FistOfTheNorthStar/{{Tropes A To H}} | FistOfTheNorthStar/{{Tropes I To P}} | '''Tropes Q To Z'''

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!!!''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: ''Ten No Haoh'' makes you cheer for [[BigBad Raoh]] from ''scene number one'' when he '''shreds''' through like so much rice-paper a band of rapists, [[KickTheDog who flew-like-a-flag the dress of an innocent little girl]] whom they raped before brutally murdering.
* RapidFireFisticuffs: The ''Hokuto Hyakuretsuken'', one of the main character Kenshiro's signature moves. Oddly enough, ''Hokuto Ujoumoushouha'' is just that except ending with a "merciful" gut punch instead of YourHeadASplode.
** Juza often uses an unnamed kick version of this, with varied success.
* RatedMForManly: With a main character who can blow up a tank with his bare fists, you know you have one of the contenders for the manliest anime of all time.
* RazorFloss:
** The Major, one of the Golan commandos wields this. At one point he stretches its taut and runs past a man, which cuts the man in half. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard This is later used against himself when Kenshiro paralyzes him and makes the Major strangle himself with his own garrote wire until he lops his own head off]].
** Cassandra prison's guardians' Raiga and Fuga's martial art, ''Nishin Furaiken'', also used these.
* RazorSharpHand:
** Nanto Seiken uses a combination of both this and RazorWind - rapid movements of the hands and feet create razor-sharp 'blades' of air pressure, letting practitioners cut off heads with their hands, poke their fingers through ribcages and slice dozens of enemies apart with a single spinning kick. Hyui, the wind-themed member of the Nanto Goshasei (Five Chariot Stars), has a similar style that uses pure long-ranged RazorWind, whilst Hokuto Shinken practitioners like Raoh can also cut people in half with their hands and feet, but through raw strength rather than manipulation of air currents.
** Also Falco's final technique which he uses to off the Nameless Shura.
* ReallyDeadMontage: [[spoiler:Rei, Fudoh and Ein all get theirs in the TV series]].
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Shin delivers a magnificent, textbook speech to Ken during a flashback, right down to having him pinned down underfoot. The topic was obsession, and Ken took it to heart.
* RecapEpisode: There are several of these over the course of the anime, which was 152 episodes long and thus had a lot to recap after a while. The most painful of which was a ''five-episode arc'' between Chapters 3 and 4, consisting of character profiles of the now-deceased Generals of Nanto Seiken, which mainly served as a reminder of the fact that there are ''six'' Generals of the Southern Cross, and one of them was still unaccounted for.
* RedEyesTakeWarning:
** One kid gets magenta eyes while BrainwashedAndCrazy (thanks to Jagi shoving a finger into his brain).
** The poor folk in the town ruled by Zaria, a minion of Shin who can control people with black magic. When he takes control of a person, their eyes go red.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath:
** Quite a few do not long survive their (barely) "face" turns, though the manga-only Baran goes further than usual in the first chapter of the final volume [[spoiler:in not only choosing to die, but arranging for a public execution -- and thus humiliation -- and actually letting himself be killed]], though his final moments are spent in the presence of his redeemers.
** Also notably Duran during the filler episodes in the Shin arc; he is a doctor of the village who makes sure he helps the people as much as possible, seeing how he used to work for one of Shin's henchmen, Dante. [[spoiler:Duran is then faced by Dante's thugs who threaten to kill him unless he kills Kenshiro. He of course fails and he is impaled by several spears -- right in front of the girl who wanted to be his wife when she grew up.]]
* RescueArc: The Southern Cross arc (especially in the anime version). The constant kidnapping of Lin during the Kingdom of Shura arc also qualifies.
* {{Retcon}}: The plot was written as it went along by Buronson's own admittance, as he had no clear outline when serialization started. This is particularly evident with the Southern Cross arc, which was written to provide the manga with a semblance of a conclusion in case it got axed early. As a result, Kenshiro and Shin are written as if they were the only Hokuto Shinken and Nanto Seiken practitioners at this point, with no mention of Kenshiro's older brothers that were later introduced or any of the other Nanto Seiken styles or practitioners outside Shin and his own brand (hence why his branch, Nanto Koshuken, was named after the fact in a databook). The retcons would pile up as the manga went along, whether it's Toki's changing hair color, the revelation of the Last General of Nanto's identity and the entire Kingdom of Shura story arc in the latter half which contradicted Raoh and Toki's early origin story.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: There's a bridge where Raoh's thugs have checkpoints at both ends to search for Kenshiro, so Kenshiro attempts to evade them by hiding in a wagon of straw that his ally Fudoh pulls across the bridge. The thugs have drafted villagers to do their searching for them, and one of these villagers at the entrance of the bridge spots Kenshiro, but deliberately pretends that he didn't see him. By the time Fudoh gets to the other end of the bridge, another villager has ratted out the villager who has covered for Kenshiro, hoping to be humbly rewarded with food and such. However, ''both'' villagers are killed by Raoh's thugs, one for helping Kenshiro, and the other for ratting out the first villager!
