Score: A-

I thought that was a good start. This is going to be coming from someone that just plain missed the original so no idea how well this is going to hold up for people that were fans of the original. Remakes can be a real hit or miss. At least it feels like this one is being given respect in terms of animation and the voice talent. Can’t exactly go wrong with Rie Takahashi voicing Kaoru and Souma Saitou seems like a solid choice for Kenshin. But the proof of quality will come as the story is further revealed. And this one seems to be set to tell a good one. It allowed us to have both a dramatic opening scene and a very badass ending scene. I’ll be interested in at least paying attention to see the fight scenes to say nothing about the interactions between the leads.

I’m sure we’ll get a look at this fight sometime

It’s times like these that makes clear what an impact franchises like Fate have had on me. Pretty sure we started out with Kenshin being confronted by Hajime and Okita Souji. I know it’s awful to say, but one thought at that point was “oh right, Okita was a guy.”

That silly point put aside; I did think the introduction was solid. It really made clear how insanely deadly Kenshin is. No wonder he’s actively going around with a sword that’s blunt on the outer edge. He’s already going to break bones and brutally injure people. If he uses a regular sword, it will take hours to gather all the body parts and clean up the blood. Especially good at the end since I don’t think Kaoru wants to see her home turned into a scene from a horror film. Will be interesting to see who if anyone really pressures Kenshin during the show. He’s not exactly eager to get into any fights. But you know trouble just won’t leave that guy alone.

Got to make a girl like that happy

In terms of setting things up quickly between the leads I think this was fine. No question that Kaoru started falling for him quickly. But it kind of helps that he both saved her life and is a good-looking guy. Though even she raises the question of how old he is supposed to be! But not sure how old she is either, so I guess that side of it remains up in the air.

Now I wouldn’t say her basically asking him to stay at the end was solely based on that though. She lost all her students, her father is dead, and the only other person she’s had around this whole time ended up being a scumbag trying to rip her off. No shock that she’d want the only person that she has left to at least stick around. Even if Kenshin has a point and it’s not a good thing for him to linger there for too long. If his identity is revealed, then…she’s got problems. A legitimate concern considering he only knocked those guys out.

She’s good when serious too

Curious how things will play out for Kaoru herself. Her trusting and good nature was shown in the best and worst ways in this episode. She was right to put faith in Kenshin and that faith ended up saving her from losing everything. But it also let a slimeball get close enough to her to cause so much trouble in the first place. Heck, even the main character basically called out her family’s sword style as naivety. It wasn’t outright said that it ended up getting her father killed when he stepped onto a real battlefield, but the idea is out there. The positive side is Kenshin saying it’d be nice to believe in that naïve lie. Which is certainly one way to spin things positively. But it still ends up calling it a naïve lie XD. Will she be able to make her lie the truth? Who knows.

Nice little fight

The plot in the episode was handled well. I only really started suspecting the creepy old guy when he immediately walked off after Kaoru revealed how much she’d learned through her investigations. His dismissal of Kenshin earlier just seemed like he was an idiot. That guy still saved Kaoru’s life. He’s clearly not that big of a failure at life! Heck, I’m surprised he wasn’t pissed off at his brother for nearly killing their meal ticket. Not like the land was realistically going to go to him if she died. I don’t care how far along his plans were at that point.

That guy made some poor life choices

Overall, I’d say this was a solid start. It was intense at the start and got awesome when Kenshin got rolling at the end. Just a good starting example of his power and ability. He’s a swordsman with a need for speed! Can’t say anything bad either about the satisfying sounds of him smashing all his opponents with that blunt side of the sword. I will admit that it’s going to take a bit to get used to Kenshin’s way of speaking. It’s certainly fitting for the setting and I’m good with that. But it’s not exactly a style of speech you get in many anime these days. So, I’ll need a bit to get settled with it. There’s so many shows out that I probably won’t be able to cover this one either. But as someone fresh to it I thought this was good.