Review of Rurouni Kenshin Part III: The Legend Ends (2014) by Kyle L — 21 Aug 2015

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends acts as a satisfying conclusion to the Rurouni Kenshin movies based on the popular Manga series of the same name and it is the closing chapter of the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy and it ends with a high note to the fans of the long running Manga series.

This movie takes place immediately after Kyoto Inferno where Kenshin Himura is rescued by his former Master after escaping at the hands of Makoto Shishio in the previous film. In order to beat Shishio Kenshin tells his former Master to train him once more so he can save everyone including the people he cares and loves and never to be called Battosai the killer.

At one point when I saw this movie after watching its predecessor. This film still feels like Kyoto Inferno since it deals with the same enemies and both Kyoto Inferno and this movie felt like it was split into two parts but it is still as entertaining as its predecessors.

What I like about both Kyoto Inferno and this film is that while they are the same story that was just split into two parts both of them has a different style and execution. Like I said in my review of Kyoto Inferno that Kyoto Inferno acts as an introduction to the new villains and acts also as an expansion to the mythology of Kenshin Himura, The Legend Ends(or as I so call it Kyoto Inferno Part 2) leaves a high note to the series and it acts as a definitive and satisfying conclusion to the once in a lifetime popular movie series based on the Manga series of the same name.

And while the storyline is compelling and the cinematography and soundtrack remains the same. What I truly love about this film the most is the action scenes and the pacing of this film. In many ways they seriously changed the pace of this movie since its predecessor was getting faster on the pace.

This movie had the fastest pace in the series and it moves quicker than ever. Everything is super fast in this film this time and the way the movie runs is amazing since everything in this film is more on action and fight scenes and seriously this is the most energetic out of the three Rurouni Kenshin movies and there are loads of scenes that are super fast and extremely energetic(The super cool training sequence which is by the way very intense, the epic brawling scene which is funny in times and over the top, the super hyper rematch scene with Kenshin and Sojiro and the epic finale with Kenshin against Shishio) plus the sword fights are seriously pumped up with more adrenaline and in my opinion this film has the fastest sword fights out of all the three Rurouni Kenshin films and I seriously find that super cool and awesome.

Also its nice to know the backstories of the villains in this film and I love how the last half of the film takes place in a big boat plus I love how this movie is smarter than its predecessors in terms of its style and execution.

Now the acting is amazing. Its nice to see everyone reprise their roles one final time in this movie and everyone delivers the same cool and outstanding performance as always and at one point Shishio is still cruel and pure evil as always just like in Kyoto Inferno check out the scene where he burns up in the last fight and is still laughing as he dies.

But all the casts still deliver outstanding performances in the movie. I overall describe Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends as a satisfying conclusion to the Rurouni Kenshin movies and I can either call this movie by its main title or as Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno Part 2 despite that it still has the same storyline and the same villains and same characters.

This movie gets a 10.3/10. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno or as I recall Kyoto Inferno: Part 1 will still be the best out of the three Rurouni Kenshin films.