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NEWS: Nobuhiro Watsuki Launches Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc Manga in Spring 2017




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Saku-dono



Joined: 14 Feb 2014
Posts: 801
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:21 am Reply with quote
Instead of doing spinoffs, I wish Watsuki-sensei finally comes out and dare to revive Kenshin. Have a hidden chapter where a westerner doctor comes to Japan and heals Kenshin's tetanus! Lelouch will finally get the revive treatment, Kenshin deserves better!
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Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1425
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:26 am Reply with quote
Saku-dono wrote:
Instead of doing spinoffs, I wish Watsuki-sensei finally comes out and dare to revive Kenshin. Have a hidden chapter where a westerner doctor comes to Japan and heals Kenshin's tetanus! Lelouch will finally get the revive treatment, Kenshin deserves better!


Kenshin didn't die from illness in the manga. That only happened in the Reflections (Seisou-hen) OVA.
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DQBunny



Joined: 18 Aug 2009
Posts: 63
Location: Mechanicsburg, PA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:31 am Reply with quote
Saku-dono wrote:
Instead of doing spinoffs, I wish Watsuki-sensei finally comes out and dare to revive Kenshin. Have a hidden chapter where a westerner doctor comes to Japan and heals Kenshin's tetanus! Lelouch will finally get the revive treatment, Kenshin deserves better!


This is a Kenshin revival. This is was the Hokkaido arc that Watsuki had planned to do but decided to end the series with Jinchuu. This ad from the magazine shows a good bit of the main cast as of the end of Jinchuu.

The original plan for the arc was spoiler[supposedly to follow Soujiro, Fuji, and Saito in Hokkaido after the events of the Jinchuu arc.] Watsuki did talk about it some in the last volume of the main Kenshin series, but I don't have my volume at hand to see what he exactly said about it.

Zhou-BR wrote:

Kenshin didn't die from illness in the manga. That only happened in the Reflections (Seisou-hen) OVA.


Let's just pretend that OVA never, EVER happened.


Last edited by DQBunny on Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:35 am; edited 1 time in total
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Saku-dono



Joined: 14 Feb 2014
Posts: 801
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:34 am Reply with quote
Yeah, I was a bit vague. What I want is for Watsuki-sensei to stand up and disown that heartbreaking ending. Have him rescue Kenshin from the blight Reflection put into our poor swordsman by making a clear continuation where Kenshin was completely healed. I'm still so bitter even after seeing it a dozen years ago, I just can't move on to that. Mad
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DQBunny



Joined: 18 Aug 2009
Posts: 63
Location: Mechanicsburg, PA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:37 am Reply with quote
Saku-dono wrote:
Yeah, I was a bit vague. What I want is for Watsuki-sensei to stand up and disown that heartbreaking ending. Have him rescue Kenshin from the blight Reflection put into our poor swordsman by making a clear continuation where Kenshin was completely healed. I'm still so bitter even after seeing it a dozen years ago, I just can't move on to that. Mad


If it helps, Watsuki wasn't a fan of that ending as well. Here's what he said about it when questioned at Anime Expo in 2002:

"About the OVA, I didn’t say anything about that. I just let (Hys..), the director, run with it. If I had kept drawing the manga, I would have had to draw Kenshin’s death. But I felt that Kenshin deserved a happy ending, he thinks that entertainment should have a happy ending, but the director preferred the tragic ending. So it is up to you to decide which ending you prefer."
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scriver058



Joined: 21 May 2006
Posts: 127
Location: NY
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:47 am Reply with quote
I enjoyed Reflections, clearly it's not meant to be taken as canon, but as a sequel to Trust & Betrayal/Tsuioku-hen it fits. It's beautifully animated with a great soundtrack, and so far it's the closest we've come to getting the Jinchuu arc animated, however truncated it was. Yeah, it takes liberties with some of the characters and goes against things established in the manga and anime, but it's a well done alternate ending to the Kenshin saga.
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ittoujuu



Joined: 25 Sep 2009
Posts: 164
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 12:54 pm Reply with quote
Well, consider me stoked! RK remains my favorite manga after all these years (sentimental nostalgia, plus it's just really good and got me interested in the history of the period too), and I've been following Watsuki's career ever since.

I'm actually a fan of Watsuki's more delicate linework, best seen during the Kyoto Arc and earlier parts of the Jinchuu arc. It was during the Jinchuu arc that you could see him developing a more sleek art style with bolder, thicker lines, but it still worked within the story. Going forward, though, I've tended to feel that his artwork has lost some of that elegance I liked about it, with his designs in stuff like Busou Renkin and Embalming looking really angular and flat. You can see it for yourself if you compare the Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration artwork with artwork from any given point in the Kyoto Arc of the original series. I hope, for the sake of consistency if nothing else, that he pushes this Hokkaido Arc closer to the style he penned the series in.

