So Buu, I've been reading Fist of the North Star more and more and...

I've gotten as far as Shu's introduction but I have to ask you. When in the fuck does Kenshiro have his moment where he seems like he's the ultimate hero or whatever? Because I'm like 10 volumes in and not once have I felt that Kenshiro is the actual hero. He just really seems like some guy who is dealing with assholish family even though I know he's supposed to be this paragon of humanity or whatever. It also doesn't help that Raoh is as boring as hell because literally all he did was just yell at how Kenshiro was weak and whatnot.

Its probably shortly after that. The whole souther/Thouzer thing is where Ken really shines he personally doesn't even think he's anything special other then just a guy strong enough to defeat assholes on the way, up to that point. You got to keep in mind this is a guy who basically has lost everything he wanted to live for. Basically the shit hits the fan soon and everyone will sort him out. I don't really wanna spoil anything even if you got the jist of the story from the game.

Although its actually pretty blatent that if toki was the successor everyone would've fallen in line. 90% of the shit that happens is because no one likes kenshiro or respects his strength. Toki's also smarter then all the brothers, the best fighter by a longshot and seems to get the natural order of things. The guy takes a nuke to the face and lives thereby possibly being one of the strongest characters in a manga, who's meant to be a completely normal human.

I'm on Volume 13 now and the Thouzer story made me like Ken a whole lot more but in the end he still feels a bit... dry. It's also annoying how this story wants me to feel sorry for Raoh when you look at his and Toki's past considering all of the things Raoh has done. It's like trying to make me feel sorry for Juda when he scarred Mamiya and attempt to kill an entire city of people by poisoning their water, it's not gonna happen. Hell, he just killed the leader of a village because the guy didn't want to fight back.

Baal wrote:

I'm on Volume 13 now and the Thouzer story made me like Ken a whole lot more but in the end he still feels a bit... dry. It's also annoying how this story wants me to feel sorry for Raoh when you look at his and Toki's past considering all of the things Raoh has done. It's like trying to make me feel sorry for Juda when he scarred Mamiya and attempt to kill an entire city of people by poisoning their water, it's not gonna happen. Hell, he just killed the leader of a village because the guy didn't want to fight back.

I despise Raoh fanboys, I'll complain about that way more when you finish the whole thing though. Raoh is not a hero in any respect in my eyes. Rei and toki steal the show in my opinion, it really seems like the writers were aware of just how awesome Rei was and tried to really keep him in as long as possible even though he really doesn't do much but yet still is great.

Juda makes at least some sense as he's clearly mental, even Souther in a twisted way makes sense and you can vaguely sympathise with his childhood, although he pretty much wrecks any sympathy you might have considering the crap with shuu. Raoh just seems like a complete douche.

Oh and it seems like I have 14 volumes left, how? The story seems like it's close to wrapping up as it is, what in the hell is going to extend the story for 14 volumes?

a helluva lot of other characters are introduced, honesstly though i think the series piques with souther. Ryuga is a decent character but not in it all that long.

I think there's a shitload of backstory, which is supposed to make you feel for raoh, didn't work on me.

Oh good lord, there's going to be a shitload of pointless bullshit, I just know it.

Assuming i haven't got the order of events confused there's definitely some interesting parts of back story.

Fudoh actually looks pretty different in the manga compared to the game mainly due to his attire consistent of straps and pants with a full beard in the game while he's wearing a coat, pants and isn't fully bearded in the manga, I really didn't recognize him for a minute when I first saw him.

I really can't remember what he looks like in game but IIRC he has two different outfits where he looks pretty different in the manga.

Alright, I'm just gonna go ahead and give a full rundown of what I think so far in details for anyone who reads this and cares before I just go on a marathon to finish this throughout the rest of the week.

Kenshiro would've been a much better protagonist had he seemed like more of a hero and not an anti-hero who was just dealing with assholes in the post-apocalyptic world and his power hungry brother but it wasn't until Thouzer that he actually felt like that, which wouldn't really be a problem if he were established as more of an anti-hero and not treated like a hero from the start.

I was ready to stop liking both him and Rei after the sexist crap they did to Mamiya but Rei managed to garner my interest in him and become my favorite character due to him being more like the hero and actually being interesting. Mamiya was pretty cool too for a while even if she was relegated to a background character after Juda.

I'm glad that I actually like 2 of the 3 brothers because I honestly probably would've dropped this if Jagi and Toki weren't completely awesome. Jagi's a fun villain who is a giant asshole and goes so far as to use his brother's name for some dumb vendetta that he caused himself and Toki is kung-fu jesus.

