History Manga / FistOfTheBlueSky

* MyCountryRightOrWrong - Averted- Kenshiro enlisted the help of a small group of Japanese marines (and their tank) to overcome a Chinese sharpshooter position during Battle of Shanghai simply because that sharpshooter is an obstacle between him and his ''Peng-You''. He left those Japanese soldiers to their fate as soon as he has no more use of them (right at the moment of a Chinese counterattack, spearheaded by a tank destroyer).

* MyCountryRightOrWrong - Averted- Kenshiro enlisted the help of Japanese marines to overcome a Chinese sharpshooter position during Battle of Shanghai simply because that sharpshooter is an obstacle between him and his ''Peng-You''. He left those Japanese soldiers to their fate as soon as he has no more use of them (right when the Chinese reinforcement arrives).

** And much like his descendant, he is fond of telling his enemies that "You are already dead" though as opposed to Ken's Japanese "Omae wa mo shindeiru", he speaks it in the Chinese language: "Nǐ yǐ jīng sǐ le"

* NotWorthKilling - Liu Zong-Wu ''could'' have killed AdolfHitler (the man for whom he betrayed the Chinese Warrior World to join the Nazis) himself if he wanted to, but spared him instead. Not that he did this out of any decency or compassion mind you; he held the tyrant in such unadulterated ''contempt'' that it would dirty his fists to stain it with his pathetic blood.

* ScheduleSlip - ''Fist of the Blue Sky'' only enjoyed sporadic and unannounced releases since 2005 due to Hara, its illustrator, becoming blind in one eye from a condition suffered by one in a ''million.'' Having lost depth perception, '''all''' his panels had to be re-drawn and inked by an assistant; the fact that his insisted style was realistic and intricately detailed did '''not''' help to alleviate the problem.

* ShoutOut - Liu Zong-Wu performs Steven [=McQueen=]'s famous motorcycle jump in ''TheGreatEscape'' '''onto''' the fleeing Bence Mercedes of his father's murderer. A nice ironic touch considering that whereas [=McQueen=] was fleeing ''from'' Nazis in his jump, Zong-Wu '''is''' a Nazi.

** Kasumi Kenshiro himself is based on three previous Tetsuo Hara protagonists. He's essentially ''Hokuto no Ken'''s Kenshiro with Keiji Maeda's (of ''Hana no Keiji'') sense of humor and Rintaro Nakabo's (from the detective manga of the same title) sense of irony.

** Liu Zong-Wu, Yasaka and Liu Fei-Yan were all speculated to be past-life incarnations of Raoh, Toki and Rei respectively due to their resemblance to their respective counterparts.

* AdolfHitler - This being a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII {{Manga}}, the dictator makes a cameo; and is portrayed frankly as the pathetic loser he really is.

* ScheduleSlip - ''Fist of the Blue Sky'' only enjoyed sporadic and unannounced releases since 2005 due to Hara, its illustrator, becoming blind in one eye from a condition suffered by one in a ''million.'' Having lost depth perception, '''all''' his panels have to be re-drawn and inked by an assistant; the fact that his insisted style is realistic and intricately detailed does '''not''' help to alleviate the problem.

* {{Expy}}: Liu Fei-Yan is a dead-ringer for Rei from the original series, and the bandage-bound Ye is based on Film/{{Darkman}} played by LiamNeeson.

Kasumi Kenshiro was a bumbling, bespectacled literature professor in 1935 Japan, playfully teasing and flirting with his students in the Towa Women's College at Tokyo...

Though superficially sharing thematic elements of the Martial Arts from ''North Star'', ''Blue Sky'' is first and foremost a Crime Drama with ''jet black'' humor and occasional martial arts thrown into its rich, dark, smoky mix.

This show provides examples of:

* AllJewsAreAshkenazi - Subverted. Charles [=DeGuise=] may not be and Yasaka is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuezhi Yuezhi]].

* ShoutOut - Liu Zong-Wu performs Steven [=McQueen=]'s famous motorcycle jump in ''TheGreatEscape'' '''onto''' the fleeing Bence Mercedes of his father's murderer. A nice ironic touch considering that whereas McQueens was fleeing ''from'' Nazis in his jump, Zong-Wu '''is''' a Nazi.

''Fist of the Blue Sky'' (''Souten no Ken''), is a {{prequel}} to ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' by Tetsuo Hara, with plot supervision by original writer Buronson, that was published in the ''Weekly Comic Bunch'' from its debut issue in 2001 and throughout the magazine's final issue in 2010.

Soon upon returning to the infamous "Devil City" of the 1930s, not only does Kenshiro have to contend with the warfare of TheTriadsAndTheTongs, he will clash head on with three rival Hokuto branches (each inheriting the names of the Sun, Cao and Liu factions from the RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms era), jealous with the superiority of the master branch, Hokuto Shinken.

* AdolfHitler - This being a WorldWar2 {{Manga}}, the dictator makes a cameo; and is portrayed frankly as the pathetic loser he really is.

