The episode opens by moonlight as a gang of street thugs are beaten by the powerful fists of a tall, spiky-haired man in a red headband and white jacket (you know, the one from the title sequence); he carries a huge, long, cloth-wrapped bundle on his shoulder. The last conscious member of the gang begs for mercy, but the man says he would have stopped even if they didn't ask; if he kept beating on such pathetic opponents, he would just be a bully. "I picked a boring fight," he says. "Aren't there any strong guys around here?"

Segue to mid-day at Kamiya Dojo. Kaoru is entertaining Ayame and Suzume with her juggling skills, but Yahiko's smart comments get him three juggling balls to the face and the usual bickering ensues. Kenshin manages to distract them with plans for lunch, but everything he has cooking is pretty plain. Yahiko wonders why they couldn't have something tastier, but Kaoru reminds him that he's staying here for free; where does he think that money would come from? But just then, an idea strikes her; she runs off, ransacks the storage shed, and emerges with an ink-painting scroll by her grandfather, who was pretty well known as a painter as well as a swordsman. However, she's happy to sell it for some money, so let's eat out and have a good time!

They have lunch at Akabeko together with Genzai and the girls, but their pleasant time is interrupted by the patrons in the booth across from them. The three drunken men there are political dissidents who support a democratic movement, and are loudly arguing tactics with each other (they aren't given names, but for clarity, I'll refer to them as Sleaze Boy, Rat Man, and The Brick). When Genzai explains their cause of spreading political power among many more people, Kaoru says "That sounds like a good thing, but seeing how they act, I'm not so sure..." Yahiko says they're just drunks in any case, and Kenshin agrees.

Just then, a sake cup comes flying out of the dissidents' booth and smashes against the back of Kenshin's head (and the resulting cry of pain is so horrible, one might think Kenshin had tied his hair back with a live duck which took the brunt of the impact). The dissidents obliviously continue bickering among themselves even as Kenshin collapses, and Yahiko leaps to his feet and insists that they apologize. Tae tries to break up the ensuing argument, but The Brick knocks her away with a backhand blow.

Tae is caught by the spiky-haired man in the white jacket (the one from the title sequence, again), who had been eating in another booth. He tells the drunken men that democracy is about improving the lot of the weak, not about getting drunk and making trouble. "Are you trying to pick a fight with us!?" they demand. "That's right." The man says he usually isn't the one to start fights, but when people are picking on the weak, and especially being hypocrites as they spout pretty words about justice and freedom, he'll make an exception. They take the fight outside, and the man invites them to charge him. The Brick takes the challenge, and at the last minute flicks a suntetsu (see the Notes) out of his fist, hitting the man in the forehead with its point, but the blow still has no affect, and succeeds only in wrenching his own finger and arm. Unwilling to unleash his full strength on such a pathetic opponent, the man in the jacket flicks Brick in the forehead with one finger, hurling him to the ground. "I picked another boring fight," he says. Sleaze Boy begins to draw a sword hidden in his staff, but Kenshin appears behind him, with the handle of Sakabatou against his back. "I put up with your drunken behavior, but if you draw that here, my patience is at an end," Kenshin tells him. "Pay your bill and leave."

As the drunks limp away, Tae thanks the man in the jacket for his help, and he asks if Kenshin is all right after that blow to the head---even though he realized that Kenshin took the blow on purpose. Kaoru was sitting opposite him, and if he had let the sake cup go past, it would have hit her in the face. The man likes Kenshin's skill and modest manner, and challenges him to a fight (this really does make sense with him...); Kenshin refuses, and the man says he's available for it anytime Kenshin changes his mind. As he turns and walks away, Kenshin and company see that one large character---"Bad"---is emblazoned on the back of his jacket. The man seems to display so many contradictions, Kaoru can't tell if he's a good guy or a bad guy---especially when Tae realizes that he left without paying his check!

As our heroes are trying to figure it out, we find that Hiruma Gohei, disguised as a monk, was watching from a side-street, and identified the man in the jacket as the rumored fighter-for-hire, Zanza. "If I use him, I'm sure to be rid of that annoying guy..."

Sure enough, that night, Hiruma goes to the rowhouse where "Zanza" lives and approaches him with the job. "What do you think I am, some kind of hitman?" Zanza asks him. Whether or not the target dies is all down to luck and skill, but nonetheless, he's willing to take on the job as long as it's a fun fight. Gohei assures him of that, since the target, Kenshin (who else?) is the one known as . . . He's certainly strong enough, Gohei says, and if you defeated him you'd be famous. Zanza doesn't care about fame; he snaps up the fight for his own reasons. He's been looking for an opponent like this for a long time, someone strong enough to face that huge cloth-wrapped object he carries. Immediately he sets out for Kamiya Dojo, and Gohei watches him go, reflecting on all he's heard about Zanza's strength---it's said those who fight him have nightmares about the "bad" character on his back---and revelling in this chance for revenge on Kenshin, who rendered him permanently unable to use a sword.

At the dojo, everyone has settled in for the evening. Genzai-sensei realizes he stayed too late, but the girls have fallen asleep, and Yahiko offers to walk them home a little later. Just then, Kenshin feels a presence approaching, a foolishly straightforward fighting spirit. He emerges from the Dojo to find Zanza there in the yard, come to pick a fight. Kenshin tries to decline, but now that Zanza has a patron, he can't take no for an answer---especially not when the opponent is one of the Isshin Shishi, the famous Hitokiri Battousai no less. He knows the basics of Kenshin's Hitokiri career, even the name of his style, Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, but he doesn't know what that style can do, or why Kenshin left the war and became a pacifist Rurouni. Not knowing that, he says, nothing for it but a straightfoward fight.

As Hiruma Gohei watches over the fence, Kenshin says that there are things he, too, doesn't know about his opponent: Why does someone who hates abuse of the weak work as a fighter-for-hire? Why does he wear the "Bad" character on his back? What could warp someone's thinking like that? But Zanza doesn't want to deliver his sob-story before a fight (we save that for the middle of fights on this show), he just wants more than anything to defeat the strongest of the Isshin Shishi.

"Oh, yeah, I haven't introduced myself yet," he says. "My name is Sagara Sanosuke." As he speaks, he rips the cloth wrappings off his huge bundle, revealing a Zanbatou---an enormous sword with a pole for a handle and a massive blade at least eight feet long. His underworld name, "Zanza," he says, is short for "Zanbatou Sanosuke." Kaoru recognizes the Zanbatou as the largest sword ever made, designed to kill a mounted enemy horse and all, which it was said no one could master due to its weight. But as Zanza orders Kenshin to forget his no-killing sweet-talk and charges him, he swings the massive weapon quickly and easily.

Kenshin dodges his first swings and the two face off again. He is just about to draw his sword when Ayame and Suzume begin calling for him. Zanza stands down, saying that a real fight can't be done in front of women and children, and Kenshin also detects the dirty presence of an interloper. At just that time, a tree limb comes loose above Gohei's head (I can only deduce that Sano cut it while taking swings at Kenshin) and falls on him, pinning him to the ground. "What was that?" Yahiko and Kaoru wonder. "It sounds like there was somebody over there?"

Zanza leaves, but first warns Kenshin that he won't give up on the fight with him. As he walks away, again revealing the "Bad" character on his back, Kenshin wonders why Zanza has such hatred for the Isshin Shishi. "It seems I have no choice but to fight you." But for now, the danger is passed, and he goes with Yahiko to take Genzai and the girls home.

First, the character on Sanosuke's jacket. It's pronounced "aku", or (adding the hiragana "i" to form an adjective) "warui." It means "bad" or "evil." Anime Works translated it as "wicked," which isn't really inaccurate but is a bit too specific and flowery a translation for my taste (Anime Works' translation usually is). Worse yet, by doing that they lost the whole connection with the episode title, "Aku no ichimonji": "One Word (literally "one character")--Bad", using the same "bad" as on Sano's jacket. The character on the jacket is also slightly modified. Usually "aku" looks like this: , but the one on Sano's jacket looks like this: .

Second, more fiddly translations (since Anime Works actually left this one untranslated): Zanbatou. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the "zan" character on its own in my reference books, but the words I found containing it mostly have to do with death and violence (such as "zankanjou," "an assassin's written justification", "zanshu," "decapitation," or "zanzai," "execution by the sword"). The second character, "ba" can also be pronounced "uma" and means "horse." The last character, "tou" means "sword." Altogether, then, I would translate "Zanbatou" as "Horse-Killing Sword," which fits with how Kaoru described its intended purpose. Note that it's the same "tou" character but not the same "ba" character as in "Sakabatou"---while I like the sound of the Japanese better, I can't fault Anime Works' translation of that one. It breaks down: "Saka"="reverse," "ba" (also pronounced "ha")="edge of a blade," "tou"="sword".

Finally, the hidden weapon with which The Brick hits Sano in the forehead to no avail: I went for years thinking that that was some kind of dagger, since it looked like it had a point, and the folks at Anime Works evidently thought so, too, but that's not what it is. Maigo-chan's manga translation set me straight: it's a suntetsu, a metal bar with a ring that goes around the attacker's middle finger, probably more akin to brass knuckles, although it can be used with a stabbing motion. Here is a site that shows a picture of one.

As for Manga comparison, anime episode four corresponds to manga chapter 5 through most of chapter 6. The story begins much like the anime version (but without Genzai and the girls, again), opening on Sano beating up the same gang, wondering if there's anyone who can put up a good fight around. Segue to Kamiya Dojo, where Kaoru finds her grandfather's painting and decides to sell it so they can eat out, although Yahiko is a bit less happy about this than in the anime and thinks she's money-grubbing (as a sweet comic touch in this scene, Kenshin is splitting wood with the back of Sakabatou). Lunch out is the manga's first view of Akabeko, and our heroes' first meeting with Sanosuke---the trouble that the Democratic dissidents started and Sano and Kenshin finished---transpired just as in the anime.

