Kenshiro, the protagonist of Hokuto No Ken is much more powerful and cooler than many of you seem to give him credits for.
Story: Prior to season 2’s obvious retcon Ken‘s story began as a talentless child who was adopted by Ryuken after Jagi, Toki and Raoh were already under his comfort. He grew up with more talents than he previously has but, although trickier than before, for him, he was still looked down and became a spot of bully especially for Jagi, the third son of Ryuken.
As a very young child, before he was even allowed into the Dojo, when visited by baby Yuria, his eyes, unlike Raoh’s which scared the emotionless, muted girl away, gave life to her and allowed her to express emotions like any other girls, and it was exactly at that moment that Ryuken their master and adoptive father figured out that both Raoh and Ken were chosen to be successors by the heavens and were amazed that these two boys came under his presence.
As stated earlier, Ken’s talents weren’t so ideal at all when he was young and because of that he was being bothered around by his older brothers and even looked down upon. Apart from Jagi, Raoh was another one that had a disliking for Kenshiro ever since he was a child although he seemed to have shown much more respect to Ken than Jagi ever did, and even some indications of love. The first time they met Yuria although it turned Yuria from a soulless husk into a cheerful girl wasn’t very present because Kenshiro got to meet Yuria when he was on his ass, kicked to the stepping stone by Raoh, when he was a little child.
Seemingly, although turning out to be drastically different when Ken grew older and had the chance to face off countless enemies in the wasteland, Ken has always been a virtually lovely and kind person who treats everyone, no matter how bad they are with him, unless they cross some lines which cannot be helped, with love, kindness and respect. There was a boy named Kim who got kicked out of the Dojo by Ryuken for being too incompetent. Kim was so upset he slapped Kenshiro in the face while Ken was just packing his stuff for him nicely to give it to him but even then Ken showed no sign of anger and simply put Kim’s stuff back into this bag and nicely handed them to him again and for that Kim was in tears of how nice Ken was with him, and hugged him. Ken wasn’t Kim’s servant and didn’t need to help him at all but he still did because loved to show respect and be kind. Ken also confessed before Raoh died that he was his brother and he and Toki both looked up to him astoundingly, and after Raoh buried that he was his “greatest friend“, despite all the horrible things Ken-oh/ Raoh has committed.
Of all his brothers, only Jagi didn’t get any respect from Ken, contrary to Toki and Raoh whom he called real brothers, not only because he was incompetent but also his treacherous, awful attitude towards people around him, especially Ken himself. Jagi has always been a bully to Ken when he was younger and weaker and whenever Ken lost to Raoh he would always suggest that the latter beat Ken more. During the precision test held by Ryuken where Ken and Jagi were ordered to fight and more importantly to bruise each other on the spots marked on their bodies which are the known pressure points, Jagi cheated, spitting pins that he hid in his mouth on Ken’s face and stabbing one of his eyes with them, and then beat him several times down when Ken was already on the ground from the needle attack, and Ryuken saw through all of it. Ryuken stated that had Ken wanted to he could have torn Jagi apart, and then declared Ken the winner, and Ken was indeed the winner even if Jagi chose not to cheat, as in the split second, before Jagi pin-attacked him, as they were sliding across each other, Ken touched and bruised all Jagi’s marked spots precisely without any miss. Jagi was later devastated when he heard Ken became the successor not only because he despised Ken and looked down on his skills as a younger brother but also because the tale of the rejected successors of Hokuto Shinken wasn’t very pleasant to hear at all. Those who haven’t been appointed successors but still attempted to exercise their fists have all their fists shattered and even died as the following result, one after the other. Hearing this Jagi was too paranoid to stay silent that he went to his brothers to complain why no one has stopped him and because he didn’t hear a word from his other brothers he left the dojo and went to fight Ken because of which he lost badly and had one side of his face bloated up, from his brain below, that he had to fix it with some metal surgery later.
His walk began in the wasteland very roughly. When he became an adult, before his graduation, it seems, he dated the girl whose smile he opened by starring her, when he was a young child and that was Yuria, the goddess of the South Star who is destined to be the last Nanto general. Nukes hit Japan and though they didn’t seem to wipe out as many humans as they could have the infrastructures and the land were totally desolate.
Because the bunker’s doors were stuck someone had to go outside to shut it down before, as we see from the anime, the ashes of death or radioactive ashes came and killed everyone and that was Toki, someone who was nominated the successor before Kenshiro. Toki got ill after sleeping under the ashes for two weeks outside the shelter and from the result his hair turned white and his age seemed to have increased a few years upward, so the title of the successor fell to Ken.
Ken and all the Hokuto brothers revisited their dojo for a few times after the nukes were dropped and didn’t act very special. Later Raoh killed Ryuken who was choking due to heart attack and his body was found inside the dojo leading everyone to believe that he died of natural causes. Ken and Yuria his newly married wife buried him and were about to set out in their journey into the dead world.
