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Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Disturbance Anime Casts Kazuya Nakai

The official X/Twitter account for Rurouni Kenshin Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Kyoto Dōran (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Disturbance), the second season of the new television anime project based on Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin manga, confirmed on Monday that Kazuya Nakai voices Shakku Arai, the swordsmith of Kenshin Himura's Sakabatō (reverse-edged sword). Nakai's character appeared in the series' 33rd episode on November 28.

The season premiered on October 3. On Fuji TV, the season runs within the channel's Noitamina animation block. It is airing for a continuous two cours (quarter of a year) for a half-year run. Crunchyroll streams the season as it airs, and also started streaming an English dub on October 24.

Crunchyroll describes the season:

During the upheaval of the Bakumatsu Era, the Imperialist Kenshin Himura was feared as the “Hitokiri Battosai.” Although he carries a sakabato in his hand, he swore to never kill again and spends his days living in the new era as a ruruoni.

On May 14th, Meiji 11, one of the “Three Great Nobles of the Restoration,” Toshimichi Okubo, was killed. Behind the scenes of this incident that would change the times, Makoto Shishio plans to overthrow the Meiji government. Kenshin says his goodbyes to Kaoru Kamiya and sets off to Kyoto, where he plans on stopping Makoto Shishio, a successor to the title “Hitokiri Battosai” himself.

Kenshin leaves his friends behind, encounters new people and fights against the Shishio clan. Caught between his destiny and his promise to never kill again, the curtain rises once again for the second season of Rurouni Kenshin, a story filled with the memories and feelings of all involved!

Yuki Komada (BUILD-DIVIDE -#000000- CODE BLACK and BUILD-DIVIDE -#FFFFFF- CODE WHITE series) is directing the new season at LIDEN FILMS. Hideyuki Kurata returns for series scripts, Terumi Nishii also returns to design the characters, and is joined by Kazuo Watanabe (first season's sub-character designer, chief animation director). Yū Takami is again composing the music.

The first season of the new anime premiered on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block and other venues in July 2023. The anime ran for two consecutive cours (quarter of a year). The second cours began in October 2023. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired, and it is also streaming an English dub.

The anime re-adapts the main manga series.

Watsuki and his novelist wife/story collaborator Kaoru Kurosaki launched the Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaidō-hen) manga in Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine in September 2017. The manga went on hiatus in December 2017 following Watsuki being charged for possession of child pornography. The series later resumed publication in June 2018. The manga has been on hiatus since May, and the hiatus is continuing due to Watsuki's health.

Viz Media had been simultaneously publishing the manga in English, but stopped after the manga went on hiatus in 2017.

Watsuki first launched his 28-volume Rurouni Kenshin manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994. The manga has more than 72 million copies in circulation worldwide. The manga centers 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 TV anime series, an anime film, three original video anime projects, five live-action films, and a stage musical by the all-female musical theater troupe Takarazuka Revue.

Sources: Rurouni Kenshin franchise's official X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie