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北斗の拳 [Hokuto no Ken] #1

Ken il Guerriero Volume 1

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À travers un monde en proie à une effroyable misère, un homme voyage en usant des arcanes du Hokuto Shinken pour sauver les plus démunis, tel un saint à la chevelure d'argent. Suivi de son compagnon Ramo, il décide de faire halte dans un village où se réunissent ceux qui attendent la mort. Grâce aux soins prodigués par ce sauveur, le lieu est rebaptisé “le village des miracles” et attise l'avidité de brigands, mais aussi d'un certain Amiba... Ici commence la Légende de Toki, le maître le plus doué des 2 000 ans d'histoire du Hokuto !

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 9, 1984

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About the author

Buronson

456 books83 followers
Okamura Yoshiyuki (岡村善行), also known as Buronson (武論尊) or Sho Fumimura (史村翔 Fumimura Shō), is a Japanese manga writer most known by his famous work Hokuto no Ken. known in English as Fist of the North Star.
He graduated from the Japanese Air Force Training School in 1967 and served as an Air Force radar mechanic. In 1969 he discharged from the Japanese Navy and was soon hired by Hiroshi Motomiya as a manga assistant. He started his manga writing career when he wrote the script of Pink Punch: Miyabi in 1972, drawn by Goro Sakai. In 1975 Buronson wrote his first big hit The Doberman Detective, drawn by Shinji Hiramatsu. The famous Hokuto no Ken made its debute as Buronson's greatest hit in 1983, drawn by Tetsuo Hara. In 1989 his story Ourou was released as a manga serialized in Animal Magazine, drawn by Kentarou Miura, and in 1990 a sequel entitled Ourou Den was released by the same manga artist. Buronson also collaborated with the manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami in many works as Strain (manga) , Human (manga) and the famous Sanctuary (manga). Among his other major works are The Phantom Gang, with art by Kaoru Shintani.

Buronson was mainly influenced by movies such as Bruce Lee's, and Mad Max.

The nickname Buronson is a tribute to the American actor Charles Bronson, whose way of growing the mustache was imitated by Yoshiyuki Okamura too.

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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
Profile Image for Eva.
141 reviews5 followers
September 22, 2019
Review for the whole series: 4/5
If anything about “ripped dudes punching and finger jabbing each other to death” appeals to you, then this series will too!
Now this is very much a typical 80s action story. It very much follows the genre where all dudes are buff, all women are extremely pretty but can’t fight for shit, and the men fight over power, over the women, over their ideals.
The artwork is very good, and still gets better through the series. The last volumes look really good, tho it might also be due to better scans. Battles are always a treat, with a good variety of villains and different attacks and styles.

So, Hokuto no Ken is an ode to the power of love. In this desolate wasteland in the distant future of... 2010? Kenshiro, an absolute monster of a man, fights and kills his way through hordes of enemies and a good number of major villains all in the name of love. Love for his wife Yuria, love for defenceless villagers, love for the ones who look up to him, love for his family. It may sound a bit cheesy but it works out pretty well through the entire story.

The plot has its ups and downs. 1st volume and half are good for the intro and buildup to Shin, which sadly ends up being an anticlimactic confrontation, and starts off the whole Schrödinger’s Yuria nonsense. Then it devolves into a somewhat repetitive monster of the week until it picks back up with Rei's appearance (vol 4?) and evolves into a sustainable succession of events around the Nanto stars and the Hokuto inheritance all the way until Kaioh’s death (vol 24), where the story then becomes about tying up loose ends.



My main complaint is that new villains always feel forced into the story since there's no foreshadowing, just a "oh I suddenly remembered I have YET ANOTHER evil brother" or "so we came up with a handful more dudes to represent some other stars which you’ll forget soon enough". You do end up getting used to it but it’s somewhat aggravating the amount of “surprise, this person was your family member all along”. I was even expecting Ken’s parents to show up at some point.
Another complaint is that towards the end, after crossing the sea, the fights start becoming less about supernatural Kung Fu, and more like psychic power fights. Levitating rocks? That’s a bit too much imo.
Profile Image for Joe Philips.
5 reviews5 followers
October 7, 2013
The entire story is packed with full action and bloodshed, a bit violence this and that. However, the story is well written, the plot get better as it carries on. The power love is literally the main theme in this entire story, giving the amount of popularity this book still hold today after being release almost two decades ago. This work is a masterpiece!!!

Profile Image for Samantha Pinazza.
Author 10 books74 followers
January 8, 2025
Chiaramente un classico. Ho molto apprezzato l’atmosfera e il modo in cui il lettore si ritrova piacevolmente coinvolto dalla vicenda.
Profile Image for Silver.
197 reviews3 followers
October 29, 2019
3.5/5

Reseña y calificación para toda la serie

Creo que... No. Este manga es mi mejor lectura del año.
Los sentimientos que logró despertar en mí, las lágrimas que derrame, los personajes que me encantaron, las grandes batallas, fueron en verdad muchas.

