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The anime, directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, began airing on Japan's
Fuji TV on January 10, 1996 and ended on September 8, 1998. It was produced by
Aniplex and Fuji TV, and was animated from episode 1 to 70 by
Studio Gallop, whereas the episodes from 70 onwards were animated by
Studio Deen. The final episode, episode 95, did not air in Japan, but was a bonus episode for the VHS and DVD releases.
[1] The TV series was later licensed in North America by
Media Blasters, who split it up into "seasons", and released on DVD. It started airing in the US on
Cartoon Network as a part of the
Toonami block on March 17, 2003, but ended at the completion of the "Season 2" (episode 62).
[2] Episodes 63-95 did not air, but were included in the DVD release.
[3] The twenty-two English DVDs from the series were released from July 18, 2000 to September 24, 2002. Each of them contain four episodes except for the volume 22 which contains five episodes.
[1] The "seasons" were later released in three premium "Bento box" DVD boxes on November 18, 2003, March 30, 2004 and July 27, 2004. They were released again, but in new packaging as "economy box" sets on November 15, 2005, January 17, 2006 and February 14, 2006.
There were 95 episodes in the
Rurouni Kenshin 's TV series, but there are also two
original video animation (OVA) series which have respectively four and two episodes. The first of them,
Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal was released in 1999 in Japan and in 2003 was collected into a two hour feature-length motion picture with new animated sequences and released in North America as a
Director's Cut DVD.
[4] The second OVA is
Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection, composed of two episodes that were originally released on December 12, 2001 in Japan. It was later released in the United States by ADV Films in DVD on March 25, 2003, while a Director's Cut edition was later released. Both OVAs were eventually released on
Blu-ray Disc by
Aniplex of America in 2011.
[5]
A series of two theatrical movies, retelling the story of the second arc/season, was announced in April 2011. Part 1 titled
Rurouni Kenshin: Shin Kyoto-Hen Zenpen Homura no Ori ("Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc Part I: Cage of Flames") premiered on December 17, 2011 and ran at Tokyo's Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro theater and Osaka's Cine-Libre Umeda theater for one week only.
[6] It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 21, 2012.
[7]