The first series I am going to talk about is a legendary martial arts shonen manga:
Fist of North Star/Hokuto no Ken --Click here to view--
In the near future, the world was covered with atomic fires.
The seas dried. The torn was scorched and cracked. All forms of life seemed disappearing off the face of the planet.
All but the human race.
The nuclear war incinerated the planet to a scorched wasteland, and the old society along with it. Any form, kind or shape of government, justice or civilization… has been wiped out. Money is now worthless, and only food and water are worth to fight for.
Hopeless and desperate, the survivors crowd together, struggling for surviving. Some of them try to settle down, cultivate the barren lands to grow crops and create a new society. But others of them band together and attack people are weaker than them to steal their food, water and shelter.
Survival of the fittest is the only law now.
Gangs of bandits travel over the wastelands, preying on the weak and the helpless: they assail peaceful travellers, raid unprotected settlements, pillage, loot and murder. They are unafraid of committing atrocities because they think they get away with anything –as long as they attack people is weaker than them and can’t defend themselves- since there is no law or authority can punish their actions. They are unafraid because they think nobody can stop them.
They are wrong.
One day, a gang’s leader is warned by one of his henchmen his scouting squad has been slaughtered. He is absolutely infuriated, but his fury gives way to bewilderment since his men’s wounds were… unusual. It was like if something had exploded into them. And the last survivor muttered something odd before dying. Something about… the North Star.
A while later a tall, raven-haired man, clad in tight leather clothes approaches a little town. He has been journeying across the desert for days and he is thirsty. However, he has barely walked into the borders of the town when he is arrested by a mob of grim, distrustful, armed villagers.
He is thrown into a narrow cell, where he finds a smiling blonde kid identifies himself like Bat. A little girl –who works like jailer in order to earn her daily meal- approaches, bringing water for Bat’s jail’s partner. Suddenly Bat grabs the kid’s arm through the bars and tells his partner stealing the cell keys from her.
But the man doesn’t. Instead he grabs Bat’s arm and squeezes. Bat screeches, let go the girl and protests they have lost their only chance to get out of there.
However his partner doesn’t care. He replies if they would have run away, who knows what could have happened to the little girl.
Bat laughs, wondering aloud how he has survived so far, and explains that town has been built around an oasis. The soil is fertile and crops can be cultivated on it. So the villagers have formed a militia in order to protect themselves. It is because that they are so paranoiac about strangers and foreigners.
His explanation is abruptly cut off when the jailer returns… with food and a cup of water. The man eagerly drinks the water –as Bat wolfs down the food-, identifies himself like Ken, and asks her what her name is. Instead of her, Bat answers, stating her name is Lynne but she is mute. She can’t talk since her entire family was murdered in front of her by thieves.
Ken gets serious of sudden, and stretching out his arms, touches Lynne’s head, poking on several spots. Lynne and Bat are puzzled, but he says he has made a technique to give her back her ability to speak. Lynne is bemused and Bat shows up shocked, but Ken simply states it all depends on her: the cry of her heart will give her the power to speak.
Bat doesn’t believe him, and he laughs, as acknowledging it doesn’t matter if it is true or not: it must be the first nice thing someone has said to the mute girl since her parents and siblings died.
Suddenly several soldiers came in, looking for Ken. The town’s patriarch is back in town, and he needs interrogating Ken so he can ascertain if he is member of a gang or not. During the interrogatory, he orders the guards searching if Ken wears a tattoo –which would prove he is a bandit-. They rip his shirt, revealing there are seven scars branding Ken’s upper front body. Those seven scars form the Great Bear constellation’s shape.
The patriarch gets frightened all of sudden. Hokuto, the North Star is the star of Death. It is a bad omen.
Suddenly a gang of thieves assails the town, and Ken is thrown back into the jail. Lynne is called to fight, but before leaving, cast the keys in Ken’s cell. Overjoyed, Bat grabs them and tries opening the door as he mentions she has given the keys to them because she knows she is going to get killed. That is the Zaad’s gang, and they kill everyone. Men, women, children... It doesn’t matter to them.
Ken’s expression suddenly changes. So far he had displayed passivity, kindness, warmth… But now his expression displays cold fury. Arctic cold fury.
Wordlessly, he grabs the bars as Bat is struggling with the keys, rips them from their sockets –proving he could walk out whenever he wished- and darts towards the exit.
He gasps. Outside the building chaos reign, and there are corpses everywhere. Zaad has caught Lynne and he is threatening with twisting her fragile neck with his huge hands unless the villagers surrender and bring all their food supplies.
Suddenly, Lynne spots Ken… and without realizing what she doing, she screams, begging him not coming near.
