Hokuto no Ken 2 Episode 41
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Synopsis

Kaioh gets Kenshiro to fall into the depths below them. Kenshiro finds it extremely difficult to breathe and Kaioh says that the fumes effect a man by paralyzing his body! Kaioh hits a pressure point on himself to be able to go down there without harming himself, and continues to batter Kenshiro. However, Ken manages to counter his assault by throwing a single stand of hair into his neck, which causes him to breathe again. Both he and Kaioh leap out of the depths and arrive back on the surface. Meanwhile, Hyo arrives just in time to save Lin by killing Samato and his men.

Kaioh goes into a stance and Kenshiro recognises is straight away: it is the same stance the statue was in when he saw it earlier. He and Kaioh exchange several more strikes, and one of Ken's punches takes off some of Kaioh's hair, revealing a birthmark of the big dipper. Kenshiro then stuns Kaioh by telling him that he is part of the Hokuto Soukei family! The birthmark on his head is proof. He tells Kaioh he knows the history of the Hokuto styles and reveals that thousands of years a go, two sisters, Shume and Ouka, had a child each. The world was in chaos due to the many warriors constantly fighting each other. The members of Hokuto Soukei gathered together, wanting a savior to appear who would create a new assassination style art which would rule supreme and bring the world back in order. Shume was sick, but the two sisters would look out for one another as they hoped their sons would. However, the problem was that there were two children now. They would compete and potentially destroy each other in combat. Therefore, the Hokuto Soukei elders took the two babies away, with a horrible fate awaiting one of them.

The babies were taken away to a sacred place where a pack of wolves would kill one of them -the surviving one would become the savior. However Shume couldn't stand it and on the night the event was to take place, she took her child and hoped Ryuoh would forgive her. She was found before she could get away, but revealed that she was very sick and would die soon. Ouka decided to sacrifice herself, letting both children live instead. Honoring their agreement, the elders kept both babies alive. They said that the sister's love for Shuken was a sign from the heavens and that he must be the savior. Shuken grew up and developed the most powerful assassination style ever seen -Hokuto Shinken! Later on, the elders built that female statue to honor the art's history. Ryuoh, who had the mark of the Hokuto Shichsei on his head like Kaioh now has, went on a journey. Without his mother's love, he did not realize that love had any power. And because of that, he was the one who created Hokuto Ryuuken. Back in the present, Kenshiro tells Kaioh that if he defeats him, he will no longer be able to turn his back on love any longer.




In the manga...

-Hyo defeats Zebra after Ken and Kaioh head down into the depths in the manga, whilst in the anime, Zebra was defeated in the previous episode.

-As mentioned previously, the scene with Samato is different in the manga. In the manga, Samato is some posh guy who tries to wake Lin up, but then his men are suddenly killed by another Shura called Numeri. Numeri then kills Samato and takes Lin, saying he (somehow) knows the pressure point to wake her up. Hyo then arrives and kills him. In the anime, Samato and Numeri were combined into one character, with him having Numeri's design but largely Samato's personality.

-Ouka has a slightly different design in the manga, and looks a little bit like Tou. The anime version of her does not give her a pony tail.










Notes

-Shume's voice actress, Yuriko Yamamoto, previously voiced Yuria.

-Ouka's voice actress, Mika Doi, previously voiced Rihaku's daughter, Tou.

-So Ouka kills herself by leaping off a tall place, whilst when Shume is seen being ill, she coughs up blood. Sound familiar?