This one was a disappointment to me, because it was a test to see if it would be just as good as the original and it wasn’t.

• Pacing: needing to take up twice as much time as the '96 anime means stretching scenes out. Adding back all the scenes from the manga that were cut in the original helps, and so did making up two extra tricks for Chou to show off with that flexible blade, but the tension can’t help but suffer some.

• Music: I didn’t notice this on my first viewing, but after seeing people comment I went back and listened. Using heroic music for Kenshin’s attack with Shakkuu’s last sword instead of tense, ominous music was a major mistake. Sure, Kenshin is here to save the day, but that’s less important than whether Kenshin will save the day by losing his soul.

• Positioning: I really disliked how Kenshin ends up next to Chou after giving him the elbow and how we clearly saw Chou’s body after Kenshin struck it with Shakkuu’s last sword. While Okina was talking, Kenshin should have been able to do something if he were that close to Chou, like disarm him or beat on him some more. The old anime pushes Chou far enough away that Kenshin plausibly couldn’t get over there and do something before Chou recovered. Showing Chou’s body clearly lets us see that he doesn’t have any cuts on him of the sort that would be expected after having been slashed with a very sharp sword.

Sure, 80-90% as good as the original isn’t a disaster, but I’d convinced myself that this remake had climbed up to par with the original and it fell short when it needed to deliver.