This review may contain spoilers
Hollow, flat, lacks depth and life of the anime
As a longtime lover of the anime, I’ve tried to watch this first movie several times, and I get that they don’t follow the anime timeline or stories exactly and that’s fine, but what I’m looking for is more of the vibe, the soul, the essence of the anime. And like many live action movie versions of great anime’s (My Happy Marriage is another example of this), this live action movie fails to capture the magic and essence of the anime. It’s not about the story or the plot points, this live action version is like kenshin with no soul. Don’t get me wrong, Takeru Satoh has done an incredible job playing Himura Kenshin, and he is the only character worth watching and embodies some of the soul of the anime. He has that purity, innocence, but the deadly strength. The rest are hollow, flat, and very one note. Kaoru, Yahiko, Sanosuke, heck even Jinei- how is it that all of them are like flat 2d puppets that lack the depth of the anime? Kind of ironic right? The “real” human actors -when they try to mimic the depth of a 2d animation, they fail miserably and look hollow and flat.
Why does Kaoru let Kenshin get arrested even though he saved her and the school from the rowdy men? At the very least, she would need him for protection. It’s obviously not in the original story, and is totally useless, and just makes her look like an ungrateful person. So weird. The scene with Jinei is so lackluster- she overcomes the trance in 2 seconds and they’re like “Uh oh the spell broke!” It’s so lame!
The villain is wearing this weird fake Halloween teeth on his lower row of teeth and with that haircut and that ridiculous pompous background music theme, he just comes across as a joker. A joker is fine- the anime has plenty of that, but like I said, it is hollow.
The music of the Kenshin anime series is like the heart and soul of it- the music breathes life into it. The music here is again hollow, adds nothing to the movie at all. People rated these movies highly for their star power and keep marveling at “wow it’s one of the best anime adaptations!” If this is the best, then I don’t want to know what the worst is. I don’t plan to find out. Stick with the anime. It has soul that these movies don’t have.
Why does Kaoru let Kenshin get arrested even though he saved her and the school from the rowdy men? At the very least, she would need him for protection. It’s obviously not in the original story, and is totally useless, and just makes her look like an ungrateful person. So weird. The scene with Jinei is so lackluster- she overcomes the trance in 2 seconds and they’re like “Uh oh the spell broke!” It’s so lame!
The villain is wearing this weird fake Halloween teeth on his lower row of teeth and with that haircut and that ridiculous pompous background music theme, he just comes across as a joker. A joker is fine- the anime has plenty of that, but like I said, it is hollow.
The music of the Kenshin anime series is like the heart and soul of it- the music breathes life into it. The music here is again hollow, adds nothing to the movie at all. People rated these movies highly for their star power and keep marveling at “wow it’s one of the best anime adaptations!” If this is the best, then I don’t want to know what the worst is. I don’t plan to find out. Stick with the anime. It has soul that these movies don’t have.
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