#hyrk

I’ve recently posted an update as the news broke about Nobuhiro Watsuki. This was after conversations with HYRK’s main admin @Whiteplum, a few hours after her decision to close down HYRK for good. As of writing this, the blog is still open for people to view and remain updated on any more news but in the meantime both her and I have received messages from loyal RK fans - many expressing disappointment and sadness to see us go, and others that have calling us selfish and condemning our decision as damaging to the fandom. I want to write this post to make our stance very clear. 

This will be the last post I make on the topic of Nobuhiro Watsuki and for the foreseeable future, the last post I will make about Rurouni Kenshin so if you have any opinions on the closing of the blog or the cessation of production on any of my Hiten Encyclopedia projects, you will be referred back to this post. 

Rurouni Kenshin has been in our lives for more than a decade. I can speak for myself that my daily life is insanity. I am currently working on a short film which is a lot of hard work. I have to get ready to move across states, deal with the stress of getting work in the field I want to get work in, a wife,  and so on, but even in adulthood more than 10+ years later, Dragonball and Rurouni Kenshin remain cornerstones that define my life. These stories have been incredibly moving, poignant, and genuinely wise - the themes are usually so deep that I recite some lines to myself in adulthood when I get overwhelmed. This series will always be special to me, and I know I can say the same for @Whiteplum and a majority of the followers of both myself and HYRK.

But this isn’t about Rurouni Kenshin anymore. This isn’t about Nobuhiro Watsuki either. His act is disgusting and deplorable, but let’s not suffer delusions: the illegal industry and practice he indulges in only exists because we live in a world unfortunate enough to have a market for it, a market which he is/was an active patron of. This “industry” makes a profit off exploiting young children in the most hideous of ways and for that, I hope he receives justice.

As creatives, and as well as hosts and contributors to a fandom that actively celebrates work that provides a living for this man, we have both concluded that it’s best for us to bow out and step away from platforms that, at the very least, indirectly supported this man monetarily. 

We DO NOT condemn anyone who chooses to remain in the fandom. We understand that Rurouni Kenshin largely exists independently of Watsuki and his actions. I believe that it’s a personal decision whether or not one should continue in this fandom after recent events, but I also believe we are entitled to that decision ourselves. We do not actively wish to promote, discuss, give a platform to, or associate ourselves with a product in which it can be presumed to have been used to fund illicit acts that come from the exploitation of children and we will step away for the time being. It is an issue we’re both passionate about, and we both feel it is our responsibility to make this decision for our respective blogs. 

Hello Everyone. I’m aware that I promised a huge filmmaking update and I really really did write the post. There is a problem though: It is HUGE. I hadn’t realized exactly how much I wanted to say about each topic. Even going over the basics briefly took up enormous time and space and when I proof read it, I found it difficult to read because it was so dense, if you’re unfamiliar with the subject, you’ll forget the section you just read when reading the next because it’s so dense that it’s almost beating you over the head with info. 

In the wake of this, I decided to think long and hard on how to distribute this information without it being so clustered, but still saying exactly what I want to say and I came up with a solution: 

This post , instead of being three parts like I had originally planned, will be broken up to a series where I can talk about each section with proper respect and detail and it’d be easier to read. I already have enough material for 4 posts of these which will be distributed weekly so you guys can have some weekly content. Starting Sunday, I’ll have an introduction up as well as an outline of what the series will talk about exactly, what film grammar is, and the basics in minor detail before getting into it. 

If you want to help and contribute with gifs, images, edits, and whatnot, and you have the time, I’d love to receive help from you all and everyone will receive proper credit, so if you have anything you’d like to offer, hit that message button! 

Hello everyone and welcome to the first portion of a new 3 part series. I’d like to take this moment to explain precisely what this is and what to expect in the future! This is a project I am very excited about and one that I have been planning for a really long time. After months and months of research, I’ve finally have enough information (and confidence) to go ahead and carry out exactly what’s going on here! 

Just as the title mentions, this is the first part of a new three part series of posts centered around the film grammar behind the fight sequences of Rurouni Kenshin’s live action trilogy. If successful, I will launch into the largest project I’ve ever done, which would be a fully detailed analysis of everything RK in terms of filmmaking. I plan on releasing each part on a weekly schedule as I will go through an extensive revising and editing process as well as draft high quality gif files and explanations for each section of these breakdowns.

