A brutally realistic saga of the samurai Kenshin, it is crucial to understand the hito-kiri Battousai as it chronicles his past before adopting the reverse-blade sword and how he came to have the cross-cut scar on his face. It truly captures violence as an art form in it's many action sequences as both figures and action are rendered beautifully. The same attention to quality is lavished on the plot throughout the ovas, allowing a strange and tragic love story to unfold around Kenshin in a land rocked with chaos, violence, and political instability. Truly a vital precursor to the the further episodes in Kenshin's story that creates a hunger to know what happens next...<br />