I don't know what to really say about the villains. I'd say that I liked a lot of them but I would've liked them a lot more had the damn story not try to make me feel sorry for them like it did with Jagi. For instance, I cannot stand how Juda was giving this "Oh he's noble but was just mislead" crap when he was an awful human being. It's like trying to make me sympathize with Dio Brando because Dio's dad was an asshole and that's the main reason Dio is the bastard he is, it doesn't work. Sure I'm gonna feel a bit sorry for them but if you expect me to go full on "BUT IT'S NOT HIS FAULT, HE'S JUST MISUNDERSTOOD" then you're incredibly wrong. The same goes for Thouzer who went as far as to kidnap woman and children and kill a man by crushing him under the top of a pyramid and just be a general monster to everyone around him because his master had him kill him when he was younger, I still liked Thouzer more than Juda though because Thouzer is just cooler, I dunno.

My biggest problem with the story is Raoh. Why is Kenshiro even considered the main character after Raoh is introduced because it pretty much becomes the Raoh show for the most part. Raoh is just boring, he's every generic villainous big brother in that he talks down to his brothers while trying to somehow still encourage them, it just doesn't work when he's just uncaringly killing several people for the sake of conquest. Hell, his entire first fight with Toki was just a large amount of "NOPE" for me when they started showing me flashbacks and Raoh crying at Toki being weak because I didn't buy that. You show this guy as a fucking monster and then try to make me sympathize with him because he's sad for his brother? Fuck that. It's not like it would be a problem either if Raoh wasn't completely saved by SICKNESS, he's only barely lost to Kenshiro the one time but Toki being poisoned was a save for him and so was their master he killed because he was sick too. But hell there are even opponents that it makes no sense with him sometimes, like why hasn't he beaten Thouzer yet? Surely, he must have realized at some after fighting him as to why his attacks aren't working and then gone back afterwards.

His stories aren't even really interesting. After Thouzer's done then he just goes on to kill the shmucks that serve the last Nanto master effortlessly and that's just dull. Apparently Juza is supposed to be a big threat too but I wouldn't be surprised if that ended up just being a two-chapter fight where Raoh wastes him.

Another problem I have is Yuria, why does everyone love this chick so much? It'd be one thing if it was just Kenshiro and Shin, but no it's also Toki, Raoh, and Juza. Hell, how many guys need to fawn over her for us to understand that she's important? Unless she has like some seriously huge character then this is all just going to be dumb building up for a character who's going to seem more like a Sue than anything else.

I mean christ for one of the most influential manga of all time I am certainly underwhelmed and I still have 8 volumes left to go, this is gonna be fucking work.

For Raoh I completely agree.

I think your reading into things way too much. Its not so much he's like this sympathise with him. Its more how people were warped and feel there past justifies there actions. The only reason your reading into this so much now, is because thats how things are written these days, but hell this manga is older then me. Its like in naruto painful past = justification for everything.

Jagi is an asshole he's meant to be. Juda is mental, and supports him thats hardly helping the case. Out of the bad guys the only one who wasn't completely batshit was Shin, but he was obsessive (debatedly mental) and didn't really give a fuck about much else and that was used against him.

Souther is definitely an asshole, but he certainly did have a tragic past. You can see how his character developed, but he's still become some evil monster, he's the only one there's probably meant to be any sympathy towards but the fact is he's an evil bastard and if you sympathise with him there's something wrong with you.

There's a large theme of jealousy, through the whole of HnK. Think about it who hasn't been jealous of something, its a large part of most of the main villains choices (i think the only exception is Souther). Also if there's one unbeliavably hot chick when your younger and this is literally the only girl you've got around in your training ground I wouldn't be suprised if the whole school liked her. The ones who don't understand love would assume they love her to. Then Ken won her over, who no one really liked hence the dickishness later on.

Raoh actually completely sucks he stole 'secret techniques' from every martial arts school and still sucked. I honestly do not see how on any level how he was the 'strongest' brother, unless we're talking about how much he can bench seeing as he's twice the size of Ken. I dunno if some major plot points have shown up or not but i'm pretty certain there's a good reason he cries against Toki, i thought it had already been brought up. Though his reaction to that again is dickish. Raoh's just an alpha male who punches people instead of hugging them. If i hadn't cared for the conclusion, I would've given up after Rei's death TBH.