Rurouni Kenshin TV Series Volume 01:
The Legendary Swordsman

Episodes: 1-4
Length: 100 Minutes
Features: English and Japanese Language, Subtitles, Scene Access
Extras: Linear Notes, Image Gallery, Character Profiles, Creditless Opening, "Original" Japanese Ending, Previews
Rated: 13+

The first volume of the Rurouni Kenshin television series on DVD is a heavy favorite already. These are the first four Rurouni Kenshin episodes aired back in Japan in the mid-90's. Although some may find the introducing episodes rather lackluster in plot and action when compared to the likes of the famous Kyoto Arc, these episodes are important. They introduce the characters that will remain in the series until the very end.

Video, as expected, is crisp and clear. People who bought fansubs of Rurouni Kenshin and watch this will be amazed at how amazing the quality of the picture is on their screen. All of the colors are vibrant and shimmering. You can see every little thing around, and there's quite a lot, especially when the Kenshin Gumi visit a public area such as town or the Akabeko. The only gripe is a few rainbows here and there. Other than that - Kenshin never looked so good on a television screen.

What may upset a lot of people is the audio. The majority watch anime in general first in Japanese. Sometimes, the English dub is never touched upon. The problem with this volume is the Japanese track. When compared to the English track, the Japanese track is soft and quiet. Music is sometimes hard to hear in the Japanese track, but is toned up somewhat in the English track. There's been a lot of gripes, especially when the Japanese voice cast is considered the perfect match for the series and the music is so good.

A lot of people may also be wondering how the dubbing is. While it's not perfect, it's not bad either. The dubbing has it's high and low points. Kenshin has a decent voice, but the bad thing is that there is no more "Oro?" from his voice actor. Kaoru, Ayame, and Suzume have the best voices of the whole cast. Meanwhile, Yahiko and Sanosuke are stuck with the worst. Yahiko sounds too much like a girl and Sanosuke's voice is far too deep.

Menus for this volume are decent. They are easy to navigate and are straightforward. The loading time is quite fast as well. You can access an episode from the opening menu, which has "Who Are You Protecting (Original Mix)" playing in the background. The Extras menu has "Lunatic" and the Set-Up menu has "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu - Ama Kakeru Ryuu no Hirameki" in their backgrounds. All of the other menus are silent.

When not looking at the episodes themselves, the Extras for this first volume of Rurouni Kenshin released by Media Blasters are excellent. What else is better than a textless, original opening for "Sobakasu" and liner notes? There are also character profiles for Kenshin, Kaoru, Yahiko, and Sanosuke. While the layout for the profiles section is nice and the pictures are great, the profile itself has a really small text, making it difficult to read if your eyesight isn't the greatest. Unfortunately, there is another downfall here. The image gallery contains two pictures, which is pretty much pointless. Both of the pictures are featured on the cover and back on the DVD case, so it's not that special, especially the second picture, which appears to be a bit too thin. And the "Original Japanese Ending" may catch people off guard. What I thought it'd be was that the English text would be replaced by the original Japanese text. I was wrong. This "original ending" plays the Japanese version of "Tactics" and has just the original (Japanese) voice actors' names listed under the characters they played. It's still in the English text. There's four of these endings on this DVD, one for each episode. The dubbed voice actors are listed after the preview of episode five after episode four in a sloppy list with a dull black background.

+ Video
+ Creditless Opening
+ Linear Notes
- Japanese Audio Track
- Image Gallery

Grade: B+

Images: Menu, Scene Access, Set-Up, Extras, Linear Notes, Profiles, Image Gallery