what exactly?

Good question. Sorry to say that the . . . critique . . . on this OAV is vague (don't know about you, but my mama told me that if you couldn't say anything nice, don't say anything at all). I read somewhere else that it starts with Kenshin on a boat, sailing away from Karou and the Dojo, then goes on to memories of the two. Mostly the mange in video form, after the war with Shishio. More an OAV for fans who understand the layout than first-timers who don't understand the whole story and say dumb things and poopoo the whole thing as stupid.

Just an observation.

The movie is a spinoff of the series, with the first OVAs as a prelude to the series, when he's the hitokiri, and shows how Tomoe came to be his wife, and shows why he gave up his killing sword. Then comes the series, and then the last OVA, Reflection, is based AFTER the series, and shows Kenshin and Kaoru advanced in years, and even Sanosuke has wrinkles, it's very weird. Kenshin looks like his master, Hiko. I guess that's the point.

So the short answer, the motion picture is just a spinoff, I think there are two movies, I only bought the one though because at the time I'd only seen a trailer *bangs head* Stupid, STUPID! of me. The OVAs offer a sort of background look at Kenshin's past. The series is then present day, and the last OVA is the future.

Hope that explains it, any other questions feel free to ask, but bear in mind, although I've seen all of them, it was a year or two ago, and then I sold it all, so my memory is hazy.

Dan

I think that it takes place before the Kyoto Arc because Yamagata's still alive and he died in that arc. Either that or the people who made it were disoriented :).