i-Rix ANIME Review: Fist of the North Star (Episodes 1-22)

This review was posted ages ago on AnimeVice.com (HERE). If you've read that by now, chances are you are already dead...

I am, as one might say, a newcomer to this wild world of anime. A novice. A dumbass, if you will. However, I am more and more dipping my toes into the tumultuous waters and liking what I've found. By far, my most favorite series thus far is the 1980s classic Hokuto No Ken, or Fist of the North Star as its known here in Amurricuh (but of course you knew that). I've resolved to finish the entire series, which is sure to be a hefty challenge as not only are the main series and its follow-up incredibly long, but there are a number of movies and spin-offs out there as well.

So I've decided, as something of a marker of progress, to review the individual "sagas" or segments of this thing as I go along. It has been quite a while since I actually finished Part I, or what I'll refer to as the "Shin saga", but now I feel genuinely ready to comment on it. So, without further ado, here are my personal (and relatively uninformed) thoughts on Fist of the North Star episodes 1-22.

I'll Take Back My Love

For those unfamiliar (which I'm doubting you personally aren't), Fist of the North Star is the story of a post-apocalyptic present where, you guessed it, the Cold War actually did erupt into nuclear warfare which engulfed the world and left mankind on the brink of destruction. Resilient beings we are, however, mankind survives and attempts to retain some form of order in this chaotic and deserted landscape. Unfortunately, the strong, ruthless, and manipulative reign supreme while the just and gentle left to be ground underneath their studded boot-heels. It's a grim future, to be sure, but there is hope. A man named Kenshiro appears in the wastelands on a quest for revenge armed with the deadly assassination techniques of "hokuto shinken"

And Ken doesn't take too kindly to injustice. It also doesn't hurt that Ken's nemesis is the current big cheese of this hellish landscape, Shin, who was a fellow student and close friend of Kenshiro's until his obsession with Kenshiro's girlfriend, Yuria, drove him insane. Now, with the aid of two small children, Bat and Lin, Kenshiro takes off towards Shin's palace in the oasis of Southern Cross, righting wrongs on his way to reclaim his lost love and punish the man who took her.

From the instant this series starts, with its awesome theme song by Crystal King, the thing I can never shake is the presence this show puts forward. It's both flashy and macho during its fight scenes, but also starkly dark, depressing, and brutal elsewhere. Ok, fine, this show is brutal almost all the time, but when Kenshiro isn't punching people and making them explode, it's actually pretty gritty and realistic stuff. The gangs and savages that populate this sad world in these episodes seem to comment just as much on the nature of human cruelty as they do about the dangers of organized religious sects or the evils of a selfish monarchy. I might be reading too much into it, but I can't help but feel like Fist of the North Star is trying to make some sort of comment on the state of society as a whole. That's something I certainly didn't expect, but it really helps flesh out a series that is relatively simple at its core.

Character at Century's End

And at its core are the characters. Throughout these first 22 episodes, there's only about 5 major characters to follow. There are certain henchmen with personalities as well as a few auxiliary characters, but overall these represent archetypes or adversaries to flesh out the world. The story instead focuses mainly on Kenshiro and his kid side-kicks. Kenshiro himself is the strong silent type, but he is genuinely kind and always does the right thing. Hell, if he wasn't constantly exploding people, he'd be almost boring, but it's that juxtaposition that makes him such an interesting character. His voice actor rarely raises his voice above a light murmur until he starts screeching and letting fly with his deadly hokuto shinken. By his side are his constant kid companions, Bat and Lin. Lin is the typical innocent young girl and Bat is the typical comic relief, but both are charming enough characters in their own right. I hesitate to name Kenshiro's girlfriend Yuria as a main character, but she is seen in these episodes quite a lot. She's kind-hearted and rarely happy, but she also does have some pretty touching interaction with a young girl during the back half of the Shin saga.