In the next scene, carrying over a difference from chapter one, Hiruma Gohei and Kihei together hire Sanosuke to fight Kenshin for them. After hearing that Kenshin is Hitokiri Battousai, Sano snaps up the job, but disappears for two weeks, doing research about his opponent (according to Maigo-chan's translation he actually went to Kyoto; that's dedication!). When he gets back, there's a very wrong scene with Gohei dressed up as Sano---the real thing's impeccably reasonable response is to box his ears. Anyway, even though Sano wasn't able to find out anything about Kenshin's style per se, he's as ready as he's going to be and heads over to Kamiya Dojo. The Hiruma brothers follow and watch over the fence, and the ever-devious Kihei reveals that he thinks Sano is no match for Kenshin---he has his own plans and has brought a revolver; Sanosuke is merely the distraction he needs to use it. Sano challenges Kenshin, who accepts, but he guesses that the Hirumas are Sano's patrons and detects their presence. Sano and Kenshin insist that they come out in the open, and Sano takes Kihei's gun and smashes it.

There isn't the clean part-break of an aborted fight at the dojo as in the anime; Sano suggests moving the fight to get more open space and the whole group walks down to the river. (YAHIKO: "He doesn't stand out or anything...") Along the way, Kenshin notes hearing Sano say it was how Yahiko discovered that he was Hitokiri Battousai (in the anime, he found it out in ep. 3, but remember, in the manga, that story happened before he was introed), but Yahiko is if anything relieved to have Kenshin's incredible sword skill explained. When they reach the riverside battleground, Sano unsheathes his Zanbatou (that bundle looked a lot narrower before he did that... oh, well), and the fight gets underway. See the notes on the next episode for the continuation.

My obligatory gripe about Anime Works' translation (no, the "wicked" nit above wasn't enough): Democratic Desperadoes. Wow. You know, if I were Japanese back then, I'd be pretty miffed, too, if a bunch of outlaw American cowboys crossed the Pacific and wanted to tork around with my governmental system.

BTW, in case you did a double-take at some of those "zan" words I dug up in the Notes, I've got, among other things, "Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary," which I guess was "New" around 1950 when it was published. ---No, really, it has a section for "New Words (1949)" and, since I got it second-hand, has hand-written in the front "Tokyo - 1952". The thing's not bi-directional, mind you, just Japanese to English, close to 3 inches thick, and has things in it like words for "an assassin's written justification for his deed." It even almost has "Rurouni" in it---not even Watsuki-san could find that word in a dictionary and concluded that he'd made it up entirely, but under "Ruro: Vagrancy, wandering", is listed a variation using almost the exact same kanji as Watsuki's "rurouni", only one stroke off, and defined as "a roamer, a tramp, a vagabond." Unfortunately they don't give a reading for it, so I don't know if it sounds the same... But I digress...

Oh, and here---and in episode two as well---take a good look at Tae's eyes. This was back when she would actually open them. Whoa...

You also may have noticed, in the summaries, I try to write them from the viewpoint of someone watching the episode for the first time, such as not calling the characters by their names until the names are revealed to said hypothetical first-time viewer. Spending episode one saying "the rurouni" all the time was bad enough, but it felt like forever that I had to call Sano "The man in the jacket" or whatever. Now he's "Zanza." I can't wait until an episode or two from now when I can call him "Sanosuke" or "Sano" all the time... ^_^;

And... ::trumpet fanfare:: the episode guide's first Omake! Not an "outtake reel" or something zany and fun, but hopefully nifty and interesting: how you can make a rendition of Sanosuke's "Bad" character to find a place for among the RK posters plastering your walls (if you're anything like me).

Mind you this does not come from an expert; I've only dabbled in Japanese calligraphy on a few occasions and am not very knowledgeable about this highly sophisticated art form. I can't tell you how to make truly expert and artful pieces (well, years of experience is the main answer to that), but you can make something that looks pretty darn cool by your own standards that you can put up on your wall, and if you become interested in the process, a quick online search will turn up lots of resources for you to go further with it.

