Image via Official X/Twitter Account of the Rurouni Kenshin franchise
©和月伸宏/集英社・ 「るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚- 京都動乱」製作委員会
Aniplex of America announced at New York Comic Con on Saturday that the English dub for Rurouni Kenshin Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Kyoto Dōran (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Disturbance), the second season of a new television anime project based on the Rurouni manga Nobuhiro Watsuki's Kenshin, will premiere on Crunchyroll on October 24.
The company describes this season:
During the upheaval of the Bakumatsu Era, imperialist Kenshin Himura was feared as “Hitokiri Battosai”. Although he carries a sakabato in his hand, he vows never to kill again and spends his days living in the new era as a ruruoni.
On May 14, Meiji 11, one of the “Three Great Nobles of the Renaissance,” Toshimichi Okubo, was killed. Behind the scenes of this incident that would change times, Makoto Shishio planned to overthrow the Meiji government. Kenshin says goodbye to Kaoru Kamiya and leaves for Kyoto, where he plans to stop Makoto Shishio, the successor to the title of “Hitokiri Battosai”.
Kenshin leaves his friends behind, meets new people, and fights against the Shishio clan. Caught between destiny and the promise to never kill again, the curtain is once again raised on the second season of Rurouni Kenshin, a story filled with the memories and emotions of all involved !
The anime premieres on Fuji TV, Kansai TV, Tokai TV, Akita TV, Iwate Menkoi TV, Sendai Television Incorporated, Sakuranbo Television Broadcasting Corporation, Fukushima TV, Niigata Sogo Television Inc., TV Shizuoka, TV Shinhiroshima, TV Ehime, TV Nishinippon, Saga TV, TV Kumamoto and Kagoshima TV on October 3; on Hokkaido Cultural Radio October 9; on San-in Chuo Television Broadcasting on October 14. It will premiere on Animax on October 28 and on Kochi Sun Sun Broadcasting, Inc. on October 31. On Fuji TV, the anime will run in the channel's Noitamina animation block. The anime will be broadcast continuously for two seasons (one quarter of a year) for half a year.
Yuki Komada (BUILD-DIVIDE-#000000-CODE BLACK and BUILD-DIVIDE-#FFFFFF-CODE WHITE series) is directing the new season at LIDEN FILMS. Hideyuki Kurata returned to write the series' scripts, Terumi Nishii also returned to design the characters, and was joined by Kazuo Watanabe (first season supporting character designer, animation director). Yū Takami is once again composing music.
The first season of the new anime premiered on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block and other locations in July 2023. The anime ran for two consecutive blocks (a quarter of a year). The second course begins in October 2023. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired and is also streaming the English dub.
Anime re-adaptation of the main manga series.
Watsuki and his novelist/story collaborator wife, Kaoru Kurosaki, launched the manga Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaidō-hen) in Shueisha's Jump SQ magazine. magazine in September 2017. The manga went on hiatus in December 2017 after Watsuki was charged with possession of child pornography. The series later resumed publication in June 2018. The manga has been on hiatus since May, and the hiatus continues due to Watsuki's health.
Viz Media simultaneously published the manga in English, but stopped after the manga went on hiatus in 2017.
Watsuki first launched the 28-volume Rurouni Kenshin manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994. The manga has sold more than 72 million copies worldwide. The manga revolves around Kenshin Himura, once a deadly assassin during the Meiji Restoration, who is trying to find a new life beyond violence.
The manga has since been adapted into a 95-episode anime television series, an anime film, three original video anime projects, five live-action films, and a stage musical by a theater troupe. All-female musical. Takarazuka Revue.
Source: Email correspondence