Tetsuo Hara

On some level, I do admire the zany art with characters who seem 10 feet tall looming over regular folk and buckets of blood splashing over every fight scene, but reading this is getting to be a chore, especially when the characters go all in on sexism shortly after the story introduced what was supposed to be a strong female lead.

The majority of this book is a tediously long hostage situation with increasingly ridiculous, over-the-top developments.

In theory the next volume may actually have an opponent who stands a slight chance against the invincible Kenshiro, but I highly doubt it. This goes on for another fifteen volumes? Not sure I have any more patience for it, but I might dip my toe in again just to admire that wacky art.… (altro)

I first read some of this series back in the late 1980s and even managed to write a college paper about it my senior year, though I don't remember what class it might have been for. I thought I'd check it out again since my local library has some of the new Viz Signature editions.

It's pretty much how I remember it, as lone hero Kenshiro wanders a post-apocalyptic wasteland on a vague quest that constantly brings him into contact with hangers-on or weak villagers needing protection from the many gangs that maraud and pillage. Being a true hero, he always intervenes, and being a bit of a Superman with his invincible secret martial art acupressure techniques there is little doubt that he will persevere. The only real question is how gory and imaginative the deaths of his opponents will be. Answer: Very.

It gets pretty goofy, but it's still fun in its way.

I'll pick up a couple more from the library, but I could see myself losing interest in this fairly quickly.

FOR REFERENCE:

There are multiple, distinct works labeled Fist of the North Star Volume 1. This version is the Kyūkyokuban Edition.

Contents: Chapters 1-13 -- Special Commentary: The Birth of Fist of the North Star by Nobuhiko Horie, the original editor… (altro)