Fist of the North Star Poster

Fist of the North Star (1986)

Animation | Drama 
Rayting:   7.3/10 6.3K votes
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Release date: 8 March 1986

A practitioner of the deadly martial art "Hokuto Shinken" allies with two children and an expert in "Nanto Suicho Ken" to fight against the rivals who kidnapped his lover and threaten the prosperity of mankind.

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drqshadow-reviews 28 February 2012

When a nuclear winter descends on the entire planet, the last survivors of humanity forage the globe in search of food, fuel and fisticuffs, not necessarily in that order. In fact, any yearning for the first two items on the list only seems to exist so these last men standing have a reason to throw down. With a grand total of three body types in play (child, inconceivably muscular and, in just one instance, morbidly obese) there's clearly a distinct appearance that's best suited for surviving an apocalypse, and on the surface it would appear that we're walking into a series of evenly-matched competitions. But that's when the Dragon Ball Z-styled aural superpowers kick in, and the mass of limbs begin their lazy, bloody, individual arcs through the sky. There's very little substance to this story - really, it's just a nonstop barrage of enemies against differing backdrops a'la the fighting games of the mid '90s - so it's good news that the battles are at least viscerally entertaining. Gorier than Mortal Kombat with the blood set to high, it's amusing at best if not terribly consequential.

xamtaro 16 December 2009

Fmovies: "Muscle Bound Maniacs duking it out in a Post Apocalyptic wasteland" sort of sums up this classic anime movie nicely. Like many of the main adult male characters, this movie is all rippling sinews and blood soaked brawn with little to no "brain". Quite possibly this was one of those anime that, for a while, made "anime" synonymous with bloody mindless violence.

Set in a post apocalyptic wasteland on earth where powerful tribes of fighters vie for supremacy at the expense of the dying human populace, "Fist of the North Star" Kenshiro(or Ken for short) is defeated in battle by his old friend Shin who then claims Ken's girlfriend Julia as his prize. With Ken out of the way, his brother Raoh stakes his claim as the new "Fist of the North Star" and proceeds to amass a legion to conquer the world. Surprisingly Ken survives and after years of wandering aimlessly, decides to embark on his quest to rescue Julia and get revenge on those who betrayed him. Along the way he meets other fighters, some out for justice, others for their own selfish ends. He also encounters Bat and Linn, two children whom he rescues from a gang of thugs.

The story a lot better than what it is presented in the movie. There are just too many characters and subplots flying around. Events literally jump from one point to the next. One moment, the story is revolving around Ken, the next Ken is totally out of the picture and we are treated to a "side quest" of a character named Rei trying to rescue his sister from Jagi who was impersonating Kenshiro at the time. And then, we come back to Ken but he has apparently traveled halfway across the world in a few minutes to some other village.

If anything, Hotuko no Ken's lame excuse for a plot serves merely as a glue to tie one fight scene to another. Sure the fights are visceral and extremely violent; heads are imploded, guts are spilled, limbs are flayed and blood spurts in fountains. But none of the fights actually have any sense of danger or peril for the main characters. Kenshiro comes across as this uber powerful fighter with "god-mode" turned on, being able to cause anyone to explode in a shower of blood and limbs with a punch or two. Other than that, he is as likable as rock with all the personality and charisma of a horse.

Halfway through the movie, the characters become even more bizarre and the violence gets so over-the-top that it actually looks funny. The blatant ham fisted acting does not help matters at all. It just makes an already absurd film sound even more absurd.

Beautiful animation and highly detailed art is not enough to save Hotuko no Ken from its bizarre nature. Its lead characters are boring, plot is unnecessarily convoluted, dialog is cheesy and its violence is excessive. There was a poor attempt at a love triangle story that was marred by terrible execution. All in all, this movie scores for its animation and attention to detail. Its portrayal of a world gone to hell is hauntingly effective too and one of the more original settings of a post apocalyptic earth. However Beyond those few points of praise, Hotuko no Ken's lack of depth in the elements that do matter is its main downfall.

kahrhoshe 17 August 2005

They just don't make anime like this anymore. Its got major action,a love story, and comedy rolled into 1. Not just any action, slam bang, in your face, oh my god, i love this sruff kind of action. 2 movies that will never have equals this and Ninja Scroll, the original. I highly recommend you watch this movie if you've never seen it. I have a copy in Japanese and cant understand a word of it but i love it just the same and cant watch it enough. Sometimes words alone cannot describe the feel or tone of a movie. Sometimes you just have to see it from your own perspective. Another good thing about this movie is there is no real objectionable content like Ninja scroll. YOu can watch it with your kids and not have to hide your head.

chribren 5 September 2013

Fist of the North Star fmovies. "Fist of the North Star" is a violent Action-Anime from 1986, directed by Toyoo Ashida who also made "Vampire Hunter D". The film generally is a remake of the TV-series bearing the same title.

