Hokuto no Ken: Fist of the North Star

CGI abomination. Everything people complain about in regards to 3D CGI is in this show. It's hard to believe animation software is even capable of something this bad in 2026. The character models might as well be carved out of wood they look so stiff. Go back 20 or even 30 years and you still won't find animation this terrible. It's laughable seeing these robotic 3D models trying to walk around, or turn their head, or do basically anything. Easily the worst facial animations I've ever seen in anime. The framerate is so choppy it will make you nauseous. It's basically 1 second per frame. The colors are horrendous. It's dark, muddy, and the only light that exists is apparently green. This remake will go down in anime history as the worst of the worst.

Let's address the elephant in the room first: the CG animation. Anyone saying this looks as bad or worse than Berserk 2016 is objectively wrong. The 3D models are way more detailed and the camera isn't flying all over the place in Fist of the North Star 2026. That being said, I would have definitely preferred if this had been a 2D animated project. Music: The music for this series isn't particularly memorable for me. I want to let this show stand on its own merits, but the original 1984 show has so many tracks that stand out for me. I do love the fact that they used "Ai Wo Torimodose" as the ending theme for this, though. For any who might be unaware, that was the first theme song for the original show and it's as iconic to the fandom as "Ch-La Head Cha-La". Story: This show does a great job of following the manga at a good pace. The series has a pretty simple and easy to follow story as a whole, but that doesn't mean it's bad. This first season covers all of the story content that I find the least interesting, so if you enjoyed this then be excited for what's to come next. I've been a huge fan of this franchise for about 20 years now. I fondly remember sitting on my laptop in my parents' living room and watching the original series on the Funimation website. It makes me so happy to see this classic finally start to get the respect it deserves outside of Japan. We have a full, official English translation of the manga and an anime that I think turned out pretty well (even though I would have liked 2D animation).

This anime is a CGI abomination to what Hokuto no Ken, or Fist of the North Star as it's known in English, meant to me and fans of the show that watched it growing up. Although I'm not technically in the 90s generation or the 80s generation of Hokuto no Ken fans, I grew up mostly in the 2000s, and the show was already old at that point, and became a fan because older anime fans at the time showed it to me. This is an absolute disgrace. The CGI in this anime is disgusting. It's not even REMOTELY watchable, and at various points it just completely turns into freeze-frame battles. It's like they didn't even try. They just wanted to try to sell it based off of the name alone, and thought people would just eat up the slop. Well, I'm here to tell you that all over social media people are destroying this anime right now. The West, the East, Japanese Twitter is absolutely destroying this anime as well. It is even worse than Berserk 2016, which is hard to imagine. Two classics absolutely destroyed because of the obsession with CGI. There's really nothing to review about the anime itself. You already know the story by this point. This is a remake so it's essentially impossible to "spoil". So the only thing we can really talk about is the quality, which is a zero out of ten. You would do well to avoid this. Your eyes will thank you, and so will your soul. CGI is the worst thing that's happened to anime. I'm convinced it will destroy the medium if people do not start speaking out more about this. It's one thing to use it a little bit for certain scenes, but trying to do entire anime with it is not ever going to work. Full CGI is or even more than 50% CGI is NOT anime. I'd rather watch the oldest 1980s anime on repeat than this slop. Hokuto No Ken deserved better than this and so does it's fans.

People say that CGI is not good medium to express a show or a reboot of a show. I think this is a good anime start to look up in the progressing world of Anime shows. I would like to set stone what I know which is it is based on the original anime and the reboot follows the somewhat similar storyline with the modern take and to be clear I haven't really watched the original. In elaborations, I would like to complement on the character style which emits the same feeling when I think of this reboot. Although, the animations of the characters feel very stiff at times and I am convinced it was following the original. Additionally, Visual effects are there which are passable for what it is. But, definite improvements can be foreseen on the upcoming season. Lastly, The background and storylines is what would i expect from the original and the reboot. Hopefully with the current technology we have, the director can still do something new and special with the upcoming seasons too. I wouldn't say this anime is bad especially with the rise of CGI and Animations Studios budget cutting. But with the right innovations, maybe it can at least be notable in the future where we can say "This anime did things that were unexpected at the time." I think this anime has potential if we keep an open mind about this anime

