Rurouni Kenshin is getting a new TV anime project, as announced during Jump Festa 2022. Studio LIDENFILMS will be animating the new series. A teaser PV was also revealed:
It’s still not clear if this new Rurouni Kenshin anime is a sequel or a reboot. The series is based on a manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki, which ran from 1994 to 1999 in Weekly Shonen Jump. A direct sequel to the series, Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc, started serialization in 2017. Watsuki’s wife, Kaworu Kurosaki, is also involved in the project. The sequel was briefly on hiatus (February-June 2018) after Watsuki was charged for possession of child pornography in 2017.
Gallop and Studio DEEN animated the adaptation, which aired from 1996 to 1999. Multiple manga side-stories and OVAs also exist, as well as a movie. The franchise also has a live-action adaptation, which contains 5 movies. The first one came out in 2012, while the latest premiered in 2021.
Viz Media licensed the manga in English and describes the plot as:
One hundred and forty years ago in Kyoto, with the coming of the American “Black Ships,” there arose a warrior who, felling men with his bloodstained blade, gained the name Hitokiri, manslayer! His killer blade helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu era and slashed open the progressive age known as Meiji. Then he vanished, and with the flow of years, became legend.
Source: Jump Festa 2022, Official Website
©Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha
