Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno Public Presscon Coverage

Arriving as early as 3PM at Glorietta Activity Center to avoid the crowd but fans still had the place flocked because Takeru Satoh and Munetaka Aoki with director Keishi Otomo to answer the questions from the media present. Unfortunately, Emi Takei is no longer available for this event.

I was prepared to ask questions since I was instructed to but the event only called the traditional media(Print, News and TV) to ask questions. I will just dictate what is relevant to this blog. Note that there is a translator present during the preceding.

One question was asked similar to mine was what did was the feedback of the manga creator about the movie. The director answered he was quite impress and he was never disappointed with his decision of choosing Otomo-san as director and Satoh-san as the title role of Kenshin Himura. Nobuhiro Watsuki is the series creator.

Most of the fans brought their original RK momentos like first edition manga, statues and more. Some fans won autographed posters. Trivia: Before Takeru Satoh was Kenshin, he had another title role as one of the Kamen Riders, Den-O.

They were also ask if they were injured when making this movie. Takeru-san said yes. He had bruises. Aoki-san confessed he lost a tooth. This is how dedicated they are to the movie. One online news correspondent asked, if they want to make Kenshin a Hollywood movie too. The fans immediately gave a disapproving answer and Keishi-san and the two actors complied with agreement.

What is wrong with this question was that the correspondent has no idea what happens if a Hollywood-adapted Japanese manga would do. First, it is common knowledge most adaptations from Japan don't do well in Hollywood. Especially if the story was set in the past of Japan. Hollywood might make Kenshin a Eurasian or gaijin(familiar?) It's a fact that Japanese anime don't do well in English dubbed with exception if the characters are Caucasian but ask any otaku, they prefer the original dub. Besides, I watched the English dubbed of the same anime series and it sounded bad hearing Japanese during the Meiji era speaking English.

As part representative of the fans, I would like to ask, if given a chance, what anime/manga series would the director adapt in a movie and what dream characters would the two actors like to play.

It was fun seeing them here in the Philippines and it was more fun seeing Aoki Munetaka having some laughs as if he was still in character of Sanosuke. He even made an effort to answer in English. He even mentioned some tagalog words but he also shared that some Pinoys calls him 'astig' which he pronounced as "ashteeg".

What I like about their answers was that they are appreciative of the fans here in the Philippines despite the differences in culture and that the movie is not just an action movie but has ethical, moral and philosophical situations relate.

I just watched the movie a night before and it didn't disappoint me and I am now burdened to wait till September 24. For more updates, follow this blog or like L.E.N.S, blogs on Facebook. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno opens August 24 and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends on September 24. Watch it in Glorietta cinemas.