue? That'sher occupation? Oh yeah, she's she's
(39:06):
part of a larger group of goodof good guy Ninja's so she kind of
let she broke off and like doesher own thing. Okay, And yeah,
you were saying she comes in later. It's episode thirty three. Is
when she's introduced. She looks likefun I'm looking at there's like a little
she has so long it looks likeher hair is in a braid. Is
(39:27):
that correct? Okay? Any othercharacters we should go over, I guess
since I've mentioned them already. Thelast two like technically protagonists, Sayito Pajime
who he's older. He's a policemanfor the government, like a secret a
secret spy slash policeman for the government. He fought against Kenshin back when Kenshin
(39:50):
was in his murderous assassin mode.They I don't remember if he lost against
Kenshin the first time or if theywere both equally powerful. Well, I
think they were both equally powerful,so it ended in a duel. And
he gets brought back in the verybeginning of season two and he has a
(40:10):
rematch with Kenshin that makes Kenshin revertfully back to his demonic side, which
is a lot of people think theepisode that it's from is like it's one
of the best fights or not,if not the best fight or slash episode
in general in the entire original anime. And then after their fight their rematch
(40:32):
is interrupted by police, he technicallybecomes a good guy and he agrees to
fight fight against the main bad guyin season two, and then he stays
on friendly enough terms with Kenshin andhis and his friends for the rest of
the series. Okay, and whatwas his name again, Psito Hajime.
(40:55):
Okay, Yeah, he's very seriouslooking. Yeah, he's thirty four is
when it starts, ends at thirtynine, and he uses a katana.
You said he was the police officer, right, yeah, in in in
the modern like where the series iscurrently taking place. He's like a secret
spy or like a secret or ha secret officer for the current government.
(41:19):
Yeah, because it has both.And then it also says hittokiri, Yeah,
can you talk what's that? That'sthe technically that that's the Japanese word
for assassin. Oh, okay,that makes sense. And yeah, he
comes in in episode twenty eight.Yeah, I mean he seems interesting.
He seems sort of like a seriouskind of guy. Yeah, not going
(41:43):
to be like, I don't know. To me, he wouldn't be that
memorable. And then the other oneyou wanted to talk about was Aushi Shina
Mouri. He's he comes in inepisode ten. He's initially an antagonist too.
I think he's I think he's aroundthe same age as Cansinger, a
little bit younger. He's a tall, attractive guy with short black blue hair.
(42:06):
He has a long white coat witha yellow inner lining. He uses
twin twin small small swords in battle, and he's the leader of a cutting
away another group of ninja, andhe raised Masau. Kenshin fights with him
for the first time in very earlyon in the series and wins. And
(42:29):
then in between that time how shebecomes brainwashed by and found and brainwashed by
the antagonists into just being an emotionless, you know, killer pretty much.
And then he he fights when hefights Kenshin again in the episode fifty something,
(42:51):
he after that when he loses thesecond time, then he becomes a
good guy. Oh good, okay. I was worried he was going to
die for some reason because I thoughtmaybe they weren't going to be able to
fix it. He sounds more interestingto me than the other one. His
story, I think, I don'tknow, maybe it's more developed, but
(43:12):
says he was born in January ofeighteen fifty three, and his fighting style
is listed as kempo which when orKodacci nito ryu. Yeah, those are
the Kodacci are the names of thetwo small like twins twin blades that he
uses, Oh my, gotcha.And his occupation is on metsu, which
(43:37):
I think you told me what thatwas. That's the same as Misaliah,
right, and he comes in inepisode eight, so he's another early one
to join. I like the twosword fighting style a lot. I always
enjoy the way they animate that I'mgoing to pay attention to him when I
watch. And yeah, there's oneother character I want to know about before
(43:58):
we talk about like do our wrapup here? But who is? She's
Hio Makoto. Yeah, he's themain antagonist of the second season, and
I guess the season overall because hehis his arc lasts the longest. He
was like Kenshin. He was anassassin that killed people for the government in
(44:22):
around the same time as Kenshin was, and I think it was something that
he messed up a job or somethingsimilar to that, and then he was
to be killed and he was seton fire and he survived. But ever
(44:44):
since then, his body is entirelywrapped in bandages and he has like he
has permanent burns and scarring all overhis body, and he pretty much just
wants to because of what happened tohim by the government. He wants to
overtake it and rule Japan as awhole. And he has a bunch of
(45:05):
a bunch of various warriors working forhim that are called the Jupon Gotta that
you know as the As season twoprogresses, each character has their own fights
with each member of the Jupon gotThen Kenshin ends up fighting him near the
(45:25):
end of the season two and againit's like it's a it's a three episode
fight, and the climax episode ofthe fight is another one that most people
remember as like the best animation,like most iconic of the whole original series.
But he's yeah, he's he's prettypopular for a villain character, Like
(45:47):
there's a bunch of merchandise of himas much as there is Kenshin essentially,
and yeah, he's a he's avery good villain as far as anime goes.