Lastly, the character I actually find to be the most interesting is actually the villain, Shin. It's made known early that Shin is a bad dude, able to best Kenshiro in combat with his own assassination style, nanto seiken, and ruthless enough to use it for his own means. There certainly is a level of the foppish, cackling baddie in Shin, especially during the first half of the "Shin Saga", but as the audience sees more of him, you start to feel like there's a lot more to him. He's actually rather sympathetic; a man whose ambitious desire to win the heart of a woman who doesn't love him has lead him to do terrible things. He's taken lives, he's betrayed his best friend, and all for the heart of a woman. By the end of the "Shin Saga", I had actually felt genuinely connected to the bad guy, something I rarely find in any medium.

Ugly Future

Is there anything negative about Fist of the North Star? Of course! This is a review, right? The animation in the opening, much like many animated series, is far better than that actually found in the episodes. Don't get me wrong, the action sequences look great, characters are well-detailed and varied, and the gruesome displays are very brutal, but there are also a lot of flaws. The amount of re-used "stock" animations is a tad ridiculous. It makes it easier to forgive when the aftermath is often so varied, exploded heads, fingers, and torsos flying everywhere, but I couldn't help but feel after seeing Ken's shirt rip off for the 22nd time that they could've maybe... animated another sequence for that. Also, despite the under-lying depth of the story itself, the dialog ain't great. Lines like "You don't even know. You are already dead." are great, but often times the plot points and actions are outwardly stated. "Subtle" is not a word to describe the script in Fist of the North Star, but perhaps that's the point.

You are Already Reviewed

Whatever the point of the series, MY point is that Fist of the North Star is great. More-over, it's great for those unfamiliar with the trappings of traditional anime. The gritty and dark story-line is both deep and grounded, and it seems more rooted in Western sensibilities. Is that a good thing? That's arguable, but Fist of the North Star is frankly just a really brutally fun show with some really iconic imagery that goes along with it. Whatever you get out of the series, you should at the very least be able to get into the torso-exploding action within.

I'd give the first 22 episodes of Fist of the North Star 4.5 stars out of 5.

YOU wa SHOCK: Thoughts on the Fist of the North Star Demo

DISCLAIMER: This is actually a re-posting of a blog that I already wrote on my Giantbomb.com account. You can see that HERE, but I really just did this because I felt like I was severely neglecting this blog... that is all.

The demo for the new Tecmo/Koei game "Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage" is out right now (for XBLA anyway), and I assume if you're a fan of the manga and/or anime series at all you've probably already DL'd the demo yourself. I did so last night and actually played through each stage a couple of times and have come to a relatively brief conclusion. I like this. Yeah, it's Dynasty Warriors, a game series that I've flayed a few times in the past. However, I don't dislike Dynasty Warriors because I don't think it's fun to play. Dynasty Warriors has some great and well executed concepts that, when played with in moderation, are fun as all heck. The problem is that these base ideas haven't been fleshed out or improved upon despite a new version of the game coming out every year. So to be clear, I'll play and enjoy Dynasty Warriors, but I won't support the series year after year if they don't significantly improve on anything.

You won't see this in the demo...

But now this is becoming about Dynasty Warriors, and I wanna talk about the demo. In it is included two levels of gameplay from the game's story-mode (called Legend Mode here) with two characters to try out. Naturally there's Kenshiro, who you'd assume would be the guy they want you to try out first, right? I mean he's even first on the select screen, but selecting him will drop you straight into a boss fight against Kenshiro's bastard brother Jagi with no explanation of the controls. Granted, the game's control scheme isn't too tough to figure out, but I would have appreciated not having to get my ass handed to me to finally figure out all the ins and outs. If you're smart, you'll instead choose Rei (the angst-y mullet-ed one) and you'll get a tutorial alongside a level where you'll actually fight off waves of enemies and fight a boss as well. It's actually an overall funner level than Ken's, but one the demo doesn't make obvious should be played first.

Speaking of playing, the game plays pretty much how you might expect. You can string together light and strong attacks to build up your spirit meter which can then be used to unleash a special move (which will come complete with awesome freeze framed titles much like in the anime). You can also enter a trance state which doubles your attack power and modifies your special moves at the cost of draining your entire spirit meter. There are other intricacies like defending and other small little gameplay caveats, but the main idea is you punch guys in the face and they fall down, occasionally blocking and occasionally pulling out a special move to lay some smack down.

