Fist of the North Star - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Fist of the North Star or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Fist of the North Star

[dustin]

Ryûken's speech regarding the nature of life and death, which opens the English dub, is quoted verbatim by Jeru the Damaja on the intro to his classic album The Sun Rises in the East.

[marc]

Real anatomy was studied to depict the gory explosions of the villains.

[kylie]

Similarly, Kenshiro makes a cameo in Vampire Hunter D as a villager during the scene where the Count's messenger arrives in the village to give the candle to Rei Ginsei.

[jessie]

Many of the more graphic scenes of violence were edited and altered immediately after the original Japanese theatrical run; possibly even during it. Toei Animation received many complaints from concerned parents and media reviewers over scenes of violence that more closely represented the manga art it was based on, and so in response they added in screen filters and crop/zoom effects to partially blur and distort the animation that depicted exposed brain matter, intestines, and other close-ups of severe trauma to any characters body. Unfortunately, the Toei Animation warehouse had a massive fire in the 1980's, and the original unaltered reel was declared destroyed. The only reel that did survive was the final altered version that was being readied for future releases in another studio's office, and this is the only version that has been released to the home market. However, years later evidence of an uncut version ever existing came to light from an Italian VHS copy which is believed to have been created from a partially untouched reel. A few scenes clearly showed gore without any alterations, while a majority of the other scenes were still edited. Since not all of these scenes were completely unaltered, fans believe Italy prematurely received a partially edited reel before Japan made all of the edits to the final cut version. Whether that reel still exists, whether in Italy or if it was sent back to Japan, is unknown. Toei Animation has never commented about the movie or the edits to the public, but did deny US licensing company Diskotek Media the chance to release the Italian trailer with the unedited footage as a supplement on the US DVD in 2009.

[stephanie]

Vampire Hunter D of the 1985 anime movie of the same name makes a cameo appearance as a villager in the scene where Raoh's second-in-command, Uighur, reveals the pot of flowers to the people. Toyoo Ashida, the director of the film, directed Vampire Hunter D one year prior to directing the anime Hokuto No Ken movie.