Customer Reviews

New Fist of the North Star - The Complete Collection

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I gave this dvd 5 stars because it has all 3 one hour long episodes for the price of 1.

This dvd has no special features except previews (because how else would they fit all 3 hours worth of episodes on 1 dvd, wasting more space for more features would sacrifce dvd quality.

The 5.1 digital surround on this dvd is the best that I have ever seen.
The picture quality is the best i've ever seen too!

The dvd also runs in 16:9 wide screen format with japanese 5.1 digital surround too.
This dvd is given a TV-MA VSL rateing for the heavy violence, the moderate curseing, and the nudity.

Overall running time is 175 minutes

I really enjoyed the anime TV series and despite its various shortcomings, I liked story and concept elements of the reworked story in the anime movie... but New Fist of the North Star OVA parts 1-3 left me with a really bad taste. I'm no FOTNS buff, but whether this OVA is based upon an original novel or not, the characterization and actions are unbelievable.
The characters of Sara, Toby, Sanga and Seigi (sp?) all twist and change by the end and through flashbacks to become (at least for me) very hard to like. Sara is your typical wimpy anime woman, crying and going on about moral guff even in defense of someone who raped her and brutally murdered dozens of innocents by his own hand, and gave orders that led to the death of countless more. Toby goes completely insane, and the transition to insanity is not given enough time to be a believable jump. Sanga's insanity and treatment of his son is somehow acceptable at the end by everyone, when conveniently the Aunt of Seigi (sp?) shows up. Everything is contrived by the end and nothing is satisfactorily concluded.
This story is a waste of Kenshiro (the star character) who normally is one of the few characters out there in any anime/show/manga, that will deliver final justice to those that truly deserve it. I eagerly look forward to his death dealing to those villains that the story builds up, as very few other shows allow their star to step out of the politically correct 'life-sparing' frame of mind. The end of this OVA robs the viewer of seeing a despicable villain being killed at Kenshiro's hands, and leaves us with his own rape victim in tears mourning him.
Overall the whole thing, melodramatic and violent as Fist of the North Star is, could not be upheld by the characterization. I wasted my money on this. If you really want to see Fist of the North Star, I advise finding the original series. For me, my whole interest in Fist of the North Star has been destroyed.

This box set is perfect for any fan of this series. This show is pretty good but lacking a couple of things you can't really put your finger on but you can just tell is missing. Besides that this is a very exciting and edgy anime box set. If you've seen the series on the anime network and you enjoyed and want to watch it over and over again then this is a smart box to get.

You save about 80 bucks for a series that isn't really worth that much. The style of animation goes together very well with this type of fighting because it shows the ruggedness that is trying to be put across. The violence is a bit crazy but after a while it gets old and you get use to it. The only thing terribly wrong here is that the main character kills everyone the same way, nothing ever changes so you know what's going to happen before it happens. You think since he is skilled with the knowledge of a pressure point fighting technique he would do some different moves to defeat his opponents.

This is a good series but this box makes it worth getting because you save so much you might get tired of some things before the story ends but it's still worth some time. Maybe if this becomes a series they'll think of fixing their mistakes cause New Fist has a lot of potential.

I've been watching the various Fist of the North Star animes that have come out over the years. TV series.. a movie...
This not only takes me back, but it just rocks. It's less campy than the 80s television series, and the animation is topnotch.
Badass to the extreme!! A+ for fans of this genre.

I don't own this boxed set, though I've seen this series, and as a Fist of the North Star fan, I became angry and sad after watching it. If you're a fan, you'll probably react the same way. Note that this review contains SPOILERS, but considering how terrible this series is, I'm probably doing you a favor by giving you the high points so that you can move on to something better.

To begin with, the creators of this new series totally missed the point(s) of the original. While the original (and "real") Hokuto No Ken was about how one man with godlike power acts as a force for justice in a chaotic world, the new series includes "extreme" close-ups of realistic blood and guts (which were always blurred or off-color in the original TV series, not just because they were meant for younger viewers, but also because the villains' deaths were meant to be symbolic, rather than gruesome and terrifying). The new series has several gratuitous close-ups of brains flying out of nostrils and other ridiculous garbage. It's also shamelessly exploitative and features a totally unrealistic, brainless ninny of a female lead who, aside from serving the purpose of pandering with her nearly-naked body shown from every theoretically titillating angle, exists only to be taken advantage of in every sense (including physically). Otherwise, the characterization is extremely weak and the plot and pacing are all over the place. About the only thing they got right is that this Kenshiro guy is really strong, and people are scared of him.

The new series' primary "villain" is totally uncharismatic and is also a thinly-veiled ripoff of the equally unlikeable Shachi character from the Hokuto No Ken 2 TV series. For the sake of the new series' story, he's pitted against Kenshiro as some kind of equal, even though Kenshiro should, by all rights, completely annihilate him.

