"I will defend the Law of Hokuto!"
"Human existence became a struggle for uncontaminated water and food. Only the strongest survive. And in this age of chaos, men were fearful, and power over other men made them feel less afraid. The flame of life on Earth was sputtering and if extinguished, would never be rekindled. But there were those whose concerns was not for themselves, but for their world and its inhabitants."
— Ryuken (English dub)
Fist of the North Star (北斗の拳; Hokuto no Ken), mostly known as Fist of the North Star: The Movie for simplicity’s sake, is a 1986 animated adaptation of the manga of the same name by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, produced and animated by Toei Animation and directed by Toyoo Ashida, who also directed the anime series made around the same time.
Made in the wake of the series’ popularity and to promote the anime, the movie roughly adapts the first 72 chapters of the manga (or the first 49 episodes of the anime), but makes a lot of changes to the story and removes a lot of characters in order to make a cohesive What If? story.
In 1991 it was given an English dub by Streamline Pictures and with a translation made by none other than Carl Macek
. This is how most people in the West were introduced to the series.
Fist of the North Star: The Movie contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Kiba Daioh, aka Boss Fang, was originally a Dirty Coward who tried to get a cheap shot at Ken after seemingly surrendering only for him to die in a pretty undignified way. Here, however, is shown defiantly defending his territory from Raoh and manages to slaughter a good chunk of his army and even taunts Raoh. This backfires and he dies, but his death is way cooler this time.
- A small dub-only example, but after Ken kicks the fat of Heart's belly to reach his pressure points, in the original he whines that it hurts so much. In the dub, though?Heart: HAH!! Nice try, guy!
- Adaptational Jerkass. Dub-only, but for some bizarre reason Ryuken in the English dub shows no reaction to the news of Kenshiro dying and basically tells Raoh to go and conquer the world but he should also stop bothering him. This is in high contrast to the original where he reacted to the news with a Big "WHAT?!" and he actually fights Raoh (albeit off-screen) to try and stop him.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: The movie changes hair colors even more compared to the anime.
- Lin sports pink hair as opposed to the red hair she had in the anime.
- Rei sports the white hair he had in the later episodes of the anime as opposed to the black from the manga or the blue hair he was introduced with in the anime.
- Yuria sports orange hair as opposed to the purple hair she had in the anime. Curiously, the anime would later on change her hair to orange.
- Adaptational Name Change: Averted. Promotional material shows that Heart was going to be renamed to Elephant to keep with the Theme Naming of Jagi’s underlings (Fox and Jackal) but he’s ultimately still called Heart in the final movie.
- Adapted Out: Because the movie is a very compressed adaptation that crams a lot of chapters into a roughly 2-hour movie, a lot of characters had to be left out, and most of them are very important ones in the original story.
- The last of the Hokuto Brothers, Toki, does not appear at all nor is he even mentioned.
- Rei’s love interest, Mamiya, is also nowhere to be seen.
- None of Shin’s KING subordinates (Spade, Club and Diamond) aside from Heart appear. Joker, an original character made for the anime, is also absent.
- While Jackal does appear in what basically amounts to a cameo, Devil Rebirth doesn’t, though early promotional material seems to indicate he was planned to be in it at some point.
- Animation Bump: One of Toei Animation’s most lavishly-animated movies, the movie boasts character animation that’s a lot more fluid than what you’d find on TV anime at the time and extremely detailed backgrounds. This is more notable in the fight scenes and especially the death scenes.
- Award-Bait Song: ''PURPLE EYES'' by Kodomo Band, which plays during the end credits. The English dub features an instrumental of it instead.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the the original theatrical cut at least, Raoh wins in the final fight against Ken and would have even killed Ken had Lin not stopped him. Averted though in the home video version where Ken and Raoh's fight ends in a draw instead.
- Bittersweet Ending: Rei dies, Raoh lives to fight another day, Ken loses track of Yuria and it's implied he might never see her again. But Lin and Bat discover a bunch of plants growing in the barren soil, giving hope that the Earth might become green again.
- Black Blood: Probably done as an artistic homage to the anime that was airing at the time (and was made by the same people), when Jagi’s head is starting to explode, his blood turns a bright white. You can even briefly hear the signature electric crackling noise!
- Bloodier and Gorier: OH YES. Because it didn’t have the restrictions of TV programming, the movie features violence more on par with the original manga, with plenty of red blood and internal organs being visible. While it was sadly still hit with some half-assed censorship at the last minute, the violence is still noticeably more brutal and graphic.
- The Cameo: D from Vampire Hunter D (another animated feature directed by Toyoo Ashida) and Arion from the eponymous manga (which also had an animated adaptation in 1986) can be seen in the crowd at the end when Yuria is crucified.
- Death of a Child: At the beginning of the movie, we see a caravan in the middle of the wasteland being intercepted by a bunch of thieves who then proceed to slaughter them all. Amongst them was a woman holding a baby and we even see the baby’s lifeless hand after his mother is murdered.
