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In the series Shura no Toki it shows the different generations of the mutsu
enmei and their battles. I have watch the series and think that is great and
recomend it to friends. I like the way that they have done this compared to
different animes.

But I am a little confused on why the writers decided to do different
generations instead of like a lot of the other animes out there keep with one
generation and follow them tell the end of the series.


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2014-07-09T19:36:18.727
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2017-05-19T09:29:24.927
2014-07-09T19:39:20.580
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shura-no-toki
Why does Shura no Toki go through different generations in each season?


There's a bit of history here which puts this in perspective. In 1987, mangaka
Kawahara Masatoshi first published [Shura no
Mon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shura_no_Mon). This is a pretty standard
martial arts manga in terms of setting and characters. It primarily follows a
single character, Mutsu Tsukumoto. He practices a martial art Mutsu Enmei
Ryuu. This martial arts style has apparently never been defeated in its 1000
year history. Shura no Mon ran for 31 volumes and finished publication in
1996. It does have a sequel which began in 2010. It was never adapted as an
anime.

In 1989, Kawahara began publishing a prequel manga [Shura no
Toki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shura_no_Toki). This details the thousand-
year history of Mutsu Enmei Ryuu and the Mutsu family. It has arcs for each of
the major periods in Japanese history, each with different characters. This
was published at a slower pace. In total, there were 15 volumes. The series
ended in 2005.

The anime adaptation of Shura no Toki occurred in 2004. They chose to adapt
Shura no Toki rather than Shura no Mon, and covered 3 story arcs. Given the
timing, this made more sense. Shura no Mon hadn't been released for 8 years,
but Shura no Toki was still publishing and nearing its end, which is a good
time for an anime adaptation. Of course, given the nature of the work, they
adapted it in arcs rather than just doing a single one.

It's a bit of a historical accident that Shura no Toki got an anime
adaptation, while Shura no Mon didn't. I don't think there's a single really
convincing reason why it happened. Partially, the timing wasn't great. Martial
arts was big in the 1980s, but by the mid-90s (when an anime might have
started) it had died down in popularity. Shura no Toki was better timed in
that respect and also had the benefit of being more historically themed (and
hence appealing to a larger group than just martial arts enthusiasts). There's
plenty of other speculation as to why the prequel was the only part to be
adapted as an anime, but in any event that's the fact of the matter.

So the reason why Shura no Toki took that approach is because it was always
designed and intended as a prequel to Shura no Mon, which has the more
traditional single protagonist. However, in English, the Shura no Toki anime
is the only one with a sizable following since neither manga is well known.
Without that context, the style of the anime seems somewhat strange.


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2014-07-10T01:20:41.657
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answer


The story focused on the martial art style, not the person. And I guess the
writer wanted the reader to understand why this mutsu enmeiryuu style is "the
strongest martial art" and "undefeated for a thousand year"


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