I was gonna say his character designis what made me ask, because
it was definitely really interesting, andhis story is compelling because I think most
human beings can relate like the eventsthat led up to it, aside being
(46:12):
set on fire and surviving would fuckwith anyone, do you know what I
mean? Like, I don't thinkany human being on the planet could go
through that and come out the otherside not a little bit upset, to
say the least. So I thinkthat's like immediately a really relatable thing to
(46:35):
think about, and then you haveto kind of weigh It's like, well,
he did sort of put himself there, but does that warrant that level
of cruelty and all that? Andthen you kind of empathize with it.
And I think that that's what makesa good villain, is when you can
sort of empathize with them, andthe idea being you don't necessarily approve of
everything they're doing, but you cansort of see maybe why they went over
(47:00):
the edge, right, Yeah,And I think that makes him very interesting.
So I don't know, maybe seasontwo will be my favorite, most
people's favorite. Yeah, I wasgonna say it's probably the big one,
Okay, Yeah, which will bekens now in two years the recable for
(47:34):
the wrap up. I don't knowif I'm correct, but is ken jutsu
technically like his brand of ability orlike the thing that they use for the
most part in Kenshin? I meanthere's no, there's not really any like
supernatural ability. I mean Kenchin haslike Kenhin has like God likes speed when
he gets super serious, and alot of people think that, like when
(47:57):
they're fighting him, they think thatit's some thing, you know, otherworldly
uh, but there's never for theyeah, like for the most part,
everything that everybody uses and in thein the series, it's it's all just
it's never like magic or like energyor anything like that. Oh. I
think this is like a misleading imagethen, because it's from the manga and
(48:19):
there's like a thing that looks likehe used a similar ability to like the
burning mandola thing from Sailor Mars.Oh no, yeah, so I was
like, what is that? Sono, it's just like their fighting style,
I guess yeah. Oh okay.I think it's almost like you were
saying, though, when you cantake something that is not relying on magic
(48:42):
and abilities and like the kind offlashiness of that and still make it artistic
and pretty in that moment, Ithink that takes a really high level of
ability to do that. Yep,all right, what what do you what
do you want to end this specialwith? Like, what are some final
thoughts you want to leave people with? Kension, I would just say that,
you know, if you if you'reour age or older, or even
(49:07):
if you're younger and you like alittle bit older anime that isn't too old,
but was you know, super popularin mainstream in the early two thousands,
late nineties, early two thousands,And if you've seen anything of Kension
and you were always curious about it, and you also like things that are
set in you, like manga andanime that is set in field of Japan,
(49:28):
then I would highly highly recommend italso sticky. It might seem a
little bit like it's not going toget very serious, or it might seem
kind of light and just okay asit starts early on, but once season
two comes around, it gets somuch more intense and gruesome and amazing fights,
(49:51):
amazing animation performances, all of that. And I think too that the
remake in July of the the asfar as I know, it's a remake
of the entire original anime because they'regoing to be able to adapt the the
rest of the manga that people didn'twait for to get animated back then.
Oh, I think that'll get peopleinto the series as well, like want
(50:15):
to go back and watch the original. That's a really good point actually,
that now that they're doing it nowit's done, so they could just do
the whole story that way. Yep. I think there's a lot of stuff
in Tension for Sailor Moon fans toenjoy. And I think that sometimes people
think of Sailor Moon and they onlylike their brain stops at like the pretty
(50:37):
transformation sequences and they forget about thegrittiness of season three. And I think
if you're a Sailor Moon fan wholoves that part of the series or any
of the really more serious moments,Kenshion is definitely going to resonate for you,
especially if you're someone who appreciates thehigher quality art style, because that
is something I remember sticking out tome watching it on I think it was
(51:00):
Adult Swim probably back in the day. There were several other shows on around
it, but Kenshin stuck out tome as being one of like the pretty
ones. Yeah, and I wantto say the one that was nearest to
it would be Tenshi Muyo, whichhas pretty moments, but it was more
like something about tension. Muyo tome just screams like standard Japanese anime.
(51:20):
I don't know why, Yeah,but something about that art style, it's
like it's not bad, it's notgreat, it's just very good. But
yeah, I think there's a lotto dig into here, and I hope
you guys will check it out forsure. By the time this drops,
July may have passed already, soyou should be able to find Do you
know where they're going to be ableto watch the new one? Yeah,
(51:43):
I'm pretty sure it's I mean,if it's not streaming on Crumchy Role,
then it'll be streaming on like someother service in the US. Does it
have a special name. Uh no, it's not gonna Do you mean like
the anime itself? Yeah, becauseyou know how they did Sailor Moon Crystal.
Oh no, I no, Ithink it's just Roney Kenshin. Again.
(52:04):
I would just put in Roney Kensiontwenty twenty three, then in Google
and you guys should find what youneed. All right, Well, thanks
for doing this. I think thisis going to be a fun one for
everybody. Is there anything else youwant to add? Uh? Yeah,
Just one other little thing is thecast that dubbed Kenshin was an LA cast,
and a lot of them are peoplethat are in the Sailor Moon redub
(52:29):
like Dorothy Fond who plays cawdu Is, the redubed voice of On and also
Sir Brennan Pederol Wendy Lee who playedYahiko. Is I mean, of course,
she's using a little boy voice,but she's Queen Serenity in the Redub.
