Fist of the North Star

"ATATATATATATATATATATA!!!" - What Kenshiro says at the beginning of EVERY. FUCKING. FIGHT.

"You are already dead." - What Kenshiro says at the end of EVERY. FUCKING. FIGHT.

Gaze at his manly eyebrows of justice and *shit yourselves*, evildoers.

Setting aside the fact that it's manga and anime for a moment, this is the single manliest show in existence. If you got Vance Motherfucking Stubbs, Sly Marbo, Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken, General Sturnn, Gabriel Angelos, and Commissar Fuklaw, Khârn and every World Eater in existence to come together and produce a show using only their pure manliness, this is dangerously similar to what they would probably come up with. Except what they'd come up with would probably feature more Steve Blum and Scott Fucking McNeil. But this show was created by an acupuncturist who wanted to make a manga about martial arts. LOLWUT?

The result is a show filled with hypocritical moralfags, and no major villains who rape because somehow 'they're above it', despite eagerly slaughtering men, women and children with reckless abandon beforehand (which actually is something criminals do; murderers view rapists as worse than themselves). Which pleases Him. It also features monstrous villains getting the ever-loving shit kicked out of them and often violently exploded, which also pleases Him.

Whenever people think about martial arts in animu the first thing that will come to mind for a lot of people is Dragonball Z; many wapanese see this as the beginning of all fighting animu and their respective cliches. As well as a source of memes-a-plenty. But this is not so. Long before Nappa asked Vegeta about Goku's power level or when nigra Cell charged his lazer, or when everyone's power aura ripped up the earth for 10 episodes and destroyed planets, there was an age undreamed of - there was:

FIST(ING) OF THE NORTH STAR.

The most violent animu of all time, Fist of the North Star was notable for several reasons when it hit - it started several of the common cliches for works that would follow (both animu and otherwise), such as huge muscle-bound dudes beating the shit out of each other, guys fighting whilst observers sit around gawking and do the equivalent of running commentary on the fight, and dozens of memes (THE HORSE IS AMAZING). It also broke about a dozen or so ongoing cliches all its own just to fuck with conventions - it was jaw-droppingly violent, dealt with a lot of mature subjects in a fairly impressive way, and it actually developed its villains rather than made them evil for evil's sake, which was kind of rare at the time.

To get an idea of what this was like, imagine the movie Mad Max 2, with Australia replaced by post 9-11 New York. Then replace Mel Gibson with a Space Marine-sized version of Bruce Lee, and give him a martial art that makes peoples' heads explode. Now set him up against many lulzy villains who make the above look normal by contrast.

Fist of the North Star takes place in a post-apocalyptic world wherein mankind has descended into barbarism and the strong prey upon the weak. Into this horrid world, there is a man who is trained in a martial arts style called Hokuto Shin Ken, which is centered around punching people using their pressure points and causing them to explode in fountains of gore, like an Angry Marine feeding someone a Plasma Grenade. This man is Kenshiro - a genuinely good-hearted protagonist who protects the weak and who is searching for his Fiance, Yuria. And it only gets more epic from there. The series leads across a dizzying array of support characters and antagonists, ranging from hilarious and uplifting to terrifying and tragic.

Like Eisenhorn for the 40K universe, this work is known for its genuinely touching moments as well as its fuckawesome action sequences and hilariously over-the-top violence. It all-but-single-handedly broke the "men aren't allowed to cry" schtick of the 1980s, bringing us the source of MANLY TEARS that would eventually give rise to the Manly Marines.

Paradoxically, so much is in the series that was simply absent from other works of the time, that it stands on its own, like Rogue Trader, even to this very day. Even minor characters are well-developed and well fleshed-out - even the fucking horse. The villains are monstrous (often being as depraved as people can get), but are very human characters and you get a sense of how far they've fallen to get that way. The setting is dark and disturbing, but has bits of genuinely uplifting moments and more than a few bits of hilarity brought about by the dry humor of several characters (Mostly the Protagonist, Kenshiro, and supporting cast members Bat and Rei).

It is a work of such power and depth that it truly transcends its medium. It's a powerful show - as well as a hilariously awesome campaign setting for GURPS or d20 Modern if you want to take it to its extreme, and several fa/tg/uys have already done so.

There's also a prequel series focusing on one of Kenshiro's ancestors, set in China just before WWII. It is also damn good, and features Kung-fu Jews punching Hitler, though those who like the moralfaggotry of its predecessor may have... issues with some of the protagonist's friends.

Chuck Norris wishes he was anywhere near as awesome as any of the protagonists in this series. Even the fucking horse.

Even Khorne tolerates this series, despite the moralfaggotry and most especially the fact that the Blood was openly censored (by making it glow white, which usually worked, but occasionally resulted in comic gold) in order to get the show past censors and allow it on network TV in its anime format. Presumably the huge body count the show had helped sway the blood god's opinion.

Arguably, the biggest downside of the show is that despite all the people Kenshiro kills by making them blow up with kung fu, he never gets any blood on him. Fairly often, he should look like he went for a dip in the Nile after Moses got through with it.