The goal behind doing this is to deepen the appreciation of the Rurouni Kenshin films, as well as film in general. After all, love it or hate it, Rurouni Kenshin has made a cultural statement for two years (2012-2014) in a row with three successful live action film adaptations of a manga series and has become an international phenomenon and this is partly due to the thing everyone loves: The action sequences! So what is there to talk about exactly? Here’s an overview of the next two posts in sequence:

         Filmmaking and the composition of an action sequence

This will be a breakdown of the various components that make up an action sequence in general and how to spot a good one by analyzing film techniques such as cinematography, direction, editing and so on, as well as be an attempt to understand Rurouni Kenshin’s fight sequence in film’s rich grammar. This will help us understand why they’re so appealing, as well as creating a contrast of why other films might not be as appealing.

An action sequence is more than just stellar choreography and crazy stunts, action sequences, especially fight scenes, have a very specific method behind them and certain requirements they need to meet. This will hopefully raise questions in your own mind when watching an action film: Is the fight choreography good? The lighting? How’s the directing? Is the action on screen legible? and so on. 

I will be defining each of these terms, describing an example, and try to remain as simple and direct as possible in doing so. I hope this enriches and enlightens many people who may not be “film literate” or otherwise extremely invested in the art that goes behind making movies, so we could see all the details and thoughts that went into the film that we might take for granted! 

  Narrative and how action sequences progress the story.  

The third and final installment of this series is how action sequences express the narrative and its place within the story. Can the story progress without conflict? How does RK lend itself to these action sequences? Do they make narrative sense? Do they express characters in any sort of meaningful and enriching way?

The idea behind this particular post is because writing one of the most important elements in filmmaking, and many writers in a lot of big action blockbusters seem to neglect that fact when it comes to action sequences. Conflict is one of the basic elements of any story and without it, a story might not be as grabbing or as interesting. It’s one of the corner stones of not only cinema, but storytelling in general. This segment will take apart the action sequences in a narrative sense and discuss how the conflict leads to action sequences, how the grammar discussed in part one portrays the conflict just as much as the writing, as well as different types of fight sequences pending on tone. 

I especially look forward to this post and I hope you guys love it. Let the fun begin and I’ll hopefully see you all here next week!

I am super late on this update, but whatever! Welcome to the latest edition of my character analysis series under HYRK's Hiten Encyclopedia. TodayI’m going to be putting quite possible one of the funnest (don't even know if that's a word but it is now) characters in RK: Kanryuu Takeda under the microscope! T

At first blush, this little misanthropic piece-of-work is a typical villain but he’s far more nuanced than that. He’s more like an onion...a very rich onion that deals opium and wants to become an arms dealer. Driven by blind ambition, he shapes up to be a character that pretty much the entire cast hates. 

On a side note, while I am going to be talking about the character’s narrative role and symbolic representation in the story, I’d like to give a shout out to his actor, Teruyuki Kagawa for bringing a comedic element to this character, breathing in new life to an otherwise pretty flat and on the nose villain. 

                                                     The Meiji Era

 For those who don't know about the Bakumatsu (you’re reading RK people, you should know), it was an event that essentially ended the reign and existence of the special warrior caste in Japanese society known as Samurai. Power was restored to the Emperor of Japan, Meiji, during the events of those turbulent times. It was a pretty awful time for anyone to live in. Japan realized that they could no longer be isolationist and eventually opened it's borders for the sake of modernity. That is the important part to remember here. 

In an extremely simplified explanation, before and during the conflict, western influence was distinctly shunned, despite the fact that western societies were becoming increasingly more advanced. The opening of the borders from the Bakumatsu and the beginning of the Meiji era is an opportune time for a trade merchant. He can go and bring foreign goods to Japan and sell cheap items for a high profit margin to unsuspecting Japanese citizens who’d buy it primarily for novelty sometimes. Other times, this means he can bring in foreign drugs or supplies for manufacturing drugs to sell at a high price as well and opium, at the time, was particularly popular. 

Using the money he would make from his business, both legitimate and illegitimate, courtesy of the exploited  Megumi, he took advantage of the Oniwaban group (his ragtag team of misfits and Jin-e in the live action films) and other disadvantaged Samurai for protection, in exchange for feeding them as if they were dogs. 

The times were turbulent for samurai as their way of life abruptly ended and they possessed little to no life skills that carried over for modern life, making finding a job and food extremely difficult. More often than not, they caused trouble for many homes and families, which at the time was necessary with Japan changing more and more as the decades went on. 