Una historia inspiradora. 😆

Good bye, Ken. Good bye, Rei. Good bye Shuh. Good bye, Fudoh. Good bye, Ein. Good bye, Shachi... Nunca los olvidaré. 😊
Profile Image for Alex.
813 reviews36 followers
June 19, 2017
Προσωπική άποψη, είναι ότι το Fist of the North Star είναι πλέον κλασσικό Manga, με τον ήρωα να μάχεται τόσο με τον εαυτό του όσο και και με τους αντιπάλους του σε έναν post-apocalyptic κόσμο ποτισμένο με καταστροφή και πόνο,αλλά και ελπίδα στα πιο παράξενα και ανύποπτα σημεία. Ίσως λίγο πιο σκοτεινό από το συνηθισμένο των manga της δεκαετίας του '80, με αρκετές σκηνές χιούμορ αλλά και δράματος που σε κρατάνε να το συνεχίσεις. Μην ξεχνάμε ότι είναι σχετικά μικρή σειρά και διαβάζεται γρήγορα, χωρίς να κουράζει. Για μένα έδωσε αρκετά μοτίβα χαρακτήρων σε πασίγνωστα manga που ακολούθησαν , όπως το Naruto και το One Piece, αλλά ψιλο-θάφτηκε γιατί ένα χρόνο μετά την κυκλοφορία του άρχισε να βγαίνει στο ίδιο περιοδικό, το Weekly Shonen Jump, το Dragon Ball που έκανε πάταγο και το εκτόπισε αρκετά. Αξίζει να του δώσετε μια ευκαρία όσοι σας αρέσει η ιαπωνική σχολή!
Profile Image for Fetch.
91 reviews5 followers
March 31, 2024
non me lo aspettavo minimamente.
sono sinceramente curiosa di continuare questo viaggio
Profile Image for Nura Lou.
210 reviews3 followers
February 10, 2025
What you call “the” manga. Quintessential 80’s goodness, rock and tough romantic through and through. Beautiful story and amazing drawings. Ken is a true hero, pure and mighty, someone we might need in the near future in this very world we live in.

Ken’s world is doomed by destruction and violence at the end of the XX century, but it could be seen as the natural ending of our current society, just a few decades (or less?) away from where we are right now. There’s no law nor morals, just the survival of the fittest.

The story is full of great moments of humanity and a beam of hope that comes from the people Ken meet and save, and from the main character himself. There’s revenge and love, and that magic within that only martial arts can project, as the strength you need to find within yourself to fight against what life throws at you.

The villain is the perfect nemesis of Ken, both graphically and personality-wise, and so are their martial arts.

One excerpt stayed with me from this first comic book of the series I read: “future is more important than the present”, which meant how one would sacrifice their own survival for the sake of the humanity’s future and survival. It’s tragically pure and beautiful, just how I like it. Can’t wait to read the rest.

Profile Image for Steve.
56 reviews18 followers
August 5, 2009
This first volume of what was originally a twenty-seven volume Japanese series introduces readers to Kenshiro, the 64th successor to the super-human martial art of Hokuto Shinken, and the savage post-apocalyptic dystopia he exists in. Following the devastation of the earth by nuclear holocaust, what remains of mankind has swiftly degenerated into an ultra-violent ripoff of THE ROAD WARRIOR, and Kenshiro is a bald-faced gene-splicing of Mel Gibson's Mad Max (Kenshiro's outfit is virtually identical to Max's leathers as seen in THE ROAD WARRIOR) and Bruce Lee as seen in ENTER THE DRAGON.

This initial volume chronicles Ken's emergence from the barren wasteland after being on the receiving end of one of the most personally humiliating ass-kickings in recorded history — a beatdown made all the worse by it having been handed out by a guy who looks not unlike one of the Nelson brothers in a Sgt. Pepper's outfit — and his quest to find his fiancee, Yuria, who has been kidnapped by his former friend, Shin (the aforementioned Nelson lookalike). Shin is one of the top students of the Nanto Seiken style of martial arts, a form that grants the practitioner the ability to slice through virtually anything with their bare hands, and that discipline is the polar opposite of Hokuto Shinken's internally-based assassination techniques that cause an opponents body to literally explode. Due to some obscure bit of reasoning, it has been degreed by the elders of both styles that Hokuto Shinken and Nanto Seiken must never fight due to the nature of their interdependent duality, and that if they do fight it would cause a cosmic imbalance of devastating magnitude (or some such quasi-mystical shit). So, needless to say, once the nuclear holocaust effectively re-wrote the rules of basic human existence, so too were the two-thousand year old laws governing the secret martial world cast aside, thus setting Kenshiro in motion as both a rescuer and an engine of righteous vengeance on the side of good, while Shin proves to be a vicious and power-hungry asshole of a conquerer. In the end only one man can be left standing, but what shall be the ultimate fate of Yuria?

