kumanoken Review of New Fist of the North Star

New Fist of the North Star (2003–2004)

Kenshiro is back, so you'd better come correct!

[28 August 2003]

If you're reading this review you are probably a fan of Fist of the North Star. Having run for two TV series (totaling 148 episodes) in the 1980's, and three feature films (one animated, two live-action; trust me and skip the little-seen Taiwanese version) it has had a strong cult following for quite some time, and a resurgence was inevitable. Shin Hokuto No Ken Chapter 1: The Cursed Street is part one of a three-part direct to DVD series that continues the adventures of Kenshiro, successor to the super-humanly lethal martial art of Hokuto Shinken. He's still wandering the post-apocalyptic wastelands and handing out ass-whuppings to evildoers while helping the downtrodden. It's anyone's guess as to how soon this is going to become readily available in an American edition (although you can find it subtitled on the Web), so without further ado: SPOILER WARNING!!! Kenshiro comes across a group of villagers who are being wiped out by the requisite biker scum who populate the series. After swiftly dispatching the bad guys (in extra-gory fashion that -unlike the animated feature-is not blurred out), he takes the lone survivor to "Miracle Village" for treatment by a beautiful healer named Sara. She can heal even the most dire of wounds using a technique similar to the healing techniques of Kenshiro's discipline, and this leads to her kidnapping by the villains from "Lastland". The ruler of Lastland, Sanga, claims that a god lives there, and the god can create uncontaminated water with a mere gesture, so having a healer of Sara's ability only puts icing on the proverbial cake. Sadly, if you want any of the holy water, you have to willing to utterly subjugate yourself to a lifetime of slavery. Needless to say, Ken decides to rescue Sara and the alleged god (a kid who is more than he seems), and more ass-whuppin' ensues. TO BE CONTINUED. Overall, not a bad first installment, but one plot point depends on the viewer's familiarity with the original comic series since it deals with material not covered in any of the previous adaptations. This has to do with the son of Kenshiro's brother/arch-rival, a boy named Ruu. Long story short: the kid may some day grow up to be the new Hokuto Shinken successor. Other than a mention of this in flashback, Ruu is nowhere to be seen in this installment, but will hopefully pop up in the subsequent chapters. The animation is better than that of the TV series (but not the animated feature), and as previously stated it delivers the gory goods in the two fight scenes.