My journey with this particular anime, as a fan of the Hokuto no Ken franchise for many years, was quite rich, heh. I was initially very excited and hyped about this project, but that enthusiasm dipped after the first teaser. It was not only underwhelming, but it also made me worried about the quality of the CGI used in the actual show. The second trailer won me back a bit, as it had better direction and less "janky-looking" visuals, although I still kept my expectations in check to avoid getting overhyped and disappointed in the very end. Fortunately, after watching the first episode, I can safely say I really, really enjoyed what I saw. The anime turned out to be a remarkably well-crafted show, no matter if you were already familiar with this franchise or not. The CGI is rich in details, and the backgrounds truly make you feel as if you are wandering the post-apocalyptic wasteland alongside Ken and his friends (or foes). The colors change during some of battle scenes, which I found cool-looking, though I know that some viewers did not. The animation itself is really solid. Even if it has a few moments that feel a little janky, and thus awkward, they are not bothersome or distracting in any way. It is also easy to get used to if you do not typically like CGI anime (it was for me, though since I have nothing against that kind of show, I might be wrong here). Any flaws? Well, some people may be bothered by occasional scenes utilizing 2D shots instead of the CGI models, which can feel a bit immersion-breaking. I did not have that kind of problem, but since it is not hard to notice, it is worth writing about it here. What shines the most, however, is the direction. I was thoroughly impressed by it, and I am rather picky about that kind of things. The excellent camera angles, sharp timing, fluid and complex fight choreography, and a perfectly fitted soundtrack with tunes fitting the atmosphere of scenes during which they play... All of these elements show how skillful were the people who worked on this show. You have to be if you want to succeed in the direction department like that. Everything mentioned earlier required a lot of planning and skills to make those elements work in harmony, after all. Same with including various references here and there, like references to Hokuto no Ken games, in example. What's more, good direction is exactly what elevates 3D animation (no matter whether its quality is good, mediocre, or simply bad), and it works beautifully here to the point that even people skeptical of CGI might enjoy at least this aspect in particular. As for other elements, like I mentioned before, the music is really good. Various themes fit scenes and characters they are meant to represent; the opening theme is nice and catchy; the ending theme is... Well, fantastic. I am biased here, because "Ai wo Torimodose", sometimes referred to as "You wa Shock!!", is among my favorite anime themes of all time, so hearing its playing as an ending theme (originally this song was an opening theme) was a really nice feeling, hehe. I tip my hat to Toshl for making a great cover. When it comes to the plot, the main difference between this show and the original one from 1980s is faithfullness to the source material. No fillers, no changes in order of events, just following 1:1 the plot as it was told in the manga. While I've always enjoyed portions of the story that are not covered in this season, I was surprised how this new show felt while watching those first bits of Kenshirou's journey. They were kind of mediocre when I watched the original show, kind of alright when I read the manga, but I can wholeheartedly say they felt good while watching takes on them from the 2026 anime. Same goes with characters and their characterization. They feel more realistic and hmm, organic?, than they felt in the original show. The very first anime is not bad by any means. It's an iconic shounen, a classic, one of my favorite anime from that era. However, it doesn't mean it didn't have flaws (what doesn't have them?). Hokuto no Ken: Fist of the North Star (so the reviewed anime) fixed most of them in the aspects I highlighted before. From overall characterization to subtle details, i.e. subtle facial expressions, all of it worked well and fully utilized what modern technologies could bring. Ultimately, this feels like good old Hokuto no Ken - just modernized and deeply faithful to the source material. It captures the raw grit of the manga while breathing new life into it and doing it via implementing modern anime technologies. I hope that future seasons maintain this level of quality. If yes, then woah, we are in for a fantastic ride. :D I know that there are fellow fans who might not share my enthusiasm, but well... When it comes to me, I thoroughly enjoyed this show. I could feel the same vibe just like when I watched the original anime many years ago, heh. I recommend this show no matter if you are a seasoned fan or a newcomer to the world of Hokuto no Ken. The bar was set high, as the original anime from the 1980s, like I said before, was, is, and will remain iconic. That being said, I think that at least the first season of this remake succeeded in reaching that high quality bar, proving that a modern take can absolutely live up to the legacy.

