Rurouni Kenshin Top10

Hi guys! Pérez reporting for duty. This past Thursday, I've finally finished reading the Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) manga. It is an amazing story and it definitely enters my Top10 of mangas/animes. I'll be honest and say that I preferred the Kyoto arc more than the Enishi arc, but both are still amazing stories.

I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate my country's national soccer team that represented us in the London 2012 Olympic Games who today played a great match against the almighty Brazil, but ended losing 2-3 with a doubtful referee. Thanks guys!

So off-topics aside, today's post is about for me who are the 10 strongest characters of Rurouni Kenshin. Some of them fought many times while some only fought once.

10- Fuji. He is a giant that all that he wanted was to have a fair fight with someone because he was either too powerful and won rapidly or his opponents would run off. He did get his fair fight, but was defeated easily.

9- Anji Yukyuzan. He is a Buddhist monk that partnered with Shishio because Anji thought that Shishio would create a better world. I feel that Anji's story is the most devastating one after Soujiro's story. He was a nice monk that was told by the major of his city to leave the city with his adopted kids to “avoid problems” because the church was separating from the state. He agreed nicely, but the major had other plans for him. In the night, Anji went to get water (I don't remember if it was water or food) to the town, but was beaten up by the major's men and his house was burned down with the children inside (including a baby). Anji returned after regaining consciousness and found all burnt down. He is the master of a devastating attack called Futae No Kiwami that consists of giving a second hit immediately after the first one to destroy objects. It is really powerful because the second hit doesn't find any resistance because it as absorbed by the first hit. He is mentioned to be a “god of destruction”. With one of his punches, he could easily rip a guy's head off the body.

8- Sagara Sanosuke. He's my favorite character, but I feel that he doesnt't have a chance against swordsmen. He was beaten by Kenshin, Saitou and Shishio. I think that he would be no match for Aoshi's kodachis. He mostly relies on brute strength and almost doesn't believe in defense. He uses Anji's Futae No Kiwami, but unlike him, Sanosuke can only use his right hand. In the Enishi arc, he is seen developing a variation where he would use his left hand for the second punch to avoid damaging even more his right hand (Megumi several times said that his right hand was crushed due to tha abuse of the technique).

7- Shishio Makoto. He's down here mostly for two reasons: 1) He sure was about to kill and defeat Kenshin, but we have to remember that Kenshin was really beat up against Soujiro, so I believe that Shishio wouldn't have had a chance against a fresh Kenshin. 2) He can only fight for 15 minutes. I admit that it was really WTF?! when Shishio burst into flames, but because of that, I feel that Shishio wouldn't have an opportunity with the top6, he would either burst into flames again or simply would be defeated before the 15 minutes ended. I will admit that he would be up if he hadn't been all burnt up, but that's just a hypotetical scenario.

6- Enishi Yukishiro. Kenshin's former brother-in-law. It was difficult for me to decide if he was stronger or not than Soujiro, but I ended up chosing Soujiro over him beacause Soujiro fought a fresh Kenshin while Enishi fought a slightly weakened Kenshin (due to the Kyoto arc) the first time and a very weakened Kenshin (due to his fight with Enishi and because he had entered emo-mode and didn't eat for many days) in their second fight and still lost to him. Enishi might be able to win against Soujiro if he used his “Nerves of Insanity”, but it would be difficult for him to use them because they're based on Enishi's hate against Kenshin. His technique is calles Watojutsu, which is from Shangai.

5- Soujiro Seta. Shishio's wingman. I consider him to be Kenshin's best rival after Saitou and Aoshi because I feel that Kenshin was able to defeat him because he lost control of his mind. If Soujiro fought against any other character he would defeat them with no problem, except for Saitou, Aoshi and maybe Enishi. His technique is even faster than Kenshin's speed.

4- Aoshi Shinomori. He is a great swordsman. He lost both his battles with Kenshin, but he was a real headache for him. I put him up here because of his great skill with the two kodachis and because he is a master of kenpo. Like in the Enishi arc, if you manage to “defeat” his swordsplay, he will beat the crap out of yiu with kenpo. I do think that in a martial arts fight against Sanosuke, Sanosuke would win. For me, his most awesome technique is his On-Myo Hatsushi.

3- Saitou Hajime. He's the third strongest character in my opinion because he's the only one that hasn't lost to Kenshin. He's the only one that drawed against Kenshin. His technique is the Gatotsu, which is an amazing stabbing technique. If it wasn't because Shishio had a metal headband, Saitou would have been the one that would have killed Makoto Shishio. Nobuhiro Watsuki (the creator of the manga) once stated that Saitou would defeat Kenshin if Kenshin had nothing to protect.

2- Kenshin Himura. Well, he won all his fights, so he has to be up here. He is the last master of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu. He's not in first place because of his physique. Megumi did state that Kenshin's Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu would be useless in about 5 years (in the manga) because he hadn't a great physique (like Hiko Seijuro. If you compare them, it is kind of obvious) and that his natural skill wouldn't compensate it.

1- Hiko Seijuro, Kenshin's master. I consider him the strongest character of all the manga because he knows perfectly the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu and has a great physique, so in a match against Kenshin, it would be natural for him to win. You may be thinking, “but Kenshin defeated him with the sucession technique”, which is true, but I feel that in a REAL fight, Hiko would surely win. I'm based mostly on the fact that Kenshin's Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu became useless when he was about 33 years old, and Hiko could still perform perfectly his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu when he was 43.

Honorable Mention: Yahiko Myojin. He couldn't enter the Top10 because of Fuji. Yahiko grows a lot as a swordsmen in the manga and becomes the master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu at age 15. He mastered his school's sucession technique at age 10. He won against one of Shishio's men, but almost was killed by Fuji. He afterwards starts being even stronger, to the point of defeating one of Enishi's “partners” and almost won (and almost got killed) by another of Enishi's “parnters”. I feel that he could be in the Top5 when he gets older.

So this is it. I hope you liked it.If you feel that someone should be in another position, please comment. Farewell!

PÉREZ

NEXT MANGA I'LL READ: ELFEN LIED