As a stand alone story, The Ex-Con Ashitaro is by all rights a 7 in score. But as part of the Rurouni Kenshin series, as a continuation and a prequel, it's a fantastic 9.

Our spin-off sequel brings to us our protagonist Ashitaro, a spunky starving ex-rebel who was imprisoned for dining and dashing, and his newfound companion businessman Aran, both recently released from prison. The story jumps off by introducing us to it's main conflict: that being, Ashitaro stole something from Shishio Makoto's organization before its downfall, with the remaining rebel forces more than willing to kill Ashitaro to gain it back.

The manga contains a few clever references to the main work with one or two being missable at first glance, several well executed connections to the main work, and excellently presents Watsuki's gorgeous artstyle, as well as his sense of humor. The ending to the spin-off is quite well done, and sets off a nice segway towards the future of the series, declaring the new Hokkaido Arc, with a nice reminder of the status of where we left our characters at the ending of Rurouni Kenshin.

As a stand-alone feel free to skip over this manga, however as a huge fan of Ruoruni Kenshin and Watsuki's works in general, i highly recommend this short spin-off to you if you're one of either.