* TheRival: Shin at first for Kenshiro, and later Raoh.
* RuinsOfTheModernAge: The main characters often traverse or fight in ruins of modern cities, with rows of skyscrapers collapsed, toppled over and partially covered by the sand being a frequent sight.
%%* RuleOfCool: Followed to the letter.
* RunTheGauntlet: A minor example- the Nanto Seiken school held a Kumite before the war where someone had to face ten fighters in a row. Kenshiro went through it when he was a boy and nearly won, sadly losing to Shu in the final round.
* SamusIsAGirl:
** When we find out that the [[spoiler:Last General of the Nanto Roku Seiken is Yuria.]]
** Also, when we learn that [[spoiler:the Celestial Emperor is actually an Empress, and is in fact Lin's estranged twin sister, Lui.]]
* SandNecktie: Several of Jagi's mooks take to burying villagers up to their necks and forcing others to saw their heads off. Kenshiro promptly kills the mooks in question before burying the lead guy up to his neck and [[DoWithHimAsYouWill leaving him at the mercy of his victims]].
* SayMyName:
** Invoked (whether deliberate or not remains to be told) by DirtyCoward Jagi, whose {{Catchphrase}} is actually "Say my name!" (shotgun pointing is optional). This was even made into a super move in the Atomiswave fighting game.
** Other instances include:
--> "KEEEEEEEEEEN!!" - Lin
--> "YUUUUUUURIAAAAA!!" Kenshiro and Shin both
* ScarpiaUltimatum: What Shin gives to Yuria when he kidnaps her.
* SecretLegacy: Hokuto Shinken may seem like a mere fantastical assassination art passed on into the shadows, coming across much like a cold methodology of death to any that views it from afar, but Hokuto Shinken is way much more than what is let on by its brutal techniques and attacks. According to in world history, the style was created when those of the Gento Koken line accidentally failed to protect the Celestial Emperor of China, and this in turn brought about the chaotic days of the Three Kingdoms. Made to be the second protecting branch of the Celestial Emperor by the Hokuto Soke line, those who inherit this style are not just mere assassins and the protectors of the Emperor, but rather those who take up the living metaphorical mantle of the Taoist god Hokuto Seikun, who is considered the judge of the living who decides on the longevity of each person and decides who goes to heaven or hell, and is the central basis on why the Hokuto Shinken line is dedicated to upholding peace, protecting the innocent, and bringing about merciless judgement on the wicked.
* ScrewDestiny: Pulled off in awesome fashion by Rei in his final days. The Star of Death is normally an inexorable PortentOfDoom for anyone who sees it in the ''Fist of the North Star'' universe, but Rei is willing to die so that Mamiya, who was under the star in question, can live on.
* SeriesContinuityError:
** When Kenshiro's adoptive brothers were first introduced, Kenshiro initially mentions that none of them are actually blood-related. Later it turns out that the eldest two, Raoh and Toki, are blood related after all and we are shown the ruins of their childhood home along with the graves of the birth parents. However, it later turns out that none of them were even born in Japan at all, but that the three of them were refuges from the Kingdom of Shura and that Raoh and Toki's mother is buried in a swamp. If that wasn't enough confusion, then comes the prequel, ''Manga/FistOfTheBlueSky'', which shows that the baby Kenshiro was born in Japan... or not, as apparently where he was born was actually in China.
** A big one regarding Toki in the manga. In Amiba's flashback where he went to a village and tried to be a doctor and fails, Toki appears on the scene, and smacks him in the face. In this point his hair was still brown, but when Ken, Rei, and Mamiya arrive to Cassandra, his hair is white. The anime decides to sidestep the ordeal by giving Amiba white hair to work the impersonation better.
** In the ''Hokuto no Ken 2'' portion of the anime, the child version of Toki is drawn with white hair during the flashbacks when he was still in Shura. However, the first anime series already established the fact that Toki's natural hair color is brown and it didn't became white until he was exposed to nuclear fallout as an adult.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only prominent female combatant in the original manga is Mamiya, and she's [[StayInTheKitchen basically used as an example of how terrible and pointless it is for women to fight]], barely even qualifying for the distinction of being a FauxActionGirl. The Arc System Works fighting game and ''Hokuto Musou'' both made her the sole female playable character, although she is the single most powerful playable character in the latter. There are actually quite a number of female martial artists in the franchise as a whole, but almost all of them are [[CanonForeigner anime or game original characters]] or characters from later spin-offs published years after the conclusion of the original manga.
