Hokuto no Ken Episode 38
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Ranzan Kurenai Ken! A Sad Woman Living in This Age!!
-From Rage Quitter 87's Fist of the North Star site


For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.

Bella is dispatched from Cassandra, with orders to kill Kenshiro.
Original broadcast date: August 1st 1985

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





Synopsis

At Cassandra prison, Uighur sees some prisoners who want to leave. The father hands over a scroll containing the secrets to the fighting style he is a master of. But Uighur then changes the deal because he says that he will give the scroll to Ken-Oh, meaning there will be two successors to the style -something which is not allowed. The father is killed by Targel, one of Uighur's henchmen, who is a master of Kokusho Juuji Ken (Black Cross Fist). Meanwhile, Kenshiro, Rei and Mamiya encounter some of Cassandra's guards, who they defeat. Word gets back to Cassandra that Kenshiro is coming, so Uighur thinks up a plan. He gets a prisoner called Bella, who has mastered Ranzan Kurenai Ken (Lanshan Crimson Fist) to go out and fight Kenshiro, or her mother will die. Bella agrees to go.

Ken and friends happen to find a young girl and her grandfather, the latter of which needs some water. Ken gives some to him, just as Bella arrives and challenges Kenshiro. Ken sees sadness in Bella's eyes, but she attacks him anyway. Ken avoids all of her strikes, but does not hit her back. Targel watches and sees what Uighur told him was true: Ken cannot bring himself to kill Bella. Bella throws a spiked rose as the little girl, but Ken blocks it. Bella finds it incredible that he'd just risk his life like that and then she says that she has already lost. Kenshiro and the others leave as the little girl once again thanks them and then heads back to her grandfather.

Targel sees Bella has lost, so he kills her mother. Bella tries to fight him, but she loses and is killed. Kenshiro returns just in time to see her die, but he avenges her by killing Targel with the Hokuto Gekitsui Shi (North Star Shoot Down Finger), which makes his body explode. Back at Cassandra, Uighur is surprised when he is told Toki just smiled -he has never shown any emotion since he's been here. Uighur guesses that he must somehow know Kenshiro is on his way.




In the manga...

-The majority of this episode is filler. The only scene from the manga is the one where the martial artist hands over the scroll containing the secrets of his style -however, even this scene is very different. He gives the scroll to Ken-Oh in the manga, whilst in the anime, he gives it to Uighur. Ken-Oh takes the scroll, but then has the family split up and put in different cells -the father going in one, whilst his wife and child are put in another. He does this because he wanted to make the father think about his family, rather than his hatred for Ken-Oh. The wife and child eventually die, and the father also perished not long after, as he lost the will to live. This scene does not happen until later on in the manga, after Toki has been rescued.

-The scene at the end where Toki smiles is also in the manga, but it happens a little later.








Errors

-Kenshiro rips his jacket off before fighting Targel, but it keeps appearing and disappearing on him during the battle.



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