This is one of my favorite anime of all time as well as my favorite Shonen manga/anime, out of a lot of them I just found this one to be the most fascinating.
I really love the story, I love the fact that it's a combo of both post apocalyptic sub genre and fantasy which is just a beautiful combo and isn't something we see much, one example is Ralph Bashi's "Wizards" but that's a different story.
I like that each of them have story arcs which was for it's time unique in animation and TV, sort of like with shows like "Lost", "Once Upon a Time", and "Game of Thrones". Each of the arcs develop and there is even some depth in both plot and character, where almost most of the episodes hold a crucial detail you don't want to miss.
I even like how dark the show is as we see some scum of the earth people just murdering innocent people for no reason or no good reason. This was shocking for it's time because it wasn't something you seen in fantasy or even the comics where collateral damage takes place. This I feel really gave the show a sense of reality showing that heroism has it's limitations, the mission is to save lives but not everybody because it's logically impossible; Kenshiro despite his abilities is human he can't be everywhere even if he wants to. But also the deaths of the innocent is just all the more motive for Kenshiro to give the scum exactly what they deserve because their practically asking for it.
Charactaerisation is great, protagonists and antagonist. Each of them have a great amount of depth which makes both fascinating and even some of them greatly sympathetic and tragic. Kenshiro is one of my favorite anime protagonists because he is awesome but at the same time tragic because in a way he's is both blessed and cursed, despite his ability to punish evil, he can never really find true peace, in a way you can say the ruined landscape reflects his troubled soul. It's the same with even antagonists like Raoh whom despite his strength and power is really a broken person inside which really made you feel for him even forgive him. His conflict with Kenshiro is one out of envy because of Ken being chosen to be "Fist of the North Star" as well as sadness where he feels his father didn't love him as equally as his brother.
The action is great, there is an excessive amount of gore or at least the suggestion of it probably enough to fill two or more Olympic Pools. And just an excessive amount of creative kills. From plenty of heads, chests and other parts of the body exploding, limbs and heads getting cut in half, you name it it's just crazy. But to me what makes these fights stand out is more in the execution of them.
Each of the protagonists and antagonists don't use superpowers but they use a specialized martial arts which is based on harnessing inner strength/power as we as the utilization of a certain physics, which I find fascinating and actually makes the battles seem a bit more three dimensional and seem more interesting than the typical super powered battles where two opponents are simply blasting away at each other till one goes down. You actually see the protagonist have to struggle a bit and hope whatever technique their armed with will
Each of the martial arts are unique and were inspired by real martial arts systems. Hoto No Ken is sort of a form of Kokondo Karate (martial art I'm studying) almost since like that martial art it's based on hitting vital points of the body. Rei's martial art (forgot the name sorry) is based on Tai Chi as it's based on the non use of force and the use of flow. And plenty of others you have to see to believe.
The battles are great seeing Ken and even his buddy Rei just take down practically an army of baddies which would make Rambo almost envious. But it's really the one on one battles with certain colorful enemies that are great, some are literally David and Golith battles as most of the opponents are practically almost the size of buildings. My favorite one was always Ken's battle against Raoh, which really felt and looked like a fifty fifty battle as we see both use power techniques on each other and are bleeding like crazy.
And of course that soundtrack is just rockin, this show has one of the best soundtracks out of any TV show I've ever heard. The theme songs are great their all my personal favorite themes of all time. Mainly that first theme song is one I love the most because it just has an awesome tune that just gets you pumped up and going, this is the kind of song I sometimes play when I workout.
However this show isn't without substance as it also has a certain amount of philosophical and moral themes. Interal/spiritual strength and perception, the constant fleeting nature of external power, selflessness outweighing selfness, forgiveness, redemption and the constant struggle for harmonious balance.
Well I've said enough, Fist of the North Star packs a punch.
Rating: 4 stars
