Hokuto No Ken!

Hokuto No Ken. Roughly translated, "The Book of the Dead"....oh wait, sorry. I mean The Fist of the North Star. Back in the early 90's this was 1 of maybe 3 anime on store/video store shelves. I remember going to Suncoast Motion Picture Company at the mall in high school and seeing less than 10 tapes for sale. It was usually Akira, Lensman and Fist of the North Star [FOTNS]. I have to say, the first time I saw FOTNS it blew my fucking mind. No pun intended. If you aren't familiar with it, it is an anime film based on the VERY popular Japanese Manga and television series of the same name. It follows Kenshiro the successor to a lethal fighting technique passed down for generations called Hokuto Shin Ken. Think of it as Greek Mythology meets Mad Max.

Here's a trailer:



The film blew me away with completely insane hyper-violence. Ken's special move was hitting a particular pressure point on his opponent that usually resulted in a delayed reaction of their HEAD EXPLODING. The original 1986 film is completely balls-out ultra-violent and awesome.

Recently, to celebrate FOTNS's anniversary in Japan a 3 part OVA was produced called "New Fist of the North Star" as well as 5 other OVA's released in both the theater and on DVD in Japan. The 5 new films are side stories dedicated to a handful of characters in the FOTNS universe. There is also a 13 episode Raoh themed series that is also on DVD now [Ten No Haoh]. The films can be found pretty easily on ebay. [if you don't mind a questionable Chinese produced version] Or, if you would like to waste as much time as humanly possible at work I will add youtube links to all of them at the end of this post.

Anyway, I just finished watching all the new films as well as the Ten No Haoh series [which was AWESOME] and I can't recommend them enough if you were a fan of FOTNS. I never understood how this series wasn't more popular in the states. I doubt you will ever see these films officially released here. So...go watch 'em on youtube.

Legend of Raoh: Chapter of Death in Love (ラオウ伝 殉愛の章 ,Raō Den Jun'ai no Shō)

Legend of Yuria (ユリア伝 ,Yuria Den)

Legend of Raoh: Chapter of Fierce Fight (ラオウ伝 激闘の章 ,Raō Den Gekitō no Shō)

Legend of Toki (トキ伝 ,Toki Den)

Legend of Kenshiro (北斗の拳 ZERO ケンシロウ伝 ,Hokuto no Ken Zero - Kenshirō Den)

God bless the fansubber nerds out there.