Ethan Gach. Kotaku weekend editor. You can reach him at ethan. On the front lines of the war, there is a little girl. Blond hair, blue eyes, and porcelain white skin, she commands her squad with lisping voice. The US Department of Defense is struggling to get its arms around all of the new security issues that have come with our current technological explosion. One. Elon Musk just announced the launch of a new website, x. The billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX made the announcement on Twitter at 121am Pacific time this. Download Samurai X - Reflection Movie Now ' title='Download Samurai X - Reflection Movie Now ' />Kotaku. Track Fast Driving Rave Up Artist ESPRIT Album 2. Electronica. Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff were listening to at the moment. Himura Kenshin Wikipedia. Himura Kenshin, known as Kenshin Himura in the English language animedubs,5 is a fictional character and protagonist of the Rurouni Kenshinmanga created by Nobuhiro Watsuki. Kenshins story is set in a fictional version of Japan during the Meiji period. Kenshin is a former legendary assassin known as Hitokiri Battsai note 1 rendered as Battousai the Manslayer in the Media Blasters English anime dub,5 as Battousai The Slasher in the Sony English dub,8 and as The Unsheather on the Japanese kanzenban covers, more properly named Himura Battsai. At the end of the Bakumatsu, he becomes a wandering swordsman, now wielding a sakabat, literally reverse blade sworda katana that has the cutting edge on the inwardly curved side of the sword, thus being nearly incapable of killing. Kenshin wanders the Japanese countryside offering protection and aid to those in need as atonement for the murders he once committed as an assassin. Download Samurai X - Reflection Movie Now ' title='Download Samurai X - Reflection Movie Now ' />In Tokyo, he meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru, who invites him to live in her dojo, despite learning about Kenshins past. Throughout the series, Kenshin begins to establish lifelong relationships with many people, including ex enemies, while dealing with his fair share of enemies, new and old. When creating Kenshin, Watsuki designed him to be the physical opposite of Hiko Seijr, a character that appears in his first one shot manga, Crescent Moon in the Warring States a character with the same name appears in Rurouni Kenshin as Kenshins swordsmanship teacher. As a result, he was given a feminine appearance with long red hair as well as cross shaped scar in his face. He was also based on the hitokiri. Kawakami Gensai. In Japanese, Kenshin has been voiced by Megumi Ogata for the drama CDs and Mayo Suzukaze for the animated adaptations. In the live action films he was portrayed by Takeru Satoh. For the English dubs of the series, Richard Cansino voiced him in the first anime, J. Shanon Weaver replaced him for original video animation OVA, and the duology film New Kyoto Arc. Micah Solusod did the dub for the live action film trilogy. Kenshins character was well received by fans, with his holding the top spot in all reader popularity polls for the series. Critics of the series praised his strong personality and backstory which most critics found appealing. However, though some complained about his development during the OVA series while his role in the prequel OVAs were praised, his role in the ones that created a new story arc resulted in criticism by various critics including Watsuki himself. Satohs acting in the live action film received positive comments due to how he fits the character as well as his fight choreography. Hop Review. A variety of collectibles based on Kenshin have been created, including figurines, key chains, plushies, and replicas of his sakabat sword. Creation and conceptionedit. Kawakami Gensai served as a model for Kenshins character. Manga author Nobuhiro Watsuki discovered and used the story of Kawakami Gensai, a hitokiri, literally manslayer executed by the Meiji Government. According to Watsuki, when he found that Kawakami maintained a duty to his dead comrades, he decided to create the title character. Since Watsukis debut work contained a tall, black haired man in showy armor, he wanted to make a character completely opposite to the debut character the new character ended up coming out like a girl. According to Watsuki, he used no real motif when creating Kenshin and placed a cross shaped scar on his face not knowing what else to do. Watsuki enjoys drawing Kenshin due to how he tends to sacrifice himself for others. While writing the series, once he thought Kenshin should think more about his future since he is more connected to his past. He also stated he would like to be as Kenshin but he does not believe their lives style match. During the development of the series pilot chapter, Rurouni, Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story, Watsuki and his editor argued over Kenshins speech patterns, settling for a slangy one. For the final version of the first Romantic Story, Watsuki adjusted the dialogue in his view, he made Kenshin sound more as I prefer him now. Nevertheless, Kenshin was concerned about how Kenshins manner abruptly changed when facing his opponent. Watsuki added Kenshins trademark oro as a placeholder to be an expression of the English speech disfluency huh. Watsuki notes that he was surprised at how well it caught on, and how much he ended up having Kenshin use the sound during the series. Watsuki also planned to make Kenshin more 3. Watsuki based most of Kenshins abilities on a real swordsman of the Tokugawa period named Matsubayashi Henyasai ja, who was skilled in acrobatic techniques. However, one of Kenshins moves where he stops an enemys flamethrower by rotating his sword received multiple complaints with Watsuki admitting the move as somewhat out of place and not really organic to his world. By early publication of Rurouni Kenshin, Watsuki was unsure whether or not Kenshin and Kamiya Kaoru would become lovers in future chapters. Sagara Sanosuke was created to be Kenshins best friend who would punch him order to make him retain his composure. However, Watsuki did not think the idea worked as much as possibly. During his fight against Shishio Makotos army, Kenshin is given a new sword with a sheath made of wood. Though it is more difficult to draw, Watsuki decided to redesign the sword to make it look like the first one Kenshin had in the series. For the final fight between Kenshin and Shishio, Watsuki admitted he expressed more joy in drawing Shishio than Kenshin. During this arc and mostly the final fight between Kenshin and Shishios fight Watsuki kept listening to the song In The Blue Sky from the video game Virtual On the songs title was used in the final chapter of the Kyoto arc. Additionally, the final shot of Kenshin returning to Kaorus dojo was inspired by the final shot of the Rurouni Kenshin animes first opening theme Sobakasu by Judy and Mary. In the next and final arc of the manga, the story took a darker tone as most of the characters believed Kaoru was killed by Yukishiro Enishi which made Kenshin question his own way of living and escape to a village of wanderers. Watsuki did not enjoy angst in Kenshin so his friend Myjin Yahiko took the place as the series protagonist until Kenshin recovered. In order to make Kenshin recover, Watsuki introduced Tomoes father, who is simply referred as Geezer, who assists him in finding an answer to atone for his sins. Once Kenshin recovered, he runs back to the city in order to save Yahiko from Enishis former comrade, Kujiranami Hygo. The fight was originally planned to last longer than the one chapter shot but due to difficulties in drawing explosions Kujinarami made with his weapons, the fight ended with Kenshin cutting Kujinaramis weapon. In this arcs climax, Watsuki kept listening to the song Hurry Go Round by late musician hide which felt it suited the relationship between Enishi as well as Kenshin but in his darker persona. The author also commented he would like to have given both Kenshin and Enishis characters a bigger contrast. A reader also asked Watsuki whether Kenshin could defeat his rival Sait Hajime since they never got a final duel. Watsuki responded, saying the two are equally matched but the result might depend whether or not Kenshin had something to protect. At the end of the series, Kenshin appears with short hair. Initially, Watsuki had planned to make his hair shorter before the end however, he found this to be similar to the character Multi in To Heart. Additionally, Himura Kenji was introduced in the finale as the son of Kenshin and Kaoru even though the character was clich Watsuki felt that Kenji had to appear.