With Fist of the North Star, Bastard, and other such series, I think the only big chance they have to come out here is through something like a Kickstarter. I'd say FotNS has the bigger chance, though, since both its anime's recent stateside release and it's streaming online have stirred up some interest for it.
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Hokuto no Ken remains my personal favorite anime/manga series. It has been for pushing 15 years now, and yes, I loved it hard enough that I quoted part of Ai to Torimodose!! in my wedding vows. Not sure what level fan I am either, but if that doesn't give me a +1, I feel cheated!
Very nice job explaining why it's so engaging, particularly once the Hokuto Brothers and their larger, more interesting story arc are introduced. Buronson and Hara's original manga has far more characterization than the (generally fantastic) 1986 film suggest, and while the TV series is great in its own right, holy crap does some of that front-loaded OC get dire. But it could have been worse, I mean... oh wait, no, there is no live action adaptation of Hokuto no Ken. On an unrelated note, isn't denial great?
The final arc of the manga has never been given much attention because it's... kind of crappy, or at least I always thought so. After the time skip the franchise hits diminishing returns, but everything up until the final battle with Kaioh is at least somewhat interesting and not completely out of character. By comparison the big twist suggested in the KENSHIRO-DEN movie from a few years ago is a much more interesting possibility... and then it goes absolutely nowhere. What I wouldn't give for even a semi-canonical spinoff with an old Kenshiro training his daughter in the ways of Hokuto Shinken.
I remain sorely disappointed that I can't read the whole thing in English, but it was the first manga I imported in its entirety as a teen, trying to read the story visually without knowing a word of Japanese, and over the next few years I watched all 152 episodes via barely-watchable VHS dubs from Nippon Golden Networks (and a handful of raws, because once Manga Video gave up and with there being no R2 DVD BOX available, I took whatever I could get). Can't say it was easy or always even coherent, but I wouldn't trade a second of it.
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