The staff for Hokuto no Ken -Fist of the North Star-, the new anime of Tetsuo Hara’s landmark manga Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken), announced on Wednesday that voice actor Jirō Saitō is joining the anime’s cast as Mad Sarge, GOLAN’s deputy leader. The character will appear in the anime’s sixth episode on Friday.
Image via Hokuto no Ken -Fist of the North Star- anime’s website
© Buronson&Tetsuo Hara/Coamix, HOKUTO Committee
The anime’s staff also revealed the full anime music video of the opening song “Hallelujah” by Alexandros:
Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Japan
© Buronson&Tetsuo Hara/Coamix, HOKUTO Committee
The manga’s story is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The story centers on a man named Kenshiro, a master and successor to a deadly martial art, as he wanders the nuclear wasteland protecting the weak and innocent from violent thugs. In his travels, he must contend with other master martial artists and figures from his past, including his “brother” Raoh, who has crowned himself the king of the new world.
The anime stars:
Hiroshi Maeda (director of photography for Hellsing Ultimate, Aquarion) is directing the anime at TMS Entertainment, and Kazuma Ogasawara (episode director for Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These – Collision, Oshi no Ko TV 2) is the assistant director. Kazuhiko Inukai (Girlfriend, Girlfriend) is in charge of the series scripts. Naoki Hisatsune (key animator for Fist of the North Star: Legend of Kenshiro, Fist of the North Star: Legend of Toki) is designing the characters. Kōji (3D director for Medalist) is serving as animation director. Yūki Hayashi (My Hero Academia) is composing the music. NIA Animation and Kishida Studio BACU are collaborating on the production.
Toshl performs the ending theme song, a remix of Crystal King’s opening theme song “Ai o Torimodose!!” from the original anime.
The anime premiered with its first two episodes on the Tokyo MX and BS11 channels on April 10 at 25:00 JST (effectively, April 11 at 1:00 a.m.) Amazon Prime Video is streaming the anime worldwide.
The new anime announcement commemorates the series’ 40th anniversary. The staff stated that the CG-based anime will be more true to the original work.
The original manga ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1983 to 1988. Viz Media began publishing the manga in a new edition digitally and physically in June 2021.
The Fist of the North Star television anime ran for two seasons from 1984 to 1988 and had 152 episodes. The manga has inspired several other television anime, films, and spinoff anime. Hiroshi Kurao launched a new Fist of the North Star spinoff manga titled Hokuto no Ken Seikimatsu Drama Satsuei-hen (Fist of the North Star Apocalypse Drama Filming Arc) on the Comic Zenon manga website in February 2021.
Hiroshi Kurao’s Elegy for the Henchmen: Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken: Ken’ō-gun Zako-tachi no Banka) spinoff manga got a short anime that premiered on the AT-X and Tokyo MX channels on January 5. The second part of the anime will premiere in July.
Sources: Hokuto no Ken -Fist of the North Star- anime’s website, Mainichi Shimbun’s Mantan Web