Materials:

• Ink - Sumi ink is available at Japanese bookstores and some online stores; I used plain black india ink, which is available at any arts and crafts store in the art supply section.
• Brush - You know the brushes with the bamboo handles and the large but pointed tips? That kind of brush. (Okay, so I couldn't find one of those around the house; I cheated and used a pointed mop brush. And Watsuki-san thought he was a phoney... ^_^;)
• Paper - About letter sized is a good size for the paper. Rice paper is traditional, but you can experiment with other types. Plain copier paper isn't recommended for a "keeper," because it doesn't look very nice and the ink will wrinkle it, but it is good for practice while you get used to the strokes of a character (my own practice paper was a kind of copier cardstock I had laying around). When you feel ready to try doing final versions, again, go to the art supply section in your local art and craft store and look around for rice paper, watercolor paper, or printmaking paper, something that has an attractive texture and some substance to it---a thin paper will often wrinkle, although I've used thin rice paper and liked the results despite that. I was lucky enough to have some good paper left over from my college printmaking classes, and used what I think was some Japanese mulberry paper. Even for your "final" paper, I recommend several about-letter-sized sheets. BTW, here's an art school tip: if you need to divide up a sheet of watercolor paper or printmaking paper (many of these are sold in large sheets), don't cut it with scissors. Use the straight edge of a metal ruler or the edge of a table and tear it. Using a straightedge, you'll be able to make straight tears once you get the hang of it, and on something that shows off the paper like this project, this kind of edge will look much nicer.
• You'll also want a cup of water to clean your brush and a paper towel to blot water out of it, and you might also coat your work surface with newspaper, freezer paper, or something else that will keep ink from getting on things.

How to Write the Character:

Here's the stroke order for the standard "Bad" character:



I recommend doing the standard version enough to get comfortable with it before attempting the Sano's Jacket Version (the best stroke order I can divine for it---again, this is not how this character is normally written):

Dip the brush in the ink so that it's loaded, but not just dripping. Holding the brush perpendicular to the paper, follow the above strokes in the specified directions. Never go back over a stroke once you've put it down or attempt to touch it up in any way. Experiment with the force you apply on each one; the more pressure you put on the brush, the thicker the line (but never mash your brush into the paper). The faster the stroke, the less time the ink will have to absorb; depending on the speed, the amount of ink on the brush, and the texture of the paper, you can get the broken "raked" effect. While you don't have to make the strokes that fast, never dawdle. If you shape the character with slow, laborious strokes (or worse, cheat and try to retouch it after the initial strokes), it will seem artificial; the look of Japanese calligraphy is more about boldness and flow.

From my brief experience with Japanese calligraphy, the best tip I can give you is to get out your ink and brush, have the stroke order to refer to, and a stack of paper (this is where cheap copier paper is good), and just write the character over and over. As I said in the above paragraph, it's better to put the character down quickly and boldly, not meticulously composing it, so you're not going to get it looking just right on the first try. Keep repeating it on practice paper until you're pleased with how it's coming out, then switch to the good paper. Don't just have one sheet of that, either---have enough to write the character several more times.

When you're done, promptly clean your brush (never let ink dry in it) and let all the papers dry. Keep the renditions you like, and throw away the practice sheets and any on the good paper that didn't come out. Hopefully you'll have at least one that you consider display-quality, and as an added bonus, after doing it so many times, you might never forget how to write the kanji for "Bad." (If you get dropped in the middle of Tokyo and don't know how to ask where the bathroom is, this won't really help, but it's gotta be worth something, huh? ^_^;)

Here's my final version (signed with my first name in katakana):



And one more picture, just so you'll know I'm not all talk about the process:

Here's a link with Information about Japanese Calligraphy with a booklist---I don't recommend this place in particular, I just found their text interesting. Here is also More info from About.com in their Japanese Language section.

The next morning at Kamiya Dojo, Kaoru and Yahiko, alarmed by Zanza's challenge, frantically search for Kenshin, only to find him hanging up laundry with a smile as if nothing at all was wrong. Kaoru exhorts him not to fight Zanza, but to Kenshin, it seems that he has to, that Zanza has some deeper motivation for the battle. He remembers Zanza's desire to defeat the strongest of the Isshin Shishi, and wonders what happened to inspire him to such hatred. Genzai arrives with his granddaughters, and Kaoru's attempts to talk Kenshin out of the fight are interrupted by the girls dragging Kenshin off to play with them.

Meanwhile, at the row-house where Zanza lives, a drummer outside attracts a group of children (not important to the plot, I just wanted to mention it because it's such a nifty detail) while Zanza sits in his room, playing solitair dice---you've gotta think he's depressed. Indeed, he's reflecting on a time ten years ago, his own experience during the revolution...

On a hilltop in winter, the young Sanosuke (eight or nine years old at that time) stands beside Sagara Souzou, captain of the Sekihoutai, holding Sagara's sword. As they watch the Isshin Shishi's army march past, Sagara tells little Sanosuke that soon the shogunate will end, and a new era will begin where the weak are no longer oppressed, where all people will be equal, and that the Sekihoutai are leading the fight for this utopian goal. "So we should do our best to bring about the new era as soon as possible," Sanosuke finishes, beaming. "I've heard that lots of times." As they turn to go, Sanosuke asks if when everyone is equal, he can have a last name. Sagara says yes, and Sanosuke asks if he can have the same last name as Sagara, his hero. "Sagara Sanosuke?" the captain muses playfully. "No, no, what a strange-sounding name." Sanosuke smiles. Just then, an army officer, Shindo Tatewaki, rides up to the pair and tells Sagara that he has orders for him, from the Isshin-Shishi's government-general. Sagara and Sanosuke react with concern, and just then the adult Zanza returns to the present.

