Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Arc will be adapted into anime, as announced during Jump Festa ’24. The series is the second season of Rurouni Kenshin reboot and it will premiere in 2024. Check out the announcement trailer:
The first season of the Rurouni Kenshin reboot anime ended on December 14, 2023, after a total of 24 episodes. The anime ended with Kenshin leaving the Kamiya Dojo to go back to Kyoto, where Shishio Makoto, his successor as a cold-hearted assassin during the Bakumatsu is currently running amok. Kenshin going back to Kyoto, the land of bloodshed and chaos is against the wishes of the ones who dearly love and know him as a “Rurouni.”
Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Arc is the longest arc in the series: the story takes place over the course of 3 months. For the first time in 10 years, Kenshin once again needs to awaken the “Battosai” within him, which killed countless people during the Bakumatsu and earned him the title of the “Legendary Slayer.” Episode 24 of Rurouni Kenshin (2023) also revealed the cast for the new relevant characters for the Kyoto Arc:
- Makoto Furukawa as Makoto Shishio
- Daiki Yamashita as Seta Sojiro
- Aya Yamane as Misao Makimachi
- Yuichi Nakamura as Hiko Seijuro
Rurouni Kenshin (2023) premiered on July 6, 2023. Hideyo Yamamoto directed the series at studio LIDENFILMS. You can watch the anime on Amazon Prime Video and Crunchyroll. The anime was originally a manga series written by Nobuhiro Watsuki. Shueisha published it from 1994 to 1999 in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. The same publisher is serializing a sequel, titled Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc. Kaworu Kurosaki (Watsuki’s wife) is highly involved in the series.
The manga had its first anime adaptation in 1996-1999 by studio Gallop and DEEN, along with several OVA series. The anime during that time only animated the Tokyo and Kyoto arcs, leaving the Jinchu arc, the third and final arc unanimated. The franchise also had 5 live-action adaptations, which adapted the whole manga series:
- Rurouni Kenshin: Origins (2012)
- Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)
- Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)
- Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)
- Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)
Viz Media published the original Rurouni Kenshin manga series in English. The Kyoto arc will start on volume 8 of the manga the plot is described as:
In the 11th year of Meiji, on the day marked in the Western calendar as May 14th, time once again begins to flow. The shocking midday murder of Department of Internal Affairs Chief Ôûkubo a fait accompli, Kenshin leaves for Kyoto, scene of chaos and bloodshed–against the wishes of nearly everyone who knows him as the gentle “rurouni.” Awaiting him there is Shishio Makoto, the hitokiri who replaced the cold-eyed assassin Himura Battôsai who forswore further killing and took up the reversed-blade sakabatô. But does Kenshin go to Kyoto for a duel…or for a death-match?!
Source: Official Website and Jump Festa 2024
© Nobuhiro Watsuki/Shueisha, “Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story” Production Committee
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