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Title:
  Fist of the North Star

UK Distributor:  Manga Entertainment

BBFC Certificate:  18

Suggested Retail Price (SRP):  £34.99

Running Time:  540mins (approx.)

Audio Options:  English 2.0; Japanese 2.0

Subtitles:  English

Reviewer:  Rich (Webmaster)

 

Ah, now this takes me back.  Many moons ago there was anime on terrestrial TV and it wasn't Pokémon, at unearthly hours of the night various Manga Entertainment releases found their way into the schedules, and episodes of the epic Fist of the North Star seemed to be most frequently shown.

Fist of the North Star was one of the mainstays of Manga Entertainment's first wave of anime releases, a martial arts epic that included everything that typified their output at the time.  Post Apocalyptic setting?  Check.  Wronged hero fighting for justice?  Check.  Endless hordes of easily killable henchmen?  Check.  Extreme violence and gore?  Check.  Fist of the North Star ticked every box, and the plot - martial artist Kenshiro must fight his way across a desert wasteland in order to rescue his kidnapped fiancée Julia from his former friend Shin - was little more than excuse for lots of gory fighting.  However, times have changed since then.  The UK anime catalogue now consists of much more than gory sci-fi action, so does Fist of the North Star remain the classic it was once viewed as?

As mentioned the story, as much as it is, follows Kenshiro, the inheritor of the ancient Fist of the North Star - a martial art which can heal or kill by striking pressure points in the human body.  His friend Shin inherited the Fist of the South Star, a martial art that balances Kenshiro's and is intended to be used in unity with it for the good of all.  However, Shin's jealousy over his friend's happiness with Julia boils over into rage and he betrays him, kidnapping Julia and leaving Kenshiro for dead in the desert.  Of course Shin has made the fateful mistake all crap villains do - he leaves his victim alive, thus giving him a chance to escape and seek revenge, which Kenshiro, as all good heroes should, promptly does.  Yes - the plot is that simple and clichéd.

What this all basically boils down to is a seemingly endless journey through the desert, pausing only to help those in need and use his pressure point attacks to blow large gory holes in a never ending supply of biker punk henchmen.  Every few episodes a major enemy turns up with enough information to keep the plot moving, and that's about it.  Obviously, a deep and intellectual story this is not.

But then again, Fist of the North Star isn't bad.  Whilst the story leaves a lot to be desired and the animation looks pretty dated by today's standards, it delivers enough gore and martial arts action to give Quentin Tarantino wet dreams for months.  Of it's genre - Post Apocalyptic action - it is a classic, effectively transplanting an archetypal kung-fu revenge film into the gang infested desert setting of Mad Max.  It keeps up a decent pace and includes some inventive death scenes, whilst simultaneously creating an instantly recognisable hero and a style that has been frequently imitated but rarely bettered.  This would all be quite impressive if it wasn't for the series' main drawback - it is insanely repetitive.

Desert landscapes may be dramatic, but they become increasingly dull over the space of thirty-odd episodes, as do the endless identikit punks and ruined cities.  Even within the first few episodes the series falls into a formula that it never really escapes, Kenshiro all to frequently comes into an oppressed town, saves it by killing lots of men in increasingly messy ways, gets a lead on Shin and moves on.  The villains all look the same, the towns all look the same and the outcome is always the same.  Because of this formula it would be unlikely that people would continue to buy the individual DVD volumes required to complete the series, which is something Manga Entertainment have noted and successfully addressed by sticking them all in one set.

One thing you can never criticise with Manga Entertainment is value for money.  For just £35 you get six discs containing thirty-six episodes, which includes thirteen previously unreleased in the UK, and Manga have even included the original Japanese dub - a great bonus considering it restores the music that was replaced with soulless techno for the original UK release. 

Fist of the North Star remains a classic to a certain extent, but it is a flawed classic.  It is contains huge amounts of gory martial arts action and some stylish scenes, but the repetitiveness soon begins to leech the enjoyment out of it.  It's fun in small doses and makes for great drunken viewing, plus this set is great value for money, but watching even one of the six episode discs in a single sitting is a difficult task.  At the end of the day you know exactly what you are going to get with Fist of the North Star, if this kind of thing floats your boat, and as long as you don't expect high art, there is enough head-popping action to keep you happy at a very good price.

Extras:

Considering this is a budget release Manga have really pushed the boat out extras-wise.  Each disc comes in its own DVD case, and each comes with a foldout poster, all of which comes in an (admittedly flimsy) artbox.  The discs themselves not only contain six episodes - in English and Japanese - but also character profiles, trailers, a photo gallery and a short prologue movie.  Not bad.

Ratings

Feature:   Extras:
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