Jessica Gottardo

This one was my favorite out of all the other ones although it is fairly even with the fifth one aka the beginning. What I liked about both is that in this one you see the new kenshin and his new way of living while in the 'beginning' one you see his former self which was badass and the representation made by the actor Takeru was amazing. He made kenshin his character, lived it and owned it completely. For me this one should've been more the final one than the final movie titled that way. It felt more curated and the emotions between the characters much more layered. The fourth one (the final) had so much potential according to the manga but it just didn't do justice to it like the other movies did. If they did the final one with the same ability they did beginning, it would've been a masterpiece as well. Anyways great watch and I'd definitely recommend it mostly because of the great job every actor did in this.

I personally like the OVAS, Trust and Betrayal and in some way Reflections. I followed Kenshin's story since I was a kid and I never finished it up until now (15 years later almost) so it really did come to be as a shock how he died in reflections. Yes, whatever he had, be it leprosy or some other disease, was common during that era but honestly I felt this to be way too exaggerated to show him dying this way. Like many others said, the fact he literally abandoned Kaoru and his son it didn't go in accordance with his character. There's no way he would've done that. As well as what others said, you can't have him learn all these things about the power of living be it for you and also for others and then just go about and throw that in the garbage and have him go again to war. Even if it was to help people, there comes a moment that you have to accept that you can't change your past. Yes, you did bad things but you also did a lot of good things. Yes some, mostly all, won't forgive you for killing their family members (very normal) and you should learn to live with that, but you should also realize that you didn't do it for the pleasure of it. He didn't enjoy killing. He was just following his ideal and what he thought was the best way to make it happen (the new government aka peace). So he should've accepted this (like in the manga) and move on with his life making his family happy and he himself as well because why not? There's no need to always glorify suffering and tragedy. It is also good to be happy even if you committed bad things. The important thing here is he had repentance. He stopped killing. So why have him go away for YEARS away from his family just to return when he was basically almost dying? They made him die like a dog in the streets, plain and simple, and Kenshin certainly didn't deserve it. The scene where Sanosuke throws him the fish in the hut he was living in and he wasn't even able to catch it because he had no strength whatsoever killed me completely. That was not the Kenshin I wanted to see. He wasn't a god definitely but they butchered him in this OVA. I totally agree they could've made him die if they really wanted to but not in that way. He could have easily died because of his repeated use of his sword technique and have a more dignified death than what was portrayed here. Plus we're all humans we know eventually everyone dies including him, no need to show it and make it obvious that he too was a human being and not a god. But on the other hand they made him act as if he was this selfless individual, have him go up and about saving people while neglecting himself and those that loved him just because he couldn't accept the fact that what he did to save people wasn't enough to outdo the suffering he caused? Give me a break. They simply over exaggerated his death and ruined his last moments with his family (making them suffer too on top of it all, oh the irony). This is my honest opinion. Also. They butchered Kaoru's character too. She went from an independent and fighting girl to a passive dependent woman. Like someone else, the real Kaoru would've gone with him the first time and convince him to just come back, or even better, kick some sense into him and not have him be all depressed the entire time auto inflicting himself pain. She certainly would've done something about it not just smile at him whenever he decided to come home. That was just hard to watch. A strong female changing to some usual passive bimbo. We know this arc was not really part of the story but instead of using the money to make this they should've made something much better. Period.

In response to some comments made here about rating the final movie a little lower because of the lack of Ito and explaining the origins as to why and how Kenshin learned his technique in swordmanship, I just want to say that it was already made clear in Movie 3, the legend ends, so really I don't see the point as to why they had to repeat the same thing in this last movie. I think it was good they left it out because this movie concentrated exactly in a time period for Kenshin where he was at his height during his Battousai killing days. Just my opinion.