As a long-time fan of the Kenshiro anime, both the classic series and the subsequent movies, I’m approaching this review from a place of nostalgia for the original.  Initially, similarly to some other watchers, this remake threw me off a bit due to its animation rendering style. However, I decided to give it a fair shot, still finding in the end some positive sides that all in all, at least for me, paid off.  To begin, I actually appreciated the core character designs overall, pretty detailed and not far from the original concepts. To follow, aside from the animation concerns, I found the fight scenes still enjoyable, being supported by good visual effects, dynamic camera angles, and a solid sound design giving every single punch and kick a great sense of devastating impact of the Hokuto Shinken.  Among other aspects I enjoyed, I wish to also mention the smoother pacing, now with far less fillers, along with the general depiction of Kenshiro. He felt more balanced compared to the original anime, now portrayed as someone who can be irritable, annoyed, and pretty cocky sometimes, stripped of that original flawless hero aura, thus giving this anime a certain merit to be not just a lazy visual update, but a genuine evolution of the protagonist's attitude. Lastly, a quick shout-out must go to the ending theme, a remake of the iconic "Ai wo Torimodose!!" (You Wa Shock), which I particularly enjoyed for its general execution, speed, and seamless integration with each episode's final scene.  All in all, despite some criticism which I acknowledge along with the undoubted persisting value of the original series, I still wish to give a fair rating to this remake for all the above reasons and the time it genuinely entertained me. Thanks for reading me!

I was initially skeptical due to the first “unfinished” trailer but after I saw the first episode I instantly changed my mind. The anime is pretty solid and respected the original material and adapted it accordingly. For CGI my issue are primarily on shading inconsistencies in early episodes, it eventually gets better later on. I also didn’t like the some coloring direction where they kept changing colors during fights, personally I prefer a neutral tone. However, I appreciate how they extended some fights and they are very well choreographed. Pacing and musics are great, they added extra scenes to fill the gap in the manga as well. Overall, it’s a passionate adaptation and CGI looks decently made. As a long time fan, I highly recommend it for new people that wana get into the franchise. I’ll be looking forward to see part 2 next year.

I shat on this for months when that teaser trailer came out, but after a full season i can say this really ended up being a nice adaption, it just took a few episodes to click. It's a perfect anime adaptation in every single front but the 3D visuals, and those get better as the episodes go on. Best moment was the beatdown against Fox and Devil Rebirth. Music, voice acting and pacing are top notch, and the fight choreography is really good. Way better than the Legends of the True Savior series and so far it even surpasses the Toei version with what it covered, the pacing and animation were hellish until you got to Rei there. That anime only really started doing the manga justice at the Souther and Five Chariot arcs. I'd say give this a chance. The early episodes don't look that good due to them being really dark and the models can look stiff sometimes, but it gets better. I hope they get to adapt the entire manga.