However, the unexpected happened; Shin, Nanto Seiken user, a former good friend of Ken, blinded by his love and care for Yuria and thinking that a weakling like Ken can’t protect this precious lady in a dumped down world, after being brainwashed by Jagi, came by with his henchmen and hijacked Yuria from Ken. He attacked Ken and because of Ken’s lack of desires to fight and kill, Ken failed to defend himself and had all of his limbs cut on the joints, virtually immobilised after they clashed. Unable to move Ken was a vulnerable target to Shin who then ordered his men to lift him and because he was a sadistic bastard Shin basically told Yuria to scream that she loved him in exchange for Ken‘s life. Ken was devastated upon hearing that and Yuria refused the first time she was told. Shin the used his fingers to dive into Ken body from the right side of his chest to the bottom belly, giving him the legendary seven scars which will be the theme of the series later.
Shin stopped the torture because Yuria finally spelled it out, although in tears, obviously not because she loved Shin but because she didn’t want to see Ken suffer or die. Ken then dropped the disabled and wounded Ken on the ground, leaving him to suffer and die in the wasteland then walked away with Yuria.
Little is known to how Ken has survived that but through narration he seemingly didn’t. Given his regenerative capability Ken can come patch his wounds from a very severe injury in short amount of time, not longer than 1 to 3 days but Ken, at this moment, in the beginning of the series, woke up probably a year after he was attacked and left in the desert to die by Shin, being completely absent so long that Shin has become “King”, built his empire which encompasses great cities like Southern Cross(which he has constructed not just taken over according to the narrative) to please Yuria, and gained so much influence over the wasteland. Ken briefly stated that he ”crawled out of the depths of hell to kill Shin”, and “was no longer a man he once was”, which suggests he may have died and come back to life with more power than before and from this point on we will see the cruelty of Kenshiro which is dark side if I have to call it that way.
Ken wandered the desert finding the clues that may lead him to Yuria but he himself was about to pass out due to the heat of the sun and malnourishment of food and water which he wasn’t able to find anywhere. Ken finally made his way to a village and found two young children, a little but very intelligent con-boy and mechanic expert called Baato, and a silent girl whose articulacy has been brought back by Ken using his pressure point technique, who was, by surprise, a rejected empress, or the daughter of the emperor, Rin, whose twin sister was chosen over her by Governor-General Jakou who later used her status as the Tentei and his adoptive daughter to empower himself.
Ken saved Rin from getting crushed and ripped apart by the notorious Zeed which is where we got our most famous “Omaewa Mou Shinderu...Nani!!” meme from, and ever since then he would go through all sorts of hardship with his new friends Baato and Rin.
He defeated and killed enemies after enemies, the main ones being his former friends, another south stars and north stars and their students. He defeated Shin quite easily and found out Yuria to be dead although she survived the fall and was taken away by the five chariot stars, one of whom Rihaku was the person that brought her to Ryuken’s dojo where he met with Ken and Raoh as children for the first time in her life and gained an ability to express emotions.
Afterwards he seemed to have lost his purpose in life because not only was his best friend Shin, killed by him with his own hands, Yuria his wife whom he expected to save, also became seemingly forever unretrivable. That led him down for good but then he came across another group of bandits called the Fang Clan, and while the Fang Clan wasn’t really a worthy enemy the time spent during this period of the show allowed Ken to meet his greatest friends, unforgettable characters that most of us which are back on the scene. He met with Rei, Nanto star of justice, one of the six sacred fists who was the member of the elite Nanto users like Shin. Rei was a good person who only wanted to rescue his kidnapped sister Airi and live happily with her. He also met Mamiya, a woman who was the daughter of the village’s creator and someone who became Rei’s crush, that he died protecting when fighting Yuda, the one that raped Mamiya. They crushed the Fang Clan completely and shortly discovered that the man who captured Airi and killed Rei’s parents was Jagi who made seven marks on his chest to be another man with seven scars to defame Kenshiro with his cruelty. Ken killed Jagi and discovered that he was the one that influenced Shin to do all these things about which he became so mad.
From that instance he discovered there were many more powerful foes out there waiting to be challenged so he set out to fight them in the wasteland again. He discovered Cassandra where all martial artists were locked so their techniques can be passed down to Raoh who now became Ken-oh the king of fists the ruler of the century’s end who would have seized the heavens had it not been for Ken’s intervention. Ken liberated the prison and seemed to have acquired new allies to his side but many of them were killed in the escaping process alone.
Ken finally met up with Ken Oh at the village where Mamiya lived and there Ken Oh killed Rei with one finger in three days. Ken fought with Raoh to a stand still until Toki who was previously locked up in Cassandra came to stop them before they killed each other. Raoh jumped on his horse Kokuoh and fled and the rumor that Raoh wasn’t unbeatable spread all over the land causing him to lose a load of troops from his army because they no longer were loyal to a weakling like him.
