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Fist of the North Star Volume 1 Director: Tony Randel Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Format: Animated, Color Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 210 minutes Studio: Anchor Bay Entertain Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-03-25 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 46 Average rating: 3.0 "Amazing" It was such an epic, that it made me shed a tear or two. The drama rivals that of 'Gone With the Wind'. A must buy. "Post-apocalyptic gore-fest" "You are already dead" A phrase uttered by the main star Kenshiro, many a time, after performing one of his numerous killing techniques. The dialogue is a little cheesy , the bad-guys cookie-cutter,the animation primitive, but so what? This DVD is chock-full of violence and cool martial arts. Definetely watch this series in order, to understand the back-story and why the hell Ken is tromping around wasting baddies. You get 7 episodes, very adequate compared to other companies. *cough*Funimation*cough. Audio in English and Japanese, with Subtitles. Let's be honest...you don't want to listen to this in english. The voice acting is really bad (read:Atrocious dialogue), and will make you run home crying. Stick to the Japanese track with subs, and you'll be fine. Extras are the same old Manga previews from the previous disc,kinda dissapointing. All in all, a great buy...dont miss it! "conclusion?" UPDATE Go to Ebay and search fist of the northstar get the whole set of 150 episodes for 100 dollars plus like 25 shipping! Or get 35 episode sets for 35 dollars plus shipping. I just bought and watched this disc. Since about 5/03 I've been buying 1,2,3,and 4 and have watched 1,2,3,at least 3 or 4 times, and 4 twice. I first learned of F.o.t.n.s. the movie like ten years ago looking for a video to watch. I haven't seen it in a few years but from what i remember it ended with Kenshiro fighting hi evil brother Raoh, coming to a conclusion. Disc 5 starts with Kenshiro finishing off The Fang Clan and ends with him setting off to find the oldest of his three brothers Raoh. On the back of the dvd it says 5 deadly Dvd volumes. The fifth volume ended with no conclusion, ken just sets off to face his mightiest opponent. it's sort of disapointing buying dvd after dvd (of great entertainment) waiting for Kenshiro to defeat a last opponent, and he doesn't. If you own no fist of the northstar dvds definitly start with the first volume, definitly, or maybe just the movie. Each dvd ends with no real conclusion so be prepared you will always want the next volume. Volumes 1-3 are my favorites, especially the episodes with "gods army". Disc 4 and 5 of the series , to me, lose steam. The introduction of ray in disc 4 doesnt really go any wehere in the 5th disc Whats good about volume 5 more heads and bodies exploding (though it seems like they use the same animation disc to disc sometime) bone crushing lines and dialog unnecesary violence heavy death count interesting villains bare boned simple animation All 5 volumes are great to have on as background dvds, There good to put on when hanging with friends, or drawing, really there good to listen to as an alternative to music sometimes. A good dvd is one you can watch countless times and discs 1-5 you can as long as you know what to expect fists flying heads exploding. Fist of the northstars quality is not in clean animation or even quality dvds, one of the episodes sound is really messed up on disc 5 for like 5 minutes. its quality is in repetition, violence, style, characters, and dialog. "Fist of the North Star" It was a beautifully intricate blend of flavors that make this a classic. I laughed and cried at its beauty.......... The ecstacy is similar to the ecstacy felt that you would recive if you arrived in heaven, looked into god's face, and he said, "You, you are my most wonderous creation. Come, be with me." The most touching, heart felt, truly powerful piece that ever graced my vision. I would rather die than have not have seen it in its glory. The highest elation recived comes when watching this......... "Fails Utterly" I am a huge fan of the Japanese anime "Fist of The North Star" which is of course the story of Kenshiro's quest to save his beloved Yulia from the clutches of his arch-rival Shin. What impresses me the most about this series is not the violence and fighting but the way Ken deals out justice. The way Ken delivers vengeance upon the evil-doers and tries to save as many good people as he can. The dialogue between Ken and Shin and between Shin and Yulia is some of the best I've heard in terms of outrageousness and hubris. Now we get to the live-action version of this classic... Great dialogue totally written out. Script seems like something from a bad pulp fiction novel. Flat performance from most although Shin and Bart were passable. No mention whatsoever in the movie of Ken's classic "I struck your hidden power point which controls your arm muscles..you have 3 seconds..." or Shin's "I am not meek...and contrary to what you may have heard, it is the strong who will inherit the earth" or Yulia "all I want...is kindness as vast as the sea, a heart as warm as the sun...like a wind blowing through a meadow" We get none of this great dialogue. Also missing are all of the great villians such as the martial arts killer, a giant of a man with a body like a sumo wrestler who absorbs blows with his body. This movie takes the name of Fist of The North Star and totally fails to do justice to it. While watching this movie I at first laughed out loud at the bad special effects and poor acting but soon felt disappointment and later anger at this travesty styling itself as my beloved Fist of The North Star. If you are a fan of this series don't bother to view this movie. It should be called "Bloody Cross" or some other nonsense as it doesn't deserve the name Fist of The North Star.