Recently, publisher JBC announced that it will release the Hokuto no Ken manga series, known worldwide as Fist of the North Star. The publication will contain approximately 18 volumes of 300 pages each. Its official launch will take place at the next Anime Friends, which will be held next July.
For those who are unfamiliar with it, Hokuto no Ken is a famous manga series in the East, written by Buronson and richly illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It was initially published in the weekly Shonem Jump magazine between 1983 and 1988.
Cover of the Hokuto no Ken — Fist of the North Star manga.
The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by a terrible nuclear war. The main character is Kenshiro, a master of a martial art known as Hokuto Shinken, whose practitioners can quickly strike their opponents' vital weak points, causing extremely violent deaths. The franchise has been so successful that it has received films, anime, spin-offs, OVAs, and several video-game titles.
Longtime SEGA fans may remember the Black Belt and Last Battle games for Master System and Mega Drive, respectively. Both titles originally belonged to the Hokuto no Ken universe, but their sprites and other details were changed when they reached the West. In 2018, SEGA released a new game in the series called Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, which was the first of the many titles released by SEGA to reach the West without alterations.
