The Saddest Story
Soujiro’s Seta’s life is the most saddest and depressing story-line throughout Rurouni Kenshin. Before saying anything let me review the other sad stories: Kenshin, Yahiko, Sano, Megumi, and somewhat on Kaoru. It is evident that between all these cases that Kenshin’s is that saddest, as he was orphaned, and his guardians were killed protecting him. Yahiko is also an orphan, but he did not experience as much violence as Kenshin did and Sanosuke became a gangster after Sagara’s death, which, although violent, did not plague him by regrets or unnecessary deaths. Megumi, of course, only had some doctor connection with opium, while Kaoru had a dead father.
Now that I have touched upon those points, let’s get to Soujiro. Soujiro’s story-line is the most sad and depressing one of all. Firstly, Soujiro, unlike Kenshin, is an illegitimate orphan, meaning he was rejected from society in the very beginning. Kenshin was not repelled from society, he was sold off, but he made new friends, and had some respect. Kenshin also managed to have loving guardians (even if it was for a short while), while Soujiro grew up in an unhappy environment. Soujirou never found love EVER, he was both mentally and physically abused. Mentally because he could never show his true feelings, which can easily be compared to kenshin’s cross-shaped scar, teaching Kenshin to be quiet about his past. Kenshin’s scar, however, was a sign of hate and love both, showing that Kenshin, unlike Soujirou, was loved. In Soujirou’s case Shishio Makoto did not love him, he used him to fight and spread his message of “Blood of the weak and food for the strong.” Soujiro never found love in this as from the very beginning, Shishio did not help him but made him “become strong” on his own (ie. giving him the katana to fend on his own). Even though Kenshin’s protectors died, he met Hiko shortly afterwards, who taught him to love again, followed by Tomoe. Hiko gave Kenshin something to look up to and gave him an occupation, teaching Kenshin the basis of Samurai. Due to this, Kenshin was never confused in his ways, he knew he was killing, and justified it for the new era.
Soujirou, on the other hand, was confused between believing in his conscience or Shishio’s philosophy. He never showed his emotions, and by god, the kid laughed in the face of death but cried when he killed his relatives. Thus meaning that from the very beginning he didn’t know which path to follow. Soujirou, like Kenshin, had a past that was haunting him, except his past was a bit worse because unlike Kenshin, it was not clear to him. Kenshin knew his past and his reasons, while Soujirou did not, and could not understand reasoning. He always hid his feelings, and although Kenshin did this too, he was able to open up to his friends, while Soujirou could not open up to anyone because the very people around him were the ones he questioned. Kenshin also had a reason of keeping quiet about his past, but Soujirou’s past was based on a flimsy factor; that Shishio had “saved” him, when in fact, Shishio would have easily left Soujirou to die. Soujiro was left on his own to take care of his problems, while in Kenshin’s case, Hiko stepped in and took the burden off his hands. If Soujiro had not succeeded, Shishio would have left him to die, as he believed Soujiro was weak.
Soujiro’s lack of emotion was a very sad and scary aspect. Kenshin barely showed what was on his heart, but his Kenki and emotions always went along with his fights and talks. Although he acted very innocent most of the time, Kenshin could easily turn serious and give off Kenki in a battle. Soujirou looked the same throughout the whole series, no one could ever tell what he was thinking. Kenshin was the same way to an extent, but Soujiro was thoroughly hidden.
Kenshin’s most depressing story-line was that he accidentally killed his own wife, Tomoe. Although this is very emotional and sentimental, it cannot even compare to Soujirou. Soujirou never knew love, and this is what made it depressing. Although Kenshin had killed Tomoe, he did realize and make his promise to stop murdering after the war was over. Kenshin still had his memories of Tomoe and and although it was sad to loose her, it would have been sadder if he had not loved at all. He had a purpose to his being, to his life, and later on, this guided him to Kaoru. While, all the while, Soujirou had no purpose at all, he acted like a robot, had no one to talk to or share his feelings, and never had anyone since his birth. Though this would mean that Soujirou never knew the pain, I’m sure that Soujirou, if we looked at him longer, would feel an impenetrable pain later on for all of his murderous acts. Even if Soujirou never loved a person, that would be even worse, because pain without any reminder of love is not balanced, and only pain is left. Kenshin had that pain, but he eased it with Kaoru, with his wondering, and basically his whole time with his people. If Kenshin did not know what pain was, he would never realize happiness, and vice versa. Since Soujirou did not, or could not know any love, he will have a more difficult time adapting, and even so, it is evident that he realizes that love exists. This makes it worse because he knows what it is, and he feels the lack of it, this is what makes him question Kenshin’s battle. Soujirou is found saying “Why did you not save me?” meaning that he wanted to be loved, and the fact that he wasn’t, made him what he was and he had no emotional output to put all of those feelings.
