First off, i wanted to say i love how you worded your post to inspire healthy conversation instead of meaningless debate.
As for the 2 shows, I havn't seen any of samurai champaloo but it woudl take a lot to better RK as a whole. Art and action are all nice and make for a good entertainment. But that won't make a good show. Kenshin had such a strong moral and story behind it that it didnt feel like it was a show about samurais and sword fighting, rather a fight between two opposing people and their beliefs, coupled with a few other major themes.
I'm not saying Champaloo has this or dosent, i cant vouch either way. However, I do know that Kenshin was an incredibly good story and i disagree big time with the OVA's being better then the TV series. The first 2, Trust & Betrayl were a decent story depicting his life before hes seen in the first episode of the TV series. Still though, i didn't get the same feeling as i did with the series. They just felt like short stories about a samurai. Not to mention the aweful "ending" known as Reflection. Why they felt the need to change the ending of the manga along with the ENTIRE theme of the series, I will never know.
But hey, they make good AMV footage
