Fist of the North Star

[Al Lopez]

Hey folks! I remember back in 1988 when I was about 12 years old my cousin had a bunch of tapes entitled fist of the north star. He was a big fan of the series and took numerous trips from hawaii to japan just to buy anime comics and what not. Anyhow I remember the series being subtitled in english while being dubbed in japanese. The whole series rocked but it was so long ago I can't remember any specifics other than it was my favorite anime at the time (I was an avid comic book collector back then). Ok, it is about 1994 or so and I manage to see it at the local video store in NY. Now the series seems to be much shorter and I am rather disappointed in it. Trying to remember but I can remember at the age of 12 watching characters like Juzo of the Cloud and Raul's name was Ken-o or something like that. Now I am looking for that original series, is my memory correct? Was their a character named Juzo? Bah, it's really fuzzy now, that was like 15 years ago.... If anyone has any info on what I am talking about please feel free to e-mail me, I'd love to get some copies of those. Maybe I should try to locate my cousin in hawaii... sigh....

[Craig]

Fist of the North Star is by far one of the greatest animes ever and probably one of the longest next to DBZ... I got my box set on ebay and I've watched it twice... definitely worth the amount I paid for...

[Paul]

I loved this movie since the day I seen it. Which was when I was 9 years old.  I like the movie just the way it is, even though its not the original plot. I've seen it over 30 times and plan on seeing it a whole lot more!

[Chris]

This is the greatest movie to ever exist. THEY WEAR SUCH TIGHT PANTS! Quit WHINING about how it's not the orginal or whatever. I just wish there was more anime like this, now it's all cartoon network garbage and teeny bopper stuff like DBZ and Inuyasha. This is classic, I've been watching this stuff since before it was popular and this movie is genius. This movie and Wicked City has made my friends who hate anime like DBZ realize that some anime has redeeming features. Also, BARBARIANS VERSUS NINJAS, the two coolest warrior groups ever. I can't mention this movie without someone going: "YEAH, Barbarians versus Ninjas!" This is the best movie ever, and I don't care that it was edited.*

*Sure I'm going to check out the edited version, but this movie (version) holds a special place in my heart.

[Thief in Chief]

I watched the movie almost ten years ago, but I just saw the entire series (over 160 episodes).

If you liked the movie, your gonna like the series. A lot more characters, superb graphical style and innovative action sequences

The movie and series together created a defining moment not only in the world of anime but also of action movie making in general.

Countless directors have lifted ideas from this movie, including the Wachowski bros.(MAtrix), John Woo and so many others.

The origins of this style of Anime can probably be traced to two sources. 1. Chinese Kung-fu comics, and 2. Japanese art.

I am a Malaysian and have been exposed to asian cinema all my life. There are many titles that the west has never heard of let alone seen.

I'm planning to dedicate a website to Classic Kung fu flick and Anime - With a special page dedicated to The Fist of the North Star... Will make another post once its completed.

[Nathan]

I first saw the fist of the north star when i was around 16, and have recently spent most of my free time watching the entire t.v. series (157 episodes)> As you can probably tell I just can't get enough!!! For anyone who can enjoy the violence, yet see through it to understand its real motivation this story will, as it is for me, be the geatest experiece of your televisual life... ok that sounds a bit anal, but are truely an awesome set of movies, t.v. series and comics. Action packed, bloody, thoughtful and down right hillarious, if I could give it 6 drops it still wouldn't do it justice.

Hey you! Where are you going, i`m not finished with you yet!!
           Thats funny cause your already dead!!!

[Golgo 13]

Yeah, Ray was the s**t with Nanto Seiken.

My favorite part:

"Hey... These belong to you?"

[Corey]

Great anime. So much better than the live action movie. I had no idea that one person could spew that much blood.

[Felicity]

Oh, *that* Fist of the Northstar.  The original.  The anime.

When I saw the title in the index I guess I assumed you would be reviewing the much-cheesier 1995 live-action version with Malcolm McDowell, Chris Penn, and Vader (the pro wrestler, not the Sith).  That I rented with my friend Patrick, who was both an anime and wrestling fan, and this was during such a great era of my life that I loved it even though it was completely terrible.

The 1980s anime isn't a bad movie; it was just edited and translated wrong.  Plus I think there was a whole TV series (which in turn was based on the manga by writer/artist Buronson) leading up to it which might have helped it to make more sense.

I *love* that 1980s Toei style of art--the exaggeratedly strong chins and muscular bodies, the extra shading.  Also, today's audiences should be reminded that it was the anime physics in animation like this that predated by many decades what we now think of as wire-fu or Matrix-fu.

As with 99% of the anime I've seen, this movie does have the standard Japanese problem with pacing--long sequences of no dialogue, action, or plot while people stand around looking dramatic, or walk slowly from point A to point B while we're forced to experience *every single footstep* in loving detail.  To a western audience member like me, it seems excessively padded.  Chris Warner talked about a similar problem with manga, in an article in Pulp (a magazine about manga and Japanese popular culture in general).  Warner called it "compression"--Japanese creators and audiences simply do not consider it a problem when it takes three pages just to show the sun rising.  For all the supposed hyper-accelerated speed that is the Japanese lifestyle, it sure takes a long time for their fiction to get to the point.

[Felicity]

Oh, PS--I saw two different versions of this.  The first was an untranslated Japanese version that was pirated for me by the local anime fan club back in the 1980s, when you couldn't rent or buy this stuff (so it was morally OK to pirate it!).  I didn't speak any Japanese at the time, but I got the gist of the story anyway.  A few years later I saw that it was playing at an actual movie theatre downtown and I dragged some friends to see it, telling them it was great.  This of course was the dubbed into English version, and my friends looked at me with such hurt and betrayal in their eyes afterwards...I was left wondering if I had somehow seen two completely different movies, written by two different writers, that just happened to have the same title and the same star character!

[Glommer]

Wow, getting stoned and watching this series is awesome.  I am disapointed that the live action version of this seris is so s**tty.  But the music is very cool (the ending in particular) and you cant go wrong with dude that cut fools with there fingers and other that can make people body parts explode.  I don't like anime, but i love fist of the north star.

[Bloodysin]

Hey, i wonder where kenshiro get the extra clothes after they're ripped off when he "powers up" for battle. I'm sure everybody asking the same question when they watch the movie.

[Derrick]

I loved watching Fist of the North Star on TV. I have seen all the episodes they showed on Showtime beyond and the Movie.
WHY DID THEY EVEN STOP SHOWING THEM?

Who win the battle between Ken vs. Raoh?

The Real movie with the real actors SUCKED!!! The ANIME is the best

[Yoshimitsu]

It is one of the best videos I have brought and it is a lengendary movie. It's cool to finaly find a web site on one of the most popular animes ever, I believe they should do more web sites on some of the more memorable anime's out ther. Nice site keep it up!

[Scott Newlan]

Hokuto No Ken has been my favourite anime\\manga of all time ever since I first came across it years ago. I have the entire series in manga and anime and the new OVA's entitled 'New Fist of the North Star' in its English release and I've got the anime movie.
Anyway, I'd like to raise a point which might be of some interest. Dim Mak, an ancient martial art which was erradicated because of its deadliness hundreds of years ago, is obviously what Kenshiro's martial art, Hokuto Shinken, is based around (although there's no exploding body parts in Dim Mak). Dim Mak was the opposite of Accupuncture - as accupuncture was used to heal the body, Dim Mak was used to destroy it using the exact same principles.
My point is, around the time of the late Bruce Lee's death there was much suspicion as to exactly what caused his unexpected demise. Doctor's said that it was because of a hyper sensitivity to the pill that his wife gave him to take care of his migrain, however some people like to believe that it was due to a grand master of Dim Mak, who Lee had been reported to have fought that day or the day before, who might have struck a pressure point on Lee's body that would cause this delayed death. Believe what you want, I think this is a much more valid version of the story.
Another thing of interest is another ancient martial art entitled 'Grandmaster Fist' or, as some people may know it,'Fist of the North Wind'. This art, along with Dim Mak, was abolished hundreds of years ago, however in an ancient Chinese myth, it was said that the grandmaster of Grandmaster Fist demonstrated to groups of people how his art worked. In one such demonstration, he was reported to have lightly slapped a horse on its side, and seconds later the horse dropped dead. When the people opened the horse up to see what had killed it (the horse had no external damage, of course), its internal organs in their intirity were turned to mush. He also did some demonstrations of lesser note, like lightly slapping the top of a pile of tiles and having all of the tiles smashing to pieces. Alot like Hokuto Shinken, this art could only have one successor, and it was practiced in utmost secrecy, and was usualy only passed down through family. The grandmaster of this style was said to be feared by all, as everyone was so afraid of even being touched once by him in fear for their lives.

Thanks, if you have a particular interest or any questions, please email me by all means.