Hokuto no ken
Kenshiro versus Raoh
Hokuto no Ken(A.K.A. Fist of the Northstar) is a japanese anime and manga(comics) series that originally ran in the early to mid eighties. It was done by artist Tetsuo Hara and Scenario writer "Buronson".
It follows the story of Kenshiro, the "Fist of the Northstar", the inheritor of the deadliest martial art ever devised: Hokuto Shinken(Northern(Big) Dipper Godfist). Kenshiro fights in a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with gangs of marauding Bandits and other refugees of the former world.
He is followed by Bat and Lynn, two parentless children who he meets on his travels. Bat is an expert mechanic and thief while Lynn is a shy, quiet, gentle girl. Throughout the story other allies are introduced but these are the main cast. Among other notable characters in the series are Rei, a practitioner of the Nanto seiken school, Yuria, Kenshiro's fiancee, Toki, Kenshiro's gentle elder (adopted)brother, and Raoh(A.K.A Ken'ou(King of Fists)) another elder adopted brother.
Toki, then Raoh, then Kenshiro
From the above picture you can see the series borrows from a lot of sources. The authors kind of mixed 'Mad Max' and 'Enter the Dragon' in creating Hokuto no Ken. Toki seems to be a pumped up messiah. I think personally if Jesus was a body builder he'd look like Toki. And what could be a better idea than mixing 'Enter the Dragon' and 'Mad Max'? You've just created the single most bad-assed character of all time!
One thing I'm sure about. If Jesus knew Hokuto Shinken the bible sure would have ended aLOT differently!
Mad Max or Bruce Lee? You be the judge...
One thing I'd like to mention is why the manga is better than the anime. Firstly the anime barely has a story. I mean come on, I like exploding heads as much as the next guy but a little continuity wouldn't hurt.
Besides, the story is SO much better in the manga. It follows the story of Kenshiro's family (adopted and real) and introduces a wide range of characters. The only real problem is that almost everyone dies...oops. Spoiler!
One thing I hated about the anime was Julia. Firstly her name in the manga is Yuria, which doesn't exactly come out as Julia since the authors could easily put a 'JU' sound instead ot a 'YU' sound in japanese.
Also sometimes in the english version Julia's voice is so damn annoying that you wish someone would just explode her head already. But unfortunately this doesn't happen... Another point is why give her red hair? I'm not saying anything against red-heads but Yuria was really good looking in the manga! In the anime Julia looks kind of Bland if I may put it that way. Oh and another thing, what happened to Toki? He's the coolset of Kenshiro's brothers! I realize there were time constraints but come on, Jesus kicking the shit out of Mad Max rejects? It sounds like a good idea to me. I could rave about this for hours so I'll just say check out the site, take what you like, check out the links, and Enjoy yourself. And if you are here to sue me for using information or images in an unauthorized fashion then stick your thumbs into each temple between the ear and the eye and for 3 seconds feel how sinful you are. Because you're already dead. A-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!!!
Kenshiro as a boy, as an adult, Shuu, and Souther
Updates:
February 19, 2001. I've added an action figures section, tried to expand the synopsis of the first part of the story, and added more links. Also one of the visitors to this site was kind enough to provide me with some more pictures. He sent a lot and since I'm sort of restricted in the size of this site I'm posting only a limited number...at least for now. I'll try to put up the best and harder to find ones though. My thanks to Kracov for the new pictures!!! Also thanks for the feedback since the opening of this site on around December 20, 2000.
April 7, 2001. Well, this is the second update. And what have I done since the one you just read about? Not much... I just added a Fan Pics section. So I hope you will all get out your pencils, pens, and paintbrushes and send something for me to put up. I don't get much e-mail about this site so maybe I'll hear some more from the people who seem to be visiting. Which brings up another point; this site has surpassed the '1000 hits' mark. Yay! According to the entrance page the visitor to this site has about 21 minutes to live. That's pretty good I guess...I wonder what I should do to celebrate? Hmmm...maybe get the 'Free Talk' message board up...or maybe make a new page? Okay I'll shut up now...
October 12, 2002. It's amazing that this page even still exists, but since it does I thought I should do my best to breath new life into it. I've added some new pictures in the picture gallery and removed the free chat section, seeing as it wasn't working anyway. I don't plan to update too often, but I'll see how busy I am and hopefully visitors send feedback, new info, and new pictures.
November 25, 2003. Well it took over a year but I finally updated this
page. We're up to over 6000 hits, which is quite respectable for a page
about an 80's anime/manga. So I've added a few fan pics I was sent
recently, which is gre--at (Tony the tiger great). I've also added a cool
pic of Yuda/Rei/Ken in the pictures section which was
contributed by Bruno F. A big thanks to Kyle and Janet for being the first
Fan Art contributors. You guys rock the Casbah! I hope to add new
info soon but I still need to research for it but, without saying much, there
has been quite a bit going on in HnK in the last little while...
To complain about/praise this site contact penguinopolipitese@hotmail.com
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