Ken 1 - L'ère de Raoh

Hokuto no Ken is not about people exploding like gory balloons. Yes that is a part of the tradition of the series from both manga and anime, however, the point is sorely missed by those who are simply looking for a bloodbath and base entertainment.

Hokuto no Ken is about personal responsibility, hope and standing up for what a person values. This new movie keeps with that theme and further explores characters who were not fully developed in the series. It expands upon relationships which were glossed previously. The subtitle for the anime translates to murdered love story. By retelling the parts of the story which it does it shows how the main character's brother murdered love in his heart and provides a parallel with the villain, Souther showing the fruit of murdered love and how it leads one to destruction and doom. This movie is an excellent piece of storytelling and my only complaint is that Souther's back story was removed, taking away from his depth as a character.

This remake of the classic fist of the north star series is truly one of the best, regardless of the art quality the sound and music the story are just beautifully done. This is the first in the series and the best one, even though the story deviates from the original a bit, it's still emotional and captivating as it retains the essence of the comic classic. It's a bit unfortunate the rest of the series like the story of rei was cut short perhaps due to budget. The last episode on kenshiro is newly added that wasn't included in the originals but its totally fine, but I would prefer it to remain on the original story more.

As a fan of the crude yet classic "Fist of the North Star" movie from 1986, I must say that I was looking forward to the same formula with updated animation. That is not what this new film delivers at all...

The animation is breathtaking and the character art is beautifully done similar to the animation in Ninja Scroll. But the violence level is all toned down and the character Kenshiro is no longer a great hero but simply a bore. The film is still bloody with a few impressive fight scenes but there is not one scene where anyone's head explodes nor is the film gory in the manga tradition. I think in America it would get a PG-13 rating at best.

The movie is long and boring with all its senseless dialogue,there are very few fight scenes, the retro-charm found in the original is lost and only a few scenes resemble anything close to mad max (which made the first movie so good). I d say this is good for one sitting just to get a glimpse of the pretty animation. thats about it.

2 out of 5 stars,