I used to come home from school and watch the anime on Cartoon Network. This was during the manga boom of the early 2000's, when Tokyopop brought over so many titles like Initial D and Great Teacher Onizuka, while Viz would eventually release their own English language Shonen Jump, where I was introduced to Naruto, One Piece, and Shaman King.
Kenshin was one of the few manga I actually managed to get a complete collection of during that time period, primarily to see the final arc that was never animated. As I saw the anime first, I didn't think the manga captured quite the same feeling, but it worked for me. And in every volume, there were extensive notes from Watsuki to the readers, to the point where I felt a sort of rapport with the author.
Then years later, I hear he got caught with a bunch of child porn.
That's my story.