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Rurouni Kenshin

Two separate strands, one animated and one live action, and each of them ends with a prequel that release order puts last.

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Where to start with Rurouni Kenshin

There are two Kenshins on this page and they do not join up: the 1996 anime with its OVAs, and the five live action films. Pick one strand. Both of them end on a prequel, so in both cases the last thing released is the first thing that happens, and in both cases watching it first costs you the mystery the rest of the story is built on. The path below is the anime.

  1. 1
    The 1996 series, episodes 1 to 62 Rurouni Kenshin (1996 series)

    The Tokyo arc and then the Kyoto arc, which is the part of the series adapted from the manga. Episode 62 is a real ending, and what follows it is anime original filler.

  2. 2
    Trust and Betrayal Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal

    Four OVA episodes about the years before the series, and the reason to watch them second is that they answer outright the question the series has spent sixty episodes circling.

  3. 3
    The manga, volumes 19 to 28 Rurouni Kenshin (manga)

    The final arc was never adapted by the 1996 anime, so reading is the only way to reach the ending the series was building towards.

Then what? Reflection is the only animated ending that exists, two OVA episodes from 2001 and 2002, and it invents a bleak conclusion that contradicts the manga; watch it knowing that, or skip it. Episodes 63 to 95 of the 1996 series, the 1997 film and the 2011 New Kyoto Arc OVAs are all optional side material. The 2023 remake is a separate telling of the same story from the beginning, closer to the manga, and is a fine alternative to the 1996 series but not a sequel to it. For the live action films, watch the 2012 film, then Kyoto Inferno and The Legend Ends as one story, then The Final, and only then The Beginning, which is set fourteen years before any of them and works as an ending rather than an opening.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

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