Just a little trivia here: "Hokuto No Ken" is currently one of the 20 most lucrative properties of all time (maybe the 17th?). It has already amassed something around 21.8 billion dollars. That's bigger than James Bond, Toy Story or Lord of the Rings. One of the reasons for such a huge profit: pachinko!
I really appreciate the connection you made between Fist of the North Star and Rob Liefeld. It puts Liefeld's art into the context of the time and explains why his work would have looked so different form what was going on in mainstream North American comics at the time.
My mom got me the Fist of the North Star Game Boy game for my birthday (probably bc it was on clearance) and I found the comics after. It was way different than what I thought, but I still have those comics.
Thanks for sharing this, I've been a Fist of the North Star fan for decades and watched everything that I could find in every dark corner of the web throughout the years, including the modern* spinoff series(*no longer modern), but tragically I've never explored the books. It stands alone amongst anime of this genre for me, none of them even begin to appeal to me like Hokuto No Ken does, despite the many derivative IPs who methodically applied an almost identical story/plot structure. I've never been a comic/manga collector but since discovering your channel you guys have really impressed your love of the craft and the creators and the community onto me. I hugely admire the reverence and respect and passion and candor of the stuff you guys do. I'm an artist as well, so it's been super illuminating and INSPIRING to hear nuanced, articulate examinations of so many great (and sometimes not-so-great) works of art. I've missed out on SO many incredible things in the comics world, I'm grateful that you guys have given me a practical, concise and entertaining way to bridge that gap and expand my pool of creative influence. I wish you guys the best and will continue to look forward to future videos!
King Raoh is right up there with Darth Vader and Khan Noonien Singh as one of the great villains of fiction. Heck, that speech about death that he delivers to Rei before they fight is enough to win my vote. I am overjoyed to hear there might be plans to return this great series to print. I just hope it gets here soon, before I'm already dead.
A neat detail about these prints is that eventhough Viz mirrored the pages to read from left to right, they kept the direction of the Big Dipper on Ken's chest the same. (But then you have characters saying "left arm" while pointing at their right lol, i'm glad that's not a practice anymore)
I really love when you guys go over this stuff. I was a freshman in HS in 1988, and the stuff Eclipse and Viz were putting out was blowing my mind at the time. Those books really shaped how I still illustrate today. Can't wait for Red Room. And I actually bought a black light just to look at my Octobriana.
Really was nothing like those first eclipse and Viz imports, it was such an exciting time. In those days you would rent a nintendo game that you were "pretty sure" was based on a manga just on the box art alone. It was all you really had to go by in those days. Still have those early issues of the those core Viz titles...FOTNS, MAI, AREA 88.
Fist of the North Star made a big impact in Japan especially manga in the 80’s with books after North Star like Super doctor K , Riki Oh , Sakei Gakei Otokojuku, cyber blue and even Jo Jo’s Bizarre adventure.
“Omaiwa mo shindeiru!” Thank you for guys for doing this one! I first heard about this when my friend got back from visiting his family in Matsuyama. I found the Viz first issue that spring in Japantown, SF in ‘89! I still have my early copies of the Viz book. The anime was constantly floating around between our mutual friends houses until the VHS tape finally snapped.
Fist of the North Star is my fav anime/manga series of all time. Truthfully, it is very simplistic in its presentation of good vs evil. Grotesque violence and hyper machismo. COTDAYUM does it do it SO DAMN GOOD! That infused into the characters and the world is so alluring.
Just preordered the Viz hardcover a few days ago. Never understood why this didn’t get the same love as something like Berserk managed to in the states.
Berserk came out after which by that time Manga was in book stores nationwide, where as in the 80s and 90s Manga was just starting to gain steam in the states. My observations being a Manga fan since the 90s. Also the first Berserk anime was a big hit, internet also helped spread popularity.
We need to talk about the amazing English lettering - there must be a lot of redrawing - hope you guys can do a side-by-side comparison. Lettering in these early manga reprints are pretty amazing. Also the flipping of the art.
I picked up the original Viz series in the early 90s in quarter bins and it blew my 12 year old mind. Glad to hear they're reprinting it. The Amazon entry says its hitting in June.
I've seen bits of the anime, and of course I know vaguely about the existence of Fist of the North Star because it's so famous, but I really didn't realize that the manga had suuuch insane art
FINALLY! still have my original copy of this issue. Scenario you described was me- bought it because the cover looked cool and had no idea how awesomely violent it was going to be! Was super stoked when "Last Battle" came out on Sega Genesis but then super pissed when they edited out the blood (still played it a ton though)
Of you're doing Fist of the North Star then I'd love to see you guys tackle Berserk. Could also do a comparison of Kentaro Miura's early drawing style compared to his later more perfected drawings.
This is awesome! Ive been playing the video game recently which is killer. I whatched the animes and even that goofy western live action movie too. I would love to get my hands on a physical of the manga. Ive been only able to read a few of them online.
Bio-Booster Armour Guyver is another series that never got finished, much to my continuing disappointment. Never read any FOTNS, but will definitely being picking up the new Viz editions when they come out.
