Legends of the Dark King: A Fist of the North Star Story

It is not difficult to understand what kind of anime it is, it's enough to literally look at the poster to deduce that the story will not be very deep but that there will be a lot of beatings, violence and blood. At first it looked like a heavy and difficult anime to follow but after the second episode I had practically already guessed the goal of the story: to show how much Raou is a badass. Each time he reminds us that if there is an enemy he will destroy him with his fist and every time someone tries to challenge him we alreadyknow that Raou will come out the winner. Some scenes are a bit repetitive, this cannot be denied and the other two main characters, Reina and Souga, are quite boring. I'm glad that the post-apocalyptic dark themes, typical of Hokuto no Ken, have not been eliminated; having said that there are scenes that had to be serious but that made me laugh (and I'm ashamed). An example is when Raou meets his steed, I will not describe the scene in order not to spoil but know that it had to be a serious episode and that I started laughing because I found the episode itself ridiculous. All in all the series was not too bad and in general I liked it. It's not the best anime of Hokuto no Ken but it's decent.

"Hokuto no Ken: Raoh Giaden Ten no Haoh" is anime that tells the story of Raoh's rise as a King of Fists. From the first episode, it is clear for who this anime was intended, because the first thing you will notice is that Raoh has a kid's face. In fact, everybody looks like a teenagers more than grown men and women. This anime was clearly made in an effort to draw younger audiences to the series and the whole thing oozes with that half-cringe, half-cool late 2000-s anime and I can easilly imagine that some kids thought this is the coolest thing they've seen sincesliced bread. Raoh himself is overpowered and over the top main character and though the series tries to depict him both as a tyrant and as a hero, it mostly glorifies him and some things he does are very over the top and it's clear as day that they are trying to make Raoh more likeable than he really is. I like the voice of Takashi Ukaji though. Art style is questionable and I'm not sure if it's really my cup of tea, but it gets the job done. Music, on the other hand, is phenomenal, from intro to outro and music during episodes themselves. Story has some interesting moments, but they're nothing too important or crazy and it's hard to care for the fate of the characters when you know their fate if you are fan of the series. The plot twist at the end can be seen from miles away if you have a functioning brain. Despite it's shortcomings, I think "Hokuto no Ken: Raoh Giaden Ten no Haoh" is a fine and entertaining anime. If you like the series, you can't go wrong with watching it, just be ready for something different that you maybe won't like immediately or maybe at all. I don't recommend the anime if you just stumbled upon it, prior knowledge of the series is needed to understand many things.