The music of Kenshin: Asakura, Sobakasu and Iwasaki

The television series sounds like Noriyuki Asakura: shamisen, electric guitar and festival drums under the sword work. The first soundtrack album arrived April 1, 1996, twenty-three tracks, and the sound became inseparable from the era’s Kenshin. Over it sits the first opening theme, “Sobakasu” (Freckles) by Judy and Mary, a pop song so identified with the show that the influence ran backwards: Watsuki has said the manga’s final scene, Kenshin returning to the dojo, was inspired by the anime’s first opening.

The OVAs changed composers with everything else. Taku Iwasaki scored Trust & Betrayal and Reflection in strings, piano and quiet: the Tsuioku-hen album came March 20, 1999, sixteen tracks, and Reflection’s on January 23, 2002, eighteen. Asakura returned for the New Kyoto Arc in 2011, so the franchise’s two sounds bookend it: Asakura for the wandering, Iwasaki for the wound.