He throws one of his dice through the paper window in his doors, giving Hiruma Gohei a snake-eye to the head. Gohei was skulking around, wondering how Zanza's fight with Kenshin is going. Zanza insists that now that he's taken the job, the fight with Kenshin is his fight, and he will allow no interference. "It's not that I didn't trust you," Gohei insists. He knows that this fight is especially significant, since Kenshin is Hitokiri Battousai and Sanosuke was one of the Sekihoutai, but of course he doesn't mind if Kenshin dies. Zanza doesn't care what Gohei does or doesn't mind, but is apparently sick of being nagged and emerges again with his Zanbatou over his shoulder. He comes upon Kenshin playing hopscotch with the girls outside the dojo.

Meanwhile, inside, Genzai has heard rumors from one of his patients, and tells Yahiko and Kaoru that Zanza is a surviving member of the Sekihoutai. The Sekihoutai, he says, were a fake government army, a fighting force made up of ordinary people like farmers and merchants. They fought for the new government, but confused people by spreading lies, like a false promise of taxes being cut in half, and the Isshin Shishi's government punished them for that. "So that's why he's picking a fight with Kenshin," Yahiko surmises, for revenge. Kaoru says it's just a foolish grudge since the Sekihoutai were the "bad guys," and she again vows to keep Kenshin from fighting such a dangerous opponent, but just then, Ayame and Suzume come back inside and tell them that Kenshin went somewhere "with that spiky-haired man from yesterday." Kaoru and Yahiko immediately take off in search of them.

On the bank of the river, Zanza again unwraps his Zanbatou and Kenshin at last draws his Sakabatou. Zanza scoffs at the reversed blade. "You still think something silly like not killing will work now? Well, whether someone dies is up to you, not me!" Kaoru and Yahiko arrive on the scene just as Zanza takes his first swing, splitting Kenshin's saya (sword-sheath), but Kenshin dodges and counters with a blow to Zanza's flank. As Zanza falls, Hiruma Gohei curses from a hiding place on the sidelines, and Yahiko exults that the Zanbatou's power is meaningless if Zanza can't hit Kenshin with it, but Kenshin is still focussed on his opponent, and a moment later, Zanza gets back to his feet. Kaoru realizes that Zanza's real strength isn't the brute force of his Zanbatou, but his power of endurance; for the first time, she's seeing Kenshin face a foe he can't put down with one hit. "In a fight, unlike a duel, the winner isn't the best swordsman," Zanza tells Kenshin, "it's the one who stays standing." "When you're the one standing in the end, then say that," Kenshin replies.

Zanza brings his blade down on Kenshin again, then swings it around to catch him as he dodges, but as his sword comes to rest, Kenshin has disappeared. "I'm here." Kenshin is crouched on the blade of the Zanbatou. As he leaps off, he tells Zanza that such a massive weapon is limited. It can only swing down or side to side, he says; its movements are very easy to predict. He runs down the blade and hits Zanza in the back of the head, then ducks under another swing. "One blow won't work, so..." Kenshin unleashes a volley of rapid-fire blows with his Sakabatou, sending Zanza crashing to the ground. "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ryuu-Sou-Sen."

Kenshin doesn't want to fight anymore, and exhorts Zanza to admit defeat, but even having been knocked to the ground, Zanza will not let himself lose to one of the Isshin Shishi, again recalling the fateful events of ten years ago...

In that winter of the revolution, the Sekihoutai arrived as ordered at the Isshin Shishi's base at Shimosuwa, where Shindo (the officer from the earlier flashback) tells them that they have been declared impostors. When Sagara demands to know the meaning of this, Shindo tells him that the Sekihoutai "went rogue" to spread lies like promising that taxes would be halved and confusing the people, and that the government has decided the crime inexcusable, to be punished by death. The Sekihoutai fighters protest that they only relayed the promises the government told them to, but Sagara understands. As little Sanosuke listens in shock, he explains that the government is in financial trouble and can't afford to cut taxes in half, so they've decided to denounce the Sekihoutai and erase the promise along with them. Shindo confirms his conclusion. "We all fought valliantly, believing that the Isshin Shishi were just and would help the weak," Sagara says. "...Dreaming of a new era..."

Shindo tells him that such ideals have no place in war; the only truth is that the winners are good and the losers are evil. Even a good group, if they are weak, will be losers and be branded as the "bad guys": "like you." He snaps his fingers and the cloth walls of the enclosure are cut; the Sekihoutai suddenly find themselves surrounded by the Isshin Shishi's riflemen. "Your work is now finished," Shindo says. "Thank you."

