This will sound sacrilegious, I guess, but The Final is my least favorite of the Rurouni Kenshin movies. So first, let's get that off my chest...

This was meant to be a tale of revenge but instead of going deep and intense, they went blockbuster wide. In the fights, instead of simply relying on Satoh Takeru's awesomeness, they focused way too much on neck-breaking wire-work so the fights lost much of their intensity. And in order to let every character have his/her moment, the movie felt scattered.

Plot points were pulled out of the hat and dropped again without a second thought. Why did the priest have the diary that Kenshin took with him at the end of The Beginning? Did Aoshi live? And why were the Watchers even there? What was the point besides giving each a big fight? What happened to Sojiro? How did Saito and his men escape the trap?

But my main complaint: Kaoru was, once again, reduced to the role of a kidnapped love interest. Seriously, she owns a dojo but she gets knocked out more easily than Tomoe. Also, I liked her and Kenshin as a couple in the first 3 movies but here? I wish they just let them stay friends. After seeing Kenshin with Tomoe, someone who could truly grasp the darkness he faced, I found Kaoru... well, let's face it, Kaoru is way too naive and innocent to really understand what Kenshin had gone through during the war. She's kind and understanding but she will never truly get it.

And now to the good stuff!

Satoh Takeru. Just that. Satoh Takeru. In a movie that kinda lacked intensity, he had intense down to a pat. Whenever the movie just let him do his thing, it shined. Just him standing in the rain... and I was all, yeah, yup, that, this.

The last fight between Kenshin and Enishi. Specifically the moment when Kenshin let Enishi stab him. From the shock on Enishi's face, it was obvious that he didn't expect to land a hit. I think he never really wanted to kill Kenshin in the first place. Because Tomoe loved him. Enishi was furious with Kenshin - but there was the fact that Tomoe loved Kenshin. And when Kenshin first let Enishi stab him, then he apologized and then the crazy Chinese dude shot Kenshin... That wasn't what Enishi wanted.

The scene where Enishi read Tomoe's diary in his prison cell and he truly understood not only how much Tomoe loved Kenshin but why she loved him in the first place and that she died willingly and gladly for him, that her death wasn't Kenshin's fault. That moment when Enishi truly saw his sister as she had been...

The fight where Sojiro joined forces with Kenshin, the way they almost... danced around each other because their strengths and styles matched so perfectly. And Sojiro's happiness that he finally experienced what it felt like to have someone truly have his back. That did things to my heart!

So yeah, I was a bit disappointed in the movie but there were still many scenes that I will replay again and again because they were so good!