The series makes a few feeble attempts to tie into the original story--in the first 5 minutes or so of the first OVA, it's revealed that Raoh had a biological son whom Kenshiro makes his successor. This mysterious child then hurries off into the wasteland, never to be seen again, and that's about it. From then on, we see even more "new" scions of the Hokuto style (a fighting style that the original TV series suggested was highly secret and inimitable--but which led to offshoots in the second TV series, which was not-coincidentally when the Hokuto series and license unequivocally jumped the shark), unsympathetic civilian victims, the aforementioned unrealistically exploited female lead (who, against all reason, forgives the "villain" the trespass of sexual assault), and a limp and meaningless final battle. If you're a Fist of the North Star fan, or even if you're not, do yourself a favor and steer clear of this garbage.

Some say this could have been an hour shorter but honestly the entire thing could have lost two hours. The newer series attempts to have more atmosphere and long drawn out character scenes but they don't add up to much. Nothing here really gels as a whole, especially when this series at its core is just a guy walking around a desert punching people until their heads explode. There really is not enough of that in here for me, I don't think the second episode hardly has any action at all. All the fight scenes combined are probably only a few minutes, like 3 or 4. I'm not joking, its that much of a letdown.

The original series would have a single boss battle spanning over three episodes and dozens of foes getting blown up hokuto style. The gore here is fantastic, more graphic and detailed than ever its just Kenshiro has very little to do. He's barely in the thing, or I think there are more long drawn out shots of people driving across the desert than anything else.

The CGI is really lousy and cheap looking, its depressing to see a series that stands heads and toes above over other anime (for its meathead/gorehound simplicity) fade into a forgettable tedious waste of time. There was little need to modernize this and change the overall flow, they should have kept it simple. The original was bizarre and psychedelic like probably due to cheapness alone but it worked fantastically (not being "ironic" I honestly think its pure/genius for its shortcomings). This looks more like a cruddy flash cartoon, the hokuto aura glow even looks bad. Its very stale and plain compared to the oldschool. Everytime I hope a battle is going to erupt into some horrible ultra-violence it just turns out to be more plot twist upon plot twist that isn't even slightly engaging. The people who worked on this seemed very bored, completely phoning it in.

That said I still can't say I totally dislike it, if you want a real FOTNS dvd set look up the region 1 Hong Kong boxset on ebay with all 152 episodes of the original plus the movie plus these three OVAs, its out there you just have to find it. Only 88 bucks.

This DVD is given a TV-MA VSL rating for graphic violence, explicit sexual content, crude language and nudity. The violence is so over-the-top that it is humorous.

Based on the original Manga by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, "Fist of the Northstar" is one of the films credited with launching an anime revolution in America during the 1980s. An indomitable hero, voluptuous women, and over-the-top carnage elevated Fist to instant cult hit, alerting US audiences to the fantastic possibilities of Japanese animation. This series, first released by ADV in 2004, picks up where the 80s classic anime ends. Japan Hero.com calls it "a beautiful piece of animation" (Japan Hero).

Synopsis: In the aftermath of the great apocalypse, across a scarred and barren land littered with corpses, a new order rises. This land no longer resembles the one we live in now; it is a new land, with new rules. The strongest survive, the weak fall. Water is gold. Who holds the water holds the land and its people. Bandits loyal only to their overlord enslave survivors with an unwavering grip of fear.

With 'survival of the fittest' a grizzly epitaph for the vestiges of civilization, a lone warrior will rise from the ashes and cut a swath of justice across the Earth's ruined landscape with his unconquerable martial art. He is Kenshiro. Believe him when he tells the villians, 'You're already dead!'

Fist of the North Star: Complete is a DVD-only letterboxed release containing all three episodes, presented in both English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 with English subtitles.

I have loved this movie series since the first time that I saw it. Great action and it keeps you watching the whole time

New Fist of the North Star really is a great series. One thing to point out is that even though the title menu proclaims, "Kenshiro's Quest", this really isn't his "quest". He's merely one player in this universe which centers around the city of Last Land, it's ruler(s), and the people tricked by the Last land dictators.

Kenshiro does play a big part in taking out the baddies, but the story is much more setting-driven as opposed to Kenshiro-driven. Do you still get exploding heads? Yep! Actually, about 10 minutes into the first episode, Kenshiro manages to take out half dozen foes of the Last Land gang.

Also the boss fights aren't fleshed out very well. They all (all 2 of them) last roughly 5 minutes. The fights here are much more martial arts driven unlike the original movie which the fights were more aura-driven.

Overall this is a great and insanely graphic series that while could've been fleshed out much more, is a worthwhile edition to any Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star enthusiasts collection.