- Demoted to Extra: Quite a few characters who played major roles in the manga and anime had their roles significantly reduced.
- Jackal is reduced to one of Jagi’s lackeys who dies in the same scene he’s introduced in because he reacted with horror at Jagi’s disfigured face.
- The Golan Colonel only makes two short appearances to give news to Shin and is unceremoniously killed by Shin for telling him that Yuria wasn’t a priority.
- Galf makes an appearance announcing Raoh’s arrival at Cassandra and kills a random guy who’s chanting off-tune.
- Dub Name Change: A few examples:
- Yuria to Julia, per the localization of the series at the time.
- Airi to Ailee.
- Zeed to Zenda.
- Uighur to Weagle.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In this version Kiba Daioh, aka Boss Fang, is killed by Raoh where as in the manga and anime, Ken is the one who kills him
- Shin in this movie is mortally wounded by Raoh and succumbs to his wounds. In the manga and anime Shin has no encounter with Raoh and instead Ken is the one that mortally wounds Shin before he (Shin) jumps to his death.
- Dub Pronunciation Change: Ryuken's name is pronounced as "Rai-Ah-Ken" in the English dub.
- Fanservice:
- After shining Jagi’s boots, Airi falls backwards due to Jagi kicking her and you can actually see her panties.◊
- Before escaping Shin’s fortress, Yuria rips her dress apart and strips naked, with her breasts in full view (though with slightly hard-to-see nipples).
- After shining Jagi’s boots, Airi falls backwards due to Jagi kicking her and you can actually see her panties.
- Hotter and Sexier: Surprisingly averted. While there’s only one scene where Yuria strips naked, it’s noticeably less detailed than the nudity shown on the TV show.
- Inconsistent Spelling: From the credits of the English dub:
- Jackal’s name is spelled as Jackel.
- Heart’s name is spelled a Hart.
- Lin’s name is spelled as Lynn.
- Rei’s name is spelled as Ray.
- Ailee's name is spelled as Alei.
- Killed Offscreen: Despite the trailer hyping up a bunch of battles, two of them don't even happen on-screen:
- RYUKEN vs. RAOH: As in the manga, Ryuken says that he will try to stop Raoh but sealing his fists (much to Raoh's horror), but after a lenghty shot of the outside of the dojo, Raoh comes out and we see Ryuken sitting, at first looking like there wasn't even a fight... until a lightning flash shows a puddle of blood under Ryuken, implying that Raoh inflicted a deadly blow to him.
- SHIN vs. RAOH: Raoh finds Shin in his fortress as the latter is looking for Yuria and while they're shown getting ready, the scene cuts to Ken finding Shin's fortress. He then finds Shin and after a brief fight, Shin dies because of the wounds Raoh inflicted on him. This one's particularly egregious as Shin and Raoh NEVER met in the manga so this was a perfectly good chance to see them fight.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The original Japanese trailer boasts that the movie is going to feature “The 10 Great Battles of Hokuto” and proceeds to list them all. While some are accurate, like “KENSHIRO vs. JAGI” and “KENSHIRO vs. RAOH,” the others barely qualify as fights as they either end too quickly like “KENSHIRO vs. ELEPHANT”Note or don’t even qualify as fights at all like “KENSHIRO vs. REI.”
- Nipple and Dimed: Averted. Due to the quality of VHS tapes and the movie having a red tint over it for its home media release in the 90s, when Yuria strips naked before her escape, it really does look like she has no nipples. However, with the higher-quality DVD and Blu-Ray releases, it’s easier to notice her nipples... it’s just that they almost look like ghost nipples with how they’re colored against her skin.
- Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: During the final fight between Ken and Raoh, streams after streams of blood start gushing from their bodies and end up being completely covered in their own (and probably each other’s) blood.
- Scenery Porn: The lush landscapes shown at the beginning of the movie (before everything goes to hell) are gorgeous.
- Shout-Out: The design of Raoh’s soldiers in this movie is basically Lord Humungus but with a black mask and armor.
- Shown Their Work: The artists and animators at Toei actually studied human anatomy to make the gore more detailed and realistic. They also studied how the nervous system works and thus the places Jagi pokes to undo the effects of Hokuto Shinken are accurate.
- Tagline:
- “An epic assault on the senses!" – (US release)
- “He’ll blow your mind… right out of your skull!” – (US DVD release)
- “The most violent and action packed animated movie of all time!” – (US DVD release)
- Too Dumb to Live: What do the three thieves who are about to kill Bat and Lin do after seeing Kenshiro WALK THROUGH A GOD-DAMNED SKYSCRAPER? They pull a crossbow and knife on him. No guesses as to what happens to them after that. Either these guys had the biggest balls after the apocalypse or were really that stupid.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Airi completely disappears from the movie after she’s saved despite her being the main reason why Rei is in the movie in the first place. She’s not even present to witness her own brother’s death.
