Kate, Yasuke and Kenshin: The Beginning

Two tragedies (and one animated WTF) set in Japan.

Kate

When the titular assassin (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is poisoned, she is on borrowed time to enact revenge and perhaps become a better person for it. While the plot is pretty straight forward, it is in the telling that kept us captivated - especially when set against the backdrop of modern day Japan. I'm pretty sure there was a cameo of the Tokyo Ghoul anime in there too.

She's having a bad day.

Of course it helps that there is a decent body count and some exciting action scenes to help things along, though some of Kate's kicks really don't look like they have much power behind them. Still something I'd watch again, I give it two and a half Boom Boom Lemons out of five.

Yasuke (Season 1)

Set in Japan during the honorable times of the samurai, spell casters and giant mecha, a black man (the titular Yasuke) gets roped into saving the country. This animated series definitely goes off the rails early and the art is well animated with action sequences aplenty. Most importantly Yasuke himself is a good character, making us eager to watch him every episode. The plot is actually mostly ok too, despite being a really odd blend. Recommended if you want something different, I give this two and a half Nobunagas out of five. I don't really care if there's a Season 2 for this one though.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning

While it's funny that "The Final" comes out before this, I can safetly say that its because this is a better movie story wise. All throughout the other films people keep mentioning how Kenshin was once a cold blooded killer - well, this film focuses on that part of his life and it actually helps that most of the fights, while still epic and cool, are not too over the top like some of the previous ones have been (no mid air dodging a chain gun here lol).

That said, the antagonists certainly make a lot of mistakes and if you've seen the anime counterpart of this movie it plays almost exactly the same (but this one is superior). Also towards the end there are a lot of "let the camera stay on this character who isn't doing anything" shots which is a bit odd, but this is still a good movie and a must for Kenshin fans. I give it three and a half scars out of five.