* CutShort - The manga went down with the sinking ship of ''Comic Bunch''. And although it didn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, it didn't really dovetail nicely into ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' either; lots of questions were left unanswered. How did Ramon/Ryuken become successor? Did Yan Wang die (or become Koryu)? Who was the Old Taoist? The introduction of Jukei (the future Hokuto Ryuken successor) [[AbortedArc never led to anything interesting]] either.

* ManlyTears - This ''is'' a prequel to ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' after all.

* {{Retcon}} - One of the series' attractions for old fans of ''HokutoNoKen'' is its promise of how it will finally justify the continuity travesty that is "The Land of Shura." Yet in the first ten pages Hara has already dug himself a new hole to jump into by making the Kenshiro we have known to love be a baby ''born in Japan again.'' Which is he? Chinese or Japanese?
** The original HokutoNoKen series had Kenshiro, the 64th Hokuto Shinken successor, be the very second Hokuto Shinken praticioner to perform the ultimate ''Musou Tensei'' art, the first was the Hokuto Shinken founder himself, and the third to use it was Raoh. Comes SoutenNoKen and Kenshiro's uncle Kasumi, the 62nd Hokuto Shinken successor, performs the ''Musou Tensei'' against Liu Zong-Wu.
* ScheduleSlip - ''FistOfTheBlueSky'' only enjoyed sporadic and unannounced releases since 2005 due to Hara, its illustrator, becoming blind in one eye from a condition suffered by one in a ''million.'' Having lost depth perception, '''all''' his panels have to be re-drawn and inked by an assistant; the fact that his insisted style is realistic and intricately detailed does '''not''' help to alleviate the problem.

* TheTriadsAndTheTongs - The primary genre of this manga series, ties to ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' notwithstanding.

* XMeetsY - {{John Woo}}'s ''A Better Tomorrow'' meets ''FistOfTheNorthStar''

** In Zhang Tai-Tan's case, it is '''after''' he murdered the little sister of another one of Professor Kasumi's ''Peng-You''. Granted, he ended up becoming remorseful about it[[spoiler:, just not when he did it]].

* OneSteveLimit = Averted. Liu Zong-Wu and Liu Fei-Yan are not related, despite their almost identical surnames (the difference being that they're spelled with different Chinese characters).

* {{Expy}}: Liu Fei-Yan is a dead-ringer for Rei from the original series, and the bandage-bound Ye is based on {{Darkman}} played by LiamNeeson.

''Souten no Ken'', or ''Fist of the Blue Sky'', is a {{prequel}} to ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' by Tetsuo Hara (with plot supervision by original writer Buronson) that was published in the ''Weekly Comic Bunch'' from its debut issue in 2001 and throughout the magazine's final issue in 2010.

* TheGump - Kasumi Kenshiro has ''literally'' slapped-up TheLastEmperor of China, not to mention clashing with the ''Kuomintang'', then ruling party of Nanjing's republican government and China's nominal seat of power.
** Considering who said Last Emperor is... doesn't sound that hard.
** And Kuomintang, seeing it as a matter of Chinese honor (and prestiege of the National Revolutionary Army in such a time of turmoil [[spoiler:as Kenshiro killed one of their generals- even though every Kuomintang official agrees that the said general had it coming]]) and not really an act of war, have refrained from just employing army troops to gun him down and insisted on defeating him fair-and-square with the best Chinese martial artist they can find. Therefore Chiang Kai-Shek and company got their [[http://www.mangareader.net/1057-39954-8/fist-of-the-blue-sky/chapter-105.html Generic Handsomeness treatment]].

* DarkerAndEdgier - Since ''Souten no Ken'' was published in a ''Seinen'' (mature readers) anthology, it covers several adult subjects such as drugs, rape, prostitution, and misogynistic disfigurements stuff that the comparatively campy ''Hokuto no Ken'' would not dare touch with a ten foot pole.

* EasilyForgiven - If you thought Kenshiro the 64th successor is bad with this trope, his uncle Yang Wang is arguably worse. For a [[BelatedBackStory last minute sob-story]] of a [[FreudianExcuse traumatic childhood]], Professor Kasumi is willing to embrace drug dealers (Pan Guang-Lin) homicidal sociopaths (Liu Fei-Yan), serial rapists (Zhang Tai-Yan) and '''[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Captains]]''' (Liu Zong-Wu) as dear ''Peng-You'' and beloved BloodBrothers.

* EpilepticTree
** Some fans speculate that Kenshiro later became the hermit Koryu, the last opponent Ramon (Ryuken) fought in order to become the Hokuto Shinken successor. The fact that there aren't any other Kasumi brothers and their father isn't shown to be training any other successors gives this theory a bit of credence.
** Also many Japanese fans theorize the old Taoist is actually the Taoist god of the Big Dipper, Beidou Xingjun. Although this really isn't so far-fetched in a manga featuring {{reincarnation}} and InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons

* EpilepticTree: Some fans speculate that Kenshiro Kasumi later became the retired hermit Koryu, the last opponent Ryuken fought in order to become the Hokuto Shinken successor.