Rurouni Kensin

Probably one of my first Anime experiences ever as a kid. At the time, I knew it a Samurai X. Also remember Technoman, or Tekkaman Blade in Japan. But Samurai equis was the one we would talk at school and nerd over back in the 80s.

Now, fast-forward to 2012, the first live-action movie was released. But it wasn’t until now, that I came to finally watch all of them. Last night I watched the last one of the 5 movies. The films in the series were released as follows:

1. Rurouni Kenshin Origins (2012)
2. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)
3. Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)
4. Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)
5. Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)

The chronological viewing should be:

1. Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)
2. Rurouni Kenshin Origins (2012)
3. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)
4. Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)
5. Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)

Unfortunately, to watch them all, it is not as easy as hopping into Netflix and bing-watch them all. Only the two most recent ones, The Beginning, and The Final, are available for stream on Netflix. Origins, Kyoto, and Legends, you will either have to buy them separately or, as I did, stream them on the Funimation app. There aren’t available anywhere else as far as I am aware.

I found these movies to be outstanding and well done. I enjoyed each one of them. The characters never felt like they were cosplaying, or at least not to my eyes. Like any adaptation, it won’t be a 100% true to the anime show or perhaps even the manga, but it was pretty darn close, 98% close. I am fine with adaptations as long as they keep the essence, which I believe they did. The fights are fast and amazingly done. I also believe that the best to watch them, is back-to-back, like you would do with any good trilogy or series of movies.

You do get invested in the characters, and many of them I found fascinating and somewhat relatable. I’m sure others would have a different opinion, but personally, I cannot say that one movie might be the weakest of the series, they are all awesome to watch. But if I had to pick a favorite, I would pick The Beginning just for the story alone. The Final, as the name might suggest, it gives closure, in some way, to the events of The Beginning. The 3 movies in between are basically the anime’s Legend of Kyoto arc. I did enjoy those very much, as a fan. In fact, that is the only arc/season of the series that I actually own in a collector’s box-set.

You can see it as Origins, Kyoto Inferno, and The Legend Ends, are the main series and The Beginning and The Final, are OVAs.

To me, these movies are Masterpieces.

Even if you are not a big anime fan, but a fan of well written, action movies, give it a watch. You could probably even just watch the two ones available on Netflix and enjoy them for what they are and not feel too lost in the overall story.

Every morning, the goal is to leave the house no later than 6:30am. The ideal would be 6:20am, but that rarely happens. This morning I noticed, I left the house by 6:25. I was like great!

As like every morning, I take the girls to grandma’s and head out to work. Then, I had realized, I never prepared my coffee, fuck, I got no coffee! Sad-sad. That’s why I left so unusually early today!

Well, no matter, I’ll stop at the Starbucks on my way to work since I have ’extra time’. Well, for whatever reason — there was a note, but I didn’t bother — the Starbucks was closed. Wa-wa-waaaaa! Luckily — or unluckily — there is a McDonald’s right next to the Starbucks. I have heard before, their coffee is decent-to-good, and I am desperate. It has got to be better than work’s coffee, at least.

And so, we had McCoffee, not too bad.

Ride the Spiral by Silver City Brewery

Style: IPA - Imperial/ Double New England

ABV: 8.0

Rating: A+

Aggressive, yet approachable, Ride the Spiral Double IPA packs a tropical punch of fruit flavor, with the addition of natural pineapple and orange essences within an intensely hopped, hazy IPA. Spiral out.

HOPS: Citra, Amarillo

MALTS: Pilsner Malt, Flaked Wheat

This has been a strange week, so far. Yesterday, I arrived to work about an hour late. Why? There had been an accident, a terrible one. The commute to work can be a scary one. This is an old ‘highway’, a two lane long road, in which the speed limit is 55 miles per hour (88.51 km/h). This means we are all doing no less than 60, most likely. On top of the speed limit and high traffic, there is almost no illumination whatsoever. And guess what? It is getting darker.

A cyclist tried to cross said road, at 6:45 am, when it is still very dark. Unfortunately, a driver did not see him crossing. Because of the accident, they block the road, and it just so happens that was the block in which my work-site is located. Trying to get one of the cops to let you through can be difficult. It took me three tries before the traffic police let me pass.

Today, another accident. Not as tragic as yesterday’s, but an accident that could have been avoided. Fortunately for me, I was able to go around this one and made it to work on time.

This is a very reoccurring thing on this road around this time of the year, when it starts getting darker. And people never slow down, and some others are too in a hurry that makes it even worse for many of us.

Before leaving work today, as a joke, I told my coworker.

If I encounter another accident on my way here tomorrow, I am just going to turn around and go home

😆

For a while, I have gone back to using TickTick as my main task manager. As much as I love Things 3, it is not my best option. As for my job, I use a Windows PC.  Recently, I had started messing around with Todoist again, and it works great, haven't had any issues whatsoever. Until today. Today I remembered why I had stopped using Todoist in the past. For whatever reason, every once in a while, it breaks. The app won't open at my work computer at all. Whereas TickTick has always been rock-solid.

There I have it...

I purposely, grabbed my MacBook Pro, even charged it, opened Ulysses and wanted to write a blog post. Now that I am sitting, very comfortable, and with a beer, I had forgotten what I was going to write about.

This does happen a lot, actually. Maybe I was just and excuse to use my Mac?

I am sure it will come back to me. Until then. Stay tuned?