Right now, my favorite cartoon character is Kenshin Himura, aka Battousai. He was a Hitokiri during the Bakumatsu, a war to abolish the Samurai era to establish a democracy and open Japan to the West world. He joined this war at the age of 14 and becomed a legend with the sword.
During the war he killed hundreds of people and knew most of the secrets of the new government( the Meiji), but some day without any known reason( ok, there\'s a reason but...) he left the Ishinshishi and disappeared. Everybody thought that he was killed by someone, probably by the new government, but 10 years later he reappeared in Edo( Tokyo) like a wanderer and met Kaoru-dono, a girl that wanna find Battousai to recover the reputation of her dead father\'s dojo( cause nobody wanted a girl as a teacher).
It\'s easy to imagine that some of the members of the new government aren\'t very glad to see Battousai alive again and here\'s where the manga/anime starts.
Kenshin is also based on a real Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu, Kawamari Gensai, who has the "honor" to be remembered as the best warrior of the war. Gensai joined the Ishinshishi at the age of 14, killed 300+ people and as opposed to other warriors he was very small and technique, as well as convinced on the necesity to establish a democracy in japan. The biggest difference between Himura and Gensai, apart of his crossed scar( the principal key of Himura\'s past), is that Gensai were killed by the democrat government as a traitor after the end of the war.
The beggining of the nightmare
Ten years later...