To get to the point, the saddest story was of Soujiro. He had a story-line that was both unique and interesting, like Kenshin’s. Yet his went beyond the regular expectations. Kenshin himself was surprised, and he knew that something “really bad” happened to Soujiro, as he related to Sanosuke. Soujiro was also the most hard to beat enemy that Kenshin faced. I read it in a poll manga.
Just to say that this whole sad story debate makes really thought-provoking reading. Now I’d like to make a small point of my own. Whose point of view are we going from here? Taking the absence of love as an example, Soujiro himself isn’t probably all that bothered (of course I may be wrong) because it’s something he has never experienced, or maybe even felt a need for. But to be able to step back and view the whole life in its entirety, like we can, we can see it’s heartbreaking. Think about it.
Anyhow, now that it’s mostly a decision between Kenshin and Soujiro… I’ll have to say Soujiro’s story is sadder.
Sure, Kenshin was orphaned and the people he loved were killed before his eyes, but I think that it’s better to have loved and then lost rather than not be loved at all. But even if he did kill Tomoe, Kenshin can still find friends and people that will accept him and help him deal with the pain of losing a loved one. And even though Kenshin is haunted by the deaths of the people he killed, he can forget about it most of the time when he’s surrounded by his various friends.
Soujiro, on the other hand, didn’t have any kind of real relationship with other people. His adopted family thought he was the most despicable thing on earth and tried to kill him. Shishio only saw Soujiro as a tool to conquer, and the Juppongatana saw him as someone to topple to get more power. (Kamatari said that he wanted to be better than Soujiro, he never said if he actually cared about him or not…) And Soujiro never wanted to kill his “family.” Even though he was smiling all the time, unconsciously, part of him was being hurt every time he killed. And when begins to uncover his emotions as he wanders, he’ll find the guilt that he buried as well. And despite the hopeful “he’s a wanderer so everything would be great attitude”, life is never going to say: “your past is kinda bad, so your future is guaranteed to be happy!” I pessimistically predict that Soujiro wouldn’t have an easy time finding anybody, much less his “true love”, to accept him. After all, people in that era are still influenced by “honor” and things like that, so being illegitimate isn’t going to help Soujiro there. Also, he does have a problem with the Meiji government. Soujiro was a major part of the plan to topple the Meiji Government. Saitou found out that Soujiro assassinated Okubo, and even though Okubo wasn’t very popular with some of the citizens of Japan at the time, assassinating politicians and then leaving the infrastructure of the government still whole is a serious crime. They probably won’t let him have amnesty like all the other Juppongatana members since Soujiro’s so dangerous… (And even though the police constantly harass Kenshin, they don’t try to arrest him unless they have no idea who he is.) Heck, even if Soujiro does find someone who would accept his past, they would probably be pressured socially and politically to turn him in. (And if Soujiro just keeps that part about assassinating people secret, it’ll just be another hindrance between his relationships.)
And as for Kenshin, at least he’s with Kaoru when he dies. (er…I think. Haven’t seen the OVA…)
I think Kenshin’s story is sadder than Soujirou’s. The reason is that Kenshin can never escape from his past. First of all, he never had guardians, he just had three older women who protected him from bandits. Then he undertook several years of training that any ordinary man would perish from. After he left, he became a hitokiri, slowly dragging himself down to hell. Worst of all while being a hitokiri, he killed his wife and made an enemy for life. After he came out in the open, the name hitokiri battousai became a legend, and Kenshin was forever known throughout Japan. When Kenshin became a rurouni, he help people in order to repent, but no amount of repentance could ever send his soul to heaven. Also, he became a schizo, between a man-slayer and a pacifist.
In the 11th year of the Meiji, he met, Kamiya Kaoru, someone to ease his pain, but wherever he went he put her in danger. Sure, things were bad for Soujirou, and true things turned out okay for Kenshin, but as Jin’e Udo said ” a man-slayer will always be a man-slayer.”
The saddest story is Kenshin’s since he has done so many bad things in his past and he feels extremely guilty about it and tries to do everything he can to make up for it and he is trying not to kill anymore! But there are always obstacles that get in his way… I mean the bad guys and that he always has to protect people that he cares for and that gets in the way of his repaying for his past. ^ ^
You are completely right about Soujirou being the strongest person Kenshin ever faced. (this will take a while xD) We must consider the opponents and compare. First off we have Jin’e, yes he was very strong but we must consider the time and elements. At this point he had taken Kaoru hostage and forced Kenshin to battle. Also Kenshin didn’t have his final attack and never used it until Soujiro’s fight. Then we have Aoshi. He never defeated Kenshin, the same goes for Saitou -_- narrowing it down to Soujiro and Shishio already. By the time Kenshin battled Soujiro, he had a few injuries, nothing that serious (he fought Aoshi beforehand). Soujiro had only played around with Kenshin most of the time, he was never serious in the first place until the end. If Kenshin didn’t have his final attack (Amakakeru No Hirameki, something like that) he really wouldn’t have defeated our beloved Soujiro. Also Soujiro at that point was the most confused in his life.
