Rurouni Kenshin

Rurouni Kenshin (るろうに剣心) is a set of manga and anime series created by artist Nobuhiro Watsuki, set during the early years of the Meiji period in Japan. The English versions of the OVAs as well as the movie are sold under the Samurai X name.

Notes

• Kenshin's original Japanese dialogue contains some unusual words which can cause problems in translation. Most of the time, he refers to himself with the extremely humble pronoun "sessha" (translated by Viz as "this one") and uses the formal verb "de gozaru" (conveyed by MediaBlasters by sentence-final phrases like "...that it is"). He shares this vocabulary with some characters in other series, such as Goemon Ishikawa in Lupin III. He also addresses most women with an honorific that was generally reserved for feudal lords; the translation "Miss Kaoru" does not really express the same degree of extreme courtesy as "Kaoru-dono". When in Battōsai persona, Kenshin stops being so polite; "de gozaru" disappears, and "sessha" is replaced with the more typical brash male pronoun "ore". Kaoru is quick to catch onto this fact as is demonstrated after the Saitō fight.
• Both Kenshin's name and his semi-nonsensical exclamation "oro" are tributes to Watsuki's favorite comedian, Shimura Ken. As used by Shimura and Watsuki, "oro" expresses surprise or dismay, based on the similar exclamation "ara" (generally considered feminine). As proper Japanese vocabulary, "oro" only exists as a word for lochia.
• The word Battōsai (抜刀齋) translates into Master of Sword Drawing. Battō (抜刀) is the action of drawing a sword; Sai is a suffix which has no literal meaning, but in this context, can refer to having mastered a set of skills or knowledge. The name directly indicates Kenshin's mastery of all forms of Battōjutsu. However, Kenshin did not give himself this name, nor does he value it.
• The name Samurai X is used in ADV Films' English language releases, as Media Blasters, which had the TV series, owned the rights to the "Rurouni Kenshin" name. The name "Samurai X" was chosen presumably due to the X shaped scar on Kenshin's face, and most likely also the general "hipness" the word samurai has in English. This name is unpopular with fans of the series, who also point out that Kenshin was not technically a samurai to begin with. His use of a surname before the end of the Shogunate may mean that the Ishinshishi granted him a samurai-equivalent status although he was born into a family of peasant farmers (peasants were not permitted to have family names); technically, he might also be considered to have married into the rank.