Fist of the North Star chronicles Kenshiro's search for his kidnapped fiancée. ©1999 Buronson Tetsuo Hara/Shueisha, Toei An.

Fist of the North Star: The Series. V.1-V.5.
TV series (36 episodes), 1984-1985. Director: Toyoo Ashida. V.1-v.4, 7 episodes/210 minutes; v.5, 8 episodes/240 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.95. Distributor: Manga Entertainment.

Hokuto no Ken (the title is a pun: "Ken" means "fist" but it is also the nickname of the hero, Kenshiro) was one of the legendary anime TV series of the 1980s, produced and animated by Toei Doga, adapted from the popular manga by Bronson and Tetsuo Hara. It ran for 109 episodes from October 4, 1984 through March 6, 1987, and was immediately followed by Hokuto no Ken 2 for episodes #110 through #152 (March 12, 1987 - February 18, 1988). Manga Entertainment's DVD release includes only the first 36 episodes, comprising the first story arc.

Fist of the North Star is one of those rare works which successfully idolizes yet simultaneously parodies a stereotype; the gory-yet-sanitized violence of martial-arts video games beloved by adolescent males, focused through an exaggeration of The Road Warrior and Bruce Lee movies. The futuristic "199X" is a post-nuclear war parched planet of dried-up oceans, ruined cities and starving, ragged survivors who are preyed upon by sadistic, hulking punk-tattooed bikers who seemingly have no trouble finding unlimited fuel for their road hogs. Their savior is Kenshiro, master of the North Star school of martial arts, identified by the seven scars symbolizing the Big Dipper punched into his brawny chest by his enemy Shin. Ken and Shin were rivals for leadership of the North Star school; but when Shin was rejected because he refused to use his powers only for good, he kidnapped Ken's fiancée Julia and fled to establish the bloody Southern Cross world-conquering empire. Now Ken wanders the blasted Earth seeking to rescue Julia, stopping at a new town each week to free it from a bullying biker gang, a rogue commando team from the old government's army trying to set itself up as new feudal overlords, a bloodthirsty religious cult, giant mutants or the vanguards of Shin's troops. Particularly difficult adversaries might take three episodes to defeat.

Testosterone-hyped teen males can't get enough of each episode's stereotyped confrontation. Ken is surrounded by sadistically giggling bullies twice his size, licking their knives. Ken calmly cracks his knuckles and growls, "You're already dead!" then launches himself into the air in a super-karate attack. The villains' heads explode or their bodies collapse into sliced pieces, while their blood fountains out in a glittery pastel psychedelic light show rather than nauseating gore. It became a challenge among animators and fans to see how many different tastefully artistic ways Ken could be shown slaughtering his foes. Episode titles like "The Deadly Fist of Lingering Regret! The Future is Sighted in the Barren Desert!" and "The Raging Flame Reverse Flow Punch! There are Too Many Who Must Die!!" similarly both set up and parody this over-the-top martial-arts atmosphere. Duplicating cartoonist Hara's realistic art style for a weekly TV series forced Director Ashida to bring limited animation to new levels of dramatically held poses and tension developed through dialogue and good voice acting, especially during these first 36 episodes when Toei's animation team was fresh and enthusiastic.