                                                          Greed

The great irony of his character is his obsession with wealth and power. His aspirations is to overthrow the Meiji government and to rule so that way he could have more money and control over people's lives. To Kanryuu, money talks. Money is the key driving factor to every enjoyable aspect of life. It buys pleasures most Meiji era commoners couldn't dream of: he can dine out wherever he choses, munch on watermelons, buy off the police department so they overlook his drug trafficking ring, hire illustrious fighters from the Bakumatsu such as Aoshi and his group (Jin-e, Gein, Banjin in the film). His character is a commentary on the way we live our lives in the West.

The dude is the friggin' Japanese Al Capone. No one can really bring him down. Legally he owns all the lawyers and police; if someone poses a threat, he can send Jin-e to assassinate them. He profits from drug trade and abuses a woman under his "care" to make him opium and essentially destroy lives, all for the sake of profit. He views human lives as a dollar (or Yen) sign, expendable and meant to be used. This is also, coincidentally, what makes him interesting. 

See, these things are not new to the new era, but he revealed the precise reason many farmers joined the imperialist cause. The new era was lauded as a time for peace and equality. The ideal was that human beings would now be on equal standing to forge their own happiness. You weren't to be given handouts simply because you're the son of a samurai and the Shogun favors you. Peasants were now protected and barbaric men were no longer able to carry swords. Swordsmiths who forged tools of destruction and death that inspired beauty and awe now make common household cutlery for the common man to use. All these qualities were great!...except they also come at a price: They breed men like Kanryu, the staple of his character being the enough is never enough. 

Conversely, the old era, while being one bathed in violence and blood, where evil was rampant and the weak were taken advantage of, bred men like Kenshin and Saito. These men could not be bought. They could not be bent or swayed. They follow their own brands of justice, one forged in fairness and the defeat of evil. This is where the conflict in the story comes from, really. It's a story of what happens when the best of the old world clashes with the worst of the new one. 

                                                       Left Behind 

This brings us to our most tragic reality as well. It's a sort of First Blood: Rambo situation to a lot of Samurai. Many samurai were left behind by the times and honestly...many of them would've preferred to die in battle then live like dogs in the new era. They had their entire world and way of life taken away from them, one cemented in hundreds of years and date back nearly a millennium. Even the samurai who renounced their ways and fought in assistance of the Empire, like Takamori Saigo were quickly left behind. 

As Kanryuu mentioned in the film brothels were lined with samurai wives and daughters. Their sons sold into service to pay debts. Warriors were now forced to take service under men like Kanryuu. Shikijo, Beshimi, Hanya...these were all freaks. Aoshi, being relatively normally looking and well-read could easily adapt to the new world and embrace his role as the Okishira of one of the most powerful intelligence networks in Japan, but his friends couldn't: They were freaks. They didn't know how to do anything else in the new world. Their lives were built trying to fight and now they have to be employed by an honorless and unjust man just to survive and be able to eat who eventually slaughtered them ruthlessly with a tool of the New Age: a gatling gun. They died with honor, protecting their leader and friend and the worst part? They were happy because they finally found an honorable way to die. 

In the film, Jin-e's character is kept extremely subdued and rather subtle, but he does utter a line after meeting Kenshin, "Maybe living through this boring life will be worthwhile afterall." Without talking too much about it (since he will get his own analysis), he also seeks a death befitting of a warrior. Gein, scarred and broken, sold his soul to Kanryuu because he had no other choice. The world had no place for him, thanks to Ishin Shishi. 

Because of this, Kanryu is able to hire them to do his dirty work, giving them usefulness and purpose, even if they don't necessarily agree with it. This was Aoshi's reasoning for pairing up with him in the first place.                                            

                                               Guns against Sword

There's only so much I can say before I begin to repeat myself but everything I've said was symbolically personified in the final showdown, where in both the manga and the film, Kanryuu arrives with a gatling gun and promptly mows down the most elite fighters in Japan with ease. The cruel and mechanical efficiency in which this gun dispatches the Oniwaban group is especially alarming as these fighters are shown to be able to go toe to toe with Kenshin-gumi and in Aoshi's case, hold his own and even nearly get the edge on him. These men literally stood no chance against the ferocious gatling gun and this is where the theme comes into deepest fruition: Kanryu killed the most elite fighters and nearly killed Kenshin and Aoshi, not with skills he earned through years of disciplined training and surviving life and death battles countless times, but by using a weapon he BOUGHT. 

