Forum - View topicFist of the North Star
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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I have been reading on one title recently, and have to say that I can appreciate for what it has done to be one of the pioneers that has helped define our manga today. This series was running before I was even born, but I have had the wonderful opportunity to view it now and say that I am mesmerized by its content, and the story keeps me wanting to read more. One of the pioneers of shonen manga, Fist of the North Star, or Hokuto no Ken. In it I have been able to glance at superb fight scenes, an awesome storyline, and it has also shown some very bad ass characters with protagonists, antagonists, and clearly evil people. My favorite character has to be Raou, because spoiler[he clearly demonstrates the will of an honorable warrior, even though his cause and his own goals put many others at risk or leave them dead.] Truly a pinnacle of shonen manga.
Last edited by fighterholic on Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:38 am; edited 1 time in total |
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CliffSaos
 Posts: 15 |
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Oh yeah. Fist of the North Star make history. The title have your place in "Hall of Fame" of manga.
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Urd
 Posts: 317 Location: Paris, France |
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Hokuto no Ken is not what I call an old school manga but it's my favourite manga with Ashita no Joe and Devilman.
My favourite character is Kenshirou, many readers don't like him because he doesn't speak a lot, but I really feel his sadness all along the series. I love what he says when spoiler[he kills Shin], he can't hate his old best friend because spoiler[Shin] loved the woman he loved. He really could hate him because of what his friend did but he doesn't, that's what I love in Ken. Ken suffers a lot but doesn't say a word, he sees all his companions die and just accepts his fate as the successor of the Hokuto Shinken. My favourite battle is Rei vs Juda, Rei is so invincible in this battle, he doesn't have a day to live, he even survived some days longer thanks to his love, his final attack is so beautiful... he can't lose because he doesn't fear death. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Changed the thread title.
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jgreen
 Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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I really wish I had been reading manga when Raijin was releasing the giant Fist of the North Star master editions (they came out when I was in college and too broke to buy much of anything). I've been trying to hunt them down, but the going hasn't been easy. How many of those were released, anyway? I think I've got vol.s 1, 2, and 5....
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BrothersElric
 Posts: 1996 |
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Well being the shounen fan that I am, I've always not only felt obligated to read it at some point, but have wanted to anyways. Don't know much about it except for the fact that between it and Dragonball it was one of the pioneers of shounen anime, but the very little I know of the basic premise of the series definitely sounds like something I'd love to read. Problem is I can't find the dang thing anywhere!
 From what I've heard Viz did a crappy job of publishing it over here, and I can't read Japanese, so that doesn't help much either. But if I ever get the chance it's definitely very high on my must see list.
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Encyclopedia entry says that they have 9 releases, but I'll have to look into that. There could have been more, maybe not. |
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Shadowrun20XX
 Posts: 1937 Location: Vegas |
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Damn,you guys are just now getting into Hokuto no Ken?Excellent,enjoy.I did notice that scans are popping up.
Back in the 80's,I had a couple of Asian buddies in Vegas that would translate manga,go to the store,use the photocopier (because computers were crap back then)and make tons of money from young otakus.Fist of the NorthStar was one of these they would sell.Thouther (Sousar) is my favorite.When we would read about the pyramids of Egypt,I would imagine Thouther cruising around in his motor throne.Good times.I'm partial to Toki as well.Another reason I'm a big fan of HNK is because of MADMAX. Read it and enjoy. |
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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It wasn't that they did a crappy job of publishing it, it's that it didn't sell very well, so they only released 2 or 3 books' worth of stories. Then Gutsoon/Raijin took over the license, printed the gorgeous full-color over-sized "Master Editions," then they went bankrupt and no one else picked up the license.
Oh, no, I'm not just discovering it...the Fist movie is what got me into anime in the first place way back in 1995, and I have all the Viz editions. it's just that Viz didn't publish the whole thing, and the Raijin version came out when I was taking a break from buying manga, and now it's all out of print and hard to find. |
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headpower
Posts: 76 |
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i watched fist of north star when you guys were still in your moma womb.
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Kinda hard to believe, considering I was already 5 years old when the series debuted in Japan. Take that, bucko! |
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BrothersElric
Posts: 1996 |
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Ah, I think I get it. So the U.S. license version is incomplete then? I'd heard that it didn't have very much success in Japan and that they released less volumes over here than there, but I figured at the time it was all due to a hackjob or something. Guess I was wrong. 
Even still though, it's going to be next to impossible to get into it though.  I mean, if they didn't even complete the series over here and it's as out of print as it is, and I can't understand Japanese, then that's a true shame. I guess I could just settle for the anime, but I'm not sure how it is compared to the manga......
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TranceLimit174
 Posts: 963 |
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Fist of the North Star just reeks of awesome. To this day I think Kenshiro is one of the few if not only protagonists I can think of (at least in comics and animation) that shows no mercy to the villains (and rightfully so). I think the beauty of Fist is that it managed to craft some real bastards but in their final moments managed to humanize and make you sympathize with them on some level just like Ken (the exception being Jagi). Not only that but it managed to build upon characters even after their deaths to paint them in a whole new light. Makes you think twice about them when you see them in action the second time (particularly Shin). As far as I'm aware the main differences between the manga and anime are the anime's violence is toned down (naturally) and there's a hefty amount of filler (tons of flashbacks and flashback episodes). Also spoiler[Shin] is defeated much earlier in the manga as opposed to the anime. Other than that though the anime's probably your best bet on completing the story. Of course the golden question of the anime is how in the hell Kenshiro always manages to get his shirt back on.
I haven't heard of a release date yet but apparently Kaiyodo will be coming out with a Revoltech line specifically for Fist so that'll be something that's definitley worth snatching up. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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One thing I have to say about the series. It certainly brings out the violence more in the manga than in the anime, although I only saw a few episodes of the anime itself. Still, most definetly a pioneer in how shonen manga has come along.
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Oronae
Posts: 165 |
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Since this thread is here I'll ask a question for anyone who's finished the manga. I've just gotten to the beginning of the Asura arc and the backstory of spoiler[Kenshiroh Raoh and Toki originally being from Asura seems to contradict the earlier backstory given about Raoh and Toki earlier.] Do they ever resolve this contradiction or is it just a continuity error?
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