Sanosuke offers Sagara his sword, and the captain takes it and knocks him to the ground. As the riflemen open fire, Sanosuke raises his head to see the Sekihoutai slaughtered. Sagara takes a gunshot wound, but Sanosuke and a few other fighters manage to take him and escape. With the Isshin Shishi in pursuit, their colleagues are picked off until finally Sanosuke manages to drag Sagara to the edge of a canyon. Sagara tells Sanosuke to leave him and escape, but Sanosuke won't think of it. With a final burst of strength, Sagara hurls Sanosuke over the ledge into the river below and turns to face his pursuers, and Sanosuke falls away screaming his name amid the sounds and flashes of gunfire...

Returning to the present, Zanza swears that he will not forgive the Isshin Shishi for such a filthy act. Hearing this, Kenshin guesses that Zanza was one of the Sekihoutai, and when Kaoru and Yahiko confirm it, he feels the realization with sorrow and compassion.

But at that moment, Gohei decides to take matters into his own hands with a revolver. "Die, Battousai!" he shouts as he pulls the trigger. The bullet knocks Kenshin back as Kaoru and Yahiko cry out, but Kenshin keeps his footing; he absorbed the bullet with his tsuba, which shatters. Gohei then seizes Kaoru and Yahiko, keeping his pistol trained on Kenshin and threatening them with a claw he is wearing on the other hand. He is just about to shoot again when Zanza swings his Zanbatou from the ground, hitting Gohei behind the knee with the flat of it and breaking his leg. He gets to his feet as Gohei writhes in pain on the ground. "I thought I told you, this is my fight! I won't let anyone interfere!" He again insists that he will not let himself lose to one of the Isshin Shishi. On the ground, Gohei draws another revolver, trying again to shoot Kenshin at close range, but Kenshin strikes the grond with his sword and sends Gohei flying in a blast of earth. "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, Do-Ryuu-Sen!"

The red herring thus dispensed with, the strongest of the Isshin Shishi and the survivor of the Sekihoutai set about to resolve their fight, but Kaoru and Yahiko protest. The Sekihoutai were the ones in the wrong, so why should Zanza attack Kenshin? "Normal people still believe the Isshin Shishi stand for justice... They sure got us," Zanza says with a bitter laugh. Kaoru and Yahiko don't know what he's talking about, but Kenshin tells them that they were mistaken about the Sekihoutai. He admits that the Isshin Shishi used them, then ruthlessly killed them; Zanza has every right to be angry. "However..."

"Shut up!" Zanza shouts. Again he swears never to forgive the hypocrites who put the "evil" mark on Sagara and the Sekihoutai's backs and killed them. "I'll never forgive them! I won't lose to them!!"

"Very well," Kenshin says. "We'll finish this once and for all." To Kaoru and Yahiko's shock, he flips over his Sakabatou.

Zanza swings and misses, but he then twirls the Zanbatou over his head, creating a whirlwind as he gains momentum. In the heat of the battle, he reflects that after the Sekihoutai's desctruction, he became a brawler; he buried his troubles in fights, and in all those fights he'd become strong. "And now with that strength, I'll defeat the Isshin Shishi's strongest!"

"Such weak-spirited strength cannot defeat me," Kenshin says. He leaps up to meet Zanza's downward swing, and with the back of Sakabatou, he cleanly shears off the blade of the Zanbatou. He turns the sword over again (I assume), wheels around in midair and comes down, swinging downward on Zanza will full force. "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ryuu-Tsui-Sen!" As Kenshin lands lightly, Zanza is still on his feet, the only person ever to remain standing after taking a Ryuu-Tsui-Sen, but Kenshin sees that he can barely stand and tells him to wait while they call a doctor.

Zanza isn't willing to give up the fight; as long as he's still standing, he hasn't lost, and he shouts for Kenshin to come at him again. Kenshin walks over and coolly punches him. "Don't you think you're fighting the wrong battle?" he asks. "Did the Sekihoutai teach you to fight the Isshin Shishi, or fight for a new era?" Zanza shouts that it isn't for a hypocritical Isshin Shishi to say that, but Kaoru and Yahiko run in, insisting that Kenshin isn't the kind of person Zanza is talking about. He didn't fight so that he could enjoy riches or power in the new era; in fact, he refused the offer of a powerful government position. They tell Zanza that Kenshin is just a Rurouni who freely protects people with his sword. If Zanza still isn't convinced, Yahiko even insists that he would fight him in Kenshin's place.

But Kenshin says the words that strike Zanza most deeply: "The revolution isn't over yet." It is true that the war is over (or at least we've "declared an end to major hostilities"), and a new era has been officially named, but many people still live in the old age where the weak are oppressed. Kenshin says that is the reason why he became a Rurouni, using his Sakabatou to protect those people as his atonement for the lives lost in the revolution. As Kenshin turns to go and get Dr. Genzai, Zanza realizes that Kenshin is very much like his hero Sagara, fighting for the ideal of a new age, but Kenshin still believes in and fights for that ideal, while he, Sanosuke, let himself fall into despair and could only delude himself in constant fights. "Sorry, Captain Sagara... I lost to this guy..." At that, Zanza at last admits defeat and collapses. (Leaving a heck of a crater! Whatever this guy does, he does it like he means it!)