The Gatling Gun was a symbol of the worst of the new age and by proxy, it was a manifestation as to how money and technological efficiency edge out over skill. He even says it himself in the manga, "why spend your life training when you can buy one of these?" This enrages Kenshin not just because it directly conflicts with his belief that life is precious above all else, but because it directly disrespects every single person Kenshin ever struck down. It shits on every man who gave his life for their cause, who dedicated their life to the sword and used those swords to fight and subsequently die for those beliefs. 

Kenshin winning out over the gatling gun was to show that no amount of money can replace human tenacity and skill and most importantly, money can't buy the one thing Kanryu begged for: his life. In the end, Takeda Kanryu is arrested, his syndicate and opium empire destroyed and his arms dealership dismantled. But that doesn't change his role as the first villain in RK to ever challenge Kenshin's very way of life...and the scary part is, just because he lost, doesn't mean he didn't win. His way of life and thinking is one that real people in the world actually think that way and in the end, Kenshin's philosophy and Kanryu's face a tie. Kanryu is a reflection of the worst parts of the world we live in today.

SPECIAL THANKS to White-Plum as always and you guys. Hope you enjoyed it and sorry I’m late!

Hi everyone, I’m sorry for the lack of updates. I recently got a new computer and I am working on a ton of non-RK related projects lately, but nonetheless, I found some time to finish up the Kanryuu Takeda analysis and it’ll be up sometime later today (10:00 PM EST). 

Now I need to talk to you about something serious. Due to wanting to focus on other projects, HYRK creator and admin, White-Plum, has temporarily closed the blog until further notice, which means unless you guys reblog my posts, they won’t really reach a broad audience since I can no longer reblog my stuff on her blog and even if I could, no one would see it.

I'm writing on a more serious note here, nothing to do with a fandom or OTPs.

The RuroKen live-action trilogy has given us:

1. The rescue from Jin-eh scene

2. The embrace/farewell (supposed “firefly”) scene

3. The maple leaf scene

The adaptations did not fail eventually making all us suffer pangs of craving for a live-action final act that is Jinchuu.

—————————————————

For a two-part Jinchuu, these scenes MUST be there or else…

(not in particular order)

1. Kenshin-Tomoe first meeting and the first proposal to live together

    »>the tasting of sake like blood and the scent of white-plums!!

2. Kenshin-Tomoe intimate moments (*wink)

3. Kaoru’s confession (and his arm around her shoulder!)

    Yes, this!

4. Kenshin’s heartbreak

    Yes, even heroes cry…and they realize that they can fall in love even if the intention was not there in the first place.

5. Sanosuke-Megumi doctor-patient sessions and everything the two discussed in between

6. Kenshin-gumi listening to Kenshin’s revelation of his past

7. Kaoru and Yahiko training on Kamiya Kashin ougi

    »>the action sequence between the two in detail. I’d like to see Kaoru and Yahiko with more action

8. Kenshin vs Enishi’s Group - first fight at the Kamiya Dojo

    Keshingumi with Saito/Aoshi/Misao vs. Four Gods - second fight at the island

    »>Yahiko using the ougi he learned from Kaoru — A MUST!

    »>That dialogue of Kenshin with the Four Gods leader that with him are his compatriots, not just pawns.

9. Aoshi-Misao fixing the graves of the late Oniwaban members on their way back to Kyoto

10. Kenshin in Rakuninmura reflecting on his life

11. The holding hands - Kenshin and Kaoru visiting Tomoe’s grave

      Yes, this.(I’m all tingly with this more than the supposed “firefly” scene)

12. The parting of friends (no goodbyes but just ‘see you later’):

Aoshi and Misao with Megumi boarding the train. Sano, on his boat ride and teasing (maybe he wasn’t teasing but actually telling) Kaoru that when she and Kenshin have children, he’d be happy to drop by (Kaoru should blush here). Sano gave his house key to Yahiko and telling him to move out of the Kamiya Dojo.

»>It’s a bit lonely, but we will endure. This line spoken by Kenshin, YES!!

 13. Kenshin and Kaoru with little Kenji playing with Yahiko

»>Not so sure if the scenes from the OVA should be considered here… those intimate moments of KenKao, but perhaps not.

Overall, the live-action RuroKen Jinchuu must be 50% action, 50% drama. It must showcase all the essential characters’ physical and inner conflicts: Kenshin’s past, Kenshin-gumi’s bond, Yahiko’s desire to be strong, Kenshin x Kaoru romantic affirmation, Kenshin’s allies: Aoishi, Saito and Misao. And yes even Enishi’s personal battle.