Hokuto no Ken Episode 49
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Synopsis

Toki attempts to attack Raoh, but his strike is avoided. Raoh is about to kill him when Mamiya intervenes, aiming at Raoh with a crossbow. Rei tries to stop Mamiya, as he knows there is a Hokuto Shinken technique which lets the user catch projectiles and throw them back, and begs Raoh not to kill her as he loves her. Mamiya still fires and Raoh catches the arrow. He throws it back right at her head, but it is stopped by Kenshiro -he has broken free! His powerful spirit is what overcame the pressure point Toki hit.

Raoh decides to fight Kenshiro, and starts to use techniques from different styles against him, including a secret move from a style of Nanto Seiken. Kenshiro moves in and soon the two begin to pummel each other.

With only enough energy left to make one last move each, they both stab into each other's chests. Both survive, but cannot continue and Toki breaks them up. Raoh's men see that the fight has ended in a draw, but they believe Ken-Oh's empire is finished, as their leader was meant to be invincible. They run away, leaving Raoh all by himself, until Kokuoh appears next to him. He rides out of the village on his horse, but he says that their battles have only just begun. As everyone watches Raoh leave the village, the narrator says that there is no rest for these men. Tomorrow, new battles await them.




In the manga...

-The fight between Kenshiro and Raoh is much shorter in the manga. The anime added new scenes, such as Raoh throwing the sai, using Rakan Nioh Ken and using the secret Nanto move (which is a hint to an upcoming story arc).




Notes

-The opening few minutes of this episode are the same as the closing minutes of the last one, but with completely new animation. Better animation, most people would say.

-Speaking of the animation, the artwork for this episode is incredibly detailed and fluid, this is without doubt the best looking episode of the entire series.

-Pel, who has been missing for the past few episodes, suddenly returns in this one.




Errors

-The sai Raoh uses changes colors between shots, sometimes it is gold, other times it is white (they made the same error in the previous episode).

-Certain shots of Lin has her with long hair, when she usually has short hair.

-Certain shots of Rei has him with dark green hair instead of light green hair (making him look a lot like his manga version counterpart).

-When Kenshiro rips his jacket off, his hair is red (what is it with hair errors in this episode?)

-The guys standing behind Raoh when he throws the sai change colors between shots.

-When Raoh stabs into Kenshiro, one shot has Ken's right arm colored like Raoh's.