It was announced at Shueisha’s Jump Festa ’22 event that Rurouni Kenshin will be getting a new anime series at LIDEN FILMS. Unfortunately, no further details about the forthcoming series were announced at the event.
The Rurouni Kenshin franchise currently has a 95-episode television anime series, an anime film, and three original video anime projects. FUNimation Entertainment is streaming the first Rurouni Kenshin anime series.
Source: ANN
FUNimation Entertainment has announced that it will begin streaming all 94 episodes of the Rurouni Kenshin anime beginning on March 24, 2020. The series will be available with Japanese audio and English subtitles and with an English dub.
Rurouni Kenshin originally aired in Japan in 1996, and received accolades for its unique blending of samurai action, history, comedy and romance.
Source: FUNimation Entertainment
VIZ Media’s English digital edition of Weekly Shonen Jump did not publish a new chapter for Nobuhiro Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc manga in the June 4, 2018 issue. The series resumed from hiatus in Shueisha’s Jump SQ. magazine in Japan on June 4, 2018.
The manga went on hiatus in December 2017 following Watsuki being charged for possession of child pornography. Watsuki was later fined 200,000 yen (about US$1,900) in February 2018.
At the time of the manga’s hiatus, Shueisha commented that it is taking this news seriously, and that Watsuki expresses deep regret. When it announced the manga’s return, the magazine noted that Watsuki is living a life of reflection and atonement, but that Shueisha and Watsuki decided that continuing the manga to answer the desires of fans was a matter of duty.
Watsuki and his novelist wife/story collaborator Kaoru Kurosaki launched the Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaido-hen) manga in Shueisha’s Jump SQ. magazine in September 2017. VIZ Media was simultaneously publishing it in English before the manga went on hiatus.
Source: ANN
Earlier today, I reported that Nobuhiro Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc will be returning in June 2018 after a hiatus. The hiatus that started in December 2017 came about after Watsuki was charged for possession of child pornography. Watsuki was fined 200,000 yen (about US$1,900) in February 2018.
Not surprisingly, feelings about this have been rather strong. I will be the first to admit that I was stunned when I first read the news at Anime News Network. Watsuki was just fined for his charge in February, and his manga is already returning four months later?
Not only that, I also must admit that I was a little put off by the wording in the announcement of the manga’s return that “Shueisha and Watsuki decided that continuing the manga to answer the desires of fans was a matter of duty.” Yes, I know I’m looking at the situation through the eyes of a Westerner, but I admit that, to me, this wording just comes across badly. It came across to me that Watsuki’s career is more important than the young people who were victimized when the child porn he was accused of possessing was created.
Admittedly, I really don’t have much of a personal history with the Rurouni Kenshin franchise. A few years back, I had a subscription to VIZ Media’s digital Weekly Shonen Jump, and I read like 3-4 chapters of this manga through a “flashback” feature that VIZ was doing in the publication at the time. I didn’t think it was a bad series, but there just wasn’t enough there in what I read that made me want to go to the library to try to track down the manga volumes in order to read more of it. At this point, I really have no plans to try to read more of Rurouni Kenshin. Not only did the chapters I read not grab my interest, I just can’t in good conscience support someone with this kind of a history. As a mom, I just can’t.
This editorial is simply here to share my personal thoughts. It’s not here to try to say that I’m right or to try to convince others to share my views. It’s here just to share my thoughts and feelings on the subject.
I also want to make clear here that whether or not I agree with anime and/or manga news that I read, I will still report on it on this blog. I’m not going to decide not to report on something, such as this, because I don’t agree with it… because that’s not how news reporting works. When it comes to news reporting, any reporter or journalist should be treating it objectively rather than subjectively. Editorials exist so reporters and journalists can express their thoughts and feelings on news stories in a subjective manner.
Thank you for reading through this editorial. This is actually the first time I’ve done one of these, so hopefully this came out OK. I haven’t really felt a need to do one prior to this, but with the reactions I’ve been seeing online and on social media to this particular news story, I thought it was worth putting this out there.
Additional posts about manga:
The official website of Shueisha’s Jump SQ. magazine has announced that Nobuhiro Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc manga will resume in the magazine’s July 2018 issue on June 4, 2018. The manga went on hiatus in December 2017 following Watsuki being charged for possession of child pornography. Watsuki was fined 200,000 yen (about US$1,900) in February 2018. The announcement noted that Watsuki is living a life of reflection and atonement, but that Shueisha and Watsuki decided that continuing the manga to answer the desires of fans was a matter of duty.
Watsuki and his novelist wife/story collaborator Kaoru Kurosaki launched the Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaido-hen) manga in Shueisha’s Jump SQ. magazine in September 2017. VIZ Media was simultaneously publishing it in English before the manga went on hiatus.
