You know what... I was wrong about the new Fist of the North Star remake.
I thought this was gonna be some half assed bullshit attempt to cash in on an old series with a sub-par remake the second I saw the CGI models in the trailer... but I was wrong. Now I'm not gonna sugar coat it, I would never prefer 3D CGI being used for anime character models over traditional 2D. That being said I was surprised to see a good amount of actual 2D animation in there. A lot of important shots and pretty much every single gruesome death where some mutated barbarian explodes from the inside is actually done in 2D and looks spectacular! It's on a very similar level to the Gaiden movies from the 2000s and in some cases is actually more polished and crisp.
I also have to give credit where credit is due... the CGI is actually pretty decent. It seems like it's a similar type of CGI used in Fist of the Blue Sky, but since most people haven't seen it, I'd also say a fair comparison would be also be Kengan Ashura. I would even say it's a tad better than those two because of some pretty seamless transitional shots here and there and overall improved movement! I was very pleasantly surprised, especially because I literally expected nothing out of this adaptation.
Another thing I was wrong about was thinking it would just be a one off series when in fact this looks to be a genuine remake of the entire story from the beginning. This is categorized as the first season, which covers the entire Southern Cross/Shin arc as well as the introduction to my boy Rei, who Polnareff was heavily inspired from. We already saw a confirmation for next season and as someone who has watched the entire original 80s adaptation, I can tell you it's only gonna get better. Once we get past Jagi and start going towards Toki, Souther and Raoh, shit gets MAGNIFICENT✨️
Last thing I wanna mention is the soundtrack. Initially when I saw the opening and didn't hear "YOU WA SHOCK" I was pretty disappointed considering how much Ai o Torimodose!! as a song means to the franchize... BUT THEN I HEARD IT IN THE ENDING! That's right they pulled a bait and switch on us and instead of having it as the opening they now had a remade version of it as the ending instead. Man when I heard it for the first time I got goosebumps, cuz it caught me totally off guard. I actually watched the series for the first time in 2021 so I really appreciated hearing it again in the franchize after 5 years and I can't imagine how OG fans who watched it waaaaay back in the day would feel hearing this version.
So yeah... I can't help but think part of the reason why I actually liked this new adaptation and would love to see it continue was because I had 0 expectations going in and in fact expected it to be pretty bad from the trailer, but I'm really glad to say I was wrong. Can't wait for season 2 💪
Thanks for reading and lemme know what you'll be watching in the comments!
Follow me to get notified whenever I post.
YouTube (posting daily)
Instagram (posting daily)
TikTok (posting daily)
Comments
Post a Comment