The story comes in:
The story is mostly set in Meji Japan and stars Himura Kenshin,also known as the Hitokiri Battousai during the Bakumatsu. To create a new world he killed many people but after the Bakumatsu he gave up killing and wandered around Japan as a "rurouni", or vagabond. (a word that doesn't exist, btw; watsuki-san made it up) To atone for his sins he wields his reverse edged blade to protect the people he meets. The series traces his adventures starting from when he bumped into Kaoru in Tokyo.
The details in the anime story does differ significantly from the manga, which has its good points and bad points. The good thing is that you don't have to read/ watch the same thing twice if you happen to want to both read the manga and watch the anime. The bad thing is that the anime sometimes deviates a bit too much from the original and that to me isn't a good thing. Also it's full of filler episodes that are fun and delightful to watch but don't actually contribute anything to the story. But it's all a matter of personal prefrence. The anime's cool, and the animation is really well done, but sometimes the characters just are NOT well drawn at all. It doesn't do Saitou ANY justice; I'm hard pressed to find any instance when he's anywhere near as handsome as in the manga. Another significant boo-boo was found in the episode where Kenshin fought Soujiro (or was it senkaku? can't remember); there was one scene where Kenshin's scar was actually drawn on the RIGHT cheek! (as in left-right, not wrong-right) _o_;
The Japanese voice dub was fantastic; if you can try to avoid the English dub. Not that it was bad, per se, but some of the casting left a lot to be desired. Kaoru sounded like an irritating simp. (which she is, actually... *gets brained by tanuki fans*) And can somebody tell me whose bright idea it was hire Misao's english voice actor? She sounds like a bloody guy. Not that I have anything against a girl sounding like a guy, I've been told I sound like a guy myself, but still... Another thing is that whoever wrote the script for the English dub seriously needs lessons in Japanese history and geography. I mean, everyone knows that the first arc is set in Tokyo, and Kenshin travels to Kyoto in the beginning of the second arc, where the rest of the second arc takes place. That's why they're called the Tokyo arc and Kyoto arc respectively, right? According to the English dub, WRONG. Kenshin travels from KYOTO to EDO. Ha ha, very funny, who're you trying to kid. There IS no Edo by Meiji, it's been renamed -- ta-da -- Tokyo. Geez.
I hated, hated, HATED the movie. No plot, no Megumi, no Aoshi, no Misao, no point, basically. With Sano is making an ass of himself over some new chick called Toki who isn't even half as beautiful as Megumi is; with Kenshin reverting to Battousai even though he knew the succesion technique. Utter, utter terribleness. It's like one very long and very bad filler episode.
The first OAV series was fantastic. The music, the dark drawing style, the atmosphere it created, were all incredible. A bit heavy though, not like the usual lighthearted shounen style the series usually adopts.