Product Details

• Actors: Richard Cansino, Dorothy Elias-Fahn, Wendee Lee, Mari Devon, Michelle Ruff
• Directors: Kaeko Sakamoto, Kazuhiro Furuhashi
• Writers: Nobuhiro Watsuki
• Producers: Kaeko Sakamoto, Eric P. Sherman, John M. Cusimano
• Format: Animated, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Unknown), Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Anime Works
• DVD Release Date: February 27, 2001
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000055Y0R
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,594 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 5 - Renegade Samurai" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

On holiday kenshin and his companions come across a massive european mansion owned by the wealthy tsukayama family. There the young master yutarou learns swordsmanship from his surrogate father raijuuta isurugi. This teacher is a manslayer & he plans to use the tsukayama fortune to fund a new revolution Studio: Media Blasters Inc. Release Date: 02/27/2001 Run time: 125 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fairly good volume, April 14, 2001

By 

"nogana_naishi" (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 5 - Renegade Samurai (DVD)

Kenshin and friends continue on their journies in volume 5 of Rurouni Kenshin. Episode 18 once again focuses on developing Yahiko's character as a swordsman, and marks another appearance of everyone's favorite stock villain, Hiruma. Yahiko wants to become a real swordsman like Kenshin, and is tricked by Hiruma to steal Kenshin's sword and use it to fight him. Of course, Hiruma's real plan is to hire someone to kill Kenshin when he's left without a weapon. It's up to Yahiko to escape and return the Sakaba-Blade to Kenshin before he's killed.

In episodes 19-21, Kenshin and pals visit a huge lodge in the countryside owned by the Tsukayama family. Yutaro, the young heir to the Tsukayama family wealth is looking for someone to teach him swordsmanship, but Kenshin isn't looking for an apprentice. Yutaro meets Raijuta, conveniently also a swordsman who saves Yutaro from the brink of death. Raijuta agrees to take Yutaro in as his apprentice, but it turns out Raijuta is just looking to fund a revolution on the Tsukayama wealth. Overall, these three episodes are quite entertaining together.

In episode 22, the gang gets a taste of western technology as they go on their first train ride. Sanosuke is wary of the whole idea of magically moving horse-free carriages, and when Kaoru insists they get their picture taken, hilarity ensues. The train is coincidentally being used to transport gold from one city to another, and that can only mean one thing: Japan's first train robbery, with Kenshin around to act as the Deus ex Machina.

The video and sound quality is all-around excellent, except for the opening and ending themes which still look like they were transfered from third-generation VHS tapes. The translation is accurate, but still uses the annoying literal translations for many of the Japanese terms. Overall, this is a fairly good volume worth buying, but it's not nearly as good as the upcoming Kyoto stories...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The only things that will make us immortal are our swords..., October 31, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 5 - Renegade Samurai (DVD)

Immensely popular in Japan, "Ruroui Kenshin" is an anime series about the intrepid journeys of a masterless roving samurai named Himura Kenshin, an idealist whose Reverse-Blade sword is only sharpened on the backside so that it cannot kill anyone. But the fates repeatedly tempt him to go back into full Battousai ("man-slayer") mode. This is the standard motif for these episodes, in which Kenshin is helped by his friends, Karou Kamiya, the idealistic, passionate and fiery Assistant Master of the Kamiya School, Yahiko Myolin, an orphaned pickpocket from a samurai family, and Sanosuke Sagara, a former opponent who has given up his hatred of all things Imperial.

Volume 5 contains five episodes (Episodes 18-22), including a three-part tale. Episode 18 "Run, Yahiko: Get back the Reverse-Blade Sword Back!" finds the youthful ambition of young Yahiko causing him to actually turn over Kenshin's reverse-blade sword to a bad guy because of empty promises. This sets up the three-part story in which Kenshin and his friends come across a country mansion owned by the wealthy Tsukayama family and where they find that the young master of the house, Yutarou, is looking for someone to teach him swordsmanship. However, it is not Kenshin, but a vengeful samurai named Raijuta who becomes the young boy's mentor and second father.

Episode 19, "Raijuta's Ambition: Dream of a Forbidden Kingdom" sets up the conflict, specifically in terms of Raijuta trying to turn the clock back on the Meiji Restoration and have things return to the good old days of swords rather than guns. Episode 20, "Revival of the Shinko Style: The Technique Which Heralds a Storm" finds Yutarou and Yahiko repeatedly butting heads over not only their skill as "swordsmen," but also the reasons for learning such skills in the first place. Meanwhile, Raijuta has brought together the best warriors in the land to bring about his kingdom and restore their pride, and the authorities are out to stop him. Episode 21, "The Dissolution of a Nightmare: Rajitua's Ambition Concludes" has Rajitua and Kenshin finally drawing swords, and Yutarou literally getting in the middle of the fight and learning a few brutal lessons.

This three-parter covers a lot of the fundamental themes of "Rurouni Kenshin," in terms of the new world created by the Meiji Restoration, Kenshin's vow not to take a life, and the reasons for studying the sword. Although there are some new wrinkles, such as Rajitua's Izuna ("vacuum") stroke, we have covered this ground before. If anything, this trilogy represents a variation on the original Yahiko storyline.

The final offering, Episode 22, "First Train Ride: Danger on a Runaway Locomotive!" is basically a comic relief episode in comparison to the rest of this DVD's dramatic action. Karou insists the gang enjoy the extravagance of the new steam engine and take a train ride to Yokohama. This becomes an anime version of "The Great Train Robbery" because there is a good shipment on board and some pirates are after it and have to be dissuaded by Kenshin and the gang. There are lots of comic fights in this one (those annoying scenes where the pupils of the characters disappear and their faces become all distorted), but after the relative seriousness of the previous episodes this sort of makes sense.

Volume 5 of "Rurouni Kenshin" does not offer any classic episodes of the popular anime, but these five are certainly representative of the strengths of the series. The extras on the DVD include an on-going glossary of Japanese terms that the series uses, taking pains to explain in simple language so that younger viewers will understand the meaning and significance of these concepts. It is that serious tone to the series overall that makes up for the periodically intrusive comic interludes.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Excellence From Rurouni Kenshin, August 25, 2002

By 

Trevor S. Howard "KenjiS" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 5 - Renegade Samurai (DVD)

In this DVD Kenshin and the gang first have to get the reverse blade sword back from Gohei Hiruma, who tricked Yahiko into stealing it, then they have to protect a young European rich kid from a swordsman whose special technique is to slice things without his sword touching them(the kid thinks this guy wil lteach him swordsmanship when all he relly wants is to use his estate to build an empire, there is a very comedic scene in this small little 3-episode saga when Kenshin forgets NOT to go rushing into the woman's bath without wearing any pants.....

lastly, Kenshin and the rest of the gang go on a train ride(though Sanosuke had to be practicly held on there by Kaoru) to Yokohama, and the train ends up getting robbed

Overall this is a wonderful DVD continuing in the high-quality Rurouni Kenshin standard