If you would like to contact me, please read the FAQ first to see if it answers your question. If you e-mail me asking a question and the answer is found here, there's a high chance that I will not respond. Also, please refrain from trying to chat with or complain to me. Without further ado, my e-mail address is songoku@hawaii.rr.com.

Site Questions

Could I use anything on your site?
No, no, and no. Does that answer your question? If you do have the audacity to steal any content from my site, you'll not only be added to my blacklist, but will be bashed by me personally and ridiculed by the entire online Rurouni Kenshin community. It's not like your site would be actually considered 'good' anyway if you'd have to resort to stealing another's material.

Why is the site named Hitokiris Anoymous?
After deciding to create a Rurouni Kenshin fansite, I had the most difficult time in creating a name. I sat down in a chair for about an hour until I finally chose to go with a play on Alcholics Anonymous. I figured that if Kenshin was so bent out of shape of being a hitokiri, he should joined some kind of support group. As ridiculous as it sounds, that's how I came up with the name. It has nothing to do with hitokiris hiding their identifies or surfing the Internet without getting caught.

Did you make up 'Whose Line is it Kenshinyway?'?
Everything on this site was typed up by me, so in short, yes, I was the one who created it. I had no other influence other than the show it was based off of, "Whose Line is it Anyway?" I know, the whole thing overall is not very good, but what can I say, I'm a webmaster, not a fanfic writer.

How much time have you spent to create this site?
More than you could ever imagine. Episode summaries took almost three hours to complete. That's including watching the episode, writing the draft of the summary, writing the actual summary, double-checking the summary, capturing the screenshots, and creating the HTML file for the summary. Manga summaries weren't that bad; those only took about an hour per. As for character profiles, depending on how important the character, it ranged from twenty minutes to over two hours. If I were to calculate how long I've spent working on the site, I'd estimate that it'd be around two thousand plus hours.

How often do you update?
I have decided to "maintain" the site for the time being. By that, I intend on updating a few things here and there, but with no intention of adding more content to the site. In short, I suppose the answer to the question would be "Whenever I feel like it."

Is there anyone else helping you run the site?
Other than my webmaster who's hosting me and those who contributed fan art in the past, no one else has helped me with the site. Although people have volunteered to add on to the missing pieces of my site, I kindly had to deny their services because Hitokiris Anonymous is my project and my project alone.

What programs do you use to run the site?
For my HTML editor, I use Dreamweaver 3 despite its age. As for the images, I used Micrografx Photomagic, Adobe Photoshop 6.0, Adobe PhotoDeluxe, and The Print Shop Deluxe. The PrintScrn button also worked very well for me. Now, I simply use Adobe Photoshop CS3 for everything graphic-related.

What should I do to view the page at best?
The page is viewable at any resolution, despite how it was originally created using an 800x600 resolution. As for the browser, I highly prefer Mozilla Firefox, but Internet Explorer and Safari work as well.

Why isn't a link working?
It must be a stupid mistake of mine. If a link isn't working because it won't let you access a page or gives you a 404 Error, please e-mail me right away.

Rurouni Kenshin Questions

Are there really two Hitokiri Battousais?
Yes and no. Kenshin is known as Hitokiri Battousai, and Shishio was his successor. When Kenshin had retired from the position of the patriots' shadow assassin, Shishio took his place.

Do you know where I can download episodes of Rurouni Kenshin?
As much as I'd like to promote the original Japanese version of the show, I cannot release any location. If you like the series so much, just buy the VHS tapes or DVDs.

How long is Rurouni Kenshin?
95 TV Episodes, 6 OAV Episodes, 1 Motion Picture, and 28 Manga Volumes

Is Rurouni Kenshin on American television?
Currently, Rurouni Kenshin is being broadcasted on Cartoon Network's Toonami line-up at 6:30 P.M. EST/PST.

Is the Rurouni Kenshin manga in English?
Yes, it will be released monthly inside Viz's Shonen Jump within the near future. As for individual volumes of the series, no plans have been announced yet.

What's the symbol on the back of Sanosuke's shirt mean?
The symbol is 'Aku', meaning bad, evil, etc.

What's the difference between Samurai X and Rurouni Kenshin?
Samurai X is the name Rurouni Kenshin was released under by ADV Films. It is still part of Rurouni Kenshin. ADV Films owns both the licenses to the Rurouni Kenshin OAVs and the motion picture, thus, both go under the name Samurai X. The Rurouni Kenshin OAVs, going under the names 'Trust' and 'Betrayl', take place before the TV Series, during the Bakumatsu (End of the Tokugawa Era). The motion picture is similar to a long filler episode. It has nothing to do with the series' original storyline. Rurouni Kenshin is the original name of the series. Media Blasters' Anime Works owns the license to the TV Series and is currently releasing a volume every month.

