User Reviews

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.

Here's a Japanese, Anime, feature film from 1986 that gleefully boasts (with a poker-face) that it's "The Most Violent, Action-Packed, Animated Film Of All Time".

Now, that's certainly quite a bold claim for any action-movie to have to live up to. But, surprisingly enough, Fist Of The North Star (FOTNS, for short) triumphantly delivered the goods on that "Most Violent" claim in aces.

And, it's like this - If you don't take FOTNS's story at all seriously, and don't expect riveting dialogue, and can accept its "old school" animation, then, believe me, this film's super-gory, over-the-top violence will surely please.

With its story being something along the lines of a testosterone-charged "Mad Max" tale, FOTNS is violence & destruction for its own sake. Here big, ugly, overly-muscular dudes with bad teeth, bad hair, and bad attitude defiantly challenge each other to one blood-splattered, head-exploding brawl after another.

FOTNS is certainly not going to satisfy everyone, but, hey, regardless of that fact, I still enjoyed it enough to give it a 6-star rating. (Although the unwelcome "cute-little-kids" angle that was introduced into the story did tend to grate on my nerves)

This is the most brainless anime I've seen this side of Urotsukidoji:Legend of The Overfiend. Skulls and brain fly as Kenshiro thwacks his way through a Mad Max-esque world, looking for his beloved wife/bird. Considering 90% of the male populace all wish they could do kung-fu, it's hard to see how they could not like this film. Stupidly proportioned bad guys pop as Ken kicks, punches and jabs them all into oblivion. It's a little disturbing to be honest, and perhaps pessimistic of human nature. But I don't care. Ken makes the finest combat noise in the world (Yeeeeyadadadada!) and everyone else sports amusingly gruff "thug" voices. The artwork is rough around the edges, but at least it's not as bad as the T.V series. A bit of a Japanese institution, I'm lead to believe, Fist Of The North Star is top-drawer stuff, and can easily sit next to all those copies of "Enter the Dragon" and "Monkey".

First of all I have to admit I'm a fan of 'Fist of the North Star', what can I say, maybe this movie is not the ultimate in classic, dramatic anime.. but come on, we all need to unwind sometimes.

Those people who often dub this movie as total garbage should realise that Streamline Pictures totally edited most.. ( To be fair, about 80% ) .. of the dialogue and story. This was common back in the day that anime was first coming around over in the West, as Streamline obviously thought.. "Wow, this is too complex for idiots. We should make the dialogue totally different and cliché, and market this as a big violent massacre!" .. which in some situations, you get the picture of this. Streamline Pictures have a reputation of this to be honest.

'Fist of the North Star' or 'Hokuto no Ken' was originally a manga/anime series, it basically chronicled the journey of Kenshiro, or Ken, deep into the dead, barren wastelands of the bleak future, the year 200X in which the world has been devastated by Nuclear War and the world has finally given into pure corruption. The strongest take control, and the weak are picked off like animals, if you didn't actually know, 'Fist of the North Star' was inspired by 'Mad Max' more specifically 'The Road Warrior/Mad Max 2'.

Of course, 'FOTNS' only uses minor elements from the classic movie, the difference between Max and Kenshiro is that Kenshiro is virtually indestructible. He is the practitioner of a sacred Martial Art known as Hokuto Shinken, the fighting skill uses pressure points of the human body, striking these points in a certain method has different effects. Strike a certain combination, you can cure disease or blindness, strike another series however, you can tear a human body apart.

One of the most well-known moves of the Martial Art is Kenshiro's 'One Hundred Crack Fist', in which he performs a combination of lighting fast punches whilst yelling the famous scream inspired by Bruce Lee.. 'A-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!' To which the victim explodes within seconds. Truly impressive!

This movie is a bad condensation of the entire first series of the anime, it leaves out a lot of the more major characters such as Toki ( Ken's -other- brother who is infused with nuclear radiation. )and Mamiya. For instance, in this movie, and the anime, Shin is established as the major villain, however, Shin is the first real main character to die in the manga. ( He is killed by Kenshiro in the first volume. )

The running order of the plot dramatically changes, Ken fights Jagi -before- Shin, and Raoh is still alive after the final battle, at the end of the movie. While I understand that the whole world of 'FOTNS' could not be put into a movie, this was a little odd. It seemed like a rushed version of the story, which shows at certain points.

The animation was rather good, but the age of the piece does show, the animation is eighties style anime, rather similar to the classic anime movie 'Vampire Hunter D'. However, the art was rather nice, brilliant for the time it was made and the effort put into it all shows off well.