Oh cool. Uh yeah, likea lot a lot of people that
(52:52):
are in Kenshion that are still workingtoday, We're also part of the Redub
in some way. I think that'sreally fun. One of my favorite things
to do with shows like this isif I have a voice actor that I
think does a great job, wheneverI hear them in something else, I'm
like, there they are. Andfor me, the first one I started
(53:13):
picking up on because of how distincther voice is the lady who did Izzy
from Digimon. Do you know whoI'm talking about? Yeah, I've interviewed
her. Mona Marshall. Yeah,her. She was the first one that
I was ever able to really pull, like just by audio, just oh,
that's that one. And I thinkshe just does a fantastic job with
like every character she has. Whoelse has she done that we might know?
(53:37):
Yeah, she was. I meanshe still works today, but she
was kind of like for anime dubsback then. She was kind of like
the woman that did boy characters forother people listening that would probably know a
lot of the same shows. Shewas. Toboe and Wolf's Rain. She
(53:57):
actually played the young version of Kenchinin all of the any time that he
appeared as a little kid. Shewas when and Cowboy Bebop, who's a
that's a one episode character, butit's like she was the plot of the
episode will from and Kio karamal Kitein the dot Hack video game series.
She's Doraiman. People don't know whatDoraiman is. That's a super old still
(54:22):
going today Japanese kid show, andDoraiman is the name of the main It's
like a mascot kind of looking character. And it's like a little blue cat
alien thing that has a helicopter likepropeller on its head. Oh, I
know what you're talking about. Thatthat thing is so funny. But yeah,
she's I mean she's had like hundredsand hundreds of anime and like anime
(54:45):
video game roles. So if you'rea fan of the Vizda, when you
go watch Kenshin, see if youcan clock those characters because we said them
here. But I know you're gonnaforget because I would whoever's listening, you
know, But yeah, see thatwould be a fun game to play and
a fun way to kind of tiethe two together. Have you interviewed.
(55:07):
Who have you interviewed from Kenshin ifyou want to list those? Oh,
yeah, a lot. I've doneRichard Cansino, who played Kenshin in the
TV series Dub and then I've alsodone Shannon Weaver, who played Kenshin in
the the movie in Ova Texas Dubs. I've done Dorothy Fon who played Kawru.
(55:27):
I've done Wen Yu Lee who didYahiko. I've done Lex Lang who
did Snowski. I've done Kirk Thorntonwho did Sayto. I've done Terrence Stone
who did Aushi. Yeah, I'vedone like tons of people who played large
characters in the cast. Okay,let's put one out right now that you
haven't done yet that you would loveto do, just you know, throw
(55:49):
it into the world. Okay,Yeah, I guess the voice of Shishio
Steve Bloom, who is like SteveBloom is like a hugely famous voice actor,
but he's not a bunch of animeand most people know him immediately as
Spike from Cowboy Bebop, the maincharacter. I want it. Okay,
now I'm interested, So I guessyeah, he's he would be like another
(56:13):
wishless person for me. All Right, you hear that Steve Bloom, you're
going to do an interview for Chris. I'm glad he's listening. Could you
imagine if Steve Bloom knew what ourshow was, that would blow my mind?
And of course he doesn't. Whoknows. Maybe he's like a secret
Deep Sailor Moon fan. That's like, Oh, I've been waiting for something
(56:35):
like this. Okay, no,that would be great. I would love
to hear from him. All right, I think we'll leave it there,
and when we when we're going toactually put this out, what I'll probably
do is happen. We hope you'veenjoyed this very special episodisode of Moonstar,
(57:00):
a Slor Moon Podcast. If youliked what you heard today and are interested
in more vintage anime and video gamefocused content, both Sailor Moon related and
otherwise, search your favorite podcast appfor vav Radio and subscribe now. Valvradio
will premiere January of twenty twenty four. For more of Chris, you can
(57:27):
find him on all platforms at ChrismaM A Y e K. For more
of Alex, you can find himon Instagram at Alex Summers SFE. Moonstar,
a Salor Moon podcast, is sponsoredin part by slor Moon Video dot
Com. Shop authentic vhs and DVDsstraight from the nineties today at www dot
(57:52):
slormoon video dot com. Be sureto follow us on YouTube under slor moon
Video, where you can also liststo full episodes of Moon Star. Moonstar
a Sailor moon Podcast is intended forinformational, educational, and entertainment purposes only.
(58:14):
We claim no ownership over any licensedand or copyrighted audio clips, sound
effects, or other materials used duringthe creation of our show. All audio
clips, sound effects, and anyother licensed or copyrighted materials used during the
creation of this show, or anycontent created in relation to Moonstar A Sailor
(58:35):
Moon Podcast belong expressly to the licenseand copyright holders. She left those styles
(59:07):
she made on me to kee IttoStabs, She saga shackeeth to stab or
Little Canada bott ans and then
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