Hokuto no Ken episode 6
Search Order from Satan.
Find the Man with the Seven Scars!
-From RQ87's Fist of the North Star site
Hokuto no Ken episode 6 |
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For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.
Ken, Bat and Lin encounter a new enemy: God's Army.
Original broadcast date: 15th November, 1984
Contents
1) Synopsis
2) Manga differences
3) Notes
Synopsis
Ken, Bat and Lin have resumed searching for Shin. They enter a city and are surprised by the amount of trade going on, but they then see the villagers run off in fear as a small group of men ride around the streets on bikes. Ken finds out that these men are part of God's Army, a group who told the villagers they would protect the place, but for a price: they take anything they want from them. Ken and the others head further into the city and see a bar owner called Johnny getting beaten up by a big man who wants free food off him. Ken defeats this man by cutting the muscles in his arms.
Johnny gives Bat a small supply of food, just as some men from God's Army appear in Johnny's bar. They have come for this month's food ration. One of the soldiers kicks Pel and Lin says he is horrible. The soldier wants to know who she is as he hasn't seen her before, but Kenshiro steps in. The soldier challenges Ken and fights him outside the bar, but he is defeated and killed.
When word gets back to the base of God's Army that one of their own has been defeated, Colonel, the leader of the army, says they have a new order from their God: to find the man with seven scars. A group of soldiers, led by the Major, goes out to do this but they instead find some villagers, who have banded together to fight the army. However, they are all killed just as Kenshiro appears. Kenshiro kills most of the soldiers instantly and then fights the last man standing, using a special kick technique known as Hokuto soukin jizai kyaku (North Star muscle control spin kick) to defeat him. The Major is forced to choke himself with his own weapon.
-When Bat gets given food by Johnny, there is a joke in the manga that never made it into the anime. Johnny tells Bat he can swap the food for alcohol if he wants, but then they all see that a guy drinking booze next to them suddenly passes out, making Johnny wonder if he should stop serving methyl alcohol. The anime has Johnny ask Bat if he wants to trade for the booze, but cuts the part with the guy passing out.
-Kenshiro asks Johnny if he knows of a place where he can get a month's supply of food. Johnny says he does, but you get into the place, you never get out. The three guys from God's Army then walk into the bar, and Johnny tells Kenshiro these men are from that place. This small conversation isn't present in the anime.
-The reason why the God's Army troops go to the bar was changed. In the manga, they ask if Johnny has any women (hinting that he is in the slave trade) whilst in the anime, it was changed to them wanting food. They also leave peacefully in the manga, even when Johnny tells them he has no women here. In the anime, Johnny has to give them more to prevent them from trashing his place.
-The anime added a scene of Kenshiro fighting a soldier outside the bar.
-Things start to get really different between the manga and the anime after the above scene. At this point in the manga, Bat heads outside and sees a truck go past which has several prisoners inside it, including Lin. He goes back inside the bar to tell Ken, and Johnny gives them a little info on God's Army. In the anime, after Ken defeats the soldier, he just heads back inside the bar and Johnny talks about God's Army. The reason for this is because of an earlier change between the manga and anime -at this point, Lin still needs to be rescued in the manga, whilst she had already been saved in the anime.
-The info Johnny gives Kenshiro is different. In the manga, he tells Ken that God's Army are trying to create a place to live known as "God Land" (or "Golan" or "Providence") and that they capture women all the time to rape them and made them breed new stock for their superior race. The reason they captured Lin is because even the young girls will eventually meet the same fate. In the anime, this dark plot point is dropped in favor of Johnny just telling Kenshiro that God's Army are former Red Berets, and are very skilled.
-The prisoner truck with Lin on it heads back towards God Land in the manga, but some villagers get in the way and try to fight God's Army so they can get their loved ones back (the truck is full of captured women). In the anime, this was changed to some villagers just trying to stop the unit of troops heading towards their village.
-The fight between the villagers and God's Army takes place during the day in the manga, and night in the anime.
-The fight between the villagers and God's Army is also far more violent in the manga -the wires the soldiers use are capable of cutting people in half.
-The manga has a girl, Rima, watch her own father get decapitated right in front of her by the Major. The anime doesn't have this, but the girl and her parents are in the next episode, so read on for more details.
-In the manga, right after the above, another woman called Kei is about to watch her husband be killed by the Major, but then Kenshiro appears. Kei does appear in the anime, but is never captured by God's Army, and is never named. She is seen in the next episode.
-Kenshiro doesn't rip his shirt apart in the manga.
-The Major doesn't even get a chance to try and attack Kenshiro in the manga -Kenshiro is too fast for him.
The Major also decapitates himself in the manga, whilst the anime toned it down to him just choking himself.
-This episode has something very rare in it: Kenshiro sparing the life of an opponent.
-Johnny is not named in this episode, but his name will be revealed later.