Introduction

My swarms have fit the holster, my faith burnt every house.

Tomoe is a character from the anime and manga series Rurouni Kenshin by Watsuki Nobuhiro, set in the Meiji period (1868 - 1912).
But you know the series, still never heard of Tomoe? The answer is quite simple. Most people who know RK have only seen the 95-episode TV series, or haven't had the time/money/patience to read/purchase the last few volumes in which Tomoe appears.

We meet Tomoe in Jinchuu arc, the last part of the RK story that wasn't animated properly, and didn't appear in the TV series in any way (funny thing is, there's original TV series character design for Tomoe and her brother Enishi even though Jinchuu arc wasn't animated). However, there is an animation of Kenshin's and Tomoe's story (which is told to the others by Kenshin in the manga), the Tsuioku Hen ("reminiscence") OVA, overseas given the more than ridiculous title Samurai X - Romantic Tales from the Meiji Era. There's also another OVA, Seisouhen, which halfway tells what else happened in Jinchuu arc, and ends the RK saga with a sad final.

Those two OVA series have better design (the characters actually look Japanese) than the TV series, and a classical, haunting soundtrack. The animation is very fluid and crisp, also involving real life recordings, like Kenshin's spinning toy, fire, some backgrounds, or flowers. They are very realistic, both in art and content, quite mature, and unlike what you usually think of RK, not funny at all. Very tragic and sad indeed, and I'd be a liar if I refused to admit I cried while watching, especially at the end. To be honest, even the soundtracks can make me cry. The OVAs have an epic feel to them the TV series wasn't able or not designed to reach. This feeling is created by the fact that in the OVAs, you're right in the middle, while the TV series glosses everything over and throws in a joke where the OVAs leave you in a desolate position. I don't like the TV series. Compared to the OVAs, it's just mediocre.

Tsuioku Hen, in all its flawlessness, is one of my favourite anime. I've watched the four parts countless times, they still make me cry, and there was this character who stood out to me in a very special way: Tomoe. When I searched for sites on her, there weren't any, or better said, there used to be some, which all vanished into the abyss. Resultingly I made my own.