Ask John: Why Do The Rurouni Kenshin TV Series & OAVs Look So Different?

Question:
Why are the Rurouni Kenshin TV series and OAV series animation style different? They look more cartoonish in the TV and more realistic in the OAV. Why couldn’t they just stick with one type of style?

Answer:
The differences in artistic style between the Rurouni Kenshin movie and TV series and later OAV series may be accounted for by a number of factors. The Rurouni Kenshin animation premiered as a television series in January 1996. The motion picture was released to Japanese theaters in December of 1997. The OAV series premiered in Japan in February 1999, six months after the conclusion of the TV series.

When the Rurouni Kenshin television series premiered there was no way of knowing that it would eventually turn into one of the most popular anime TV series ever created. The series started small, and used a bright and colorful art style that would appeal to casual television viewers. There should be little doubt as well that this art style was chosen because it could be produced quickly within the confines of a relatively limited TV series budget. By the middle of the TV series broadcast, when the theatrical movie was released, the majority of Rurouni Kenshin viewers, and the majority of fans that saw the film in Japanese theaters, were Japanese teenage girls. (While it may seem a bit unusual, I have heard the Rurouni Kenshin manga classified as a shoujo series before.) The motion picture retained the artistic style of the television series for several reasons. The series was produced by the same staff as the TV animation. But furthermore, as a big budget theatrical release the Rurouni Kenshin movie had to be as accessible and marketable as possible to the widest possible audience. A sudden dramatic visual change in the animation could potentially alienate some fans used to the TV series. The movie would also have to strive to be marketable to the same audience that watched the TV series by keeping a TV friendly level of graphic violence.

However, by the time the OAV series was released, it wasn’t necessary to tailor Rurouni Kenshin animation to television viewers. The TV series had ended, and the interest in Rurouni Kenshin had largely died off among the Japanese mainstream. An OAV series has more creative freedom because it doesn’t have to appeal to a broad television audience, and doesn’t have to draw the same number of viewers that a theatrical film does because it’s not as expensive to release and therefore doesn’t have to recoup the same amount of money. The creative freedom allowed by the OAV format, and the fact that the OAVs would be intended for and seen by only die-hard Rurouni Kenshin fans willing to spend $60 per half-hour episode to buy the OAVs meant that the series could be darker and more mature in subject matter and presentation. By OAV standards, it’s clear that the Rurouni Kenshin OAV series was an expensive production. Especially in 1996 it would have been impossible to produce a weekly animation series with the animation quality exhibited in the OAVs. Furthermore, the darker tone and style of the OAV series would not have succeeded nearly as well on Japanese television as a brighter, more colorful and lighter-toned series would have.

The Rurouni Kenshin movie and TV series look the way they do out of necessity. The OAV series looks the way it does only because three years of strong public support and fan loyalty allowed the animators the freedom to spend the time and money necessary to make the series look as it did.