FIST OF THE NORTH STAR is in no way a work of "deep" meaning or even of great intelligence, but it is a warrior's saga that's technically science-fiction thanks to its post-apocalyptic future setting, but the virtually medieval level of society and technology, along with frequent forays into Asian concepts of mythology and the like, keep the tale firmly within the bounds of a Conan-style story in which the barbarian hero also happened to be a martial artists with superhuman skills and powers. It's a crazy mashup of genres and is fun for its once-shocking amounts of over-the-top gore and violence, but once you get past that element, what remains is a "manly" soap opera of nearly non-stop kung fu. The manga recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, and though now considered a classic, the tropes that it invented have been eclipsed many times over since its debut. For those of us who were there for this (and its TV adaptation) when it happened, FIST OF THE NORTH STAR was exhilarating stuff, but even then it was plain to see that the protagonist was a pretty much one note superhero whose chief fascinating was his sheer badassery and the fact that his martial art allowed him to pick up the skills and techniques of even his most super-powered opponents, provided he survived their initial encounter. The emotional histrionics are geared to an audience that is on the verge of discovering girls, and once Yuria is out of the picture (believe me, that isn't a spoiler) it's very few remaining female characters offer little or nothing to the overall narrative.

Also, one of the series' biggest flaws is that it just isn't all that compelling until the introduction of Rei, a noble though conflicted Nanto Seiken master who becomes Kenshiro's closest and most respected friend, and the moment when Ken's presumed-dead brothers take center stage and launch the intra-familial power struggle that provides the series with its true core and point (a point that is eventually resolved, yet the series continued aimlessly for another twelve collected volumes in Japan). When Rei and Ken's brother show up, FIST OF THE NORTH STAR comes to spectacular and memorable life, and it is for that period that the series is justly remembered and revered. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a wait until it all comes together, with everything preceding the good stuff serving only to reiterate Ken's badassery and keep readers hooked solely by the Neal Adams-influenced artwork and the curiosity to find out in which outrageous way Ken will defeat his many, many adversaries.

FIST OF THE NORTH STAR is definitely worth a look for those interested in seeing another culture's take on the superhero, but don't expect real greatness from it until a couple of volumes down the line. Also keep in mind that this line of translated editions, featuring wholly unnecessary and garish digital coloring that mars Tetsuo Hara's meticulous and visceral linework, ends shortly after the arc wherein Ken's brothers show up and establish who and what they are, and why they are significant and fascinating additions to the narrative. The publisher, Gutsoon, went under just as the story gets good, and that frustrated the living shit out of me because the previous American attempt at a translation ended even earlier in the the story than this Gutsoon's, so who to say when or even if we'll ever see FIST OF THE NORTH STAR translated in print and finished? Or at least translated up to and including the conclusion of the series' main conflict? I, for one, ain't holding my breath.
110 reviews1 follower
February 20, 2023
En excellent beginning for this saga and for Kenshiro, the frightening warrior of Hokuto's school. The story is really enjoyable because it's interesting to see how the world changed, the apocalyptic disaster is well described by the brutality that hits the innocents. There is one hope and it's called Kenshiro.
Even if there are a lot of violent images, the narration follows a perfect line, every time we see the protagonist in action is a joy, it's really exciting.
I like also the fact that Ken is immediately framed in those pages, from the first volume, we learn many details of his life and his suffering, the reader discovers why he is so damned and determined.
I can't imagine a better beginning for this saga.
Profile Image for Ben Lawton.
66 reviews
March 16, 2023
I spent many Sunday mornings watching the anime without having a clue what the original story was about, and now that I finally got to read the first chapter I'm all the more enthralled because it all fell into place.
NGL, I don't think I'll be reading more but at least I got to know the context behind the inception of お前はもう死んでいる~
53 reviews
January 13, 2025
pretty "MANLY" excelently drawn manga but still a mental trick and sadistic as all shit... also is pretty stupid and gets even worse on its second part... 1/10
Profile Image for Arska-täti.
920 reviews5 followers
March 11, 2021
Vahvoissa Mad Max -tunnelmissa alkava tarina, josta ei väkivaltaisia sekopäitä tai futuristisia nahka-asuja puutu.

Eletään ydinsodan jälkeisessä maailmassa, jossa ihmiset taistelevat keskenään kaikesta mahdollisesta. Vahvimman laki hallitsee, eikä heikoilla ole juuri mitään mahdollisuuksia selviytyä esimerkiksi kiertelevien rosvojoukkojen hyökkäyksiltä. Tässä maailmassa on kuitenkin yksi mies, joka puolustaa myös heikkoja. Kenshiro on muinaiseen itämaiseen taistelulajiin perehtyneen suvun perillinen, ja omaa sen vuoksi lähes yliluonnollisen kyvyn hallita ruumiin ja mielen voimiaan. Yksi hänen tyypillisisistä taistelukeinoistaan on painaa esimerkiksi päässä olevia hermopisteitä, jonka jälkeen kyseinen ihmisen pää räjähtää. Väkivaltaisuudestaan huolimatta sarja on oudolla tapaa viihdyttävä, ja Kenin seikkailuja on jopa hauska seurata.
Profile Image for Cristhian.
Author 1 book54 followers
December 30, 2015
Nunca había leído este manga clásico y pues, tiene todo el feeling que los nuevos Shōnen no poseen.

La historia está demasiado cercana a Mad Max (aún no hago research para ver quién está antes) pero entretenida.
Profile Image for John Morrison.
197 reviews7 followers
January 29, 2015
My all time favorite Manga book! Art an story are fantastic. Anime movie was awesome too.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews

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