Hokuto no Ken: Difference between revisions

===English editions===

Two different companies attempted to translate the original ''Fist of the North Star'' manga for the English market, although both attempts failed to finish their run. [[VIZ Media|VIZ Communications]] originally published the first sixteen chapters in eight monthly squarebound comic book issues (two/three chapters per issue) in 1989. Viz resumed publication of the series from 1995 to 1997, publishing the subsequent 28 chapters of the series in 18 monthly pamphlet-sized issues (each issue containing roughly one chapter and a half) divided into three "parts". Four graphic novel collections were published by Viz: ''Fist of the North Star'', ''Night of the Jackal'', ''Southern Cross'' and ''Blood Brothers''. The Viz edition featured mirrored artwork, as was the standard with English translated manga at the time. Unfortunately, due to its age and a changing comic market more oriented towards [[T&A]] than mature violence[I.E. [[Gen 13]]], Fist was never really a hit with the company.

===[[Hokuto no Ken (1986 movie)]]===

An American-produced live-action movie version of ''Fist of the North Star'' was released in 1995, directed by [[Tony Randel]] based on a script by Peter Atkins and Wynne McLaughlin. The movie, loosely based on the Shin storyline of the manga, stars [[Gary Daniels]] as Kenshiro, [[Costas Mandylor]] as Shin and Japanese actress Isako Washio as Yuria, with [[Malcolm McDowell]] as Ryuken and [[Chris Penn]] as "Jackal" (actually a renamed Jagi). It also featured a cameo by professional wrestler [[Big Van Vader|Leon White]] (then known as Big Van Vader) as Goliath. The movie saw a theatrical release in Japan, but went [[direct-to-video|straight-to-video]] in the US (though it did receive a premiere on HBO.) The Japanese dubbed version used the original voice actors from the 1980s anime series.

==Video games==

{{main|List of video games}}

Several licensed ''Hokuto no Ken'' [[video games]] have been released in [[Japan]] thorought the years. The earliest ''Hokuto no Ken'' video game was a 1986 adventure game simply titled ''Hokuto no Ken'', released by [[Enix]] for the [[NEC PC-8801]]. [[Toei Animation]] published many of the early ''Hokuto no Ken'' games for [[Nintendo]] consoles ([[Nintendo Entertainment System|Famicom]], [[Game Boy]] and [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super Famicom]]). In addition, Sega also published their own ''Hokuto no Ken'' action game for the [[Sega SG-1000 Mark III]] (which was later remade for the [[Sony PlayStation 2]] under the [[Sega Ages]] lineup), along with a sequel, ''Hokuto no Ken: Shin Seikimatsu Kyūseishu Densetsu'' for the [[Sega Mega Drive]]. Two of Toei's ''Hokuto no Ken'' games, ''Fist of the North Star'' (''Hokuto no Ken 2'' in Japan) for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] and ''Fist of the North Star: 10 Big Brawls for the King of Universe'' for the Game Boy, were published in [[North America]] with the license retained. Both of Sega's ''Hokuto no Ken'' games were published outside Japan as ''[[Black Belt (video game)|Black Belt]]'' and ''[[Last Battle (video game)|Last Battle]]'' respectively, with the ''North Star'' license and character likenesses removed.