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There's just nothing special here. The art is good and the characterization is pretty good (except for villains), but the plot and writing stink.

I'll start with the good: The art is nice, but not super impressive. The characters and settings don't have the same elegance or beauty as in Kenshin.

I liked most of the characters, but I didn't find any of them especially compelling. And the villains (except for Papillon, whom I really liked) are very bad.

As for the bad: The plot is nothing special (but it's shounen, so what do you expect?), but the pacing is weak. Everything feels rushed, like ... Watsuki had a storyboard of all the important plot points and turned it directly into a manga without adding any space to breathe. But what really sinks this manga is the writing (or at least the official English translation). It's clunky and awkward at best, and there are some passages that really stink.

Bottom line: This doesn't feel like much love or passion went into it. Watsuki phoned it in.