The seal containing his emotions broke at the last second, if that didn’t happen of course Soujiro would have won but good always wins -_-. Then by the end, Kenshin had lost a great amount of blood and strength by the time he faced Shishio. Exhausted, he still fought. Kenshin was defeated but Sano and the others stepped in until Kenshin regained consciousness. Kenshin had then defeated Shishio. Soujiro could’ve easily defeated any of these characters but alas the seal broke and he could not contain his emotions anymore. We saw that after he was defeated by Kenshin, Soujiro had left for the mountains. We have never seen him again (damn you Watsuki!!!!) anyway we can all tell that Soujiro has the worst past and is strongest, yatta! ~snuggles Soujiro~ ._.; thanks for listening!!!!
Very very true. Soujiro’s life was nothing but living hell. His life is so sad and his heart bottled up never knowing where to go or what to do. He cries deep inside himself and he knows the truth but doesn’t want to believe it. Instead, he tries to believe Shishio’s moral about the strong living, but somehow, he knew it wasn’t right. He needed care and comfort. Some compassion in his life! All he was asking for was some love! It’s so simple, but nobody did. I believe that he kills to take out all the anger, though he does know it’s wrong. He knows that if a sword went through someone it would hurt. Even though he’s trying to take out the anger, it won’t come out. Sadly, he had no one to tell it to. I truly believe his tortured life is really worse than anyone else’s in Rurouni Kenshin.
Yeah… so true… but Sano too really have a tough time. He saw the person he admired the most beheaded and all the Sekihoutai killed. The only survivor was him and Katsu. He was only 9 or 10 at that time. He grew up on the street. Even though he is not an orphan, he never went back to his parents that is there till the Enishi episodes and only find out that his mom had died a couple of years ago. So I think it is not only Soujiro that has a sad background.
Boo hoo! -_- I feel so sorry for Soujiro-san!! I really do agree that his story was the saddest of all the other RK cast stories but then again, Kenshin’s was sad but like you said he had loving guardians after his parents’ death. But Soujiro on the other hand didn’t have anyone. *sigh* I feel so sorry for Soujiro-san. sniff* (he was always my favorite RK character)
I would have to say that Twinsidedblade52, Yotaka, Zero, Mellisa, Forgotten, and Koukeisha (only her first part) could not have said it better. Kenshin had all the lives of the people he killed, trying to drag him down to hell for his actions. All the rest of his life he tried to make-up for it by using a sakabatou and therefore at the end, he had a happy life. But with the last strength that he had, he had to go back to Kaoru. The sad thing about it is that Kenji ran away-into the mountains to train with Hiko. So Kenshin really didn’t hang out with Kenji as he grew older because of the war. So that’s pretty sad. Kenshin had it rough as a child but so did Soujiro. Tomoe was the first person to really touch Kenshin’s heart and he loved her for that. To kill the woman that you first fell in love with and cared for is bad enough. Soujiro killed his family out of confusion and anger. Kenshin saw his “sisters” die in front of him and he couldn’t do anything about it.
Soujiro can still find happiness because he is still young so it’s not even that bad. Kenshin tries so hard to forget his past but he just can’t because of all the people reminding him of hitokiri battousai. Like saying,” Oh it’s the guy with the crossed-shaped scar. The legendary hitokiri battousai. Run away!!!” Or something like that. Even Hiko reminded Kenshin in the OVA about Tomoe by giving the cup with the picture of a white plum tree. It’s like he can never get away from it. Also Jin-e always said, a hitokiri will die a hitokiri. Kenshin was about 4-5yrs old when his parents died of cholera and Hiko trained him. At the age of 14, Kenshin went off to be the famous battousai. From 18-28, he became a rurouni. Every time Kenshin killed someone, he never laughed, cried, or smiled. He just turned and walked away. That’s why Tomoe was there. To help Kenshin out of the darkness. She tried not to let Kenshin become a madman and kill carelessly.
She didn’t want him to have the cold blood of war. For any reason, Soujiro’s past was sad but, Kenshin has more meaning to his past. If only Soujiro was older and we found out what he did, then it would be more clearer to debate about this. God I love Kenshin. Thank you Watsuki!!
Poor thing 🙁 I agree that he is the saddest of the entire series and that’s probably why people adore him so much). Either that or it’s because he’s always Mr. Smiley