Overview:
The time is the post-nuclear future. On a day of mourning for his master, Kenshiro, the Fist of the North Star, is attacked by his training partner Shin, one of the Fists of the South Star. Now that their master is dead, Shin takes the prize he’s always wanted, Julia. Julia is Kenshiro’s lovely girlfriend, who agrees to go along with Shin as long as they stop torturing Ken. Left for dead, our hero drags himself to the nearest town where he is accosted for trying to get a drink of water. That’s where our story begins. Ken shares his cell with a young thief named Bart. The two of them are under the watchful eye of an even younger girl named Lynn, who is mute. Kenshiro learns of this and lays a healing hand on her. Can I get an amen? A local biker gang soon attacks the town. They are quickly dispatched by Jesus—I mean Kenshiro. Bart and Lynn decide to follow Ken wherever he may go, and usually prove to be more of a burden than help. Ken is freed for his good deed, so he continues on his quest to find the evil Shin, and take back Julia. To get to Shin Kenshiro soon learns he must fight through an army of underlings in various cities of the world. The odds are stacked against him, but nothing will stop Kenshiro from his ultimate goal! Which is either to stop Shin, or rip more shirts than Hulk Hogan.

DVD Features/Art Design:
This anime is old. The art style is old, the character design is old, and the voice acting is old. Not being a fan of old anime, I thought I would find myself hating Fist of the North Star. But after only two episodes I was hooked. The exploding body parts are disgusting and over done. The hulk-out-pre-fight-flex-fests are the same animation every time. And that is why FOTNS is fantastic! Somebody must have given the gore button to an eight year old with ADD. Make him punch this guy in the stomach and then HIS HEAD EXPLODES LIKE BOOOOOOM! And then make him kick this guy in the head and his head will be all kicked and then KA-POW!! HIS HEAD EXPLODES AGAIN AND HIS…..HIS BRAINS JUST LEAK ON THE FLOOR!! On the DVD side of things, we have 2 sound tracks as per norm. The Japanese soundtrack has the audio quality of a 60’s radio program. The voiceovers sound like somebody phoned them in and the music is very muffled and tinny. The English soundtrack is a work of art. The voice of Kenshiro is perfect. Whoever they got to do him sounds like he has some actual acting experience under his belt. Bart and Lynn are a little annoying at first, but they sound real and that’s what’s important. The music was completely replaced by electronic beats, which fit the future-world setting quite nicely. The sound effects have been replaced by much more realistic sounding ones. The extra stuff we get on this DVD are some character Bios, a photo gallery of stills, and the typical “Manga Extras”. Which shouldn’t count as extras.

Music:
As I said before, the music for this new DVD has been replaced entirely. I’m sure making electronic music was probably the most cost-effective way of going about this, but it sounds good too. The tempo slows down to match tense situations, and keeps up with the fast-paced hand-to-hand action later on. The music really adds to the atmosphere.

Conclusion:
It’s an old classic reborn. There’s plenty of action and adventure for all who enjoy it. The characters are memorable for their bizarre weapons and body-shapes. Fist of the North Star was highly enjoyable. The DVD for FOTNS looks good, and has an incredible English track with it. This is exactly what old anime on DVD should be. You can keep it preserved like you remember, or you can watch the updated and far more enjoyable new version. Manga gave us a top-notch DVD here folks.