As always, I will divide this review in five different fields (Story, Art, Sound, Character and Enjoyment), and it won't have spoilers, so, please enjoy my personal vision on Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kentaku Romantan - Tsuioku-hen.
If you have seen the original Rurouni Kenshin anime, you know what it is about: Kenshin Himura, also known as Hitokiri Battousai or Battousai the Man Slayer, was a merciless assassin who worked to establish the Meiji government against the Tokugawa shogunate. After years and years of killing, Kenshin promised himself that he would not take anyone's life with his hands, so he became a beggar and started to wander around Japan armed with a reversed edge sword, or Sakabatō.
Where the original TV anime was heavily oriented to children and comedy, Tsuioku-hen is shown as a dark, dramatic and obscure story about Kenshin's past as one of the most fearless and dangerous assassins in the Bakumatsu period. Here, we are able to know how Kenshin, a suave-talker, peaceful swordsman became one of the most well known assassin of the Meiji era, and the reason for his infamous cross-wound in the left cheek.
The art is perfect, one of the best examples of how an anime has to be made. Again, the comedic effects are left in pursuit of having a more adult and serious atmosphere. Everything has a more obscure / dark / brown tone, and it contrasts the tv show by having a lot of blood. The animation is fluid and orgasmic, nonetheless, and every fight scene is able to start a fire in your throat.
If you have a masterpiece, you can't neglect such an important aspect as music. Some people do not care about the sound effects or voices, but I must say if an anime has bad voice acting or mediocre sound effects, I will notice, and the rating will suffer. But, again, Tsuioku-hen changes its Friends' style music with an orchestral soundtrack that suits perfectly not only into the Bakumatsu era but with Kenshin and Tomoe as well. I only listen to anime music if I like it, and I must say that the Tsuioku-hen OST is one of the best ways of doing things right.
In the character field, we have the Oscar-winner Kenshin Himura, one of the best characters in anime. Not only have the story and the cool-as-hell design, but also an amazing but likable personality. Kenshin is constructed as the story evolves, has its own reasons to be doing what he does and is able to resonate with every single viewer. In Tsuioku-hen, Kenshin is not the peaceful beggar anymore but a brutal killer that will do anything in order to achieve the greatest good. As he works as an assassin, he starts thinking about how he told his master to use the sword only to help people, but he took away hundreds, maybe thousands of lifes with his own hands. We also have Yukishiro Tomoe, a mysterious girl that saw Kenshin commiting an assassination, but refused to say anything. I won't say anything about Tomoe, because you have to find what makes him such an irreplaceable part of the story. Finally, we can get some Hajime Saitou appearance as well, being the best rival Kenshin has ever faced.
In conclusion, Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen has to be one of the greatest OVAs ever made along with FLCL and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It has everything you would want in an anime and more, because you can not take away your eyes from the screen. You will want more Kenshin Himura doing amazing things, you will want more animations like Studio Deen did right here, and I promise you will never forget how Kenshin Himura not only changed Japan but himself.