Read this whole way through with only scanlations at hand. It can get tedious at times (as per usual with any serialized shonen) and a bit predictable but the payoff is huge. I was very satisfied with it. One of my favorites and I can't wait to see when Viz pulls out the clean reproductions of the later arcs because the draftsmanship gets insane.
This is really making me want to play the Yakuza crew's game adaptation of Fist of the North Star. But first gotta finish Yakuza 0... 5 or 6 years late. But better late than never!!!!
You guys should look into Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Hirohiko Araki’s long running epic. If you do, it would be great to show the evolution of his style over the of working on it.
Before this issue there is a short stand-alone story. What the shonen jump audience voted to see serialization. Like: editors " Hey folks, do you want this stuff? " people " YES! " In my humble opinion, after Raoh's death, history loses its way. I love a couple of characters, but the whole second arc is lacking in ideas and the new pre-bomb series compares the first one is junk.
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![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Just a little trivia here: "Hokuto No Ken" is currently one of the 20 most lucrative properties of all time (maybe the 17th?). It has already amassed something around 21.8 billion dollars. That's bigger than James Bond, Toy Story or Lord of the Rings. One of the reasons for such a huge profit: pachinko!
Been buying the Viz Hardcovers very happily. Love the insight these videos give still. RIP Ed.
Lol Ed's Deus Ex Machina Magic sound effects, "Da da da da da da!"
The manliest character of all time, love the anime and now I will have to hunt down the manga
If you're not into hunting down back issues, Viz is currently releasing collected hardcovers. I snapped up Vol 1 for $20 and it was well worth it.
The OG of OG manga. The inspiration for almost every action MANGA from Jojo to Gatsu. HOKUTO NO KEN.
You don't know how much I'm looking forward to this coming back into print here.
I really appreciate the connection you made between Fist of the North Star and Rob Liefeld. It puts Liefeld's art into the context of the time and explains why his work would have looked so different form what was going on in mainstream North American comics at the time.
My mom got me the Fist of the North Star Game Boy game for my birthday (probably bc it was on clearance) and I found the comics after. It was way different than what I thought, but I still have those comics.
Can we make Ed imitating Kenshiro's battle cry a regular 'Kayfabe' thing? I'm gonna need a lot more of that.
I need a keychain that plays that sound whenever I press a little button in it
@@prof_werneck I think there’s a figurine alarm clock that does that
Thanks for sharing this, I've been a Fist of the North Star fan for decades and watched everything that I could find in every dark corner of the web throughout the years, including the modern* spinoff series(*no longer modern), but tragically I've never explored the books. It stands alone amongst anime of this genre for me, none of them even begin to appeal to me like Hokuto No Ken does, despite the many derivative IPs who methodically applied an almost identical story/plot structure.
I've never been a comic/manga collector but since discovering your channel you guys have really impressed your love of the craft and the creators and the community onto me. I hugely admire the reverence and respect and passion and candor of the stuff you guys do. I'm an artist as well, so it's been super illuminating and INSPIRING to hear nuanced, articulate examinations of so many great (and sometimes not-so-great) works of art. I've missed out on SO many incredible things in the comics world, I'm grateful that you guys have given me a practical, concise and entertaining way to bridge that gap and expand my pool of creative influence. I wish you guys the best and will continue to look forward to future videos!
You haven’t gotten the manga’s bro you can just order them on Amazon just got the first 3 on Christmas 😎
King Raoh is right up there with Darth Vader and Khan Noonien Singh as one of the great villains of fiction. Heck, that speech about death that he delivers to Rei before they fight is enough to win my vote. I am overjoyed to hear there might be plans to return this great series to print. I just hope it gets here soon, before I'm already dead.
A neat detail about these prints is that eventhough Viz mirrored the pages to read from left to right, they kept the direction of the Big Dipper on Ken's chest the same.
(But then you have characters saying "left arm" while pointing at their right lol, i'm glad that's not a practice anymore)
I really love when you guys go over this stuff. I was a freshman in HS in 1988, and the stuff Eclipse and Viz were putting out was blowing my mind at the time. Those books really shaped how I still illustrate today. Can't wait for Red Room. And I actually bought a black light just to look at my Octobriana.
Really was nothing like those first eclipse and Viz imports, it was such an exciting time. In those days you would rent a nintendo game that you were "pretty sure" was based on a manga just on the box art alone. It was all you really had to go by in those days. Still have those early issues of the those core Viz titles...FOTNS, MAI, AREA 88.
I’m pumped for the reprints!! Hopefully you guys will take a look at Devilman, Blade of the Immortal, Berserk, and Vagabond.
Sheeeeetttt! I didn’t know they were reprinting this, thanks for the heads up and the kayfabe deep dive, especially love your manga vids
Fist of the North Star made a big impact in Japan especially manga in the 80’s with books after North Star like Super doctor K , Riki Oh , Sakei Gakei Otokojuku, cyber blue and even Jo Jo’s Bizarre adventure.
not only those, but also had a SIGNIFICANT impact on how Dragon Ball developed and changed over time.
