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FIST OF THE NORTH STAR #2 - - Watch & Learn
Since I’ll be wrapping up the Saiyan Saga soon, I’ve already started
thinking which classic series to re-visit after DBZ. Of course, I’m in
impatient guy and Hulu’s instant streaming makes it hard to resist my
entertainment impulses… so I went ahead and picked FIST OF THE NORTH STAR up
again.
Amusingly enough, I didn’t realize that Toei produced this show - -
meaning it’s part a lineage of top shonens which went into DRAGON BALL,
and then continued up into ONE PIECE before its current permutation in TORIKO.
Considering how Toriko himself seem likes Ken in Goku’s uniform, I’m also
starting to understand the shonen formula a little more holistically. There’s
probably some greater point about Japanese pop culture which can be read into
here (how the hyper-masculinity of a more grounded series like GOLGO 13 eventually mixed with the high fantasy of a show like VOLTRON, for one)… but we’ll hold
off on that for now. == TEASER ==
As Sam and I both mention in the Vice Pit episode running today, there’s
something fundamentally appealing about the clear simplicity of the morality
plays in this show. I get the feeling that this comes from the more episodic
era of anime TV, before there was this insistence on advancing a macro plot with
every single installment. I figure that, much like how GALAXY EXPRESS 999 episodes fit
into five or six basic plots, the typical structure of FIST episodes will start
to get very familiar, very fast.
(Of course, what’s amusing is that, while 999 more or less kept
confronting Tetsuro with injustices that he just had to learn to accept, FIST
confronts Kenshiro with injustices that he’ll always deal outrageously bloody
retribution upon. At least that’s how it seems to be…)
What can I say, though? Skulls collapsing, heads exploding and organs rupturing
will never, ever get old for me.
Watch this
episode, “The Fist of Lingering Regret and
Certain Death!! The Future is sighted in the Barren Wasteland!!" here and
decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode .
About the Author
 | Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk |
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