Samurai X

She warned me... Sara warned me not to watch them because they would make me miserable but I watched them anyway. Ever see the cartoon Rurouni Kenshin on [Adult Swim]? Well there are these things called OVA's. I don't know what it stands for, but they are way more violent and tell the story of what happened before and after the series on TV.

Basically, it is about a boy who is sold to slavery after his parents are killed. One night, he group is attacked and he watches them all get brutally murdered. As he is about to be killed, a swordsman shows up and takes him in. He becomes the greatest swordsman in Japan (probably the world too). He then decides that he wants to use his sword to help people even if it means taking the lives of others.

Basically, in the episodes, he is overcome with grief for the people that he killed and spends his life trying to help as many people as penance for all the people that he killed. He lives with the constant grief of being responsible for the death of his wife. Eventually he remarries and has a child and gives up the sword, but eventually wants to go back to helping people. He leaves again... both him and his wife have the same disease (not really sure what it is).

Basically it ends like this:
Both he and his wife are dying... he is in China and she is still in Japan waiting for him to return. His friend finds him and helps him get on a ship back to Japan. The end climaxes as they are both stumbling toward each other and dying... they hug and we him laying in her lap under cherry blossoms... she is talking about how she wants to have a cherry blossom party and invite all of their friends. As she is saying that, he dies... and finally his pain is gone.