Both these dudes are playable.

This game, as stated above however, is still Dynasty Warriors. Although some things like making moves feel impactful, varied special maneuvers, and general feel of ebb and flow are greatly improved in this game. However, a lot of times you'll still feel like you're just button-mashing or flailing at falling enemies or crippled by an unresponsive camera. They're things that are easier to forgive given the game's reverence for the source material, but they don't make them any less inconvenient in this game as they were in Dynasty Warriors.

To wrap this thing up in a big paper bag, the demo is fun. Will the game be earth-shattering or change your feelings on Koei's never-ending "hit thousands of dudes" formula? Probably not. Still, if you're a fan of Hokuto no Ken or Dynasty Warriors (or both) it's sure to be a good time. For everyone else, the mechanics in here are different enough you may find yourself really liking the game. The only other thing for certain I can say is if you have any doubt about anything GO GET THE DEMO RIGHT NOW!

New and Exciting: i-Rix does ANIME!

I have, for some time now, turned a contemptible eye towards the broad spectrum of animation that falls under the identification of "anime". I can't even truly pinpoint the source of the hatred; as a youngster I would revel in following series like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Dragon Ball Z, and Monster Rancher and as an adult I love the craziness of video games developed under Japanese developers like Capcom, Konami, and of course Nintendo. This would seem like I'd have a hell of a foundation and propensity towards enjoying anime, but I've been a longtime subscriber to the Jeff Gerstmann school of "Anime is for Jerks, yo".

That is until... well... only a few weeks ago, now. I finally was able to step back and look at my general interests and ask myself, "Why is anime not among these?" Okay, I didn't really ask myself that, since I don't really speak that way in real life, but the point remains the same. Why NOT anime?

So in the spirit of trying something new and exciting (and because it's my birthday and I do what I want), because the title says so, I have cast away (most) prejudice and have embraced the world of anime. Perhaps embraced is a bit of a strong word, as I've only entered what one might consider the shallow end of the ocean that is anime, but nevertheless I am fully prepared to "do this thing".

So what am I watching, you may indeed be asking yourself my nonexistent readership. Well, because I have admired it from afar for so long due to its ridiculous depiction of exploding body parts, I've dove head first into Fist of the North Star aka Hokuto no Ken. A rough undertaking to be sure, as the core series has over 100 episodes, but after speeding through the Shin saga, I cannot get enough of Kenshiro and his continuing journey through the wastelands of 199X.

Anime fans know the series is a classic, and I have taken it as my first big step into fandom to watch every bit of the series that I can. Luckily for me, the series is subtitled in English and can be watched free and legally on Funimation.com. I'll probably be doing some sorta... review thing for Part 1 of the series in the weeks to come.

But that is not all, no. Because she more or less is the boss of me, a good buddy of mine suggested I give the insanity of one of her favorite series a try. That series just happened to be the sublimely psychotic FLCL (or Fooly Cooly to me and you).

OH GEEZ. That is pretty much all I could say after the first episode. This had to be one of the craziest, randomest, and utterly insane things I've ever seen, but with only 6 episodes comprising the series, there was something infectious about it. The characters were likeable, the animation was fantastic, and it just had an intangible quality that made it impossible to dislike the series. I can now say with some certainty that FLCL is one of my most favorite THINGS ever ever. I am pretty much indebted to my dear friend for her forcing this onto me. Like Hokuto no Ken, I'll be doing something with FLCL down the road.

And I suppose that's how the future of my anime-watching will go. I will seek out the classics that intrigue me, and those in the know will suggest more obscure titles that I wouldn't ever think to bother with. I am not saying I'm going to become some super otaku or anything, but I believe I have embraced a new medium that will lead to much more enjoyment down the road.

Most importantly, this new and exciting change has shown me that, just like everything else, anime has many facets and should not be classified as a single entity to be hated.

If you have any comments, or just like what I wrote, or would like to point out how WRONG I am, feel free to type it up in the comments section. I greatly appreciate feedback.

Until next time.