@@Mattwriteguy yeah
I just picked up the new Viz hardcover with this in it. Pretty spectacular and highly recommended
Ed almost blew a hole in the drawing table at 10:44 ...
This book, and the cartoon were amazing to behold as a kid. Still amazing.
“Omaiwa mo shindeiru!” Thank you for guys for doing this one! I first heard about this when my friend got back from visiting his family in Matsuyama. I found the Viz first issue that spring in Japantown, SF in ‘89! I still have my early copies of the Viz book. The anime was constantly floating around between our mutual friends houses until the VHS tape finally snapped.
Fist of the North Star is my fav anime/manga series of all time. Truthfully, it is very simplistic in its presentation of good vs evil. Grotesque violence and hyper machismo. COTDAYUM does it do it SO DAMN GOOD!
That infused into the characters and the world is so alluring.
I discovered this comic when I was a little kid on the very same day I discovered Faust. Game changers.
oh my gosh absolutely oozing with style LOVE this
i filled in all my gaps in this VIz series last summer! so dope and they have yet to print the whole thing in english.
Every year I go through all of Hokuto No Ken in its entirety.
one of the greatest manga comics ever . it was one of the first i ever read .
A goddamn classic! So brutal! Ed, thanks very much for the sound effects, adds a lot to the whole experience...
Just preordered the Viz hardcover a few days ago. Never understood why this didn’t get the same love as something like Berserk managed to in the states.
Berserk came out after which by that time Manga was in book stores nationwide, where as in the 80s and 90s Manga was just starting to gain steam in the states. My observations being a Manga fan since the 90s. Also the first Berserk anime was a big hit, internet also helped spread popularity.
Because the berserk manga was already popular before the hardcovers came out
Banned from all bars, the man with 7 scars!
We need to talk about the amazing English lettering - there must be a lot of redrawing - hope you guys can do a side-by-side comparison. Lettering in these early manga reprints are pretty amazing. Also the flipping of the art.
I picked up the original Viz series in the early 90s in quarter bins and it blew my 12 year old mind. Glad to hear they're reprinting it. The Amazon entry says its hitting in June.
Hokuto no Ken!!
Omae wa mou shindeiru!!
I've seen bits of the anime, and of course I know vaguely about the existence of Fist of the North Star because it's so famous, but I really didn't realize that the manga had suuuch insane art
I literally just watched this on vhs this morning.
FINALLY! still have my original copy of this issue. Scenario you described was me- bought it because the cover looked cool and had no idea how awesomely violent it was going to be! Was super stoked when "Last Battle" came out on Sega Genesis but then super pissed when they edited out the blood (still played it a ton though)
Can feel your excitement, Ken still top notch 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
" You're already dead. "
I still have a chunk of these viz north star comics
Of you're doing Fist of the North Star then I'd love to see you guys tackle Berserk. Could also do a comparison of Kentaro Miura's early drawing style compared to his later more perfected drawings.
I'm really surprised an entire English run hasn't been released. There are a lot less popular mangas that have been released here. The mind boggles...
This is awesome! Ive been playing the video game recently which is killer. I whatched the animes and even that goofy western live action movie too. I would love to get my hands on a physical of the manga. Ive been only able to read a few of them online.
HNK is the shonen GOAT. I think you can draw a straight line from this to Dragon Ball, and then every other fight scene after that.
Oh hell yeah love this series!
Bio-Booster Armour Guyver is another series that never got finished, much to my continuing disappointment. Never read any FOTNS, but will definitely being picking up the new Viz editions when they come out.
that one attracted me the most. seems they were translating anything with an anime adaption back then
nothin better than drawing power from a crotch shot.....😅😆
My favorite IP ever. I'm still hunting down the master edition vols 6, 8 and 9 for a decent price.
Love it!
This reminds me of the artist of one punch man. The action in those comics is also really cool
YOU WA SHOCK!
Oh hey I know the guy who did most of the scanlation for this manga. Shout out to my boy Spamdini for getting work done when no one else would.
Read this whole way through with only scanlations at hand. It can get tedious at times (as per usual with any serialized shonen) and a bit predictable but the payoff is huge. I was very satisfied with it. One of my favorites and I can't wait to see when Viz pulls out the clean reproductions of the later arcs because the draftsmanship gets insane.
This is really making me want to play the Yakuza crew's game adaptation of Fist of the North Star.
But first gotta finish Yakuza 0... 5 or 6 years late. But better late than never!!!!
Legend
You guys should look into Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Hirohiko Araki’s long running epic. If you do, it would be great to show the evolution of his style over the of working on it.
How did you two meet and then decide to create this channel? Amazing work.
YEAS Hyped.
I have that.
Omae wa mou shindeiru!
You will need to do the evolution of Jojo’s bizarre adventures at some point !
Before this issue there is a short stand-alone story. What the shonen jump audience voted to see serialization.
Like:
editors " Hey folks, do you want this stuff? "
people " YES! "
In my humble opinion, after Raoh's death, history loses its way. I love a couple of characters, but the whole second arc is lacking in ideas and the new pre-bomb series compares the first one is junk.
Amazing!!!!-this kinda ruined my day...