"His most insane enemy appears" in films opening August 1 & September 13

The official website for the live-action Rurouni Kenshin films began streaming a new 67-second teaser trailer for this year's two sequel films with English subtitles on Thursday. The teaser features footage of Tatsuya Fujiwara as Makoto Shishio. The teaser proclaims, "His most insane [worst] enemy appears."

The two new films will cover the Kyoto arc from Nobuhiro Watsuki's original historical action manga. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno) will open in Japan on August 1, and Rurouni Kenshin: Densetsu no Saigo-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends) will open on September 13. Principal photography on the two films ended on December 27 after six months of filming.

The sequels will feature the return of the following cast members:

Takeru Satoh as Kenshin Himura

Emi Takei as Kaoru Kamiya

Munetaka Aoki as Sanosuke Sagara

Yuu Aoi as Megumi Takani

Yosuke Eguchi as Hajime Saitō

Additional cast members include:





Tao Tsuchiya as Misao Makimachi







Ryunosuke Kamiki as Sōjirō Seta







Yusuke Iseya as Aoshi Shinomori







68-year-old Min Tanaka ( Tekkonkinkreet, The Twilight Samurai, 47 Ronin remake) as Nenji Kashiwazaki/Okina







47-year-old Kazufumi Miyazawa (The Boom music band) as Toshimichi Ōkubo







39-year-old Yukiyoshi Ozawa ( Umi no Hotaru ) as Hirobumi Itō







12-year-old Kaito Ōyagi (Ninja Kids!!! Summer Mission Impossible) as Yahiko Myōjin







25-year-old model Maryjun Takahashi as Yumi Komagata



The cast of the Juppongatana (Ten Swords), a group of elite swordsmen led by Shishio (played by Tatsuya Fujiwara), include:

Ryōsuke Miura as Chō Sawagejō

Kenichi Takitō as Hōji Sadojima

Tomomi Maruyama as Anji Yūkyūzan

Matsu Murata as Usui Uonuma

Hiroko Yashiki as Kamatari Honjō

Yuuya Hara as Henya Kariwa

Takao Yamada as Iwanbō

Kentarō Shimazu as Saizuchi

Kōta Yamaguchi as Fuji

Taketo Tanaka played Yahiko in the first live-action Rurouni Kenshin film. Director Keishi Ōtomo ( Ryōmaden ) returned from the first film along with character costume designer Kazuhiro Sawataishi.

The first live-action Rurouni Kenshin film opened in Japan in 2012. The film had its North American premiere in Los Angeles in December 2012.

Watsuki's manga ran from 1994 to 1999 in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and sold over 58 million copies. The creator also drew the Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration retelling that launched in Jump Square magazine in May 2012 and ended last year. He is now planning a new Rurouni Kenshin spinoff manga about enemy characters.

An anime series aired in Japan from 1996 to 1998 and spawned several anime film and video projects. Viz Media publishes both manga in North America, while Media Blasters released the television anime. ADV Films released two later original video anime projects and a film on DVD, and Aniplex released these three titles on Blu-ray Disc. Sentai Filmworks released the two more recent video anime series on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, which also covered the Kyoto arc.

Images © Nobuhiro Watsuki/Shueisha © 2014 Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto Taika-hen/Densetsu no Saigo-hen Production Committee