Kenshiro

Like, Mr.-

Kenshiro, yeah.

Hey.

I, I like-

Kenshiro's crazy.

Well, look, here's the thing.

I think this is a thing we don't talk about because, look, they really haven't been doing any more system mechanic changes.

And he played, he played another character.

either.

Because with Kenshiro, I can argue that it's for marketing because the new Fist of the North Star came out.

And that's a cool character in media.

Like, Kenshiro is a well-known anime property.

These guys, I've never heard of before.

And the fact that there's two

That was, like, February, right? Yeah,

yeah.

Makes a lot more sense.

Brian described Fist of the North Star as this combination of spaghetti western, Mad Max, and martial arts insanity, where Kenshiro hits pressure points and people explode after being told they're already dead.

Then somebody apparently looked at Palafan and thought, yeah, get that guy, which is fantastic.

And Brian said the card reminds him of the Magna Covers and captures that same over-the-top energy that immediately clicked with me.

Okay, uh, next up, uh, Fist of the North Star.

Uh, Kenshiro killed the Red Beret.

Um, we get a little backstory on Bat, uh, for his village, because, uh, they apparently have water.

And there was this one kid who was cer- was in this desolate land, and he probably met Kenshiro, like, months ago before all this, and he thinks he's God.

Hello, Patrick Star.

Welcome, welcome.

Uh, so th- so that kid bumps into Bat, Rin, Kenshiro, is like, "Hey," like, "Our aunt, our aunt's in trouble," like, "We found water.

We can't get to it because of the bedrock in the bottom of the well.

A couple of months ago, they dropped, uh, Kenjuro.

Kenshiro.

Wait a minute, from, um...

Why do I keep wanting to call that Cunch Punch, man? Bro.

Speaking of raw physical power born from dystopian survival, that leads us perfectly to the logical extreme of martial arts.

We have the graceful restraint of Kenshin, the brutal survivalism of Guts, and now we arrive at Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star.

Kenshiro is a fascinating evolution of the physical combatant trope.

The setting is crucial here.

He wanders a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland.

Striking these points disables the opponent or literally destroys their body from the inside out, causing them to violently explode.

Yeah, it's pretty gruesome.

gruesome.If we connect this to the bigger picture, Kenshiro represents the ultimate unavoidable marriage of precision and brute force.

They happen simultaneously without thought.

The scene where the protagonist, Kenshiro, uses this against his primary rival, Raoh, is incredibly eerie.

It really is unsettling to watch.

Raoh throws this devastating punch, and Kenshiro doesn't block it and then throw a punch back.

His body is simply no longer occupying the space the fist was aimed at, and he is answering with a strike in the exact same fluid motion.

And the essayist points out a terrifying mechanical parallel here to Tanjiro fighting Akaza.

And Raoh's overwhelming physical dominance and martial aura operate on the exact same principle.

He requires an opponent who is honest enough to occupy a readable, confrontational position.

Mm-hmm.

Something Kenshiro walking through the wasteland towards the town.

Yeah.

But also, like I said, the Django movies, not the Quentin Tarantino one, the old spaghetti Western series Django, he drags along a coffin full of guns, and that's his thing is that he pretends to be an undertaker and he's got guns in the coffin.

Again, right, you've got a character who is essentially just being like, "I'm the best, strongest person in the world," and I mean, like his power level is at the start of this manga.

I mean, Luffy's strong at the start of One Piece.

Kenshiro was strong at the start of Fist of the North Star.

Vash is strong at the start of Trigun.