The main protagonist and icon of the Fist of the North Star franchise, Kenshiro is the 64th successor of the assassination style known as the Hokuto Shinken.
The Stars Foretell a Tragedy...
Before the dreaded year of 199X, Kenshiro was an infant boy grown in Land of Asura, an island nation across the sea from Japan, along with his adopted brothers Toki and Toki's older brother by blood (and Kenshiro's future nemesis) Raoh. Asura was a place devastated by war and the three boys were burdened with the responsibility of starting a new life in Japan under the tutelage of Hokuto Shinken master Ryuken. A fourth student entered as well, by the name of Jagi. It is around this time that Ken meets Shuu and Souther for the first time when the two Nanto masters visit Ryuken's dojo to see their polar school's students. They train mindlessly, completely focused on the day that Ryuken names one of the four successor. But only one is chosen; due to Jagi's incompetence and carelessness, Toki's growing symptoms of tuberculosis, and Raoh's burning desire to conquer, Kenshiro is named successor of the style. This drove Jagi mad with jealousy and he tried to kill Kenshiro by using a shotgun. Kenshiro, benevolent at first through Jagi's repeated clobberings, eventually fought back and overwhelmed Jagi, going so far as to cause his head to start expanding in preparation for an imminent explosion. He spared Jagi, however, because of the brotherly love they had shared before, and they go their separate ways for the time being.
But the wheels of fate turned violently, hurrying the countdown to the Apocalypse. Toki, Kenshiro, and Kenshiro's fiancee Yuria go to the city to find celebrate Kenshiro's honor of having been chosen as successor. As Kenshiro discusses with Toki on how he and Raoh are coping with their younger brother surpassing them, the bombs begin to rain down all across the world. Toki senses this and instructs Kenshiro and Yuria to run for the nearest bomb shelter. He follows them down into the catacombs of the subway system and as soon as they turn the corner into the bomb shelter, they are met with the sight of the shelter being filled with children and a woman taking care of them. The woman tells the three newcomers that there are still children outside. Toki and Kenshiro go to investigate and come back with the youths in their arms. Kenshiro gets inside, with everyone safe and sound, until the doors, which are only able to close from the outside, being to jam. Toki pushes Kenshiro inside of the shelter and sacrifices himself to close the doors. Two weeks later, Kenshiro and Yuria uncover Toki's body to find that he is alive, but his hair is bleached and his sickness worsened by the nuclear fallout.
An unknown amount of time passes, with Toki and Kenshiro going their separate ways, and Kenshiro and Yuria pay their respects to master Ryuken, for whom Kenshiro has crafted a gravestone. Enter Shin, a student of the polar Nanto school, who is madly in love with Yuria. He is so determined to have her that he challenges Kenshiro to fight, even going so far as to break Ryuken's gravestone! Kenshiro tries to reason with Shin, but cannot and fights him. After clashing with one attack each, Shin defeats Kenshiro and engraves the seven scars into his torso. He blames Kenshiro's lack of desire for his victory, taunting him by saying the fire in his heart has died, and he takes Yuria and leaves Ken to die in the desert. Little does he know that he had sparked the fire to start a burning star within Ken's heart. From that day-on, Ken pledged to find Yuria and kill those who served Shin! But, there was still the matter of being trapped in the middle of nowhere under a nuclear-irradiated atmosphere.
He struggled for days through the unending sun and was eventually besieged by bandits, who dragged him off to their camp by catching him like a fish with grappling hooks attached to their makeshift dune buggies. Ken let them carry him to their camp and then he killed them, taking whatever supplied he could before continuing on his journey. He was led to a small village in the ruins of a great city by the smell of water, which was held in a well from which he took it without the permission of the guards. He was knocked out easily, due to the sheer amount of fatigue he experienced at the time, and was put in the local jailhouse with a boy named Bart, who was imprisoned due to loitering and trying to con his way to some food using his harmonica and comedy-relief dancing. Bart passes the time by talking (one of his best abilities) as a little girl comes to deliver food to the prisoners. She is mute and can only shy away bashfully as Ken tries to make her feel like she is among friends. Bart, on the other hand, is focused solely on the food in front of him. He even recounts the girl's tragic tale of how she got to be in the village, saying her name was Lynn and that her family was murdered by bandits. He even says ever since that day, she has never spoken. Lynn is too shocked by the memories to notice that Ken is reaching for the back of her neck. He lets her know that he is helping and presses a power point, which enables her to speak. This new friendship is interrupted by the arrival of bandits under the authority of Zeed. Lynn is told to leave the prisoners alone and hide while the men fight. She complies, but not before throwing the keys into Ken and Bart's cell. Zeed, however, is a giant of a man and slaughters any militiaman who dares come near him. He takes Lynn hostage and threatens to break her neck if the villagers don't give him and his gang all of their food and water. Bart is too busy trying to open the lock, which is broken (according to his logic), to notice that Ken is standing and putting his hands on the bars. It isn't until those bars are stretched and pried open into a gap wide enough for their escape that Bart begins to take into all seriousness what Ken exactly is...and how much food he could get if he followed him around.