Ken is slightly surprised. However Bat is behind him, and he is shocked and slightly frightened, recalling his words (“a cry of her heart”) and wondering who he is.
Ignoring Lynne’s pleas, Ken advances. Several bandits surround him, ordering him stopping.
He states they are in his way and cracks his knuckles.
Enraged, they attack. However Ken kicks them, leaps above them, lands in front of Zaad and commands him let Lynne go… now.
Feeling even more furious, Zaad’s henchmen whirl around and run towards Ken… when suddenly their bodies explode.
The patriarch, who is watching the scene, exclaims that technique is the Hokuto Shinken (or Fist of the North Star): a legendary and terrible Chinese martial art consists of focusing the inner energy to hit the vital points and destroy the body from inside rather from outside.
Zaad gets furious, realizing he has met his scouts’ assassin, when Ken begins his attack. He lands dozens of punches and palm blows on Zaad’s body, apparently not harming him but hurling him backwards. Zaad accidentally releases Lynne, but Ken catches her, spins around and begins walking away.
However, Zaad rises again, laughing at the technique and stating he is going to kill him. Ken just replies: “You are already dead”. Zaad begins saying something… when his body falls apart.
Deadly afraid, his gang men flee.
The next day, Ken leaves the town. He can’t stay because where he goes, death and violence follows. However Bat –and later Lynne- decides following him.
While they follow him, they learn more things about Kenshiro, his former life and his goals (one of them killing the man kidnapped his fiancé, Yuria, a man once was his best friend but betrayed him and nearly killed him), meet his brothers, friends, enemies and rivals, and live through terrific and bloody battles as they witness the terrifying power of the Hokuto Shinken… and its counterpart, the Nanto Seiken.
That was the beginning of Fist of North Star, one of the most famous and most influential fighting shonen manga. Written by Buronson and –incredibly well- illustrated by Tetsuo Hara, it was serialized in Shonen Jump from 1983 to 1988. The manga is twenty-eight volumes long, and it spawned two anime series, a film and several OVAs.
However, although many people loved the manga and it was a hit, it won’t like everyone (but then again, NO manga likes everyone): some people opine the violence is over-the-top and the plot is too simple; however, I am a big fan, and I would argue the plot is simple but effective and engaging, some characters are pretty charismatic (Shin or Rei are some of my favourite), and the manga isn’t just full with violence. It is also full with tragic and heart-warming moments.
In other words, it is better you read and judge for yourself.
In the last years have been published several one-shots, elaborating on the stories of several secondary characters, and in 2001 Tetsuo Hara started drawing a prequel: Soten no Ken (Fist of the Blue Sky).
You can read the manga here: Manga
You can watch the anime here: Part I; Part II
Oh, and I have always thought Kishimoto got inspiration from this series (which he has admitted watching and loving when he was a kid) when he was designing Neji and Lee. The explanation of how Neji’s style hurts the body from inside and Lee’s style hurts body from outside was very similar to the explanation of how Hokuto Shinken and Nanto Seiken work (Hokuto Shinken destroys the human body from within whereas Nanto Seiken destroys it from outside).
And now a high-fantasy shonen manga:
Dragon Quest: Dai no Daiboken --Click here to view--
A long time ago, the King Demon Hadlar was defeated by the hero known as Avan. After his defeat, all monsters were released from his evil influence, and peace reigned in the world during ten years.
Dai -the main character- is a young kid lives in the island of Delmurin. He is the only human lives in that island, since it is inhabited by several monsters and demons moved in it after the Hadlar’s defeat to live in peace. Dai has been raised by the stern and grumpy but caring monster magician Brass, and he dreams with growing up and becoming a hero like Avan.
One day a man arrives to the island to meet Dai: Avan, mentor of heroes –and his disciple Pop-, who had come to Delmurin by request of Leona, a princess whom Dai had saved in an occasion.
Avan started training Dai, teaching him two of his three sword techniques (which must be learnt and combined in order to master his supreme sword technique), when someone arrives the island: Hadlar, the king demon whom all believed to be dead. Hadlar announces he has been resurrected by someone even more powerful, the Great King Demon Vearn, and he is now working for him. He is ready to dominate and command hordes of monsters to conquer the world –in his new king’s name now-, but he must fulfil one task before: kill the human being defeated him so he can’t interfere with his plans.
Avan fights him, but he is weakened and Hadlar pummels him ruthlessly. Out of options, he tries killing Hadlar with a self-sacrifice spell, but he fails and dies. Dai, Brass, Pop and Gome –a winged, slime-like monster is Dai’s best friend- face now Hadlar, but he is too powerful and he seems to ready to wipe them out.
