Hokuto no Ken episode 31
The Hellish Iron Mask!
He Who Terrorizes in the Name of the North Star!!
-From RQ87's Fist of the North Star site
Hokuto no Ken episode 31 |
|
|
|
For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.
Jagi gets some kids to try and kill Kenshiro.
Original broadcast date: June 6th, 1985
Contents
1)
Synopsis
2) Manga differences
3) Notes
4) Errors
Jagi is killing people who even slightly resemble Kenshiro, when one of his men bumps into a kid called Mako. Aki, Mako's brother, tries to stop the punk from killing his brother, and offers to sacrifice one of his own legs to protect him, but Jagi overhears this and becomes angry. He says the younger brother can never be better than the older one, and puts a plan into motion. Some time later, Kenshiro comes across Aki walking through a desert with a large weight chained to his ankle. Kenshiro breaks the chain as Aki says the name of the man who did this to him was Kenshiro! He points Kenshiro in the direction of the city this other Kenshiro is in.
Kenshiro takes Aki with him and they come across Mako, but Jagi has hit a pressure point on him which makes him shoot Kenshiro with an arrow. Kenshiro takes a hit but survives, thinking about how Ryuken told him this would happen -Jagi has brought so much suffering under his name. Kenshiro hits another pressure point on Mako, freeing him from Jagi's influence. He and his brother are saved.
Kenshiro makes his way to Jagi's fortress, and kills several of his men. Inside, Jagi starts to laugh as Kenshiro just tells him to pick the place where he wants to die!
-Jagi does not hit one of Mako's pressure points in the manga. He takes Aki and walks off with him. When Kenshiro brings Aki back, Mako thinks he was the one who killed him, and wants to shoot him. Kenshiro says he understands the hatred he feels and lets Mako shoot him, but he takes the arrow out and says that the pain he just received, he will give it back to Jagi. For the anime, they changed it so Jagi forced Mako to shoot Kenshiro, or he would die.
-The flashback scene was used earlier in the anime -it happened in the previous episode.
-It is hinted that Aki dies in the manga, whilst he survives in the anime.
-The fight between Kenshiro and Jagi's men was not shown in the manga. It does happen, you just don't see it. One of Jagi's guys runs back into the fortress, saying they have trouble, but he comes across the guy who saw Jagi's face. They both die as Kenshiro walks in and sees Jagi.
This episode's title card is not on the usual black background, instead, it features an image of Jagi.
-The flashback scene used in this episode was used in the previous one, but has an effect added to make it look slightly out of focus around the corners, and an echoing effect was added to character's voices.
Episode 30 |
Episode 31 |
 |
 |
The music was also removed, and strangely, one of the backgrounds was taken out.
-During this shot, Kenshiro's red shirt is missing.