Ken rushes outside to face Zeed's proclamation a second time and promptly walks forward, defying the giant man's decree. He easily disposes of the peanut gallery bandits, killing them with a touch to a specific power point, and makes his way to Zeed. Just before he twists Lynn's head, Ken's shirt rips apart (a commonplace in the series, and one of its trademarks) as he "powers-up" and uses the Hokuto Hyakeretsu Ken (Hundred Crack-Fist of the North Star) to topple Zeed. Zeed gets up, saying that Ken's fists have the power of mosquitoes, but fails to realize that he's already dead as his head explodes after begin pummeled with attacks from Ken's signature move. Ken leaves the village, his fate a dangerous one, and Bart follows him, with Lynn screaming "Ken!" into the sunset.
The Hunt for Shin
Ken meets countless cannon-fodder villains, including Jack, Diamond, Mr. Heart, Mad Sarge, Colonel, Joker, Jackal, and Devil Rebirth, to name a few, in his quest to avenge his humiliation at Shin's (who is, at this time, also called King) hands and to reclaim Yuria from the deviant's clutches. At the city of Southern Cross, Shin's mighty stronghold, Ken is able to track his rival down. The city catches fire just before Ken is able to enter it because one of Shin's most powerful generals mutinied against him. Nevertheless, Ken finds Shin in his throne room with Yuria behind him on a couch. Shin taunts Ken, saying that the outcome will be the same as last time, but is soundly beaten down in a fashion similar to when he defeated Ken. Shin is starstruck and is unable to win. So, in a desperate measure, he kills Yuria!
Shin's own willpower fades under Ken's
Ken left Southern Cross to its sad fate, reuniting with Bart and Lynn, and they continued their journey - whatever else it could be in this bitter age.
Enter: Rei of the Nanto Suichoken Style
Jagi, the Impersonator of the North Star
Ken managed to track Jagi down through hordes of bandits, of course, into his hideout. Needless to say, Jagi was soundly defeated (just as he was before). This time, he wasn't given the blessing of mercy and his head was popped off his shoulders with a satisfying end to his villainy. But he died bearing a strange and foreboding message: Toki and Raoh were still alive. Ken was starstruck, not that he had killed his adoptive brother, but that the others had survived the atomic war as well!
In the following days, or what the audience perceives as days, Ken, Lynn, and Bart travel to another village that is under the attack of a gang of bandits called the Fang Clan. A woman named Mamiya hires Ken to protect her village, which he does (and to extraordinary effect), considering that a double-agent within the Fang Clan's raiding party named Rei helped him. The man tells Ken his story and his mission to find the Man with Seven Scars (Jagi's impersonation of Ken) and joins him along with Mamiya. Together, they are able to find a way into the Fang Clan's hideout - a massive canyon - but the Fang Clan's leader, Kiba Daioh, has a secret weapon: Rei's sister, Airi! Kiba captures Mamiya and forces Rei to fight Ken, but the two friends fake their own deaths in order to gain the upper hand in their favor. Kiba retreats to the belly of an active volcano with both Airi and Mamiya as captives and tells Ken and Rei that if they move, the women will die. Ken, however, has his own way of negotiations...
Ganzan Ryouzan Ha! (Mountain-Splitting Fissure Wave)
In Search of a Mentor: Toki!
Voiced by
| Name | Movies | TV Shows | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lex Lang | 0 |
1 |
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Akira Kamiya | 1 |
1 |
Rank Game
#1598 in Power Rank
General Information
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 Name: |
Kenshiro |
 Name: |
霞 拳四郎, |
| Romanji: |
Kenshiro |
| Gender: | Male |
| Birthday: | |
| 1st manga book: | Fist of the North Star #1 |
| 1st anime episode: | Fist of the North Star #1 |
| 1st anime movie: | Fist of the North Star: The Movie |
| Aliases | The 64th succesor of Hokuto Shinken The Man with the Seven Scars Ken |
Recent Movies
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Fist of the North Star: The Movie
The most violent, action-packed animated film of all time! This movie details scenes from the first fifty episodes of the anime series, leaving out many ... |
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