Of course, I also hope he doesn't over-simplify and truncate too much - if I had to call out one fault of his in his more recent years, it's that he doesn't seem to want to let a plot simmer and build up - he wants to get to the action or the payoff right away, which kind of hamstrings him in terms of being able to create good drama.

Overall, though, I'll be looking forward to this with great anticipation, and hoping it'll be a worthy continuation of these characters' stories.
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animalia555



Joined: 12 Jun 2004
Posts: 467
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:22 pm Reply with quote
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I had seen the foreshadowing for the Hokkaido arc and would love to see it play out, on the other hand the Jinchuu arc was the symbolically perfect note to end the series on and I am not sure If bringing the series back will cheapen things or not.
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SaitoHajime101



Joined: 31 Mar 2013
Posts: 283
PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:30 pm Reply with quote
I honestly felt the ending of Reflections was appropriate for the type of life Kenshin lived. He hardly, if ever, thought about himself and what his wants were during his life of wandering. Add to the fact that despite being forgiven by Tomoe, the killing of all those in war still gnaws at him. Disease from wartime wounds was common in that era, so the death was a more realistic and moving part of his character. He can try to change and heal wounds of the world, but he can't heal physical ailments. Regardless of what we want as readers for one of our favorite heroes, sometimes a hero falls from something less than heroic.

With that said, I'm a huge Kenshin fan (have been since I started reading manga in 2002/3) and I'm pretty stoked for this. However, I'm skeptical of Kenshin being anything of a main character for this arc. It definitely have to be someone who still has stories to tell. Kenshin's issues were mainly wrapped after Jinchuu.
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Kalessin



Joined: 15 Aug 2007
Posts: 931
PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 8:49 pm Reply with quote
DQBunny wrote:
Let's just pretend that OVA never, EVER happened.


OVA. What OVA? Trust and Betrayal was the only Kenshin OVA that was ever made, right? Very Happy

As for more Kenshin, that would definitely be cool, but at the same time, doing it at this point definitely makes it seem like Watsuki simply can't come up with anything else good at this point. Regardless, I'm only interested in more Rurouni Kenshin focusing on Kenshin and not spin-off stuff. Fortunately, it sounds like this might actually be more, proper Kenshin instead of a true spin-off.
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SamuraiNinjaDragon



Joined: 16 Feb 2015
Posts: 76
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:34 am Reply with quote
As much as I am happy to see Rurouni Kenshin back for more, I feel like the manga ended just right, so there really was no need for more. Also, if we can't even get the Jinchuu Arc animated, what makes anyone believe the Hokkaido Arc will be animated? I'm starting to wonder if Japan will ever give the Rurouni Kenshin anime a reboot/remake that covers the ENTIRE manga INCLUDING the Jinchuu Arc and hopefully this new Hokkaido Arc. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for more RK and hope the new arc will do well. I just hope that Japan will finally give RK a chance. A guy can dream, right? :/
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animalia555



Joined: 12 Jun 2004
Posts: 467
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 4:11 pm Reply with quote
SamuraiNinjaDragon wrote:
As much as I am happy to see Rurouni Kenshin back for more, I feel like the manga ended just right, so there really was no need for more. Also, if we can't even get the Jinchuu Arc animated, what makes anyone believe the Hokkaido Arc will be animated? I'm starting to wonder if Japan will ever give the Rurouni Kenshin anime a reboot/remake that covers the ENTIRE manga INCLUDING the Jinchuu Arc and hopefully this new Hokkaido Arc. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for more RK and hope the new arc will do well. I just hope that Japan will finally give RK a chance. A guy can dream, right? :/
I know what you mean, as much as I want more it ended on such a seemingly perfect note that I can't help but feer it will be messed up.
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SamuraiNinjaDragon



Joined: 16 Feb 2015
Posts: 76
PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:44 am Reply with quote
Same here. :/ I doubt Watsuki-sensei will mess it up but since he hasn't done the actual story in so many years (not counting the remakes or side stories of the manga he has done recently), I wonder how well he will do. I hope the Hokkaido arc will do well since he has mentioned before that he wanted to do it but never did it until now. Maybe if Hokkaido does well, Japan will finally say "you know? let's give Rurouni Kenshin a reboot/remake and animate the Jinchuu arc before animating the Hokkaido arc". I hope this will happen, but who knows? :/
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