Source: ANN
Japanese publisher Shueisha has announced that Nobuhiro Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin manga is going on hiatus, due to Watsuki being charged for possession of child pornography. For more details on this, please read Anime News Network’s article.
The manga will not run in Shueisha’s Jump SQ. Magazine as of the January 2018 issue, which will ship on December 4, 2017. Shueisha commented that it is taking this news seriously, and that Watsuki expresses deep regret. The publisher added that it has not decided what to do with Watsuki’s manga volumes already in print, because the matter is still under discussion.
Watsuki first launched Rurouni Kenshin in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994. The manga has more than 60 million copies in print.
Most recently, Watsuki and his novelist wife/story collaborator Kaoru Kurosaki launched the Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaido-hen) in Shueisha’s Jump SQ. magazine in September 2017. VIZ Media is simultaneously publishing the manga in English.
Source: ANN
The August 28, 2017 issue of VIZ Media’s digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine has announced it will publish the first chapter of the new Rurouni Kenshin arc on September 4, 2017. The new story, titled Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaido-hen) in Japan, will debut in Shueisha’s Jump SQ. on the same day.
Kenshin will be the protagonist of the new series and it will have five “arcs.” The manga was originally announced in December 2016 as launching in Spring 2017, but was delayed to Summer 2017.
Watsuki and his wife Kaoru Kurosaki published a two-chapter prologue titled “Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido-hen Jomaku: AshitarÅ Zenka Ari” (Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido Arc Prologue: The Criminal Ashitaro) for the manga in the Jump SQ. magazine in November 2016 and December 2016. The manga featured a new protagonist named Ashitaro. VIZ Media’s digital Weekly Shonen Jump manga magazine published the prequel in English in December 2016.
Source: ANN
The September 2017 issue of Shueisha’s Jump SQ. magazine has announced that Nobuhiro Watsuki’s new Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaido-hen) manga will launch in the magazine’s October 2017 issue on September 4, 2017. The manga was originally announced in December 2016 as launching in Spring 2017, but was delayed to Summer 2017. The new series will feature Kenshin as the protagonist, and it will have five “arcs.”
Watsuki and his wife Kaoru Kurosaki published a two-chapter prologue titled “Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido-hen Jomaku: AshitarÅ Zenka Ari” (Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido Arc Prologue: The Criminal Ashitaro) for the manga in the Jump SQ. magazine in November 2016 and December 2016. The manga featured a new protagonist named Ashitaro. VIZ Media’s digital Weekly Shonen Jump manga magazine published the prequel in English in December 2016. Kurosaki is also serving as story collaborator on the new manga.
Source: ANN
The May 2017 issue of Shueisha’s Jump SQ. magazine is announcing that Nobuhiro Watsuki’s new Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaido-hen) manga will launch in Summer 2017. The manga was originally announced in December 2016 as launching in Spring 2017. The new series will feature Kenshin as the protagonist, and it will have five “arcs.”
Watsuki and his wife Kaoru Kurosaki published a two-chapter prologue titled “Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido-hen Jomaku: AshitarÅ Zenka Ari” (Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido Arc Prologue: The Criminal Ashitaro) for the manga in the Jump SQ. magazine in November 2016 and December 2016. VIZ Media’s digital Weekly Shonen Jump manga magazine published the prequel in English.
Watsuki first launched his Rurouni Kenshin manga in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994.
Source: ANN
VIZ Media expands its catalog of omnibus manga releases with the announcement of Rurouni Kenshin 3-in-1 Volume 1 on January 3, 2017.
Creator Nobuhiro Watsuki’s acclaimed saga of a drifting swordsman in Meiji Era Japan is rated “T+” for Older Teen and the new 3-in-1 editions will carry a print MSRP of $14.99 U.S. / $19.99 CAN each. New omnibus volumes will be published on a quarterly basis.
In Ruroini Kenshin, Himura Battosai was once an assassin of ferocious power during the violent upheaval of the Bakumatsu era. But as the Meiji Restoration heals the wounds of civil war, Battosai takes up a new name and a new calling. As Himura Kenshin, he now fights only to protect the honor of those in need.
Rurouni Kenshin made its first appearance in Japan in 1992 as an original short story in Weekly Shonen Jump Special and went on to garner fans around the world. Later rewritten and published as a regular, continuing manga series in 1994, Rurouni Kenshin ended serialization in 1999 but it continued in popularity, as evidenced by the 2000 publication of Yahiko no Sakabato (Yahiko’s Reversed-Edge Sword) and the 2015 publication of Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration in Weekly Shonen Jump. The series also has inspired novels, anime and feature films.
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