* ShonenDemographic: The archetypal example, though you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for seinen due to the violence that occurs throughout. And yes there are seinen spin-offs and sidestories to ''[=FotNS=]''/''[=HnK=]''.
* ShoutOut:
** The whole darned franchise is one to the Australian cult classic ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior'', although it's only prominent during the early chapters.
** The act of cruelty that Diamond performs to a little girl and her father early on in the manga will be quite familiar to anyone who's seen ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest''.
** When Kenshiro heads off to Shura, with the shades/goggles on he ends up looking an ''incredible'' lot like [[Film/{{Cobra}} Marion Cobretti]]...
** In episode #3 of the 1st anime series, the Diamonds mooks make some poor sod shoot down a tin can from the head of his own son. This is a clear ShoutOut to the story about the famous Swiss FolkHero Myth/WilliamTell.
** Joker is a clear shout to [[Franchise/{{Batman}} the DC villain of the same name]], as is Jakoh since his facial features are closely modeled after the same character.
** When Shin manages to draw Kenshiro's blood during their rematch, Ken tastes it and spits it out, just as Creator/BruceLee did while fighting the BigBad in ''Film/EnterTheDragon''.
** Kenshiro's battle cry (ataah!)is modeled after Bruce Lee as is his fighting stance.
** Ken also does that Lick The Thumb thing that Bruce did on occasion.
** We never see the technique in full in the original source, but Yuda's "Kesshou Shi" is shown in full in the Arc Systems fighting game, and it looks a lot like the [[Franchise/StreetFighter M. Bison's Psycho Crusher]].
** In ''Ken's Rage'' (at least the American release), Jagi will sometimes call his enemies "[[Film/ArmyOfDarkness primitive screwheads]]".
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Despite all the violent warlords wanting Yuria's affection, she forever loves Kenshiro for his kind and tender nature.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Unapologetically idealistic and morally righteous in spite of being set in a post-apocalyptic CrapsackWorld. The heart and soul of the series seems to be "It is easy to do good in times of prosperity, but it takes a true '''hero''' to be a good person when the entire world is ''screaming'' for you to be otherwise."
* SpaghettiWestern: Replace the gunplay with kung fu, and the grim violence punctuated with bursts of heroic idealism will fit right-in the world of Creator/SergioLeone.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: Children and even infants often died in the manga. The TV anime often rewrote such scenes so that the child escapes from harm's way with Kenshiro's help (the most prominent examples being Taki, Bat's adopted little brother who gets shot by one of Jackal's men, and Ryo, the kid in Shew's hideout who ate bread poisoned by Thouzer and his men).
* TheSpartanWay: The Kingdom of Shura, where the law states one does not reach manhood until he has defeated a 100 men.
* StandardPostApocalypticSetting: The story is set after a devastating nuclear war drove nearly all living things into extinction and left the Earth a barren waste where evil warlords and vicious gangs roam the land, killing and subjugating the weak. Thankfully, there are heroes ready to defend the people and make these villains pay.
%%* TheStoic: Kenshiro, Raoh, and Souther.
* StoutStrength: Mr. Heart and, to a lesser extent (in that he's slimmer, but just as big), Fudoh.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: Many of the children characters who were killed off in the manga (like Bat's little brother Taki or Ryo, the kid who ate poisoned bread in Shew's hideout) were spared of their gruesome fates in the anime. One of the rare examples of a villain surviving in the anime is the Imperial Executioner in the very first episode of ''Hokuto no Ken 2''. He fleets after burning an entire cage filled with imprisoned villagers in front of the Hokuto Army and never shows up again to get his comeuppance. In the manga, his face was smashed by Kenshiro shortly afterward.
* SpamAttack: Most skilled martial artists have at least one. Hokuto Hyakuretsuken, Kenshiro's famous Hundred Crack Fist, is a classic example.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: As with all popular Japanese manga franchises, the spellings of many character names tend to differ between sources and media. Notably, the name of the Holy Emperor tends to vary from "Souther", "Thouzer", "Thouther", and even "Thoutoher". Not to mention Yuria/Julia, Fudo/Fudoh, Yuda/Juda, Lin/Rin/Lynn, Shuu/Shuh/Shew, Pel/Bell/Peru and Uighur/Uyghur. Even Raoh's name has been spelled as "Laoh" in the ''All About the Man'' guidebook.
* StockShoutouts: Hokuto Hyakuretsuken is one of the big ones in anime. Any SpamAttack accompanied by an "ATATATATATATA!" shout is giving a nod to Kenshiro.