Very graphic violence, and bloody, unrelenting animation. This movie has exploding heads, and bodies ripping apart, this is -NOT- a movie for children. Ironic because the Japanese used to publish 'FOTNS' in Shonen Jump Magazine, a manga comic that a lot of young people have grown up with in Japan. People who hate the sight of blood will probably find themselves physically throwing up.

I've not managed to catch the Japanese version yet, but I had the bad luck of the Streamline Dub. As I mentioned, the entire story and dialogue were changed to make it more appealing to Western audiences.. for instance, the scene in which Rei attacks Jagi's men in the small town and drives a saw into someone's skull..

Rei: 'Silly me, what a foolish mistake..'

Random Thug: 'I've got a splittin' head-ache!'

-Rei drives it further into his skull, killing him.-

Random Thug: 'Uwahhhh ~!'

Rei: 'Better, now?'

What can I say other than stupid? Cliché, stupid dialogue that would not look out of place coming from a lame action movie. Which is basically what Streamline Pictures turned this classic movie into. I liked certain voices, to say the least, Ken, Shin, Rei, Raoh, and the maniacal Jagi were done rather well. Also the Leader of the Fang Clan, dubbed by none other than James Avery! Best known for his voice of Shredder from the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' cartoons, and Phillip Banks from 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air'.

Glad to see that the familiar, famous catchphrase of 'You're already dead!' remained in this movie. Another classic one-liner involves the huge, obese fat warrior known as Heart exploding into a lot of human matter to the tune of Kenshiro's.. 'Say your prayers, Lard-Ass!'

Heart has a lot of guts.. literally.

Worthy of a night in, or a gathering with some friends, you could also make the Streamline dub into a drinking game, taking a slug each time you laugh at the nonsensical, cheesy dialogue!

At the end of it all I would recommend this movie to people who aren't too serious about what they watch, fans of violent anime, and to a lesser extent, fans of martial arts movies. This is not to be taken seriously, although I might add that it is rather well respected in Japan, and still remains to this day. ( There is a series set during World War II known as 'Fist of the Blue Sky', or 'Southen no Ken', and I hear that a new anime series is also in production. )

Hollywood should snap this thing up and make it into a live-action movie, when I say live-action, I mean better and higher budget than the piece of crud 'Fist of the North Star' movie, starring Gary Daniels.

A classic anime that could've been a -lot- better.

I've just got through watching the first 36 episodes of the TV series of Fist Of The North Star on DVD and until a couple of days ago i thought the TV series came after the movie. The movie comes after the TV series. I have to admit that even though the series has more info and detail about the fighting styles etc i think that the movie is slightly better. It has better animation, better voice acting (in English) and is less repetitive. I watched the movie just over ten years ago and was quite literally blown away by it. It has action, adventure, comedy, gore, thrills, spills and for those people disgusted by the sex scenes in Urotsukidoji you'll be happy to know that FOTNS is sex free.

FOTNS is obviously to some extent based on Mad Max but a heck of a lot better. Only thing that bugs me (just like the series) is that the gore scenes are usually blurred or we see peoples shadows exploding. Kind of annoying. Also there seems that there are a few gaps in it which makes me wonder if there has been a scene or two edited out or cut down (atleast in the UK version).

I'll quickly give a brief summary of the story. It's about a guy called Ken who must get his girlfriend back from his former best friend Shin who beat up Ken, kidnapped his girlfriend and left him for dead. Ken walks through the barren wasteland (it's set after a nuclear war) and kills bad guys with his style of fighting. If he punches anybody they explode shortly after. In the meantime his eldest brother Raoh has amassed an army and is trying to conquer the world. There are also a couple of sub plots. One has this guy called Rei (or Ray?) looking for his sister and is also looking for the guy responsible for kidnapping her.

All this leads to an explosive finale. Fist Of The North Star along with Urotsukidoji is my favourite Japanese anime movie of all time. A definite must see but avoid the American live action film. That sucked the big one for sure. This great anime gets a perfect 10/10 from me.

Not much plot, not much character development, but much fighting and gore. Having these "Fists" guys with ridiculous powers and fighting styles is fun to watch. My favorites scenes include the first re-appearance of the bearded hero when the huge building falls on his head. The final fight scene with the ground rising in the air is a classic. And how about the great scenes with the evil brother ? Fun stuff !

As a fan of Manga films i have seen a fair few and if i was to have a top 10, Fist of the North Star would come a close second. It is not Uncommon for the Manga industry to make ultra violent films. In fact, most Manga films will have a dark theme or two somewhere in it. I find that there is a certain proportion of Manga that is gory, sadistic or just plain wrong for the sake of it. Eg, Urotsokodoji 1, 2 & 3. Fist of the north star could easily have become one of these had it not been executed with such style and class. This is definitely a defining moment for the anime generation. If you like that style and haven't seen this film yet then you need to stop what you are doing, get some cash and buy it right now.