Later that day, Kenshin, Kaoru, and Yahiko are returning home after taking Zanza to the clinic. Genzai had said that he would need to be hospitalized for weeks, that it was a miracle he didn't die after such a beating, but Kenshin says this opponent was too strong to go easy on. But at any rate, it's all taken care of now, Kaoru says, so let's eat out and celebrate, but as they come to Akabeko, the political dissidents from the start of the whole situation, Sleaze Boy, Rat Man, and The Brick, burst through the doorway and flee, and who should emerge at their heels but a bruised and bandaged Zanza! He wouldn't care if they got drunk and picked a fight with him, he says, if they just weren't so bad at it. Kaoru and Yahiko thought he had to stay in the hospital, but Zanza says his strength is his stamina, and these wounds are no problem; they poke and prod at him to check, and he insists it's really nothing, "...but stop playing with my body!!" (Good night, everybody.)

As he turns to go, Kenshin sees that the "Bad" character is still there on his jacket, and asks Zanza if he won't remove it, but Zanza says he won't. He can't just bury his memory of the fate of the Sekihoutai or his hatred of the Isshin Shishi, and he says he'll hang around to see for himself whether Kenshin is one of those hypocrites or not. "Oh, and one more thing, I'm not 'Zanza' anymore, or a fighter-for-hire. From now on I'm just Sagara Sanosuke. Just like you aren't Hitokiri Battousai anymore." As he walks away, Sanosuke tells Kenshin not to go off wandering without telling him, and Kenshin says he's found another strange friend, but Kaoru and Yahiko think Kenshin's the strangest of them all. Just then, Tae emerges from the restaurant, too late to catch Sanosuke---he left again without paying his check.

The Hecto fansubs, especially of these early eps, were really bad. I just need to reiterate that because I haven't enough yet; they were my introduction to RK and I tend to cut them slack out of nostalgiac attachment, but have no doubt, they were bad. The exposition about the Sekihoutai was pretty muddied up by their translation, and at the end of this ep, they translated "Rurouni" as "stroller." Oh, it hurts... -_-;;

And now for another round of fiddly translations! I think this is actually the first episode where Kenshin gives the names of his techniques, and he uses not one, not two, but three of them! Namely, Ryuu-Sou-Sen, Do-Ryuu-Sen, and the ever-popular Ryuu-Tsui-Sen. Even Anime Works realized that special move names flow better in Japanese, but it is always nice to know what the names mean, so cover me, I'm looking up the kanji in the manga and I'm going in!

Ryuu-Sou-Sen: The "ryuu" means "dragon," and the "sou" means "nest; beehive." I couldn't find the "sen" character in itself, but it's the first character of "senkou: flash of light", and twice in succession forms the word "sensen: flashing, gleaming, bright," so I'm going to translate it as "flash." "Ryuu-Sou-Sen" then, would mean something like "Flash of the Dragon's Nest." This is one of very few times, if not the only time, that we see Kenshin use this technique.

Do-Ryuu-Sen: The "do" means "earth; soil," and it's the same "ryuu" and the same "sen" as in "Ryuu-Sou-Sen," so that would give us something like "Earth Dragon Flash." This one also shows up pretty rarely.

Ryuu-Tsui-Sen: Again, the same "ryuu" and the same "sen." The "tsui" in between them means "Hammer," so "Dragon Hammer Flash." (Sounds kind of appropriate...) Unlike the first two, this move seems to be one of Kenshin's major standbys.

And for the sake of completion while I'm here, Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu: The "hi" means "flying" and the "ten" means "sky." "Mi" (also pronounced "go") is an honorific prefix, "tsurugi" means "sword" (it's the same character as the "ken" in Kenshin's name), and "ryuu" means "school" or "style." So trying to put that all together, I come up with something like "School of the Honorable Flying Sky-Sword." Yeah, I know, some of this stuff was probably never meant to be translated... ^_^;

::ahem:: Moving on: Manga comparison. Episode five corresponds to the manga from late chapter six through chapter eight. As mentioned above, the battle by the river in the manga proceeds directly from the challenge at the dojo, so the opening scenes of episode five until the riverbank scene don't appear; the Sekihoutai were explained in exposition during Sanosuke's flashback (which was limited to one during the fight), and Kaoru and Yahiko didn't say anything about it. Once the anime catches up, the fight choreography is practically identical between the two versions. When Sanosuke is knocked down by Kenshin's Ryuu-sou-sen, he flashes back to his days in the Sekihoutai. The whole flashback is only two and a half spreads, not nearly as detailed or intense as the anime version. In the manga, Sanosuke was not actually present at the Sekihoutai's execution; when Sagara reported to the Isshin Shishi as ordered, he left Sano behind and didn't come back alive.