Disclaimer: this is my first interaction with the Hokuto no Ken universe, so I can’t compare it to the 1984 anime and the manga. Hokuto no Ken is one of those stories that you might know if you’re interested in Japanese culture. It spawned many “sons” in the manga industry, a ton of references, games, adaptations and one of the most notorious memes of the internet: “you’re already dead”. The story by Buronson is one of the most important for the shonen genre and that’s the biggest reason why they’ve made a remake of it with the ambition of a more “manga accurate” adaptation. The plot is basic, but it serves well in terms of mystery, sense of despair and stakes involved. Imagine a “Mad Max” world with a protagonist who kicks a ton of butts. Yup, that’s Kenshiro, my favorite aspect of Hokuto no Ken. The good-hearted assassin armed with the deadly techniques of Hokuto Shin Ken who defies the tropes of “real men don’t cry”. If there was a reason to follow this anime was to see how Kenshiro would deal with this miserable world and what dangers were waiting for him. The soundtrack is actually very good and makes the mood for almost every scene, and I loved both Alexandros’ opening and Toshi’s rendition of “Ai wo Torimodose!!”. The Japanese Vas are excellent, and I highlight Kenshiro’s VA, Shin’s VA and Rei’s VA. Sound wise, it’s great. However, there’s a big, big criticism for this series that might get me in trouble with some people in the HnK fandom: the animation. While many criticisms against the CGI animation were exaggerated (for example claiming it looked like Berserk 2016), this animation is inconsistent in quality. There are great moments in fights, but there are many mediocre moments and even terrible ones. I liked most 2D frames, but I questioned myself “why couldn’t the anime be 2D all the time?”. HnK 2026 suffers from the same problems many CGI anime have: characters too stiff in their movements, facial expressions not that convincing and ugly backgrounds. The fights themselves have hype moments, like the first Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken and Hokuto Juuji Zan, but the rest is so underwhelming…C’mon, this remake was announced years ago and that’s the best they can do? I’m not entirely against CGI anime as an idea, but this anime once again is another example of a series that deserved much more quality considering how influential the original manga is. It’s not an experimental anime for a niche audience, it’s freaking Hokuto no Ken, one of the grandfathers of the entire genre! In conclusion, I am grateful for the existence of Hokuto no Ken: Fist of the North Star (2026) for being my initial push to explore this fun (and sad) universe, so I’ll definitely read the manga. But as an anime series, it should have been much more. I understand that it isn’t as big as it was back then, but HnK should get a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure treatment for the new audiences. There are new games and even a Fitness Boxing of HnK, so a big animated series would have been amazing for the IP. But this remake disappointed me, even though I’m not an original fan. I do hope that the next seasons get better in the animation department, because the story, the characters and fights are good enough for me to get interested in this franchise.

All in all, although I still hate the choice of using CG, it is not as bad as expected, it is on a similar level to the kengan ashura anime CGs, not something atrocious like berserk (although, it still tends to look bad at certain moments, 3D was what killed western animation and now Japan is trying to play with fire too for some reason). This is an adaptation much more loyal to the manga than the original anime, making it go at a much faster pace, which is certainly a plus. However, the anime still did not end up being quite enoyable or able to convey the same emotions as the original anime, for various reasons limited but not exclusive to the forgetable OST compared the original, as well as some issues that are unfixable (such as voice acting, with most of the original cast now too old or straight up dead). Not really a bad anime, just mid, fans of the original will find it to be lacking.

