Takani Megumi

Basics

Megumi is first seen in the Toyko arc, along with the Oniwabanshu in Volume 3 of the manga and episode 8. She is supposedly the womanly one between the women of Rurouni Kenshin. She is a very big flirt and is pretty straightforward in what she says. She also, unlike Kaoru, can actually cook. Probably the most interesting feature about Megumi is that despite all this, she is very caring about everyone, and many times looks as everything realistically. She sort of like an older sister to Kaoru in a way, teasing her but at the same time being her guide with her relationship. She, like many of the RK characters, hides her emotions and past.

History

Megumi finds Kenshin and Sanosuke as she runs from Beshimi who is trying to capture her. Not surprisingly, Kenshin and Sanosuke help her out and eventually discover that she was forced by Kanryu to make illegal opium. Supposedly, Megumi is the sole survivor in her family, who were famous doctors. She had disappeared and then appeared later and by that time had a job helping a doctor who also made bad opium. Kenshin and Sanosuke, in turn, end up taking her out of Kanryu’s clutches and saving her from the Oniwabanshu. Megumi herself has great guilt in her opium-making and tries to kill herself, of course she was saved in that too obviously. From then onwards she has a secret attraction to ‘bother’ Sanosuke, flirt with Kenshin, and tease Kaoru.

Watsuki’s Character Notes

The following is quoted off of Shonen Jump’s Rurouni Kenshin graphic novel translations of Watsuki:

“There’s no real model, but when creating her I imagined a mature woman. Some of you were no doubt surprised to see how different she turned out here as compared to the stand-alone episodes but, for me, they both spring from the same spirit and therefore aren’t really that unalike.

The stand-alone Megumi did have a lighter quality to begin with, but that was because she didn’t have as much to do. Once I realized that she would also appear in this series, I knew she had to make more of an impression and I therefore gave her a more earthly quality. It was my first time with this kind of character, though, and so there was a lot of learn. Looking back now, she isn’t what I’d wanted, and that’s a bit depressing. Still, the heart of the drama flows from her deepest inner spirit, and so I suppose that’s to be expected.

Megumi was entertaining to draw – and is one character who can talk ‘female-to-female’ with Kaoru – so I plan to have her appear frequently, as a secondary character. She also has the convenience of being a doctor. According to reader mail, two main opinions prevail (1) ‘Megumi and Aoshi are suited for each other,’ and (2) ‘Megumi and Sano are suited for each other.’ Watsuki wonders if, in the case of the former, the ‘suited’ part is meant intellectually, while the lattice ‘suited’ may be meant temperamentally. Just as with Kenshin and Kaoru, though, at this point I have no such plans with her future. The Megumi arc has ‘redemption for her crimes’ as its theme, and I wanted to express through Megumi Kenshin’s determination. (This second part, though, was really tough to pull off.) To write about Kenshin’s redemption for his own crimes… thinking of that, I get a headache.

The model in terms of design is the young grandma appearing in Obata sensei’s ‘Cyborg JPi-Chan ‘G” (Cyborg Grandpa ‘G’).’ That manga’s given me ideas for a long time but, obviously, I can’t draw as well as the sensei, and now his character has turned into my own lame Megumi. Sigh…”