Hokuto no Ken Episode 2
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The Deadly Fist of Lingering Regret!! The Future is Sighted
in the Barren Wasteland!!
-From Rage Quitter 87's Fist of the North Star site

For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.

Kenshiro and Bat encounter the first of King's men: Spade.
Original broadcast date: 18th October 1984

Contents
1) Synopsis
2) In the manga...
3) Notes
4) Errors

Synopsis

Lin is still waiting in her village, hoping that Kenshiro will return. However the village elder tells her that he will not come back and that she should head back inside, as the gangs come out a night. Meanwhile, Kenshiro is being horribly tortured by a man piercing his chest, whilst all Yuria can do it watch. But he then wakes up...it was a dream. Bat appears in his custom made buggy and offers Ken a lift. Ken doesn't know where he is heading but he suddenly leaps out of the car, much to Bat's annoyance, and lands next to a cliff. Down below he and Bat see an old man with a bag of seeds being chased by a gang, who want them desperately.

Ken jumps down and prevents the gang from killing the old man. Spade, the leader of the gang, threatens to kill Ken with a arrow shot, but his projectile is dodged. Ken warns him not to try it again, but he does anyway. This time Ken catches the arrow between his fingers and throws it back, hitting Spade in his right eye. Spade and the rest of his men back off as Ken checks on the old man. His name is Smith and he has been away from his village for a week collecting some rice seeds. However Spade and his gang have taken the seeds now. Bat is more concerned, however, over the fact that Ken just attack one of "King's" men. The King group is the most powerful organization around these parts. Ken doesn't care about that though and asks Bat to infiltrate Spade's hideout and retrieve the seeds, since he's claimed before he is a master thief. Bat isn't keen on going at first, but eventually decides to do it.

Bat manages to distract Spade's men by pretending to give them his car. He successfully gets the seeds back and then also reclaims his buggy before getting out of there. He then attempts to eat the seeds himself but is stopped by Kenshiro, who slaps some sense into him before taking the seeds back to Smith. This leads to another car ride as the trio head back to Smith's village. Meanwhile Lin has realised Kenshiro isn't coming back, so she decides to find him herself. She sees a truck due to leave the village and hides herself on it. As Ken, Bat and Smith reach the village, Smith is treated like a hero for what he has done. Ken decides that his work here is completed and tells Bat to drive them out of there. As they leave the village, however, they see that Spade and his gang are heading straight towards it!

Ken jumps out of the car and runs at an incredibly fast speed towards the village, but Spade's gang get there first. They quickly start murdering everyone as Spade himself sees Smith trying to get away with the seeds. Kenshiro arrives just in time to watch Spade impale Smith with a spear and then plunge a knife into his hand, killing him. Two of Spade's gang try to stop Kenshiro by throwing chains around him and keeping him in place, as Spade throws an axe at him. However Ken deflects the axe by kicking it and it kills one of the chain carrying punks. Ken then kills the other man by using the Ganzan Ryouzan Ha technique. Spade attacks Kenshiro again, but has his arms snapped and is then given 7 seconds to live when Ken uses the Hokuto Zankai Ken on him. Spade staggers off, screaming that he doesn't want to die, but his body then splits in half. Later on Bat watches Ken sprinkle the rice seeds over a grave he made for Smith. Bat thinks it is a waste, but Ken says that he wants Smith's dream of providing food for the villagers to come true.




In the manga...

-Bat doesn't have a car. He has one for the anime. In the manga Ken is shown just carrying Smith/Misumi to his village.

-Smith's name was originally Misumi.

-Spade never steals the seeds, so Bat is never sent to take them back.

-Lin was not shown leaving her village. This is where the plots start to differ slightly for what happens to Lin, as the next episode shows.

-Far more graphic deaths for some of the villagers. One is impaled by a spear through his eye.


-The guy Ken decapitates by deflecting Spade's axe had a lovely close up of said death happening in the manga. In the anime, there isn't.

-When Ken snaps Spade's arms, blood goes everywhere. In the anime, there is no blood.

-The Zankai Ken gives Spade 3 seconds to live, in the anime it was increased to 7 seconds.



Notes

-Shin and Yuria appear in this episode again. Yuria actually speaks a few words, whilst Shin's only lines are laughing.

-That toy mouse Bat has seems pretty advanced for a wind up toy -it can squeak, the head can move around and it makes no winding noise as it moves!

-Isn't Kenshiro a little bit harsh slapping Bat around like that? Given what he did to his arm in the previous episode, you may think he likes hurting children. Later episodes prove this isn't the case, thankfully.



Errors

-Spade's left glove changes between shots when he threatens Smith and Ken with his crossbow. Sometimes it's a long glove, sometimes it is a shorter one.