Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration Vol. 1 TP (Manga)
Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: June 4, 2013
Price: $9.99
Creator: Nobuhiro Watsuki
Format: 192 pgs., Black & White, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-5231-6
Age Rating: Teen
ICv2 Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
 
In the world of anime and manga, it's hard to find people who aren't at least casually aware of the series Rurouni Kenshin.  After a highly successful manga run, a TV anime that lasted three seasons, multiple OVAs and now a live action movie; it's not surprising that people are still talking about the series to this day and now it's back in print form.
 
In the Restoration manga, the series is retold in a brand new condensed format.  In this first almost 200 page volume, the action is fierce as the story unfolds and familiar characters are re-introduced into the series.  The first chapters take place after the civil war that tore Japan apart before the Meiji era began. In the war he was known as a fearsome warrior called the Battousai.  In this new peaceful era, he is simply Himura Kenshin, a wandering rurouni who only wishes to protect those in need of assistance and help.
 
In the first chapter, he arrives in Tokyo and is immediately taken to a carnival where a young woman named Kaoru is taking on all challengers in sword fighting exhibitions in order to save her dojo and life.  A ruthless businessman has set up the exhibitions for gambling purposes and to hide his own dirty practices that deal with western weapons.  After saving Kaoru, Kenshin is taking on new challenges of his own as mercenaries are being sent to take him down including a fighter for hire named Sanosuke Sagara.
 
In the first volume of this series, longtime fans should know exactly what to expect… good, old fashioned, sword swinging action.  Kenshin may have strange (and sometimes plain annoying) speech patterns but he is not a man to mince words.  When there is a fight that he can't avoid, his reverse blade sword comes out and people will go down hard.
 
The artwork in that depicts these fight scenes is frantic but does a great job of capturing the still moments of the fights and that's what you can expect from the entire volume: lots of wonderful still moments captured with simple details.
 
The only hang ups I have about this book are in the writing.  As mentioned, Kenshin has a very unusual way of speaking and in this book that pattern is translated with lots of "This one's," as in 'This one senses a fight is coming' or 'This one doesn't want to fight' or 'This one appears to have caused trouble', etc.  It takes quite a while to get used to this and until you just learn to accept that this is the way that Kenshin talks, it will be quite annoying to read.
 
However fans of good stories and better action will find it pretty easy to forgive this and enjoy this book simply because it is good.  If you're a longtime fan of the franchise you're going to enjoy reuniting with your favorite characters and if you're new to the series, you're finally going to get to see and read what other people have known for years: Rurouni Kenshin is a winner!

--L.B. Bryant