Fist Of The North Star

Yet as with our man in the story, this film still prevails as in the end you still have a great story even if the ending seemed a little disappointing and feel left with a slightly unfinished tale. However the part we have got is the far greater side of the tale and one that I recommend watching and there is now an animated series for a more in depth story, but for a quick movie length version this is most certainly the one. And although I can tell you now all the faults of the film, personally I did not take much notice during it and at the end was left quite satisfied. So despite potential for a lot more, there is still a great deal achieved which should not go unnoticed and I cannot deny that criticising this film for what could have been more is simply petty and there is enough here to be a thoroughly enjoyable film, so buy, enjoy.


Not bad, was pleasantly surprised   December 26, 2001
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

My friends bought me this for christmas since we're all into anime and I've been collecting the longest. See, this is the first video released on Manga Video's label (Akira was on another label).
I wasn't expecting it to be that good, and at first it's quite slow and the animation can be a bit crappy, but stick with it as it is quite entertaining (From about the car chase with the cheesy chase music it starts to pick up). It's very violent and sometimes unpleasant; I like a good fight scene but I always feel a bit uncomfortable watching innocent people getting excessively slaughtered.

The story isn't bad, although they missed out the main point of Ken's fighting style; he uses pressure points (like in acupuncture) to make peoples' heads explode and so on, he can also use it to heal and probably loads of other things. This is explained in the series but not in the film, so it's very confusing if you don't know that.

The ending was a dissapointment, I didn't really understand what happened and it was quite abrupt. Perhaps it's a translation issue (it was the first ManVid release after all), or someone earlier said it's continued in the series. The trouble is, the series is terrible, appaling animation, re-using the same bits of footage to pad out scenes, slow story line, awful artwork. Fortunately the film is better.

In a nutshell then: A good action film if you stay with it, worth a look, but avoid the series.


Fist and Furious   April 21, 2001
 2 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is a Japanese Manga animation that takes place after mankind has turned the once-fertile land into a barren desert, so everyone is literally killing each other, if not to become the king of wherever, but to survive. One man that stands in the way of such injustice is Ken, the title's Fist of the North Star, who is trying to free the world and spread the seeds that will make it fertile again. Ken is so powerful that one punch from him can result in the recipient's head exploding in a rather nasty manner.

As you may expect, partly by the description in the end of that last paragraph, plus the 18 certificate, this is not suitable for children due to its violence and high gore content.

Fist Of The North Star is not exactly bad, but it does suffer from a draggy pace and time-wasting scenery-watching.


an excellent manga film packed with great fight scenes   November 18, 2000
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Ever since I bought this film, I have been crazy about it, I started to watch the ones on 4later then a week ago I've started to buy the series videos from amazon too. This cartoon is not for the faint hearted and contains several gory but spectacular fight scenes with head and stomachs blowing up after a single punch from the master of the technique 'hotuko shinken' which allows the master of it to use 100% of his strength instead of the normal persons 30%. And its amazing to think that Fist of the North Star was created in the 80's yet it still beats todays cartoons. This is a must buy for manga fans!


A dis-jointed compilation of an excellent manga series   October 18, 2000
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I saw this cartoon in this format about 10 years ago. I loved it then but was not happy with the ending and expected a sequal which never did, to come along. How ever I was lucky enough to see the series recently (so far 3 series of about 20-30, half hour episodes). I now know the movie is a compilation, from the 1st series (and not even the whole of that series). This results in a slightly muddled story line and the unfinished, puzzling ending. The series makes a lot more senses(if that can be said about any manga cartoons) and it is infinately better. It's just a shame the series is not shown in England. How ever in the absence of the series, this version is still worth watching. I myself have a copy.