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New Rurouni Kenshin anime project officially in the works

By Christian Imperio Published Dec 20, 2021 1:19 pm

A brand-new anime project featuring the wandering swordsman is officially underway. 

During the Jump Festa '22 event on Sunday, publisher Shueisha announced that a new TV anime project based on Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin manga is now in development at Liden Films. 

Aside from a 20-second teaser posted by anime streaming platform Aniplex, other details of the upcoming anime project, including story plot and release date, remain under wraps as of this writing.

Check out the teaser for the upcoming Rurouni Kenshin anime series below: 

Decades after the success of the original manga, Watsuki released the Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story — The Hokkaido Arc in Sept. 2017 with his wife, Kaoru Kurosaki, attached as a story collaborator.

Acting as a direct sequel to the original Rurouni Kenshin, Watsuki’s manga follows Himura Kenshin and his friends in 1883 Japan as they traverse Hokkaido in search of his father-in-law. 

Illustrated by Watsuki, the beloved manga featuring the deadly assassin has been serialized monthly in Jump Square, with the manga’s chapters compiled by Shueisha into six tankōbon volumes.

However, the manga went on hiatus three months since its serialization after Watsuki was charged of child pornography, prompting Shueisha to suspend the publication of the remaining chapters of The Hokkaido Arc. The manga resumed publication in July 2018. 

Watsuki’s original 28-volume Rurouni Kenshin manga appeared in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from April 25, 1994 to Sept. 21, 1999. Since its debut, Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin immediately gained a cult following across the globe. The manga currently has 72 million copies in circulation. Aside from the success of the source material, it also spawned a 95-episode anime series, which ran from 1996 to 1998.

If you haven't seen it yet, here’s the official synopsis of the original anime series:

Welcome to the Meiji Era. Japan is a land experiencing times of troubled peace and renewal after a long and bloody civil war.

Swords and killing are outlawed, but all is not as well as it would seem.

Lurking in the shadows are many survivors of the revolution awaiting their chance for vengeance. Only the former government assassin, Kenshin Himura can keep the peace.

Kenshin gives up the life of "Battousai The Man Slayer" and sets off as a lone wanderer. His travels lead to the Kamiya Dojo where he discovers the chance to start life over.

Can Kenshin keep faithful to these new ideals as his past threatens to resurface, or will his violent instincts take control again? 

Aside from the original Rurouni Kenshin anime series, the beloved manga also paved the way for five live-action films: Origins (2012), Kyoto Inferno (2014), The Legends Ends (2014), The Final (2021), and The Beginning (2021). All five live-action films starred Takeru Satoh as Himura Kenshin, Emi Takei as Kaoru Kamiya, Yû Aoi as Megumi, Yosuke Eguchi as Hajime Saito, and Munetaka Aoki as Sanosuke Sagara. 

All live-action films of Rurouni Kenshin are now available on Netflix while the original anime series can be streamed on HBO Max, Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu.