Fist of the North Star (Vol. 5)
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List Price: $24.99
Features
• Animated
• Color
• Dolby
• DVD-Video
• Original recording remastered
• Subtitled
• Widescreen
• NTSC
In Theaters : 27 September, 1991
DVD Release : 25 November, 2003 |
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Fist of the North Star (Vol. 5) description
One of the first anime features, Fist of the North Star was based on a popular manga series set in the not-too-distant future, when Earth has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust. The scattered survivors huddle in ruined cities, awaiting an enlightened warrior-hero worthy of the title of "Fist of the North Star," who will start the planet on the path to recovery. That mythic hero arrives in the person O, who looks like a caricature of Sylvester Stallone drawn for an American Saturday morning cartoon show. The relatively simple story is burdened with many subplots involving evil brothers, betrayals, kidnappings, and murders, all needing endless expository scenes. Director Toyoa Ashida borrows shamelessly from the Rambo and Mad Max films, along with Frank Frazetta's illustrations. Fist of the North probably ranks as the most violent film in animation history, but after the fourth or fifth head explodes in gobbets of red paint, the effect becomes unintentionally comic. --Charles Solomon |
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Fist of the North Star (Vol. 5) Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
The Anime Future-World Western!
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In a post-nuclear future world where water and food are scarce and nothing seems to grow from the earth, those who are strongest rule. One such man is called Kenshiro, and he is the successor of the Hokuto Shinken fighting style which uses pressure points to destroy the opponent's body from within. When Ken's woman is stolen from him by his former friend, he is left for dead and his older brothers each attempt to replace him as the new Fist of the North Star. Ken is not dead, however, and returns stronger than ever. He journeys to reclaim his lost love, fighting evil gangs along the way and picking up two young sidekicks, a boy named Bart and a special little girl named Lynn. Through his quest, he is forced to do battle with his old friend and both of his brothers in an effort to defeat those who would prevent rebirth in the radiation ravaged world.
Playing out much like a spaghetti western or grindhouse flick, "Fist of the North Star" is rather entertaining in terms of action, violence, and gore. Plenty of heads explode, and superhuman strength and size seems to abound in the future. The story is rather simple, and yet the film leaves the viewers with some questions in the end about certain key characters disappearing or having out-of-nowhere changes of heart. Overall, I'd say this is worth seeing if you like grindhouse type revenge films or martial arts focused Anime, and it's definitely an important film to see for animation fans. I'm not a big fan of this particular style of Anime (I tend to prefer the cleaner looking types with lots of cute, big-eyed girls in short skirts), but this is one of the first Anime features to be a hit in the U.S. (dubbed into English in 1991), making it historically significant to the fan of film and animation. The film was originally released in 1986, and before that it was a TV series and a manga. A live-action movie and other productions have been made since. The U.S. VHS release, by the way, contains the true original ending, though some mistakenly believe the other ending is the original. |
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Fist of the North Star (Vol. 5) dvd movie.