Fist of the North Star: Raoh Side Story Junai Arc

As a fan of the crude yet classic "Fist of the North Star" movie from 1986, I must say that I was looking forward to the same formula with updated animation. That is not what this new film delivers at all...

The animation is breathtaking and the character art is beautifully done similar to the animation in Ninja Scroll. But the violence level is all toned down and the character Kenshiro is no longer a great hero but simply a bore. The film is still bloody with a few impressive fight scenes but there is not one scene where anyone's head explodes nor is the film gory in the manga tradition. I think in America it would get a PG-13 rating at best.

The movie is long and boring with all its senseless dialogue,there are very few fight scenes, the retro-charm found in the original is lost and only a few scenes resemble anything close to mad max (which made the first movie so good). I d say this is good for one sitting just to get a glimpse of the pretty animation. thats about it.

2 out of 5 stars,