A Billion out of ten

Fun big-screen adaptation of the classic manga and anime series. Much more graphic violence than the TV series could get away with. Most of the popular characters are there with the notable exceptions of Toki and Mamiya. However, Streamline Pictures' dub destroyed any remnants of story in this movie. It makes no sense at all; it never even bothers to explain what the Hokuto Shin Ken style is all about. Even if you don't speak Japanese, rent that version instead. It will still make more sense than Macek's dub.

Watching Fist of the North Star proves to be an anime experience like no other. Surprising, as it may seem, the perspicuous rough-and-tumble attitude made this film an instant classic in its genre. Being mostly an expressive testosterone-infused bloodbath, Fist of the North Star presents its own thought-provoking nature with utterly graphic scenes of animated violence. And still, it's able to draw one's attention with the engaging and fast-paced storyline about a post-apocalyptic universe, where people have given up their faith in humanity and exterminate each other in a grizzly fashion. Note: this is a review of the version released in the United States, with English dubbing, and with the original ending from the first official release.

After the opening credits fade away the movie attacks with a heavy thump. Literally in the blink of an eye, even before we get acquainted with the main characters, bones start to crack and blood starts to spill all over the screen. As it's soon revealed, those two men fighting in the middle of a vast dessert are former friends, who are now deadly enemies both seriously in love with one beautiful girl. The only problem is that Julia (voiced by Melodee Spivack) is engaged to Ken (John Vickery), who, after this short combat, is very close to death. In order to save her fiancé she agrees to go with the evil Shin (Michael McConnohie), leaving semiconscious Ken in the lurch. And if this wasn't enough, a few minutes later two mysterious strangers grab his lifeless body and throw it into a deep hole. A year passes and all the previous events gradually begin to connect, just to unravel the actual meaning behind the whole blood-soaked intrigue. While saving two youngsters from the vicious hands of slow-witted bullies Ken shows his – this time bearded – face once again. Chock-full of revenge thoughts, he embarks on a dangerous journey not only to save his woman, but also to discover the sense of his existence in this chaotic, stolid world full of thugs. Paradoxically, apart from Shin, the people who stand on his way to happiness are his two brothers Jagi (Dan Woren) and Raoh (Wally Burr). Following various traces Ken slowly claims his vengeance through the indelicate art of kick-and-punch, which – for the viewers' sick amusement – always results in spectacular head explosions.

Those people who've read the manga or watched the anime series of the same name won't be surprised by anything that happens throughout the whole film. The only shock might come from the extensive brutality that beams from the screen. As for those who don't know the story – at first, it might be hard to follow the events without being a little confused. Fortunately, due to the film's well-balanced plot everything begins to make sense after a short period of time, giving the viewer a great amount of proper fun.

The picture's rather simple, even obscure, animation leaves a lot to be desired. In comparison with the TV series, the theatrical version doesn't really upgrade the raw visual style. Also, when it comes to character development the movie fails miserably. Every individual is mindlessly implanted into the storyline, leading to a contest of poor one-dimensional encounters. What's more, the cheesy English dubbing gives the characters a nerve-racking attitude, only worsening the final effect. That's why it's better to restrain from evaluating their personalities and focus on many thrilling, gore-ific action sequences instead. Surely, this aspect of Fist of the North Star won't disappoint anyone.

I love violence on screen. This movie satisfied that to the extreme. This is the most violent movie possibly EVER released. A lot of people hate this film because it is a blood fest with "no point", but you have to understand, the point of the movie is to MAKE FUN of the whole thing. Now, I'm also a big fan of comedy, and this movie satisfied the comedy WITH the violence! It's genius, because so few people see this. Add to that, an intricate story line that follows through and makes sense. The movie is all about going from big, powerful guys and gruesome death scenes to more and more and more gruesome death scenes and more powerful guys. The writing is excellent (and funny!). Like I said about comedy, the death scenes are made to make you laugh, the writing and speech are designed almost so that you can predict what's going to happen before it does! Then the speech becomes like a punch line. e.g. "A fight to the death, then!" "You're already dead." and "Hey. These belong to you?" You have to watch this movie to know what I mean, of course. Heh heh. the music is good, and the English dubbing is awesome. The voices are perfect. The drawing style is great, too. The huge muscles small heads approach (trust me, it is VERY realistic) is hilarious, yet cool looking. Rent it at Blockbuster video under the animation section or action / kung fu. One gripe: the ending (the last like 2 minutes) sucks. Corny love / regrowth stereotype there.