Basic plot: Basically the same as the TV-series. In 199X a nuclear holocaust wipes out nearly all of the Earth's humanity. Now there are no sights of any living plants. With almost no food and water to to be found, several people are even forced to fight and kill each other in order to survive.

The film's martial art-hero Kenshiro gets attacked by his former friend Shin, and witness his fiancée Yuria get kidnapped. Skipping a year forward, Kenshiro is wandering in the desert and rescues two car-driving children from some bandits, and allies himself with Rei, an another martial artist. Will Kenshiro get to save humanity from the stronger villains, and eventually save Yuria from Shin?

This is just a great anime I just want to recommend to anime fans. Great 80s animation. Lots of extreme violence throughout the movie as people are getting killed by merciless thugs, heads and bodies are exploding, blood splatters everywhere. Despite some of the scenes being blurred, you can see what is going on. Definitely not for children.

Basically, this film is a remake of the popular TV-series which began airing on Japanese TV year 1984. This film is also featured in the Malay DVD box I got on Christmas 2013 as bought on eBay, as presented in the Japanese version together with the full TV-series and five other movies.

Long live the 80s- and 90s ultra-violent anime from Japan! Too bad Japan almost don't make anime like this anymore. Several other violent/gory anime movies/OVAs to be mentioned include "Akira", "Genocyber", "The Professional: Golgo 13", "Urotsukidoji", "Wild 7: Biker Knights" and the three "Violence Jack" OVAs.

My overall rating: Full 10/10

This review has been updated: 09.02.14

killbison 31 May 2005

Hmmmm Fist of the North Star is a tough one. I love the film, because it is essentially an amalgam of popular action films. Ken is essentially a suped up Mad Max/Bruce Lee character, in a Mad Max environment, with the ability to explode heads like a Scanner. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as seeing a Japanese take on films that are essentially foreign makes for an interesting experience. Contrary to popular belief, there is a plot, albeit a fairly straightforward one, but I think that it was definitely sidelined in favour of the graphic violence. This violence is usually the biggest problem for non-fans, as they can't see the humour behind it. The main purpose of Fist of the North Star, in my opinion, is to question the nature of violence on television, as when seen in animation, the most horrific scenes of gore can appear quite funny. Otherwise it's good fun, and Kenshiro is one of the all time Anime greats, a rebel in a world gone wrong. I love Fist of the North star, but it definitely needs to be seen with a pinch of salt.

bob the moo 13 August 2009

Mankind has finally destroyed itself and those that have survived find themselves on a barren, dead planet. All men are afraid and this leads to tribalism where strength and power over others is all, leading in turn to cruelty and violence. With this as a backdrop, powerful Fist of the North Star Kenshirô, is left for dead when his equally powerful friend Shin defeats him and takes his lover Julia for himself. Kenshirô somehow survives this and returns to seek justice, aided by fighter Rei, whose sister has been kidnapped by Kenshirô's brother Jagi (who was the one who poisoned Shin against Kenshirô in the first place). Meanwhile Raoh's rebuffed claim to be the rightful Fist has left him bitter and hungry for power with his army and individual powers seeing him grow in strength and power, creating a world of repression that is at odds with the hope manifested in two young children who find themselves under the care of Kenshirô and Rei.

Somehow or other I managed to watch and comment on the live action remark of his famous film/series. That version was pretty poor so I decided to go back to the source material and see how that comes across. Everything opens well, with a visual depiction of a nuclear holocaust that has a real sense of scale and suffering about it and I hoped that it would use this backdrop well. Sadly it doesn't really manage it and, while there are plenty of things to appreciate about the film, it never manages to get away from a key problem – one that you may already have a feel for from my plot summary.

The genre and the approach of the film suggests that a tight plot with a simple narrative would suit it best. However what we get are lots of characters moving around, causing the film to feel a little slow and complicated. It is not that it is hard to follow per se, just that there seems to be a lot of plot and characters for a film that does so little with all of them other than use them to create a convoluted narrative. It is messy and it doesn't bring much to the film than an impression of clutter and mess that it could easily have done without. Those kids and their entire "subplot" could have been cut from the get-go; although calling their material a "sub-plot" suggests that it is a plot worth following which, other than their roles early on as trigger for one character's return, they do not work in any way of interest.

What it does do well though is create some stylishly cool violence and gore. It won't be to everyone's taste but certainly fans of the genre will love it. Technologically the animation has been superseded so will look a little dated but this is not to say that it is "bad" or even "of its time" because certainly does not feel like something that is over 20 years old. The violence is cool even if it is a little silly as well – but this comes with the territory. I loved the scenes of the aftermath of destruction though, these were mostly creative and impressive in their scale. The voice work was also surprisingly solid – often English dubs are awful but, with the exceptions of Julia and the kids, everyone was pretty good.

Overall though this is a solid piece of anime but not the classic that many claim it to be (a look at the 10* reviews here will show you what I mean). The imagination behind it and the delivery of gore is impressive but it is undermined by the passage of time making it less impressive to modern eyes but also the problem of such an unnecessarily cluttered plot that lead

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