Where can I buy the Rurouni Kenshin manga?
Sasuga Books has a nice deal on all twenty-eight volumes.

Where can I find manga scans?
There are a few sites found in the Links section where you can download the majority of the manga.

Why is the OAVs more serious than the somewhat slapstick TV Series?
The OAVs were made more recently. Rurouni Kenshin finished its run on TV in Japan sometime in 1996/1997. The OAVs, I believe, were created in 1998. The animation is better because it's an OAV, which usually contains a higher quality of animation. Why the tone is so serious? Who knows. Perhaps Rurouni Kenshin's creator, Nobuhiro Watsuki, wanted it that way. The manga version of the "Memory Arc", the name given to the OAV part in the manga, contains humorous moments in it. It's a bit different in a few ways. Q: What is the Revenge Arc? A: The Revenge Arc is only in the Rurouni Kenshin manga. (An explanation why it was never animated is followed below.) The Revenge Arc tells the story of Yukishiro Enishi, Tomoe's brother, who returns to Japan in order to take revenge on Kenshin. I'm trying not to give spoilers away here, so... basically, in the Revenge Arc, Enishi forms a group of comrades that all have something in common - to kill the man once known as Battousai. It's a really good arc, the best Rurouni Kenshin arc of the three (Tokyo, Kyoto, and Revenge). If you think the Kyoto Arc was good, this one is even better.

Why was the Revenge Arc never animated?
Rurouni Kenshin's filler arcs and episodes following the end of the Kyoto Arc (Episode 62) where bad in the people of Japan's opinions. Low ratings for Rurouni Kenshin got it pulled from the TV station it was airing on in Japan. The filler episodes were there because Nobuhiro Watsuki was not finished with his manga. At the time of the Kyoto Arc's airing, Watsuki was only halfway through the Revenge Arc. By time he finished the Revenge Arc, Rurouni Kenshin was no longer on television. There is a small chance that the Revenge Arc will in fact be animated. Though, the only way I see that happening is if Rurouni Kenshin gets a release on national television and becomes as popular as Pokémon.

Personal Questions

Do you actually own any of the Rurouni Kenshin DVDs?
Yes, I own the both volumes of the first OAV, and volumes 1-3 and 7-14 of the TV series. Basically, anything that was non-filler and directly related to the original manga. You can view my DVD collection that I have listed at DVD Aficionado.

Do you like other anime besides Rurouni Kenshin?
Of course. I'm also a huge fan of One Piece, and enjoy many other titles. If I had to pick a few, I'd have to say Prince of Tennis, Crayon Shin-chan, and Akira.

Have you read the Rurouni Kenshin manga?
Yes, I've read the entire series twice. My first time was through fanscans, some time before Viz decided to license the series. A few years afterwards, I decided to buy the official translated product and read it once more. A dream of mine is to own the Japanese kazenban release. I'm definitely going to get it the next time I visit Japan.

Have you seen the entire Rurouni Kenshin series?
It took me almost two and a half years, but I did complete the entire series. If you're wondering why so long, I stopped somewhere in between the Divine Medicine Arc, and almost a year and a half later, I forced myself to watch the concluding episodes. Those final episodes were torture and I refuse to revisit them.

Who's your favorite Rurouni Kenshin character?
Yukishiro Enishi. Why? Who doesn't love a psycho, especially one with white hair and a insane arsenal?

When did you begin watching anime?
Anime was not as mainstream as it is today when I was growing up. Very few shows made their way over to the States and it's not like I could just download it off the Internet since that was not around yet either. I suppose you could say that my first true exposure to the overall product was when I was in the fifth grade. A friend of mine was a huge Dragon Ball Z fan. He would talk about it a lot and that alone made me very interested despite having only seen the Saban dub. When my household finally had Internet access about a year later, I did tons of research regarding Dragon Ball Z. About that time, the Sailor Moon dub began running on a local channel at 6:30 in the morning. I made sure to watch it every day before school. Things kind of developed from there. Thanks to Toonami's weekday afternoon lineup, Sci-Fi's Saturday night anime movies, and Crayon Shin-chan being broadcasted on the local Japanese station, I became the fan that I am today.

Last Updated October 19, 2008