I have to add, the funniest moment in any movie EVER in the world is in this movie. It is the scene where Shin kills his own trusted commander. PLEASE watch this movie so you can agree with me. The punch line effect of the writing and the animation is so subtle, so superb. I was laughing for hours (slight exaggeration. Slight.) The only thing wrong with this movie is that it is under infinity hours long.

Adapting first part of fist of the north star is a difficult task because most of the time it follows this pattern - kenshiro arrives at settlement, raiders arrive at settlement, raiders pillage the settlement, kenshiro blows them up without so much as breaking a sweat, rinse and repeat until kenshiro confronts shin, it's almost like trying to adapt a video game. So how about we add part two to the mix ? But this creates another problem because part two is opposite and has a lot more going on - finding rei's sister, defeating jagi, finding toki (which got cut), "defeating" raoh and helping with rei's bucket list (which also got cut). This results in scenes being heavily rushed because they were plots of entire episodes like for example fight with shin or scenes being spliced with other ones which is much better and more interesting alternative. Very important locations, plot points and characters got cut like aforementioned toki which is much more important character than jagi (which weirdly enough got his confrontation before shin in this version) or the whole town of medicine city. Honestly this movie, while still somewhat good, is too abridged, it should have been only the first season and jagi storyline and maybe even then it might be too much.

"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.

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 leads to some overly-sentimental nonsense as the conclusion. Worth a look for genre fans but casual viewers will not see the film that the fans are seeing.

I'm not sure whether it was the dubbed voices(including James Avery who did the voice for Shredder in Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles) or the ridiculously extreme violence but i laughed non stop throughout this film. Avoid like the plague if you're looking for a well animated, highly funded, quality anime but otherwise this is for you.

In the post-apocalyptic future, the Earth went through a nuclear holocaust that devastated nearly all the cities and towns in the world and a few people want to bring it back to life and some mutants that oppose against them, A warrior named Kenshiro has been murdered by his former friend Shin who has stolen his girlfriend Julia but brought back to life as Ken possesses special martial arts powers to make enemies explode. He seeks revenge on Shin especially his two brothers Jagi and Raoh to make them pay and get Julia back so he can help heal the world.

Bone-crunching and ultra-violent Sci-fi action martial arts epic from Toyoo Ashida ("Vampire Hunter D") is a big assault on the senses in stylish animation. There is a ton of extreme violence throughout the movie like exploding heads, people shredded apart and that kind of thing. This isn't for the weak stomached or for kids, it's a battering ram of a movie that hits you to the core and is one anime's best movies.

Listen for James Avery (The guy from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Shredder from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles") as the voice of barbarian Fang Also recommended: "Ninja Scroll", "Wizards", "Akira", "Ghost in The Shell 1 & 2", "The Professional: Golgo 13", "Mad Max Trilogy", "Day of the Dead", "Total Recall", "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky", "Starship Troopers", "300", "Braveheart", "The Toxic Avenger", "Battle Royale", "Street Trash", "Escape 2000", "Terminator Trilogy", "Robocop", "Fire & Ice", "Rock & Rule", "Heavy Metal", "Dead Alive (a.k.a. Braindead)", "From Dusk Till Dawn", "The Running Man", "Rats: The Night of Terror", "1990: The Bronx Warriors", "2019: After the Fall of New York", "Ichi The Killer", "Versus", "Rock & Rule", "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend", "Vampire Hunter D", "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust", "Commando", "Saving Private Ryan", "Doom", "Barefoot Gen", "Kill Bill Vol. 1", "Grindhouse", "Sin City".

After the world has been turned into a nuclear holocaust, it's now a place with a global population that's now minimal, the land is nothing but a desert filled with destroyed cities, battling empires, biker gangs and mutants with super-powers. Anyway, during the nuclear holocaust, a fighter named Ken, who has super-human strength, must rescue his kidnapped girlfriend and make peace in the war ravaged world.

The dialogue and some of the voice acting was cheesy and the songs in the film weren't very good but one of the songs used in the film named 'Heart of Madness', was awesome (even though it was really tacky) and I thought it should've been used as the film's opening and ending credits song, instead of just using it in this one fight scene, and that way it would've got rid of the not-so-good credits music. By the way, did I forget to add that the ending was a let-down?

Other than that, the animation was quite well-drawn (but it is dated) and the bright colours that were used stood-out perfectly (at least most of the time) and the fight scenes always had plenty of gore and kicked ass.

