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On Wednesday, August 23, 2023, the staff for the 2023 Rurouni Kenshin anime series released a new promotional video and announced four new cast members. The four new cast members will voice various members of the Oniwabanshu, who are set to appear in the upcoming eighth episode releasing this friday.
The Oniwabanshu are also heavily featured in the promotional video, including Kenshin Himura discussing them as threats while also introducing each of the four members. The 2023 Rurouni Kenshin anime series serves as a readaptation of author and illustrator Nobuhiro Watsuki’s original manga series.
The first Rurouni Kenshin anime also aired on television, and was produced from 1996 to 1998, concluding with its own ending rather than waiting for the manga to finish. However, with the original manga series having concluding over 20 years ago, the readaptation is finally set to provide a fully canonical adaptation of the series.
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Rurouni Kenshin anime set to turn up the heat with the arrival of the Oniwabanshu in next episode
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Alongside the promotional video and the casting announcements, the Rurouni Kenshin anime also released a key visual for the Oniwabanshu’s arrival. Interestingly, there appear to be five members of the group present in both the key visual and in the promotional video. While the fifth member and leader of the group has been cast, it was part of earlier cast announcements rather than the latest round of news.
Of the four cast members announced, Ryotaro Okiayu is set to play Hannya, Hiroyuki Yoshino to play Beshimi, Fukushi Ochiai to play Hyottoko, and Testsu Inada to play Shikijo. It seems that these four are all subordinates to the group’s leader, based on the aforementioned key visual, with the leader Aoshi Shinomori set to be played by Yuma Uchida per previous information.
In any case, this foursome will join the series alongside the cast of Soma Saito as Kenshin Himura and Rie Takahashi as Kaoru Kamiya. Other central cast members include Taku Yashiro as Sanosuke Sagara, Makoto Koichi as Yahiko Myojin, Saori Onishi as Megumi Takani, and Satoshi Hino as Hajime Saito.
Hideyo Yamamoto is directing the series at LIDEN FILMS, with Terumi Nishii designing the characters and Hideyuki Kurata in charge of series scripts. Yu Takami is composing the music for the series. Artists Ayase and R-Shitei (as AyaseXR-Shitei) have performed the opening theme song Hiten, while singer-songwriter Reol performs ending theme song Kissaki, which translates to Sword Tip.
The series originally launched in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994, eventually going on to sell 72 million copies across 28 different compilation volumes. The series centers around the titular Kenshin Himura, who strives to find a new life beyond violence after his duties as a deadly Meiji Restoration era assassin.
Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.
