Oh my goodness you all have no idea how excited I was when I saw this trailer on YouTube. I thought maybe it was a fake one at first (like the April Fool's Legend of Zelda trailer -_-). Fortunately, it is not a fake and it's totally going to rock. For those of you who haven't seen the trailer yet, it's right below.
Aside from the fact that Rurouni Kenshin is an awesome story, there are several great things that I see in the trailer alone. First and foremost the audio is still in Japanese (notice the Warner Bros. logo at the beginning). Don't be fooled, the film isn't being distributed by Warner Bros., it's actually being produced by them. For Warner Bros. (an American studio giant) to actually produce a film like Rurouni Kenshin all on their own is a real tip of the hat to anime and manga's cultural influence here in the West. Another tip of the hat is the fact that the production itself is entirely Japanese. No American director, actors, etc. It looks like Rurouni Kenshin will be a world-wide release made soley by Japanese cinema, which has been overlooked far too long in my opinion.
The second awesome thing I see is the wardrobe. Typically with comic book movies (both American and Japanese) I've found that the costumes are one of two extremes. They are either nothing like the original comic, or they're so similar that they look cheap and cosplay. Rurouni Kenshin has achieved something rare. They've managed to translate from comic to live action seamlessly. The costumes are all dead ringers for their manga counterparts, but don't look so ridiculous that they scream costume.
Great thing number 3? American kids are finally gonna learn some history without knowing it. For those of you who haven't seen or read Rurouni Kenshin, it's set shortly after the Meiji Restoration in Japan and tells the story of an assassin from the Bakumatsu who changes his ways and tries to make up for his past deeds. The Kenshin character is a great vehicle to learn about the very fast and large changes Japan underwent during this time. Kenshin is very much a moderate. While he doesn't necessarily let go of the old ways, he understands that those like him must step back and let the new generation take over. Many characters from the series are based on real people like Saito Hajime, who was a real samurai turned police man and educator in his later years. Kenshin himself is based upon the mysterious assassin, Kawakami Gensai. The upshot to the movie being in Japanese is that people will hear the real vocabulary associated with these people. One of my biggest annoyances with the show (not the manga) was the translation of some of the words and concepts. Kenshin is often referred to as "Battosai the Manslayer" in the English anime adaptation. This is a poor translation. Kenshin's real title is "Hitokiri Battosai". Battosai is just a warrior name, but "hitokiri" essentially means assassin. Manslayer sounds like a singular title given to a particular assassin, but really it's just a occupational title. Also, words like Shinsengumi don't appear too often in the anime, but are rampant in the manga. Learning about the Shinsengumi confuses most Westerners because they have a hard time understanding that there really weren't good guys or bad guys, just people with different ideas of how the country should be run. There are several other manga titles that are sympathetic to the Shinsengumi, so this film should be a great opportunity for viewers to learn a little bit of history that is often overlooked.
Oh, you thought I was done? I saved the best for last. As a live action movie, Rurouni Kenshin promises to deliver some of the coolest, most awesome, kick-ass sword/fight scenes you could ever hope to see. In the story, Kenshin is a master of the fictional sword fighting style "Hiten Misturugi-ryu". This style calls for speed, agility, master swordsmanship and a lot of aerial moves that will leave your jaw on the floor. Of course, this style is physically impossible (or at the very least impractical) but for a movie it should be a treat. From what I can see in the trailer, they've kept the story pretty well intact. We see characters from the manga like Sanosuke, Jin-E, Yamagata and Saito. I only hope characters like Yahiko and Aoshi are present as well.
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