Ranked #232

Hokuto no Ken

When I first started Hokuto no Ken, I did not know a thing about Fist of the North Star. I had heard the name before, and I knew it was a popular franchise with bloody exploding heads. When I started watching the series, it looked so incredibly 80s.

In fact, the Shin arc made me stop watching it for a while. The endless mooks in poorly drawn 80s style really turned me off. A few weeks later, I decided to try it again. I am so absolutely glad I did. Hokuto no Ken is a post-apocolyptic epic, and I don't use that term lightly.

The story is fairly simple. Shin (Kenshiro's rival) steals Yuria (Kenshiro's love), and Ken goes to rescue her. However, in the background, darker, more dangerous forces are moving. The story is cunning in its simplicity, and quite well executed.

The art is of course, very old, and often shows its age. It is the biggest downfall the series has. The series is backed up by strong, memorable music, and one of the most comically catchy OPs (YOU WA SHOCK!) I've heard.

One of the things that Hokuto no Ken does interestingly is the characters. 90% of the major characters are large, stoic men, with pecs of iron and manly logic. The two children, Bat and Lin, are there to cheer Ken on, and be terrified/annoying, respectively. The men Ken meets are almost all evil beyond redemption. However, in the legions of mooks and generic evil, are some interesting, legitimately cool characters, such as Rei, Juza, Toki and Raoh.

To today's viewer, it would seem like you've seen all the elements of this before in other things. The reason for this is that Hokuto no Ken has inspired every single action show to come from Japan, especially the long-running shounen of today, in some form or another.

I cannot give this series a 10, between the early filler (which is just about completely gone after the Shin arc), and the recap episodes. I will, however give this a 9. What I thought would be a hilariously corny 80s romp through a field of exploding heads turned out to be a amazing, epic journey though a post-apocalyptic wasteland, starring, the manliest man to ever be placed on paper. With exploding heads. read more

Having watched the movie, which is the condensed version of the series, and now actually watching the 36 episode series from Manga Entertainment, I find that this is one of the corniest/greatest animes that I've seen. I love it. I really like the opening theme that has thundering bass drums that ride you thru a monta'ge of violent clips of the anime. Kinda makes you want to fight, or at least watch one. This has alot of violence that is gorey at times and corny at times. Ken can pretty much do anything. He's a Japanese, Rambo looking, Bruce Lee sounding BAD ASS. Story is pretty good, but the little girl Lin and the boy Bart are annoying as F@*%. I laugh alot while watching this. From the goofy names they give his attacks to the cheesy narrator who reads the wierd and hilarious titles before each episode. There are parts of an episode that are right out of the movie Road Warrior. The circle town surrounded by desert, even a bus as a gate and flamethrowers stationed on each side. I loved that movie and I love this anime.

Now the review for the 109 ep series which was on subtitled dvd. Although subs were not the greatest as far as translation, I get the gist of the story based on this being an expanded version of the 36 ep eng dub dvds. It is quite the epic and tragic story at that. I found myself looking forward to the next episode and that is what's important to me to avoid boredom with the series, especially 109 eps. I never got bored with the violence either. They found ways to change it up and introduce new styles and moves/punches. Highly entertaining for the fans of older titles like Armored Trooper Votoms or Space Cobra, those of us who hold these in high regards as compared to the G.I Joe or Transformer cartoons I grew up on. I only wish I could have seen these as a kid. read more