* StayInTheKitchen: In spite of being [[TenderTears tenderized]] and basted in a stew of {{Manly Tears}}, one of the franchise's hang-ups is that it is written to portray women in a particularly patronizing way, even women (such as Mamiya, or Reina from the movies) who are way more competent than the average male villager, mooks, and villain of the week. The sad thing is that the show clearly thought it was pro-woman in some episodes, but it was just incredibly paternalistic. A good example is the case of the Six Nanto Masters, the greatest practitioners of Nanto Seiken. [[TheSmurfettePrinciple There's only one female Master]], and whilst the rest of them are godlike kung fu experts who can slice off your face with their feet, she's a spiritual leader with no combat abilities whatsoever.
* StupidEvil: If you're a {{Mook}} in this series, you're lucky if you have double digit IQ. Ken even comments on this when he easily stops Raoh's most vicious lieutenant's technique with a boulder he picked from the ground. "What a stupid technique. It must be your stupidity that makes you evil," Ken didn't even bother executing him with a Hokuto no Ken technique.
* SuddenDownerEnding: The end of ''Legend of Kenshiro'' is so pointlessly sadistic it could have been written by Thouzer himself. Ken has recovered his spirit, embraced his destiny as the messiah and saved the city... then Siska turns out to have a ''third'' detonator and blows it up anyway, leaving Kenshiro screaming despondently among the ruins and corpses of his friends.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: In ''spades''. Just about every single villain that isn't a successor of one of the major martial arts styles falls under this trope. They can watch Kenshiro (or another successor) murder dozens or hundreds of their peers without breaking a sweat, shrug off firearms and artillery, and other such feats, and ''still'' think they have what it takes to take them on. The bad guys in this story have no self-preservation instinct to speak of.
* SuperDeformed: There is a spinoff manga with a super deformed art style titled ''DD Hokuto no Ken''. In this story, "...the characters of Fist of the North Star are living in peaceful Japan. In particular, Kenshirō is a convenience store worker, Raoh works at a factory, and wracked by illness, Toki is looking for work." A TV anime adaptation was also made.
* SupernaturalMartialArts: There are several martial arts throughout the series that are capable of incredible feats:
** The main martial art featured is ''Hokuto Shinken'', which takes advantage of the 708 pressure points located throughout the body to invoke a number of different effects in the opponent's body. This is typically used to make an opponent's body explode violently, but its uses are highly varied and can even be used for medical purposes: Kenshiro uses it to restore Rin's speech and Airi's sight, and Toki retools this deadly and sinister martial art as a ''healing'' art.
** The counterpart to ''Hokuto Shinken'' is ''Nanto Seiken'': while ''Hokuto Shinken'' is about destroying a body from within, ''Nanto Seiken'' uses external forces to kill. The most often used application of this art is creating RazorWind from one's fingertips to slice foes to ribbons, as well as to penetrate a person's body with ease. Shin uses this art on Kenshiro to give him his iconic scars, and Rei uses it to aid Kenshiro in his journeys.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Filler arc character Jennifer is a carbon copy of Mamiya before they could properly introduce the latter.
* SwiperNoSwiping: [[spoiler:This happens near the end of the movie. Raoh is about to kill Kenshiro, when Lin appears and begs him to spare Kenshiro's life. He does.]]
* TenderTears: Despite their appearance, men of the ''Fist of the North Star'' series are actually very warm-hearted and do this a lot, maybe even more than ManlyTears. [[spoiler:Even Raoh does this to grieve for Toki and Yuria's suffering, and those are the only times he ''ever'' sheds tears]].
* TerminatorImpersonator: Glenn is a giant, hulking cyborg that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Terminator. He is also a reluctant AntiVillain, only doing what he was told to by the true ArcVillain of the episode. When he is defeated by Kenshiro and starts to come around to his side, he is [[HeelFaceDoorSlam killed by said villain]].
* ThemeMusicPowerUp: Any time an instrumental version of "[[ThemeSong Ai Wo Torimodose!]]" cues up.
** In the TV finale, the vocal version is played when Kenshiro delivers the finishing blow on Kaioh.
** In the Atomiswave fighting game, the theme is is played when a character performs a Fatal K.O.
** In '' Ken's Rage'', the player gets to enjoy this during boss fights.
* ThemeNaming:
** Shin's four henchmen in the manga are named after playing cards (Spade, Diamond, Club, Heart), while the anime adds Joker to the mix.
** The Golan commandos are named after military ranks (Colonel, Mad Sarge, Major).
** Jackal and his underlings are all animal-themed (although only two of them, Fox and Hawk, are named in the manga).
** The martial arts of the Nanto Seiken school follows an avian motif (Lone Eagle, Waterfowl, Crimson Crane, White Heron, and Phoenix).
* ThereAreNoTherapists: An aversion. Hokuto Shinken's healing techniques can be used for psychological as well as physical healing, as was the case when Kenshiro gave Rin a pressure-point adjustment to help cure her trauma-induced muteness.
* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: Once Kenshiro's brothers are introduced, it is revealed that the law of Hokuto Shinken states that only one student can inherit its teachings; the others are to be either disabled or euthanized. Ends up leading to the story's events -- Jagi's berserk moment came when Kenshiro was chosen, and Raoh's refusal to let himself be crippled [[spoiler:led to the fight where Ryuken died]].
* ThisIsUnforgivable: When Kenshiro growls this phrase at you, it goes without saying that you're screwed. Kenshiro goes one further after [[spoiler:Shu]]'s death: "Not '''one hair''' of you will remain in this world!!!"
* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: Hokuto Ryuken does hideous things to its users' minds. It's a major part of why Kaioh, one of Kenshiro's nastier adversaries and a Ryuken master, is EasilyForgiven.
* TigerVersusDragon:
** Kenshiro and Raoh are sometimes represented by a dragon and a tiger, respectively. Kenshiro is stoic and does not seek power (and also a BruceLeeClone, and Lee was often associated with the dragon), Raoh is more hot-blooded and ambitious.
** It also comes up when Kenshiro and Rei are forced to fight each other to save Airi and Mamiya, as Rei uses a technique called Nanto Tiger Destroying Dragon and Kenshiro uses Hokuto Dragon Attacking Tiger.
** Ryuken and Koryu were known as the Dragon and the Tiger of Hokuto. It goes without saying that they once battled each other for the Hokuto Shinken successorship, and their power was so equally great that a winner could not be decided by the duel's outcome, but only when Koryu willingly decided to step down, relinquishing the right of succession to Ryuken.
* TimeSkip: The second half of the manga begins several years after the first one, with Bat and Lin now grown up.
* TokenMotivationalNemesis: Shin in the manga, whose only reason of existence is to give Kenshiro his signature scars and take Yuria away from him before being killed by the end of the tenth chapter. The AdaptationExpansion of the TV series [[{{Filler}} padded]] Shin's role for up to 22 episodes. Most of this only amounted to giving Shin more henchmen to order around than the four he had in the manga, but he does get his own moment of glory by thwarting a conspiracy to overthrow him just before his final battle with Kenshiro. The anime also depicts the dissolution of Shin's army and the destruction of Southern Cross before the final battle, which arguably gives a greater sense of resolution to Shin than simply having his army vanish with no explanation after his death like in the manga.
* TooDumbToLive:
** A ''lot'' of glaring villain examples in the filler episodes, in particular a BadBoss known as David who has just witnessed Kenshiro ''demolish his fifteen-feet tall henchman'' Glenn (whom he brainwashed as a slave since childhood) ''with ONE hand.'' When Kenshiro took pity on Glenn and gave him a second chance to be a good person, David just '''had''' to murder said-giant in cold-blood by shooting his full of arrows, '''then''' taunts Glenn as he expires for being a weakling complete ''with'' EvilLaugh in front of the horrified-and-angry STILL PRESENT Kenshiro.
** Fortunately averted by Souther's troops after his defeat, once Kenshiro's walked back down the pyramid stairs. There's obvious shame and regret over what they were fighting for, but in the first ''Raoh Den'' movie, the kids actually put ''themselves'' between the troops and Kenshiro. Had the troops in that one made a move, Kenshiro would have been ''right there''.
** Anyone serving [[BadBoss Jagi.]], since he tends to kill his own henchmen just as often as innocents. And unlike Shin or Raoh he isn't engaging in empirebuilding or conquest so there's no reward there, plus they don't get the excuse of being SlaveMooks either unlike with Souther or Raoh.
** Averted with the troops serving Amiba: You see, most of them were under the impression that they were serving ''Toki'', but it's let slip that the man claiming to be Toki is actually Amiba. Disgusted with this deception, they stop following Amiba's orders, and let their remaining captives go. That Kenshiro ''and'' Rei were there may have been an addiitonal motivation for them to wise up.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Toki. Yuria. Shuh. Fudoh. Ein. Countless hordes of innocent, well-meaning bystanders. The planet itself.
* ToThePain: Ken usually describes just what he did to an opponent before it finishes them off.
* TouchOfDeath: Hokuto Shinken is basically an entire martial art based around this.
* TrainingFromHell:
** Even in a series notable for its lack of gratuitous training scenes, there are a few glaring examples. At one point, Ken flashes back to when the adolescent students of his school had to fight the students in another school...where the fights were apparently to the death.
** Another time, there's the memory of the Hokuto Shinken final test, where Ken and Raoh have to face a tiger and are expected to make the tiger back down through sheer badassness -- killing the tiger instead is considered a major screw-up.
** And Souther's final test for his phoenix-themed martial art involved killing his own master. This was so bad it became Souther's StartOfDarkness.
