VS: Rurouni Kenshin - Soujiro's Breakdown in 4 Laungues

Spoilers Ahoy For Anyone Who Has Not Watched the Kyoto Arc of Rurouni Kenshin. The following post spoils a major plot point in the final few fights of the Kyoto Arc. Please read with caution if you don’t like spoilers. If you know what happens or don’t care, enjoy!

From our first expression of Seta Soujiro we meet a happy-go-lucky kid who is able to catch up to a speeding horse-drawn carriage and assassinate the passenger without even breaking his innocent smile. Throughout the he manages to match Kenshin at Battou-jetsu, Kill fellow members of Shishio’s army, and become a major threat to our heroes – All while smiling like an innocent boy. The fact of the matter is that Soujiro shows zero emotions at any time. This poses a problem for our hero Kenshin whose skill relies on reading emotions to detect opponent’s moves. During their second battle, Soujiro states that the strongest live and the weak are meant to die. Kenshin argues the opposite, that all beings deserve life rather they are weak or strong and that anyone that Kenshin can save, he will. This causes Soujiro to dislike Kenshin to the point of hatred. This hate causes him to unearth his past that was severely traumatizing to the young boy. Suddenly, Soujiro displays an emotion that he held in along time ago. The young innocent face now becomes the face of hater and agony.. and thus we get one of the best mental breakdowns in Anime, no, in any medium.

Check out the videos below and let me know which one you think sounds best. ^^

English

 Japanese

While I do prefer the Japanese voice, the English voice does do the part some justice. That is my opinion of course. ^^