Product Details

• Actors: Richard Cansino, Dorothy Elias-Fahn, Wendee Lee, Mari Devon, Michelle Ruff
• Directors: Kazuhiro Furuhashi
• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 8
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Anime Works
• DVD Release Date: February 14, 2006
• Run Time: 875 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000C6NP8Q
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,872 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Rurouni Kenshin - TV Series Volume Three" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

RUROUNI KENSHIN TV SERIES:SEASON 3 - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what was meant to be..., August 16, 2009

By 

Matthew Cook (Darlington, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rurouni Kenshin - TV Series Volume Three (DVD)

Jumping from the second season's brilliant Kyoto arc to the filler episodes of season 3 will likely seem a bit jarring to most viewers: near the end of the Kyoto arc you see Kenshin standing over the grave of someone from his past that he claims to have slain with his own sword, effectively setting up what was supposed to happen next; however, the third season completely ignores this and moves on to an increasingly inane group of stories.

The reason for this is that the next story arc in the manga was still being written at that point, so these filler episodes were created during the waiting process and became an entire season. Unfortunately, the Jinchuu (or Revenge) arc that was supposed to be season 3 never came to fruition as the episodes in this box set received such poor ratings that the show was pulled. This is especially sad considering numerous online testimonials point to the Jinchuu arc being the best of them all-- no small feat considering its predecessor.

...BUT...

This review is not supposed to be a lament of what could have been. As it stands, this is what we got with regards to the regular anime ending for Kenshin-- disregarding the OVAs that attempt to summarize the Jinchuu arc-- and this is what must be reviewed.

Considered completely out of context of the show, this set might be considered alright. In fact, I found some enjoyment out of quite a few of the episodes. For instance, despite being a bit plodding, the Christian rebellion storyline (the first of four major ones) is pretty enjoyable at the better moments. The two that follow aren't bad, but they aren't great either. To be honest, the only storyline in the group that I found to be utterly garbage was the last one, which involves Feng Shui-- also known as the Geomancer storyline. This group of episodes is so out of character for the entire series that it can hardly be watched without feeling a bit of disgust.

While I found a little enjoyment in it, should you come into this season expecting another Kyoto-like execution, you'll be severely disappointed. This stuff was never written by the original author of the manga and feels very much out of place at times, especially during the last two storylines. Furthermore, the ending leaves very much to be desired: it feels like a big letdown after the buildup over the entire series, which is all I'll say regarding it in this review.

So, basically, it comes down to this: if you are a completionist, go ahead and get this one (as you will anyway :p), but keep in mind that it nowhere near lives up to the rest of the series. Beyond that, if you are able to suspend your disbelief pretty well, you can possibly find some enjoyment from this season as I did. Otherwise, it's probably best to stay away and consider the anime complete at the end of the Kyoto arc.

If you want the complete story as it was supposed to happen, then read the manga-- I believe books 19-28. In lieu of that, you can watch the three Samurai X OVAs: Trust, Betrayal, and Reflection. The first two summarize the portion of the manga that deals with Kenshin's Battosai days, while the latter includes some of the Jinchuu arc as part of an overall flashback on the series from Kaoru's view. Note, however, that the OVAs are brief in their treatment of the final storyline, and they also trade the goofball tone of the series for a very serious and almost depressing atmosphere.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not my favorite, January 8, 2007

By 

Dawn Blair (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rurouni Kenshin - TV Series Volume Three (DVD)

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a big Kenshin fan. I started reading the manga and was so hooked I had to start the anime. Fortunately, I had read before seeing the third season that Watsuki (the writer/artist for Rurouni Kenshin) was finishing the Kyoto plotline just barely ahead of the anime artists and that for the third season the anime would be different than the books otherwise I would've been highly disappointed by the anime. It was extremely obvious that the anime writers didn't have a good grip on Kenshin's character (as was obvious as well in some of the "filler" episodes in season 1), or they thought it was a great idea for a character, but wanted Kenshin to be their character instead of realizing that they were just borrowing Watsuki's character. Still, this season does have some interesting characters and episodes. If you're a fan who just wants more Kenshin and is willing to completely suspend your disbelief, then you'll enjoy it. If you only want Kenshin exactly as he is in the manga with no deviation at all in character, you're not going to enjoy this as much as you hope.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Upset about the inner package setup, December 3, 2010

By 

Becky - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rurouni Kenshin - TV Series Volume Three (DVD)

I bought this item only to find out that on the inside all 8 discs were stacked right on top of each other in a single disc holding slot. I was expecting the discs to be on pages with 2 discs a page like the other 2 season boxsets. The discs arent even labeled 1-8 so if you take out more than one to get down to the lower discs you could not only get them out of order and that end up being a pain but by the way this is set up its much easier to damage and scratch your discs up while taking them out because of being locked in tightly against each other.

I know there is a version of this with pages and 2 discs a page just like the other 2 I have, I ordered it once but it was recieved so damaged that I had to return it from the discs being knocked out of the holders and scraped up too badly to watch.

The show is really good, I love it even though season 3 seems a bit slower than the rest but its all still a good show.