* TragicHero: Raoh, for several reasons actually. (1) He wants to restore order and peace to the world by means of instilling fear and terror, (2) he wants Yuria to fall in love with him through similar methods, and (3) his ultimate goal is to become so powerful that even the heavens will bow down to him. His status as a tragic hero is especially prevalent in the spin-off series, ''Legends of the Dark King.''
%%** Shin also counts.
* TropeMaker: Quite simply, ''FOTNS'' is THE granddaddy of most Shonen fighting series (along with ''Manga/DragonBall''), and every trope that applies to them was codified by it (Again, with ''Dragon Ball''). It's easier to mention which fighting series are NOT in any way influenced by it).
* {{Troperrific}}: Yes, it starts in the year [[YearX 199X]]. Yes, it features absurd villains with absurd haircuts. Yes, it features a martial arts style [[CrazyPrepared that seems to have a counter for everything]]. Yes, there's a lot of pans and people explaining what they just did. Yes, it features [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil a linear progression of threats to our heroes]]. Yes, it defined basically everything we know and make fun of as a "Shonen" show, and yes, it plays ''every single one'' of those tropes utterly, completely straight without irony. The show wouldn't ''possibly'' be as effective if it did otherwise, however. If the show made light of Kenshiro's abilities or had the villains act in any other way or any number of subversions that viewers are now perhaps used to, [[Manga/BoboboboBobobo it would be a fundamentally different show]]. [[UnbuiltTrope Of course, when it first came out, most of these tropes weren't solid enough to be subverted anyway]].
* TrueCompanions: Anyone who is an ally of Kenshiro will exhibit UndyingLoyalty to him, but the best examples are Rei, Mamiya and Toki.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The war that trashed the world took place in 199X.
* TwoGuysAndAGirl
** Ken, Shin, and Yuria, at least in the flashbacks and the beginning of the series.
** For a bit it's Ken, Rei, and Mamiya, but with a far, ''far'' more tragic ending.
** The final story arc involves a love triangle between Ken, Bat and Lin.
* UnflinchingWalk: In one episode, Kenshiro punches a tank to death and walks away as it explodes. Also, in the animated movie, after recovering from his first fight with Shin, he slowly trudges towards a group of mooks attacking Rin and Bat, not even stopping as skyscrappers fall on top of him.
* UnproblematicProstitution: In Rei's side-story manga, the city of Azgarzul is a city of women ruled by women that makes most of its income from prostitution. But they have choice in whom they service, and there's rules about being reasonably polite and courteous to the working girls.
* UnstoppableRage: Ken does this almost every episode, usually illustrated when his battle aura [[ClothingDamage causes his shirt to disintegrate]]. This is even more amusing once you discover that it's actually a part of Hokuto Shinken - the move is called Tenryu Kokyu Ho, or "Art of the Dragon Breath", and enables the practitioner to tap into the 70% of the human body's power that is not normally used. There's actually an exception. When Rei first appears and says he's looking for the man with seven scars on his chest, the plot requires that Kenshiro not show his chest. Accordingly, Kenshiro's battle aura never does this until that plot is resolved.
* UpdatedRerelease: The manga has several collected editions in addition to the initial Jump Comics releases published during its serialization throughout the eighties. Most notably the ''Kanzenban'' edition published by Shogakukan in 2006, which condenses the original 27 volume run to 14 volumes and reprints all the colored art from the ''Weekly Jump'' serial, as well as all the opening pages that were omitted in earlier editions. The 18-volume Ultimate edition published throughout 2013 and 2014 has a new story in the beginning of Vol. 11 that details how Kokuoh lost his eye between the first and second half of the manga.
* UrbanHellscape: It's a TheApunkalypse variation, with gangs ruling the decaying ruins of cities after a nuclear holocaust. The gangs are typically without any redeeming features whatsoever, and the only ray of hope in the series is the protagonist Kenshiro.
* VillainsWantMercy: A good number of the villains who aren't martial arts masters as well as all the mooks take sadistic glee in tormenting and killing innocent bystanders who can't fight back. However when faced by Kenshiro, who ''can'' fight back, they would immediately beg him for mercy after either getting roughed up or witness Kenshiro's power performed on other lesser mooks in all its gory glory. Naturally, Kenshiro ignores their pleas and kills them violently to make them pay for their crimes. Sometimes Kenshiro would call out a villain's hypocrisy of begging him for mercy, coldly asking them if they ever showed mercy to their past victims.
--> '''Kenshiro:''' The cries of evil bastards don't reach me.
* VisualNovel:
** In 1986, Enix created a spinoff visual novel / AdventureGame called ''Hokuto no Ken: Violence Gekiga Adventure''. It was released for several computers that were popular in Japan at the time. It was basically a loose retelling of the Southern Cross arc with many of the same events transpiring differently. Most notably, it has a shot of Mr. Heart smoking a cigar.
