Watching the English Dub again, the show isn't perfect, no, and especially some of the dubbed voice acting and dialouge is hilarious, but I think a lot of the storytelling and ideas of the show hold up.
The way Japanese history is incorporated is done pretty well for a pre-teen aimed anime, and no one particular side of the conflict is shown to be absolutely good or evil. There's some great philosophical points made, and I think the characters are very strongly written and created for the most part, with Kenshin himself being a great example of redemption and choosing a better and more controlled path for oneself.
One of the main flaws of the show is merely from a budget/production standpoint, and not the storytelling.
Especially in the early episodes, there are a lot of single-frame or still image shots where movement and animation is drawn over a still image to create the appearance of movement, without it actually being there.
It pales in comparison to the fluid fight scenes of Samurai Champloo or the Kenshin OVAs. In the show, most of the time you get the idea of the fight scenes, without actually seeing everything play out.
Sometimes the explanation of fighting techniques and internal monolouge of what's happening, versus just showing the audience what's going on, can be very irritating as well, but that tends to be more of a Shounen Anime device than anything else.
Overall, Rurouni Kenshin is a great anime with some shortcomings, and is in my top picks for anime overall.
"Bulls**t MR.Han Man!!"--Jim Kelly in Enter the Dragon
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