Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67817 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-11-25
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 210 minutes

Amazon.com
One of the first anime features, Fist of the North Star was based on a popular manga series set in the not-too-distant future, when Earth has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust. The scattered survivors huddle in ruined cities, awaiting an enlightened warrior-hero worthy of the title of "Fist of the North Star," who will start the planet on the path to recovery. That mythic hero arrives in the person O, who looks like a caricature of Sylvester Stallone drawn for an American Saturday morning cartoon show. The relatively simple story is burdened with many subplots involving evil brothers, betrayals, kidnappings, and murders, all needing endless expository scenes. Director Toyoa Ashida borrows shamelessly from the Rambo and Mad Max films, along with Frank Frazetta's illustrations. Fist of the North probably ranks as the most violent film in animation history, but after the fourth or fifth head explodes in gobbets of red paint, the effect becomes unintentionally comic. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Blood splattering, eye popping (literally) chaos!
This is one of my favorite anime of all time. It is simply an over-the-top gorefest. I love the fact that it pulls no punch and simply gets the plot out of the way in the first few minutes..

I can sum this movie up as:

Good Guys: "Man builds really big bombs and is stupid and annihilates the whole planet. This was a bad thing, let's not do this in real life. Oh look, a flower survived. Now we have hope."

Bad Guys: "Hope?! We can't have hope! We love slaughtering everything in sight for no apparent reason. Die flower die!"

Good Guys: "That's it! You die now!"

(Insert 70 minutes of insane fighting).

As silly as that sounds, this movie is GREAT. Turn off your brain and enjoy it..

Don't Care For Reviews. Care For Your Own TASTE
Well well well. First I would like to stress that these reviews are made in the opinions of the ones who have seen the film. Everyone has a different taste to movies. Well for me, The Fist Of The North Star is like the greatest, most wickest, amazing, animation I have ever seen. I really enjoyed the movie, laughed and cried too. The plot is amazing , the animation is so cool and the violence in this is even more intense than DRAGONBALL ! Others might say that is a stupid movie but I honestly enjoyed watching it and most of my friend enjoyed it too. There are scenes that are comical and tragedical at the same time and you don't know whether to laugh or cry. The scene that touched me most is the scene with Ken protecting the girl! . AMazing STORY. You really have to see it to choose.

One of the best anime of all time!
The Fist of the North Star full feature film mst be one of the best anime films ever made. Along with Akira, this film endoctrinates Westerners to the immense creativity, the culture, and the twisted minds of the Japanese animators. For those of you who still haven't witnessed a Japanaimation flick, now is a good time to start.

This film is not entirely faithful to the 30 minute cartoons, it does capture the essence of the story line. A story in it of itself is deep and complicated, using universal themes that anyone can relate to. It melds together the fear of, and the reality of a nuclear holocaust, with the fantastic feats that were never possible with martial arts.

Check out this film. Don't think of it as just a cartoon. Anima, and Manga are an important part of the Japanese culture, and should be viewed with that in mind. And by the way, this film is definately not for kids!