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Samurai X ova's and movie

The basic moral of the series is to never give up on life, regardless of what bad things you've done in the past or how bleak your future might look. Cherish the life you have now and enjoy the presence of good friends and do what you can to protect it, should the instance occur. This is portrayed perfectly through the interaction of Kenshin and friends, and especially his battles.

Before you check it out though, there are several things I need to point out.

First, there are multiple titles that go in the following order:

TV series (1-62)
Movie (optional)
Tsuioku-hen OAV ("Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal")
Seisou-hen OAV ("Samurai X: Reflections")

The TV series is actually 95 episodes, but ep. 63+ are all filler, meaning it has nothing to do with the original story. I would recommend you avoid this until you at least get the jist of the real story. In fact, you can ask anyone about the notorious Season 3, and most will say it just doesn't live up to the namesake. Actually, the series got cancelled because of such low ratings, so that should tell you something in itself already.

Season 1 (1-28) contains some filler, but still does a decent job of portraying most of the original material. There's a fair share of action, comedy, and plot events to build up the characters.

Moving into Season 2 (29-62, aka the Kyoto arc), you get a bit of a darker, more action/drama-oriented atmosphere. Every episode sticks to the manga almost panel for panel, and is the highlight of the series, in my opinion.

The movie has nothing to do with the main story either, though it was okay if you liked the series. Some of the references point to the events of Kyoto, so if you watched it without any prior knowledge, it probably wouldn't be as enjoyable. I wouldn't recommend it if you're watching the anime for the first time through because the end of Kyoto actually ties into the first OAV.

Tsuioku-hen is... pivotal. It's actually a prequel that tells the story of how Kenshin turned from the cold-blooded assassin he once was into the happy-pappy rurouni. I do not recommend you watch the OAV before the TV series. The problem with that is the transition.

Namely, the TV series is a fairly light-hearted and fun viewing. You get some slapstick humor, laughing moments, and that sort of thing. The OAV is the polar opposite; very dark, violent, and almost depressing. If you watch to the end of Kyoto, Tsuioku-hen will tie into a certain lingering plotline. And that transition from a lighter to a darker atmoshpere, is what will make it so much more enjoyable. A lot of people that saw Tsuioku-hen first, ended up not liking the series because of the reverse transition (darker to lighter feel), and it's a real shame. TRUST ME, you will not be dissappointed if you follow the order I suggested.

Seisou-hen, on the other hand, is not as good. For the longest time, I never made the effort to read much manga. But after hearing so many things about what actually happened after Kyoto, I had to find out. Needless to say, Seisou-hen is a very poor representation of it. In addition to being a prequel, Tsuioku-hen is actually a flashback that was to lead up to the final arc of the franchise, Jinchuu.

Unfortunately, what was written and illustrated into about 10 volumes of greatness ended up being only 4 good OAV episodes (Tsuioku-hen) and 2 crammed episodes of butchered misrepresnation (Seisou-hen). While the production qualities are excellent, the story is just horribly spliced, putting 8 volumes of manga into an hour of crap that didn't even tell it correctly. Even the creator of the franchise disowned it.

If at all possible, I highly recommend you check out the manga after the anime, at least for the full effect of the Jinchuu arc. But for now, I can say you'll like the anime if you follow my suggestions for viewing (TV series through ep. 62, then Tsuioku-hen).

By the way, I really dislike the dub. Being my favorite anime, I feel it fails in capturing the essence of all the characters and expressing the subtlties that make the dialogue and interacton so enjoyable. I could argue the faults forever from voice inflection to pronunciations, but I've typed enough as it is.