RUROUNI KENSHIN GN (2025)

"One hundred and forty years ago in Kyoto, with the coming of the American 'Black Ships,' there arose a warrior who, felling men with his bloodstained blade, gained the name Hitokiri, manslayer! His killer blade helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu era and slashed open the progressive age known as Meiji. Then he vanished, and with the flow of years, became legend."

"When the chief of the Police Sword Corps himself comes asking for favors, things must be bad. Hitokiri Udô Jin-e--a black-hatted, crazy-eyed slayer who fells both targets and innocent bystanders alike--is steadily working his way through a list of former Ishin Shishi patriots now ensconced within position of power in the Meiji government. Can Kenshin withstand the hypnotic, paralyzing effect of Jin-e...?"

"'Spider's Web'...like ordinary opium, but better processed. Half the cost to produce, but twice the profits! To the people of Aizu, Takani Megumi was a daughter in a famous family of doctors, in which everyone--women and children alike--studied medicine. But to grasping industrialist Takeda Kanryû, she is the hen who lays the golden egg--the only one who knows the Spider's Web formula! To stay with Kanryû is to send even more to their deaths. But to stay with Kenshin and the others is to invite theirs..."

"Shinomori Aoshi was once the leader of Edo Castle's elite guard, the Oniwabanshû. But with the fighting at an end and the shôgunate overthrown, the brilliant Aoshi and his four most loyal onmitsu, or spies, find themselves without a home or a purpose. When fighting is your life, loyalty to those lost ideals (and to the man who most symbolized them) may be the one thing left. But Megumi's life is at stake, and however sympathetic Kenshin may feel, he will fight on, to the last man if necessary.... Rating: T+"

"Isurugi Raijûta, a truly old-school swordsman, comes to Kenshin and requests his aid in reforming the state of swordsmanship schools, or kenjutsu dojo, in Japan. Although Kenshin is intrigued by Raijûta's ideals (chiefly, that there is a need for a nation-wide, unifying school), Raijûta's plan to 'weed out' the schools he deems unfit is not in accordance with Kenshin's deepest-held beliefs. Given the choice of either joining Raijûta's 'Shinko-ryû' movement or dying, Kenshin walks away, choosing neither. But Raijûta isn't willing to let Kenshin off the hook so easily... Rating: T+"