There is no subtlety in this excellent animated series. It is violent, loud, passionate and steadfast in the morality of its dialog. The characters are (literally) larger than life, and good and evil wear very white and black hats...most of the time.
The plot is reasonably simple. I mentioned a spoiler alert because I feel that describing the three story arcs is indeed giving something away. Here goes. The Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war, so the entire world is essentially desert wastelands and villages that were once cities. Three types of people exist: normal people, evil hulking punks, thugs, barbarians and other horrible nameless idiots, characters with varying levels of superhuman martial arts ability. The most 'super' of these super-humans are those skilled in the Fist of the South Star, or the Fist of the North Star. Basically, South Star disciplines (there are six of them) are techniques that slice someone up, and North Star disciplines (there is only ONE of them) uses pressure points to blow someone up after a series of strikes. Don't get me wrong though, all the practitioners are walking bulldozers that can apparently punch down buildings. The hero of the series is Kenshiro, sometimes known as Ken. Quite early on, we find out two things..(1) he is the new Fist of the North Star and (2) he got his girlfriend Yuria stolen by his "friend" Shin, who left him for dead, with a bunch of scars on his chest....
Arc 1: Ken goes looking for Shin, and encounters several villains along the way, who are terrorizing villages of different kinds. We learn just how powerful Ken is, as he dispatches everyone. He makes some friends, in the form of some kids.
Arc 2: Ken meets Rei, a noble fellow who is a South Star Master. Most people who watch the series generally think Rei is the coolest character ever. We also learn more about how Ken was selected as the Fist of the North Star, and that he has a couple of brothers (Toki and Raoh) who were also in line, but they didn't get picked for various reasons. We learn more about the other South Star Fists...some good...some bad.
Arc 3: Ken is now 'competing' with Ken-Oh, a monstrously powerful martial artist (North Star) who wants to rule the world. Ken-Oh could be described as a bit of an anti-hero but I will leave that up the viewer.
That's it. So, the different levels on which this can be enjoyed: 1) Anime beat-em-up with heads exploding. 2) Soundtrack ranging from soulful to J-rock cool/cheesy. 3) Love story. 4) Friendship story (think buddy cop but more serious and with punks being destroyed) 5) Deep philosophical journey over what it means to be good and evil, or what drives man to do different things.
I warn you right now, for a heads-exploding anime with some repetition and a lot of yelling, this series can lay claim to some of the most emotionally powerful moments ever put to celluloid. I won't spoil them here but when you are done with the first 108 episodes (don't bother with the others) you will have completed an incredibly satisfying journey.
You Wa Shock, indeed.
P.S. Asunaki Tabi is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.
P.P.S. If you have a history of body image dysmorphia in your family, be careful watching this series.
The plot is reasonably simple. I mentioned a spoiler alert because I feel that describing the three story arcs is indeed giving something away. Here goes. The Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war, so the entire world is essentially desert wastelands and villages that were once cities. Three types of people exist: normal people, evil hulking punks, thugs, barbarians and other horrible nameless idiots, characters with varying levels of superhuman martial arts ability. The most 'super' of these super-humans are those skilled in the Fist of the South Star, or the Fist of the North Star. Basically, South Star disciplines (there are six of them) are techniques that slice someone up, and North Star disciplines (there is only ONE of them) uses pressure points to blow someone up after a series of strikes. Don't get me wrong though, all the practitioners are walking bulldozers that can apparently punch down buildings. The hero of the series is Kenshiro, sometimes known as Ken. Quite early on, we find out two things..(1) he is the new Fist of the North Star and (2) he got his girlfriend Yuria stolen by his "friend" Shin, who left him for dead, with a bunch of scars on his chest....
Arc 1: Ken goes looking for Shin, and encounters several villains along the way, who are terrorizing villages of different kinds. We learn just how powerful Ken is, as he dispatches everyone. He makes some friends, in the form of some kids.
Arc 2: Ken meets Rei, a noble fellow who is a South Star Master. Most people who watch the series generally think Rei is the coolest character ever. We also learn more about how Ken was selected as the Fist of the North Star, and that he has a couple of brothers (Toki and Raoh) who were also in line, but they didn't get picked for various reasons. We learn more about the other South Star Fists...some good...some bad.
Arc 3: Ken is now 'competing' with Ken-Oh, a monstrously powerful martial artist (North Star) who wants to rule the world. Ken-Oh could be described as a bit of an anti-hero but I will leave that up the viewer.
That's it. So, the different levels on which this can be enjoyed: 1) Anime beat-em-up with heads exploding. 2) Soundtrack ranging from soulful to J-rock cool/cheesy. 3) Love story. 4) Friendship story (think buddy cop but more serious and with punks being destroyed) 5) Deep philosophical journey over what it means to be good and evil, or what drives man to do different things.
I warn you right now, for a heads-exploding anime with some repetition and a lot of yelling, this series can lay claim to some of the most emotionally powerful moments ever put to celluloid. I won't spoil them here but when you are done with the first 108 episodes (don't bother with the others) you will have completed an incredibly satisfying journey.
You Wa Shock, indeed.
P.S. Asunaki Tabi is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.
P.P.S. If you have a history of body image dysmorphia in your family, be careful watching this series.