If you were hoping for an entirely new Rurouni Kenshin tale when we first heard about a new manga coming, this might disappoint you. (Then again, why do you want more when the 28-volume original manga wrapped up quite nicely?) Rurouni Kenshin - Kinema Version has started running in Jump SQ, a monthly sister to Weekly Shonen Jump. Nobuhiro Watsuki is putting his current manga, Embalming -The Another Tale of Frankenstein-, on hiatus until his new manga is done this fall.

This Kenshin manga is not a new story, but it's not entirely a copy of the original. It's a retelling based on the plot of the upcoming live-action movie, which will be out this August. Hopefully reading this doesn't completely ruin the experience of watching the movie.

As a big fan of Rurouni Kenshin and the first two-thirds of the anime, I'm torn about how to feel. I'm never a big fan of reboots, since they generally just tread new ground. I was planning on watching the new movie anyway, so seeing it in manga form seems like a waste. However, maybe I should be happy that they didn't drag the old characters out of retirement to fight some new threat just for the sake of using a new manga story to sell movie tickets. At least we'll always have the original manga to go back to.

[Via Crunchyroll]