Rurouni Kenshin is undoubtedly one of the best things I've ever laid hands upon. I have severe ADHD making my attention spam absolute crap; it took me a month to finish a 2-hour long movie (I kept watching it in fragments) and it took me 3 years to finish an anime with 10 episodes (no exaggeration), so I struggle profoundly with finishing series but I do finish them eventually.

Rurouni Kenshin is a different case, I straight up nailed this son of a gun in 10 days flat cause damn, it was a good read. I've never once in my life thought that still pictures with dialogue smacked on to it would have adrenaline coursing through my veins. It's not like some of the others where the beginning trudges along and the series holds your hand, guiding you through it's plot. Oh no siree, this bad boy hits you with a BANG and has plot twists literally in the first few chapters. And boy oh boy does it just keep ESCALATING. You thought the Jinchu Arc was good? Pfft, it's a joke compared to the second one. Oh, so you've read the Kyoto Arc and think it can't get better than this? THINK AGAIN, because the Tokyo Arc just hit you and sent you out of Earth's orbit to become one with the sun. It's very hard for me to choose which arc is the best because holy shite ALL of the fights are brilliant and hardcore.

Every aspect of the manga is very well handled and the character development is stunning. Everyone develops throughout the series, but you barely notice because you grow alongside them; making the changes come naturally, you truly notice the transformations when you ponder over them or go back to the beginning when you've reached the end. One of the notable character developments is in Kaoru Kamiya, her development is SUPREME and makes me feel like a proud parent (even though I had nothing to do with it). One of the "subtle" character developments is in Yahiko Myojin, who by most, gets written off as a 9-year-old brat, but you see, that's the POINT. His character gradually develops from a brat to a young admirable, formidable warrior. But most people disregard him because they don't take the time to observe his character and how he's grown.

If you're debating whether to read or watch the series, I highly recommend reading it than watching it, and this is coming from a person who prefers to watch their content.

Now, I (unfortunately, shamefully, regretfully) watched the anime first and no doubt, quickly lost interest. You see, the anime doesn't exactly follow the manga in the beginning, but it did almost fully start following it in the Kyoto Arc and then it was GREAT. I couldn't stop watching, the curiosity and anticipation of what would happen next kept me on my toes. And then after the anime was done with this second arc, everything started going downhill. All the remaining episodes in the series were plain fillers that barely kept my interest; making it a show I put on in the background instead of fully paying attention to.

Personally speaking, the show doesn't handle the relationship between the hero and heroine well and I'll tell you why. I didn't even know that the characters had a chance of being in a relationship until a moment in the series happened. In the manga, the pairing is handled much more smoothly and you can easily see a potential relationship.

The art in the manga is great and I loved the format. I didn't mind that the writer of the series wanted to lessen his line work when he drew the series but I wished he didn't start doing it towards the end because I'm so used to seeing the characters in the one art form that it just completely hijacked me when the writer started drawing the characters in a format that I'm not used to. I really don't care when art styles change as long it's not in the same series. Art styles of a manga drawer can always develop, and it's usually for the better, but since the writer of the series started off using a lot of details in his characters, it sort-of "downgraded" the artwork when he started using less lines. It doesn't mean the artwork is bad, it just looks a bit "inferior" compared to the bit more complex artwork.

This is just an amazing historical-fiction based samurai manga and I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone looking for some good, pristine content. Rurouni Kenshin is to this date, the only series I've had a hard time parting with when I finished reading the manga. I've bought the books just because the series has become so dear to me that I wanted to have my own hand-held copies.

*This was a long arse review, so sorry for any crappy grammar.