Caution: mild spoilers ahead.
The series started off kind of cool. Set in 1878, about ten years after the beginning of the Meiji era, the plot follows a wandering swordsman named Himura Kenshin. Once known as the Hitokiri Battousai (a legendary manslayer), he has since taken a vow never to kill again, and carries a sword with the blade on the reverse side.There are four (and maybe a half) arcs in the story line, two of which (Tokyo and Kyoto) are reflected in the original manga comics. In Tokyo he rescues a kendo school instructor and beats up bad guys that come looking for trouble. In Kyoto he has to lay the smack down on his Hitokiri successor.
By the middle of the Kyoto storyline, things start to get silly. In spite of Kenshin's "godlike" speed, he gets whupped up on by guys with (first) super-godlike speed and (then) ultra-godlike speed.
After Kyoto, he has to go after a renegade Japanese Christian swordsman who's threatening to revolt. Following that, he goes up against a secret order of sword-wielding German knights who are out to find a "divine elixer" and use it to conquer the world. Finally, there are a couple of episodes in which he helps prevent a clan of evil feng shui masters from messing up Japan's chi.
According to Wikipedia, the reason why things got so lame in the second half of the series was because writers were trying to stall until the manga's third arc could be finished. However, the series was cancelled by then, so that story ended up in the OVA prequel, Samurai X.
Would I recommend it? Hm, maybe. Like I said, the first arc is interesting for its unpredictable (and somewhat plausible) sword fighting techniques. After that, I'd say no.
Though it might be of interest to students of Japanese language, the DVDs only have English subtitles (E/J dialogue), and copying Kenshin's use of archaic terms would only get you laughed at. Plus, Kenshin's voice in the Japanese dialogue is done by a woman, which I found totally irritating.
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