I’ve been saying this on the forums on occasions already but this is the fourth adaptation of the same story which makes its existence itself questionable, like what is the necessity of it? Like yeah it’s fiction and entertainment, not really necessary in itself by default, but why would you redo the same story the same way for a fourth time? If it’s a different take like cartoons and movies do with their retelling and remakes of stories I would understand it, but it’s that the case for anime, and particularly this one? Well let’s find out The first adaptation from 1984 partially rearranged the early events of the manga, thus it made several minor antagonists be minions of the first major one, and also delayed the first major showdown because of that. As a result, that villain and fight had more buildup and anticipation, and the amount of minor enemies between the first two major ones was reduced, so that’s a good call from that show. Unfortunately it also had a lot more minor non-challenging villains and pointless filler added in it, but that early rearrange worked in its favor. To this day I think of it as the best version of the story, but only for the first season, more on that later. The 1986 movie was honestly a rushed and incomplete job and even had two different endings across two different versions, thus it obviously affected the already not high quality of the script considerably, but it also focused a lot on Kenshiro being this savior-like figure in this desolated world, and actually made Rei having a part in taking Jagi down, so he got his deserved revenge. Plus it was the best looking and animated version of them all, especially because it had the gore that the tv series censored or toned down. Thus despite all of its shortcomings, I think it’s worth a watch. The third version was a pentalogy of films released throughout the late 00s and honestly had the best looking artwork amongst every version, but everything else was half-baked, from special effects to music to actual animation and man those main voices what the hell. The story was condensed in a few movies with a lot of material straight up skipped, but at least was completed this time, well, as far as the first part goes at least. But for some reason Raoh got two new underlings and there’s a lot of focus on their perspectives and I never got the reason why for that, it didn’t add anything important nor interesting, thus it only made it more tedious and boring as a whole. It didn’t help that it also added extra backstories for the main characters, that either weren’t all that interesting on their own or at times contradicted the main canon dynamics. Thus I don’t think that version is worth watching as a whole. I guess I should mention the Legend of Heroes as well but that was just a short of the third Kenshiro vs Raoh fight done in just a few minutes and with outdated CGI, thus not even worth mentioning or be counted as another adaptation. There were more prequels and sequels set in this universe, but that exceeds the content of this entry so luckily there’s no reason to talk about those here, and for the better, honestly. And then we get this one, which aims to be the most faithful version of all, thus automatically winning over some manga purists fans despite all of its shortcomings. The obvious first one is the visuals, where it automatically loses against all the three previous versions, but wins over the unworthy of mention short and previous infamous CGI disasters like 2016 Berserk and Souten no Ken Regenesis, despite some claiming that this series is equally bad or even worse in that regard. My guess is that muscular bodies are very hard to draw and even worse animate, thus every major manly action manga is animated in CGI to make the task easier, to which I say JUST CHANGE THE DESIGNS A BIT IF YOU NEED LIKE THE OLDER VERSIONS DID MAN WHAT THE HELL, THESE BODIES LOOK LIKE AWFUL PLASTIC IN CGI, and it doesn’t help that they also move very awkwardly, thus defeating the whole point of opting for this style and technique. That’s not the only issue with it but the rest are either a mixed bag or minor. My guess is that the team responsible for this anime wanted to empathize that Hokuto is the most serious fighting shounen ever, and they wanted to reflect that in the visuals, opting for a dark toned colouring, consisting mostly of gray and brown, resulting in very lifeless aesthetics. I mean I guess it fits the setting right, but the series is still mostly rule of cool and has a lot of tragicomic moments due to the over the top deaths and dramatic tone, it is still not that serious to need this kind of dry style, but I guess it isn’t all that bad for it. The other one is that at times the series features moments in 2D which clash a lot with the rest but most importantly look fine as fuck, like a more refined look of the 00s pentalogy, which makes me wonder WHY DOES NOT THE SHOW JUST LOOK LIKE THAT THE WHOLE TIME INSTEAD? Not everything is bad though, as this version features the second best gore in the franchise so far, surpassed only by the 1986 movie, but even then the gray colouring makes everything look weird and unlike the movie, this is not the most remarkable show in its year in that regard, as the second of Dorohedoro already bested it at that, not only for its brutality but also for being made in better CGI and having actual colour. The audio department is alright, might be the best part of this. The BGM is quite the rocker, despite lacking the energy of the retro one. The opening sucks ass, it is not really pop nor really rock, it sounds very laid back and low energy and lacks a lot of balls for this type of anime. The ending song is another cover of the iconic Ai wo Torimodose opening of the first anime, more commonly known as YOU WA SHOCK for its opening line, but it seems that the song is doomed to sound worse in each passing version, unlike the Cutey Honey takes, nothing matches the original when it comes to this. The voice acting is good, a middle point between the over the topness of the original and there’s actual voice talent and good casting in here, unlike the rest of the franchise. I never liked Saori Hayami much, and it got tiresome to have her in every anime out there now, so I’m not fond of how Yuria sounds here, and I can’t listen to Bat’s fucking Deku voice, but as for others like Rei and Shin, I prefer them over any of the previous versions. But oh well, I have praised poorly animated shows in the past because I don’t think bad visuals are enough to ruin a show, unless they were so bad that they affect everything else, and that’s not exactly the case here. The story and writing aren’t exactly worse because of the visuals, but with that said, the action is, and Hokuto no Ken is a rule of cool action series first, and theme exploration and character dynamics come second. So even though the anime is not ruined because of the animation, it is considerably less of what could have been. I mean despite the simplistic story and structure, there’s some substance and credibility to be found in the plot and setting. There’s a post-apocalyptic wasteland where strong tyrants enslave the weak in order to monopolize the little resources, food and water there are, and the setting is the result of a nuclear war between incompetent world leaders that bombed each other, thus destroying the world as a result. That was a very strong aspect when the original came out, during the Cold War paranoia, and it’s even equally relevant today because there are more superpowers with the capability of just nuking each other, as they even baited to do if pressed, just some years ago. In such a dire scenario, the protagonist roams around the desert that the world has become and helps the innocent people from sadists and is seen as a saviour, almost Jesus-like figure because of it, which is funny if you know Toki. He protects people that help others and want to rebuild life in …