My first anime EVER was Rurouni Kenshin back when I was still in elementary school. I would sneak into my friend's brother's room to watch, and I was hooked on anime/manga ever since. I am a huge fan of the manga, a bigger fan of the anime(english-subbed version because the dubbed version is just embarrassing, and now a HUGE fan of the movie. I was so worried that the movie wasn't going to do the story justice. But it turns out I had nothing to worry about. The visuals are stunning and the fight scenes were so awesome! They did a great job at converting the epic nature of fight scenes into live-action. I was totally swept up in the action despite knowing this story like the back of my hand. What really carried this for me were the actors. They did such a great job capturing who the characters are in the manga/anime. They really did them justice. I was worried that Kenshin wouldn't be as awesome, Kaoru would be super obnoxious (which always seems to happen to the female leads), or that Sano/Yahiko/Megumi would barely make appearances. But they were all accurately portrayed. I may have fallen in love with Kenshin all over again!! The only ciritism I have is the story line they choose. The manga/anime is pretty long and have lots of awesome villains and sub-plots to choose from. But this a completely subjective opinion and they carried this part of the story beautifully. And - who knows? Maybe they'll make more movies that follow the rest of the manga? (please? pretty please?)