So I have gone back to re-read Kenshin since hearing about the scandal two weeks ago. These days I read much slower than I used to, but I still love the Kenshin manga to bits. I also caught up with a friend lately and talked about Watsuki-sensei's fall from grace. We watched two of the three Kenshin real-life movies together so the grief was really shared. We concluded that no matter what happened, Kenshin will remain as the best manga for us, so the only question remains - how now can we ever share it with our children? or our children's children?
Lots of memories came flooding back as I went through the story once again. There were many things I have held dear, but there were more things which have been ingrained in me and became second nature, and only now I realised -they actually came from Kenshin!
i really hope to note down all the things I want to say about Kenshin and Saitou before the end of the year, but these days I read and write so much slower than before so I am not too sure whether this is too ambitious. T_T There were so much I wanted to talk about Kenshin and Saitou, but before that I thought I really should give Soujiro a mention.
There was a part when Soujiro felt very challenged by Kenshin's world view in the midst of their battle and said one of most agonising things -
Back at that time, you... you did not come to rescue me.
If what you have been saying are the truth - why? why did you not come to rescue me back then?
Back then, no one came to my rescue.
The only thing that saved me was Shishio-san's words, and a short sword that he gave me.
To which Kenshin replied-
You kept on mentioning about "back then" and questioned why wasn't I there to rescue you.
I am not able to travel back in time and I simply cannot imagine what really happened at that time or place,
but if it is not all too late, is it okay if we start the reparation now?
I guess I can easily imagine this being the universal unspoken conversation that takes place at work...
the most memorable thing about Soujiro is not what he said and did as a character but what Watsuki-sensei said about him when his part of the story came to a conclusion. Despite painting him as the teenage heart throb and being ever so sympathetic about his traumatic childhood and the choices he made subsequently - Watsuki-sensei's view on the approach of life he took was clear---
No matter what external difficulties one encounters in one's family or the wider society, no matter how difficult and bitter your life has been, being a person, living in this world, the one single thing you cannot give up is thinking independently.
There you go. It was a lesson I held dear as a miserable clueless teenager vulnerable to falling into all kinds of toxic external expectations.
and now looking back 17 years later, it is as needed a lesson now as it was back then.
Just for that alone, Watsuki-sensei is still Watsuki-sensei.
Oh and this article from Mockingbird is very timely.
Love the art, hate the artist?
