Rurouni Kenshin Season 2 – 04

「野心家の肖像」 (Yashinka no Shouzou)
“Portrait of the Ambitious”

I would say the Kyoto Arc, maybe along with Chimera Ant, tops all shounen arcs in terms of badass supporting characters running around doing badass stuff. Seriously, we haven’t even seen the top of the tip of this iceberg. But it still comes down to the best protagonist around and maybe the best arc antagonist. Shishio, Kenshin. In Himura Kenshin Watsuki Nobuhiro created a hero with an incredible backstory, a life overflowing with pathos. And in Shishio Makoto, his perfect foil. His photo negative. I’ve never heard Watsuki comment specifically on it, but I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if he conceived both of them at the same time.

Saitou is part of that rogues gallery, no question about it. Somewhere in-between hero and villain, but he and Kenshin are on the same side this time. His arrival in the village is fortuitous for Misao and Eiji, but he brings with him his usual abundance of decorum and tact. He also brings the information that Eiji’s brother (Eiichiriou) was acting as his agent. Saitou betrays no remorse over his subordinate’s fate, calling him an idiot for not waiting for his arrival. This incenses Misao, who has no idea how closely her own truth overlaps with this story.

The villagers themselves live in terror of Shishio’s man, Senkaku. When Kenshin goes to cut Eiji’s parents down they intervene to stop him, on the grounds that Senkaku will punish them if he does. Saitou is again full of nothing but disdain for these people pursuing survival at the expense of dignity and pride, but that’s easy for him to say. His point is being made to Kenshin by events. Not only Shingetsu but ten villages in total have fallen to Shishio, he says. The police can’t reclaim them, and using the army to quell domestic resistance would signal weakness to the newly (to Japan) important Western powers. Most importantly, government officials aren’t wiling to take up the fight for feat of ending up like Ookubo Toshimichi.

This is all prelude to the first meeting between the two hitoriki, the light and the dark. Many were (and new viewers are, no doubt) surprised that Shishio and Ken would meet so early in the story, But this is a long dance between the two of them, and these are merely the first steps. Shishio – enjoying a soak in the healing hot springs with the beautiful Komagata Yumi (happily, played by the superb Tomatsu Haruka) – sends Soujirou Seta to greet his two guests. Soujirou was the one who assassinated Ookubo and of course Kenshin knows this, but he presents himself unarmed and professes to be there only as a guide.

Shishio talks a grand game, to be sure. He claims not to be vengeful against those who gave him his disfiguring burns, claiming instead to be grateful for the things they remind him of. He also claims not to have had any interest in power until, paradoxically, the inability of the Meiji government to take down his “half-dead” self convinced him that they were too weak to be allowed to govern. He presents a seductive vision of a “stronger” Japan, insulated from foreign influence, rewarding the strongest and giving them the power. Certain political philosophies never really change, that’s for sure.

Kenshin is obviously not receptive, and wouldn’t be even if the treatment off Shingetsu hadn’t hardened his hostility towards his kouhai. He suggests the pair of them settle things then and there; Shishio declares that he doesn’t mind the idea of fighting but he’d rather do it in the historical capital. He then unleashes Senkaku (Satoshi Tsuruoka) to take on Kenshin. Soujrou and Saiitou remain on the sidelines feeling each other out. As for Shishio, he immediately stops his braggadocio and concentrates on the spectacle in front of him.

Make no mistake, Senkaku is a sacrificial pawn. Kenshin is a mystery to Shishio, a man about whom he knows disturbingly little. Can the hitor iki, in obscurity for a decade and supposedly now living as a peace-loving ronin, still be the fierce Battousai of legend? That’s what Senkaku is supposed to reveal, but Kenshin is only too aware of that. He lets the oversized bullethead slowly weaken his own body, revealing one of the Hiten Mitsurugi techniques – hell, merely drawing his sword – only at the very end, the fight a foregone conclusion.

Obviously, this is a watershed episode for Rurouni Kenshin 2023. And it’s one of the best of the new adaptation in every sense – the music is a more arresting presence, and the choreography of Kenshin’s slow dismantling of Senkaku exquisite. I remain somewhat skeptical of both Furukawa Makoto as Shishio and Satoshi Hino as Saitou – they’re more conventional choices that I would have preferred. But here, they were on-point. It’s a highly encouraging introduction to one of the greatest pairings in shounen, in one of its greatest stories ever told.

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