** There was another Visual Novel-style game released by Banpresto in 1995, simply titled ''[[RecycledTitle Hokuto no Ken]]''. It was released for the Platform/PlayStation and Platform/SegaSaturn and took place after the events of the manga. Lin gets kinapped (again) on the day of her wedding with Bat and another Hokuto school (Hokuto Mumyoken) is behind the events.
* WastelandElder: Kenshiro encounters quite a few elderly village leaders during the series.
* WaterTorture: After battling Mad Sarge, Kenshiro struck a PressurePoint that forced Sarge to walk backwards and into a tank of water, where Ken submerged his head until Sarge gave up who was behind the forces of Godland. All this was eventually revealed to be a setup as even when the Sarge told, he was informed that [[YouAreAlreadyDead he was already dead]]. Cue kaboom.
* WaterTowerDown: Yuda does this during his final battle in order to make it harder for Rei to use his legs and his aerial attacks. Rei defeats him by using Hishou Hakurei.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: "Hey, there's a new, cool looking character with a weird new fighting sty- Oh they're dead already." And that's for the good guys. Bad guys end up in the boneyard even quicker and bloodier.
* TheWestern: Think David Carradine's ''Kung Fu'' directed by Creator/SergioLeone on a '''very''' bad day and you get this classic Sci-Fi Kung-Fu Western.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Pel, Rin's beloved PreciousPuppy, who appears only in the anime series, disappears mysteriously after episode 63 without any explanation, only to make one last cameo during episode 70 and grown up in the sequel series.
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Kenshiro kills mooks without remorse but will often sympathize with their boss because of a FreudianExcuse. {{Downplayed}} however in the sense that he doesn't hesitate to kill the BigBad, and the mooks are often far more vicious and depraved than your standard PunchClockVillain.
* WhatTheFuAreYouDoing: In one episode, a mook unsuccessfully tries to perform a Hokuto Zankai Ken.
* WheelOfPain: The Celestial Empire has one that runs an electrical generator. The power of which is primarily used to light up the Viceroy's rooms.
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: The solution is punching. No exceptions. Bandits holding the village hostage? Punch them. Facing down a tank? Punch it. Trying to cure a little girl of trauma-induced muteness? ''Punch her, dammit!''
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The manga states that they are in the remnants of Japan (later downplayed as they never bother to mention Japan again). There are also no famous landmarks that would help indicate where the setting is.
* WhileRomeBurns: An apt description for many of the gangs and low-level villains in this series. They just want to use the lack of order and rules to do whatever they want, no matter if it destroys what's left of human civilization.
* WideEyedIdealist: Kenshiro is an idealist who lives in a CrapsackWorld where people daily dies and kills over a scrap of food or a sip of water. Still he believes it is easy to be despicable in this age, but that it takes a true HERO keep your humanity and keep being a good person when everything and everyone around seems suggesting to you otherwise. In the first chapter, Bat asks him bluntly how he has survived so far if he would not even try break himself out of jail because it could get a little girl in trouble. Not long after, Bat finds out Kenshiro is idealistic because ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes he can afford to be.]]'' Behaving like scum and harming helpless people in front of him is a very, ''very'' bad idea. Like in "he WILL disintegrate you" bad idea.
* WifeBasherBasher:
** Though Kenshiro and Rei will avenge the abuse of all innocents as a matter of course, they are ''exceptionally'' harsh towards any "man" who dares to strike or abuse women; and that's saying something considering how brutal and cruel Hokuto Shinken and Nanto Seiken ''already'' are.
** If you serve in Raoh's armies, [[EvenEvilHasStandards do]] '''[[EvenEvilHasStandards not]]''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards rape women]] if you don't want your head ''literally'' slapped off your shoulders, like the rapist-mook in the manga found out the hard way.
* WifeHusbandry: Whilst it's completely accidental on his part, Kenshiro gets worryingly close to doing this with Rin, and it doesn't help that everyone else promptly turns into a ShipperOnDeck. As a result, much of the second half of the manga involves him trying to get her to see other people - or, more specifically, [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Bat]].
* WilliamTelling: Used as a KickTheDog moment in an early episode, with one of Diamond's men forcing a villager to try to shoot a can off the head of his son with a bow and arrow. The scene it replaced in the manga was even crueler than that.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds:
** It only took a nudge from Jagi to make Shin go JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope.
** Raoh does some truly hideous things to build his empire, but considering the state the world is in it's easy to see why. Not to mention his goal to become the strongest man alive, as he was originally intended to be the successor to Hokuto Shinken before losing the position ''twice''.