But even as Sano swears that he will not lose to one of the Isshin Shishi, Kihei---who brought not one, but two more revolvers besides the one Sano destroyed---seizes the chance and takes a shot at Kenshin with one of them. For a moment, Kaoru thinks he's been hit and it paralyzes her with fear, but Kenshin blocks the bullet with his tsuba. Kihei then aims the gun at Yahiko and the still-frozen Kaoru, ordering Gohei to restrain them. Sano, enraged at the interference, chops off Gohei's hand with the Zanbatou (I think, the images are somewhat unclear), and Kenshin dispatches Kihei with a Do-ryuu-sen. (...And I did NOT need an upward shot of Kihei's crotch, even with underpants!! Oh, God, I'm blind!! T_T)

That done, Sano and Kenshin resolve their fight, and the anime follows the rest pretty closely. However, after all the narrow-eyed seriousness of the battle, Kenshin's face was still stuck like that in front of Akabeko later that day, and Kaoru and Yahiko had to give his cheeks a good pull to get his happy "oro" face back. Sano is there to chase away the trouble-makers from the story's opening, forgoing a projected three-month convalescence out of sheer machismo---when he says it's nothing and Kenshin and co. punch him to make a point, he doesn't take it so well as in the anime, but his stubbornness keeps him on his feet, and he lets Kenshin know that he's found a new friend.

Altogether, I think the anime used the "padding" it added to effectively dwell on the important issues here. In the manga, this was the Hiruma Bros. (Hm, Super Hiruma Bros., that would be a really loathsome video game...) final appearance, although Gohei crops up in the anime one more time. In Watsuki's creators notes, he also says that Sagara Souzou, Sanosuke's childhood hero, was another real historical person to appear in RK, although Watsuki could find no visual reference for him and thus created his character design from scratch.

Last time, comparing the feel of the manga to that of the anime, I went and complimented Manga Kaoru, just in time for her to be a total load in these last couple of chapters. Manga Kenshin is still scarier, though. After hitting Kihei with the Do-Ryuu-Sen, he said something like "I held back so that you wouldn't lose consciousness; taste hell for awhile." Kowai... 0_0

But anyway, back to the anime, first order of business: Too Much Hair Gel. During the fight with Sanosuke, at least twice, Kenshin struck these poses with windblown, gravity-defying hair, and it just sticks like that. I mean his ponytail is just furled out sideways completely motionless! Perhaps it relates to the "Big Hair" effect early in the manga---after a trip to the salon awhile back, I noticed my own hair suffering a similar "too big/fluffy/crunchy" problem, so I supposed that perhaps Kenshin had gone to a stylist who was a bit overzealous with the hairspray and scrunched so much gel into his hair that it took him a few tankoubon to get it all washed out, and after that he still had to grow out all the feathering they did... So anyway, this episode would seem to confirm that hypothesis. ::nod:: Too much hair gel.

But seriously, to someone like me who has seen later RK fight sequences, like at the climax of the Kyoto Arc, and marvelled at their fluidity and grace, it's a bit humbling to watch this, the series' first serious battle, and be reminded how clunky some of the choreography and animation was. (And although I said above that the choreography was "practically identical" to the manga, I'm not blaming the manga with this statement (although its fights get better too); choreographing a graphic narrative sequence and an animation sequence are very different animals. I don't think animation is harder to do overall, but it is more tightly woven and that aspect would be more demanding.) It's hard to describe this clunkiness; if you know what I mean, you just know what I mean, but for example, the characters (or their hair) didn't always move when they should---like the first time Sano is knocked down, he flies through the air essentially rigid---and the choreography seemed to rely more on cuts and special effects than on the strengths of a straightforward description of the characters' motion or even on capturing dynamic moments. But hey, like the manga's "big hair" syndrome, even the best creators can take awhile to get into their groove, and believe me, the "mature" RK battle sequences are totally worth the wait.

And here's something I still just haven't made sense of: on episode two, I mentioned that Yahiko seems to be more of a "boy appeal" character and I could never really connect with him, but if Yahiko's appeal has a masculine flavor then Sanosuke's most certainly does, and I love Sanosuke. I've never felt that kind of distance from him like I mentioned with Yahiko. I guess it's just one of those things that not everybody can like every character; who can really measure the alchemy that determines which character is a given viewer's favorite*, or which characters that viewer connects to how deeply? I do have to say, though, as cheap as I may thus admit to my affections being, a tragic flashback tends to be very effective in a character winning my heart. So maybe the whole problem is that Yahiko, despite his own traumatic past, just never got a tragic flashback.

BTW, Tae was still opening her eyes at the end of this ep. As I go through writing the guide, I'm trying to watch and actually note the last time we ever see Tae open her eyes.

::blinkblink:: You know, this is a first. I actually got through an episode without griping out Anime Works. Given I griped out Hecto, but still. Wow.