Fist of the North Star, Vol. 1 (Volume 1)

Known as Hokuto No Ken in it's native country, Fist of the North Star is one of Japan's best selling manga serials having sold 100 million copies since it's debut in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1983 and is still enjoying popularity to this day, leading to an anime TV series in 1984, movies (including a live action Hollywood film adaptation), OVAs, spin offs, countless parodies and even a plethora of merchandise and video games, including the most recent game, Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise by Sega.Despite becoming one of Japan's most successful media franchises, influencing other works such Kentaro Miura's Berserk as well as enjoying popularity in Italy and France, Fist of the North Star has never really had much success in the US or the UK, with attempts to introduce the series to the US having failed to strike a chord with audiences, resulting in the series being reduced to nothing more than a niche interest with a cult fan following.Hopefully, Viz Media's new release of the manga will change that and expand the series beyond it's niche status by introducing new audiences to the 80s battle shonen that paved the way for the likes of Dragon Ball, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and even Naruto.In the year 199X, a global nuclear war has reduced the world to a barren wasteland devoid of vegetation with the world's oceans boiled away in nuclear fire. Although the human race has survived, civilisation has been reduced to a nightmarish struggle for survival with resources such as clean water and food being scarce while marauding gangs prey on the weak. In addition, various warlords and powerful martial artists have risen to power, enslaving and killing any in their way in their bid for conquest over the land in this new age of violence and chaos.Out of the wasteland appears Kenshiro, successor of a deadly martial art called Hokuto Shin Ken, which destroys the opponent's bodies from the inside out by striking their hidden meridian pressure points, causing them to explode into a bloody mess. Because of this devastating effect, the art is only passed on from one father to one son per generation. Kenshiro fights to protect the innocent and uphold truth and justice in a world that has none while searching for his fiancee Yuria, whom was stolen away from him by his one time friend Shin, a master of Nanto Sei Ken, the mirror opposite style of Hokuto Shin Ken that destroys enemies from the outside through various stabbing and slashing techniques and has many schools as opposed to Hokuto Shin Ken's one.One thing you will likely notice upon first reading Fist of the North Star is it's similarities to Mad Max. This was due to the series being heavily influenced by the second Mad Max film with it's post nuclear war setting, mohawked biker gangs and even Kenshiro's design baring a passing resemblance to Mad Max while possessing similarities to Bruce Lee. Nevertheless, the first volume is very enjoyable and fast paced in it's story telling while Tetsuo Hara's artwork looks simply outstanding. Viz have clearly gone out of their way in giving the series the best treatment with it's new English translation and preserving it's original right to left format as opposed to their first attempt back in 1989 to 1995.In summary, it has never been a better time to check out Fist of the North Star if you haven't already. If battle shonen manga featuring muscular men and martial arts action is your thing you owe it to yourself to start reading this series. However bare in mind that the series is very violent and gory so it may not be for everyone, especially those of a younger age.Volume 1 perfectly lays the foundation of what to expect from the series and it's only going to get better going forward.

The story of a man's truest place within this world, the protector. Get it for your kids! They need stuff like this now more than ever!

If I could, I would rate this higher than five stars. This review could be seen as heavily biased though lol. Im a long time fan of this series. In all its forms. Having been first exposed to the anime via Channel 4 in the early hours of the morning. Then the film on vhs and the 34ep tv series on dvd. This made me seek out the anime and the manga in its entirety.If Viz decide to translate the whole thing, newcomers are in for a treat. And old fans who only got up to vol 8 of the coloured Raijin releases (or only watched the 34ep tv series) will want to carry on Ken's epic journey. Its more than just blood, guts, gore and martial arts. Its about honour, respect, fate, destiny and love. Even if Viz only went up to vol 16 out of 27 (which would be book 8 in this release format) - which covers the first half of the overall story, they could leave it there. But if they decide to do the whole thing, then thats a massive bonus for fans all around.The ultimate dream would be that Darkhorse picked this up and gave it the oversized 3in1 treatment with the japanese kanji left in (a la Berserk, BOTI and Hellsing). But these editions will most certainly do! :D

If You Don't Think This is PERFECT: You're ALREADY DEAD! Well done Viz!!! I don't know how this could be better, (unless it was fully coloured like the Raijin's FotNS Master Editions). A good handy sized hardback (same height as Seven Seas "Devilman" hardbacks); chunky, sturdy cover. A few glossy colour pages at the start; the black and white pages look great, with a high contrast: much better than reading your old Viz comics of FOTNS, it's an improvment all around. The new English translation is different from the old Viz comics, but by all accounts it's faithful and improved. (This is the best thing that's happened since the FotNS "Ken's Rage" PS games!) I hope these FotNS volumes sell well, so Viz can release all volumes of the whole manga in this format. Here's hoping that Viz will give the same high quality treatment and format to Yoshiki Takaya's long running manga "Guyver: Bio Booster Armor".

Really really nice book, fist of the north star is 1 of all time fave animes an just recently started reading novels so when saw this immediately ordered drawn really well nice and sturdy hardback cant wait for volume 2 an 3

I always been a fan of Ken and when I have seen this release I cannot stop myself to buy it. Hard cover really good quality

Excellent quality and priceI Definitely will be buying the rest of the series