How I learned to stop worrying and love Fist of the North Star

Those of you who’ve been following me for a while know that I have a strange taste in comics. While I don’t actively despise action or superhero comics (like some snobs in the community), I do tend to gravitate towards the more ‘eccentric’ comics. You know, those super trippy, mind-bending comics that seek to touch a deeply buried nerve in your brain or make you question your sanity. With that being said, you’d think a manga about muscly men punching each other until they explode wouldn’t be something that I’d give the time of day to.

Believe me, I thought that too a year ago.

As you’ve probably guessed if you read the title, I’m talking about the manga series Fist of the North Star, a serial comic that ran in Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1988. It was written by Buronson and drawn by Tetsuo Hara and is considered a cult classic to many oldtaku.

No seriously, I cannot stress enough how big this franchise is. It not only had a television show but also an animated movie, a couple OVAs, several video games, novels, and one very very very bad live-action movie that everyone would like to forget. On top of all that, several mangaka artists have cited Fist of the North Star as inspiration for their own works, including Kentaro Miura of Berserk fame (may he rest in peace). It’s kinda up there with…