Shin Hokuto no Ken

This OVA was probaly like a side story for Fist of the north star that was based on the novel that was written by Buronson called Fist of the North Star: The Cursed City.

Story (8/10) It's just a basic story about a post-apocalyptic war invasions that were caused by bandits and then the savior came to save the citizens

Art (9/10) The fight scenes we're technically better and exciting, compared with the legends ova it was much more faster and dynamic

Characters (7/10) It's just 3 episodes so the characters still stay in their default nature but there are some character developments. But hey Kenshiro is still ... on the track

Sound (8/10) The hit-sounds were great and the soundtracks still kicking ass and it sounds much more similiar to Naruto

Overall (9/10) It was still more enjoyable for whoose didn't finished the original series, but personally i'd finish the 80's series first so i can compare the details

Stand-alone movie length mini arc story that turns into a three hour ordeal through pointless fluff. The story reaches its natural conclusion in episode one. That alone should've simply been fleshed out and developed more in order to be a 1h30 film. Had it been that, this would've been fine. Unfortunately, it gets stretched beyond its perfectly fine ending point via retcons and plot convenience.

Half the second episode is unnecessary, whereas the third has its conflict arise from a situation in which Kenshiro shouldn't be in. Even if it truly wanted to go past the plot of episode 1, there's still no reason why it ... is as long as it is. At worst, SHnK should have been no more than two hours, not three.

Speaking of plot convenience and the dumb scenario of the third episode. The original series saw Kenshiro bend metal, blow stuff up, and lift boulders the size of buildings. What keeps Kenshiro from going and beating the bad guy in episode 3? A cell with metal bars. The same type of metal bars that he was previously shown being able to bend.

With all that said, it's not horrible. It's not as good as HnK, but it is better than the sequel.

Okay, I know a lot of people out there think that Fist of the North Star is a fantastic series with tons of ultra-violence in it. Well, at least that's what some people told me about it however, after this little run-in I have to say, I'm never going to be watching any series like this again.

Story: Well, the story simply put is bad, close to unwatchable. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world in which people beat the living crap out of each other with martial arts. Our hero, Kenshiro, is the greatest martial artist on the block because he knows ... the Fist of the North Star and therefore cannot be injured. Very very weak plotwise.

The beginning of the first episode is where it all starts to go downhill in a hurry, you have to listen to the dialogue which is terrible. I watched the dubbed version so maybe the sub is better but I doubt it, it's hard to take crap and make it into something good.

However, it must be said that the second and third episodes are distinctively better in the story category but not by much. (1000 times 0 is still 0.) So really, you don't want to pick up this anime for a good story. No, people out there watch Fist of the North Star for violence, which I've got to say, isn't very good either.

Kenshiro is an unstoppable brick wall and every fight, besides the last, is over in a matter of seconds. He hits a pressure point on their head and then they blow up sending blood and guts everywhere, not much for fighting. Even when they actually do have a real fight, it is still ridiculously unrealistic and it turned me off.

Art: Well, the art's pretty good. It matches the art of the manga and tweaks it a little bit making it look prettier and more full of colors, except when they go into the 3D look. I don't know what it is with animators wanted to do things in both 2D and 3D but it turns me off, Fist of the North Star is no different.

Some shows seem to be able to pull off bringing the two worlds of 3D and 2D animation together, but this is not one of them. Everytime it shows the landscape it's nothing but poorly rendered sand and nothing else, I know that they are in a Post-Apocalyptic world but there would be at least something to break up the monotony every once and a while. However, the makers of this series did a cop out on the 3D so there's nothing to really see.

It's truly depressing because without all the 3D that they threw in, I might've given this series an 8 or 9 in the animation department but since it had it, and it clashes so badly together, I had to drop it down.

Sound: The sound is right next to being completely and utterly terrible. The opening theme is alright and the soundeffects of people's heads exploding are well done. But the voices are hideous, mainly because of what they're saying, and there's really no music whatsoever throughout the series. Every once and a while a heavy guitar rift will start playing in the background of a fight scene but these always seem to be timed badly and are few and far between.

Character: What character? The characters are severely lacking in the personality department. It's almost as though they reached into a bag of over-used anime cliches and handed them out to the characters like candy. Kenshiro is the badass strong silent type, who never gets hurt. Sara is the buxom healer. And I can't even mention all the stupid but powerful henchmen that proliferate this anime. But the list goes on and on. It made me sick.

I guess the character designs are fairly interesting but the characters themselves could have used quite a bit more personality. Throughout the series they just acted like robots, and annoying robots at that.

Enjoyment: If you can't tell, I did not like this anime. It had a lot of potential for being good but the writing and everything else just tore that potential to pieces.

Overall: I'd say stay away from this anime unless perhaps you've seen the other Fists of the North Star, then you might enjoy this one. Your average anime fan however I think will hate this anime almost as much as I did. I guess that if you really have absolutely nothing better to do on a rainy day you could check this one out, although you probably won't enjoy it at least you get to see people's heads explode.