** Souther, if he's not a JerkassWoobie. [[invoked]]
* AWorldHalfFull:
** Even if the world is burnt by nuclear fire, it will only stay bad if you choose to let it stay bad: If you have the power and are willing to care, even a wasteland can be made a better place.
** Despite the nuclear war, there seem to be quite a few people still left, and later on in the manga the post-war civilization has recovered to a point were a large number of independent states exist here and there.
* WorldOfBadass: Averted. Even {{Mook}}-level enemies are often gigantic superhuman badasses, but most of the world's population are peaceful villagers who have no chance of standing up against them, and until [[TheHero Kenshiro]] passes through an area, the non-badass people just have to bend over and take it - resistance will just get them killed.
* WorldOfHam: There is no space for subtle emotions here; all feelings are either screamed out, punched out, or cried out in the worlds of Buronson and Hara.
* WorldOfMuscleMen: Don't question where they get the protein from.
* WorthlessYellowRocks: A bunch of gangsters in the first episode find a briefcase full of money. Since this is the post-apocalyptic future, though, the thug who grabs the briefcase promptly throws the money away, since it doesn't even make good toilet paper.
* WorthyOpponent: Shin, Souther, Raoh and Falco to Kenshiro. Toki, Juza, and Fudoh to Raoh. Yuda to Rei. Shu to Souther, maybe.
* WouldHurtAChild: Some assholes decided that maiming a child or worse would be fun in the post-apocalyptic world and no law would ever convict them. Too bad for them KarmaHoudini doesn't exist in the world of ''Hokuto no Ken'' [[note]] seriously try to find a single entry of it [[/note]], so expect these human wastes of life to become Jackson Pollock paintings.
* WoundLicking: One of Kenshiro's most common actions in battle after being slightly injured is to touch the wound with a finger and then lick the blood off of it. It's one of the many ways he shows how badass he is.
* {{Wuxia}}: One of the earliest examples of this genre to use the ''future'' (albeit a primitive, post-apocalyptic one) rather than the past as a setting.
* XRayOfPain: Whenever Kenshiro uses the Hokuto Shinken to strike his enemy's [[PressurePoint pressure points]] and [[YouAreAlreadyDead destroy them from within]], internal damages such as bone cracking, [[YourHeadAsplode head explosion]] and [[LudicrousGibs body part splattering]] are often shown by an X-ray-like effect.
* {{Yandere}}: In the manga, Shin is just a garden variety victim of LoveMakesYouEvil, but in the anime AdaptationExpansion he gets enough character development to be revealed as one of these types - complete with an AlasPoorVillain at the end.
* YouAreAlreadyDead: TropeNamer.
* YouCantFightFate: Made very explicit by having astrology play a part in most major fight scenes.
* YouDidntAsk:
** Often, Ken will only save someone after being told for the 1,000th time about how evil the captor/tyrant is.
** And just as often subverted. If anyone is doing anything evil or unlawful to innocents within earshot of Kenshiro, he will usually respond. If they're lucky, he'll just make their arms useless or otherwise neutralize them. If they did something really bad, such as hurting women or children, expect heads exploding.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: Rei gets hit with an attack by Raoh that would kill him painfully in three days, giving him a limited amount of time to rescue Mamiya and defeat Yuda. When he get close to the limit without defeating Yuda, he enlist's Toki's aid to extend his life for one more day via a process so painful, it causes his hair to go white.
* YourHeadASplode: Watch out if you have a mohawk! Sometimes subverted in which even without a mohawk, doesn't mean you're safe. Look at Jakoh's death scene for one thing.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle:
** Kenshiro meets this trope after storming one of Raoh's castles in search of his kidnapped fiancée.
** It also happens during the anime version of the Southern Cross arc, except substitute Raoh for Shin.
** Also happens when Rei raids Juda's hideout with the intent to kill him, only to find out that Juda left long ago.
* YourSizeMayVary: Attacking opponents suddenly getting much bigger? Kokuoh-Go, Raoh's unusually large horse, becoming large enough to completely stomp mooks under his hoofs when moments ago the same hoofs were only as big as those mooks' heads? Raoh himself, usually only two heads taller than Kenshiro, suddenly becomes a giant at least twice as tall? Mako begging for mercy from Jagi, whose knees are now at head level? This series has a lot of this.
* {{Zeerust}}: The original manga was published during [=1980s=], at a time when most doomsday predictions placed the end of the world at the late [=1990s=]. Thus, the nuclear war occurs in the year [[YearX 199X]] and the term ''Seikimatsu'' ("end of the century") is used to refer to the era the story takes place. This becomes ZeerustCanon in all of the newer spin-offs published after 2000 and onward, which continued using the term ''Seikimatsu'' when referring to the post-apocalyptic period the story takes place.

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