Overall, this film is worth looking at and it is an anime classic, but don't expect it to be one of the best animes of-all-time.

Oh my goodness! It is ridiculous to see so many bad review from people who CLEARLY haven't seen the movie all thr way through, or are confusing the 1986 movie for a newer version. Either this is my all time favorite movie, I made an mind account just to write this review.

This movie can be a little gory at timea but its to prove many valuable points. This movie tells of a long story of yin and yang and the struggle for meaning, balance, and purpose. If you wrote a bad review for this movie put your big boy pants on and watch it all the way until the end. And you'll see a touching story of hope, peace, understanding that will bring a grown man tears.

I was recommended to rent this movie by a friend. I have seen some good anime recently and I usually look for art and animation direction and of course plot. Art and animation have this movie down solid, plot on the other hand is nothing more than boy loves girl, boy loses girl, boy fights bad guys to girl, boy saves day. Nothing gets complex like in Ghost in the Shell or Wind Named Amnesia. Oh yeah, did I mention everyone's head explodes in this movie. Ususally it only takes one punch and BOOM...no more head...and I guess that would mean lots of blood right? yes, I have never seen that much blood...ever! It is very bloody. It is a good anime if you want your mind to just relax. The ending has some beautiful art work. I gave it 8 stars merely because the animation and art were great...if it lacked these (e.g. Speed Racer) then it would have sucked royally.

It begins with a philosophical wiev on Ying and Yang. Two powers that are the basis of conflicts, metaphysics and all basis that are in existence of the favor of the other. Told by the wise man who have trained hes powerful sons who will step up to guidance in this new world. After a Nuclear War (the images is by the most disturbing in a animated feature ever produced) hes thoughts are questioned and chaos will prevail. Ken wants to settle down with hes wife. Unknowing that he will be forced to be on hes quest as a savior in this new world order. Where it is back to Nature-standards, where us, the now weak species are brutalized by the Nuclear waste formed big Mutants. Its extremest to extremely violent but in the same time assured as nothing you ever seen before. The dark humor is groundbreaking and shamefully entertainment. The story is told through all the point-characters with a important background for each. The opening is a beautiful contrast to all the horrible cruelty, tough-notch punishment and harrowing images done in the purest perfection. The masters voice of wisdom in the beginning can be heard later on as a voice blowing in the sky to a feeling of religious proportions. The movie in all its bloodshed reminds us in a pure way that there is always hope.

This has ridiculous character designs that seem to change size and shape shot to shot and a totally ludicrous story of nonsense BUT it's still great. Loads of over the top gore and a weird Mad Max style makes this a fun, if corny watch.

Fist of the North Star (1986) is a movie in my DVD collection that I recently rewatched on Tubi. The storyline follows planet Earth after a nuclear holocaust where a group has decided to to ruthlessly rule and take what and whom they want. A hero who knows these rulers well has emerged and looks to save his friends and gain revenge for what they've done...

This movie is directed by Toyoo Ashida (Vampire Hunter D) and contains the voices of Akira Kamiya (Pom Poko), Yuriko Yamamoto (Dragon Ball), Kenji Utsumi (Dragon Ball Z), Chikao Ôtsuka (Lupin the 3rd) and Kaneto Shiozawa (Metal Gear Solid).

Fist of the North Star is an all time great anime masterpiece. The storyline for this gem is not unique but it is executed uniquely with over the top violence, blood, guts and gore. Every scene oozes intensity. The dialogue is just okay but the circumstances are fun and entertaining. The fight scenes are awesome and the animation is really good for the 80s.

Overall this is a masterpiece, absolutely must see for anime genre fans. I would score this a 10/10 and strongly recommend it.

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.

This movie rocks. I have seen a fair share of anime, but I'm not as hard core as some of the purists who don't like this movie. Regardless, this is the best anime film I've seen. The animated action is tremendous. I did see the dubbed version, and I'm sure it is better with subtitles. Nevertheless, there are some classic lines in this movie that had me rolling.

"Death is something to be savored like fine wine... but if you are so impatient I must kill you now, so be it" excuse the inexact quotation;

This movie is all about bad ass fighters. You see one character and you think, wow that dude can kick some ass... he is bad ass. Then a new character comes along... no wait a minute THIS guy is bad ass... then another character... my mistake, THIS guy is bad ass. The heirarchy of power in this movie seems to have no limit. I think this film is much more artistic and creative than much of the pure porno anime that makes up the genre. If I want to watch porn I prefer real life to animation. This movie explores the full potential of drawings in motion.

"You are already dead!"