However, a hidden power within Dai –symbolized by the appearance of an odd mark on his forehead- awakes, forcing Hadlar to flee. Dai and his new friend Pop decide leaving the island to avenge their master and defeat Hadlar and his evil king, and so bring peace back to the world.
Dragon Quest was born like a video game in the eighties, created by Yuji Horii, with monsters and characters designed by Akira Toriyama (creator of Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump…). It became a phenomenon in Japan, spawning one of the most important RPG games franchises.
Dragon Quest: Dai no Daiboken is loosely based on Dragon Quest’s fantasy world (you don’t need playing the games in order to understand the plot). The manga ran from 1989 to 1996 and it was written by Riku Sanjo and illustrated by Koji Inada, and it is thirty-seven volumes long. Its success spawned a forty-three-episodes-long anime show and a three-episodes-long OVA series.
It is a light-hearted, fantasy series, full with action and humour and a bit of romance, and it is very enjoyable.
To read the manga: Manga;
To watch the anime: Anime
Nevertheless, I must state there are more mangas and anime based on Dragon Quest, even though they are less famous.
And now a sci-fi, romance shonen manga:
Urusei Yatsura --Click here to view--
Ataru Moroboshi is a very unlucky high-school boy who is a magnet for all kind of weirdness. He is also an absolute lecher, and he is always chasing after anything is: a) female; and b) beautiful.
Obviously Shinobu Miyake -his girlfriend- doesn’t feel impressed by his pervert antics, and she often expresses her displeasure in very violent ways. The story starts right after she has left Ataru –again-, and he walks back home.
In the way back, a Buddhist monk nearly drowns him (he thought Ataru was going to throw himself in a river, tried stopping him and accidentally pushed him in the water. Don’t ask, it is as stupid as it sounds) and warns Ataru his bad luck is just going to get worse.
When Ataru returns home, he finds out an alien race known like the Oni have arrived Earth with the intention of invading it. However they are giving the humans once chance to prevent the invasion: if one human plays a game of tag with an alien and touches one of his/her horns, they will retreat. And the human player must manage it within one week.
The oni-alike aliens have chosen Ataru how Earth’s champion. And the Oni’s champion is Lum, the daughter of the invader leader.
Ataru is reluctant at the beginning, but he changes his mind when he meets Lum. She is a beautiful, bikini-clad, blue-haired girl and he is just too eager for trying touching her bod-, er, horn.
Which earns him a beating of Shinobu (she was worried about him when heard the news and had come to his home to see him).
The competition starts, and Ataru finds out one thing the invaders neglected mention: Lum can fly, and he can’t reach her. Before the last day of the competition, Shinobu encourages Ataru by pledging marrying him if he wins. Ataru decides he will win not matter what.
The last day, Ataru manages trapping Lum (using dirty tricks and methods won’t be explained here but involve Lum’s bra), and touches her horn. Thrilled, he utters he is happy to get married.
Unfortunately, Lum misunderstands, thinks it is a proposal, and she accepts.
Ataru is frightened at the beginning. He tries going on his relationship with Shinobu, but Lum doesn’t stop interfering, and she eventually moves into his house. At the beginning, Shinobu and Lum fight over Ataru, but slowly Shinobu starts getting sick of the arguments and Ataru’s flirts and starts losing interest on him. However, Ataru doesn’t stop hitting on her in spite of he is falling in love with Lum (given that he dreams with having a harem, he must not see why it is a trouble). Hence, he usually he ends up getting brutally beaten up by both girls (then again, if he is so dumb to piss off TWO tsundere girls at the same time, I think he deserves it).
Lum not only begins living with Ataru but also attending his school. Soon she develops a fanbase of fanatics and slobbering admirers, including Shutaro Mendo, heir of a large mega-corporation and immensely rich (Shinobu was in love with him for a while… until she realized he was just like Ataru).
Urusei Yatsura is a series blends romance, surreal humour and light-hearted sci-fi. That unusual mixture was the first resounding success of Rumiko Takahashi (creator of Maison Ikkoku and Ranma ½).
The manga was published from 1978 to 1987 and it is thirty-four volumes long. It spawned an anime series, an OVA series and several films (the last of them has been made this year).
It is highly recommendable.
It is also a series proved editors can force a manga writer to change his/her plot and even canon pairing: Takahashi planned on Getting Ataru and Shinobu together, but her editors forced her to change it for Ataru and Lum due to popular demand (though the change happened early on).
To read the manga: Manga
To watch the anime: Anime; Movies; OVA; Special
Edited by Jenskott, 16 November 2010 - 07:47 AM.