WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Pros: Beautiful and extremely graphic animation; great character
designs
Cons: The animation looks bad in some parts; the plot needs a little more development; this movie is not for the squeamish(it's EXTREMELY violent)
Plot summary: Near the end of the 20th century, the Earth has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust. The world became a hellish deathtrap where gangs and mutants kill the weak and each other for their neverending lust for power. However, there is one warrior that's trying to put a stop to all that. His name is Ken, and he is the true successor to the Fist of the North Star, a martial arts style so deadly that it destroys body parts from within. His best friend Shin, who is the Fist of the South Star(a martial arts style that attacks externally but is still pretty deadly nonetheless) decides to take Ken's girlfriend, Julia, as his own and has him put to death...or so he thought. Ken returns from the dead, saves and befriends 2 kids from being killed by ruthless thugs, and sets out to stop his enemies and get Julia back.
Review: This is one of my favorite anime movies. I had first saw this on TV one night(heavily edited, of course) a few years back, and I had no idea how violent the movie really was. Then there comes this one day that I decide to check it out from Blockbuster. I'm going to say agian that this movie is not for the squeamish and for children, because it contains extremely graphic violence and brutality. Death is the majority of what this film has to offer, and it's not pretty. Even though this was made in 1986, a whole of effort went into the animation. I give a lot of credit to Toei Animation for going all out to make this movie look beautiful as much as violent. As for the character designs, it seems like the characters in this movie work out at Gold's Gym on a daily basis. I mean, the male characters and this film look like they can benchpress tons while the women look like Amazons! There were parts in the animation where the extremely violent scenes were edited by this "blur" effect, making it hard to see how the person got killed. There were also parts in the film where characters looked like the size of Godzilla without any good explanation. The story itself could have been worked on little better, too. The producers tried to cram the entire manga/TV series into one big 2-hour movie a la Akira, and there was no way it could properly be done. I don't claim to know everything about the Fist of the North Star franchise, but it would have been a little better if they explained more of the Fist of the North Star universe. With all flaws aside, Fist of the North Star is good action anime movie to watch, as long as you can handle the violence.
My last 2 cents: HBO made an live-action, "original movie" version of this a few years back, and from what I've seen of it, it's horrible and nothing like the anime film. At least the original anime film version of this stays true to the series unlike HBO's pile of dog s*** they'd dare call a movie.
My rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Beautiful and extremely graphic animation; great character
designs
Cons: The animation looks bad in some parts; the plot needs a little more development; this movie is not for the squeamish(it's EXTREMELY violent)
Plot summary: Near the end of the 20th century, the Earth has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust. The world became a hellish deathtrap where gangs and mutants kill the weak and each other for their neverending lust for power. However, there is one warrior that's trying to put a stop to all that. His name is Ken, and he is the true successor to the Fist of the North Star, a martial arts style so deadly that it destroys body parts from within. His best friend Shin, who is the Fist of the South Star(a martial arts style that attacks externally but is still pretty deadly nonetheless) decides to take Ken's girlfriend, Julia, as his own and has him put to death...or so he thought. Ken returns from the dead, saves and befriends 2 kids from being killed by ruthless thugs, and sets out to stop his enemies and get Julia back.
Review: This is one of my favorite anime movies. I had first saw this on TV one night(heavily edited, of course) a few years back, and I had no idea how violent the movie really was. Then there comes this one day that I decide to check it out from Blockbuster. I'm going to say agian that this movie is not for the squeamish and for children, because it contains extremely graphic violence and brutality. Death is the majority of what this film has to offer, and it's not pretty. Even though this was made in 1986, a whole of effort went into the animation. I give a lot of credit to Toei Animation for going all out to make this movie look beautiful as much as violent. As for the character designs, it seems like the characters in this movie work out at Gold's Gym on a daily basis. I mean, the male characters and this film look like they can benchpress tons while the women look like Amazons! There were parts in the animation where the extremely violent scenes were edited by this "blur" effect, making it hard to see how the person got killed. There were also parts in the film where characters looked like the size of Godzilla without any good explanation. The story itself could have been worked on little better, too. The producers tried to cram the entire manga/TV series into one big 2-hour movie a la Akira, and there was no way it could properly be done. I don't claim to know everything about the Fist of the North Star franchise, but it would have been a little better if they explained more of the Fist of the North Star universe. With all flaws aside, Fist of the North Star is good action anime movie to watch, as long as you can handle the violence.
My last 2 cents: HBO made an live-action, "original movie" version of this a few years back, and from what I've seen of it, it's horrible and nothing like the anime film. At least the original anime film version of this stays true to the series unlike HBO's pile of dog s*** they'd dare call a movie.
My rating: 6 out of 10