Following a cataclysmic nuclear war, the world teeters on the brink of complete destruction.
Civilization is polarized into a degenerate society where opposing packs of marauding scavengers prey
on helpless, homeless nomads. For those who are lucky enough to survive the constant brutality and
danger, it is a bleak existence. Life an death blur into abstractions. The only hope left for mankind
is to find a hero worthy of becoming the next "Fist of the North Star" - an enlightened warrior - who
is capable of leading those with the will to survive out of this barrenness into a new world. But in
this savage no-man's land of shifting loyalties and power-hungry demi-gods, heroes are in short
supply.
(Source: AniDB)
_Fist of the North Star: The Movie_ is simply awful. The storyline is lacking in any coherency or nuance, the characters are all mono dimensional and uninteresting, and the presentation is turgid. Taking a 100-episode series and trying to squash it all into a two-hour movie (never a wise decision when adapting any such lengthy source material) may be part of the problem. But the major issue with _Fist of the North Star: The Movie_ is that it is, simply put, not at all interesting. It's basically scene after scene of blood-splattering violence, with few breaks in the action, and a virtually nonexistent plot. Characters come in and out at various times, over cluttering an already busy movie. We are never given a specific reason to care about anybody in one way or another because of that. The end result is a boring, and frankly, not very compelling train wreck that doesn't make any sense. Apparently there are two different endings to this movie, but because the movie provides very little reason to care one way or another, it's hard to know __what__ could have made it any better. The English dub, provided by Streamline Pictures, is even worse; a dreadfully wooden, robotic, stiff, and all around boring train wreck with disappointingly underwhelming turns from everyone involved, despite the presence of names like Michael McConnohie and Greg Snegoff. In fact, it gets my vote for being one of the worst dubs of all time. Carl Macek and company have done so much better. I've ripped into this movie long enough for you to get the idea. There are far superior animated movies to invest in than this joyless, unpleasant film.