During Raoh’s absence Ken had to face off Yuda’s men and also Souther with whom he struggled greatly due to his unusual body and durability but he defeated him anyway and once Souther was gone just as it is said in the prophecy, “as the South Star fades, the North Star appears”. The Hokuto brothers, now that 5 sacred fists out of 6 were gone, can shine again and because of this Raoh started regaining his influence, first by visiting Koryu, a person who gave up the successorship over Hokuto Shinken to Ryuken, and killing him. Raoh fought with and also killed Toki his own little brother and it was by this time that Raoh was revealed to be Toki’s actual brother, unlike Ken who was related to neither.
And as Raoh expanded his influence like never before the five chariot stars who had previously rescued Yuria after she committed an unsuccessful suicide out of disgust to Shin’s cruelty which he claimed was done to please her, started their moves, killing a great number of Ken-oh’s troops who were torturing and killing civilians to reclaim his lost territories as well as executing traitors. The chariot stars had to make their move because all the other south stars were killed leaving just Yuria, the last Nanto general, left. They sacrificed their lives halting Raoh’s advances although not revealing the identity of the general to Raoh yet. It is also revealed that Yuria had a half brother who once had a crush on her called Juza of the clouds who was a former chariot star but he too got killed by Raoh after a fierce battle.
From the way the chariot stars acted Ken Oh can spot the insane effort they gave off in defending this general so he assumed that the general had to be Yuria and he was not wrong, which is weird because to him Yuria was dead from the suicide so it wouldn’t make sense for a dead woman to be this legendary general although her importance was greatly praised in the verse. Raoh of course rushed to her city, killed all the soldiers except for Rihaku who survived with Ken when the castle collapsed and it was at this moment when Ken discovered the legendary technique to turn his being into emptiness to evade all enemy‘s offences, called Muso Tensei.
Yuria who was captured by Raoh patched his wounds and healed his soldiers so they repented and stopped fighting for evil and started joining with Rihaku and the remainders of the ocean brigade. Raoh pretended to have killed Yuria to trigger his brother so he could fight at his full potential although in truth he merely stopped her mind from working and gave her more life force so she could live longer, figuring out she was about to die of illness the same way Toki would die.
Raoh through discovering the fact that Yuria, although she didn’t love him, saw him as a friend and cared for him greatly, learnt what love is because by that time his love for Yuria started blossoming and then as he knew she was ill and was going to die he was saddened so he recognised sadness in his heart and for these reasons his soul was lost in darkness but came back into being, therefore unlocking Muso Tensei, the emptiness, just like Ken did in their previous fight.
Raoh fought and lost to Kenshiro because he missed the shot to was about to deliver to his head while Ken punched him in the belly and in the ribs. He then revealed he gave up some spiritual energy for Yuria and that Yuria was still alive and can live happily with Yuria. Raoh raised his arm, pointed it toward the sky and released all of his energy upwards lighting up the cloudy sky above the places formerly ruled by him and above the century’s end.
Ken then hopped onto KoKuoh and visited the graves of this important ones and buried down whom he called his greatest friend at the same place where Toki and his parents were buried and then hopped onto Kokuoh again before taking off with Yuria by his side into the wasteland.
Above was his story before the retcon.
After the retcon Ken’s history seemed to have changed and it was for some crazy reason the writer was hung up to and I don’t like it at all.
Ken was retconned to be the younger brother of Hyo, the successor of Hokuto Soukei the root of Hokuto Shinken. Ken and Hyo grew up with neither father nor mother but were mothered by the mother of Toki and Raoh and the real oldest brother mentioned in the series, Kaioh. The land that Kenshiro came from was called Asura in the series but looking at world map, seeing as Ken and Falco had to cross the Dead Sea which was the only sea left in Hokuto verse after the nuclear war and knowing that the protagonists lived crowdedly in Japan and East Asia and that the century‘s end didn’t seem to extend to Africa yet, it is safe to assume Asura is none other than Israel/Palestine, meaning that our Kenshiro was in fact, as was demonstrated, an Israeli or a Palestinian. Kenshiro was retconned to be this noble prince while Toki and Raoh became the younger brothers of Kaioh who lived and was born on the same island.
A world war broke out and it affected Palestine too so Jukei had to send off baby Ken, Raoh and Toki to Japan to learn Hokuto Shinken which is the opposite of what he teaches, Hokuto Ryuken. And if you watched the show closely, you will see that the artist forgot that Toki had always been a brunette with BROWN HAIR, not white, but only had his head turned white because of the nuclear ashes when he grew older.
The story simply tried to explain that Kenshiro was sent off as a kid so he lost all of these memories and started to interpret this own story as told in the first part but that didn’t make any sense whatsoever.
In part 2, Ken fought against the tyrant Jakou and won easily as a brief to the main focus of the season. Ken discovered his true origin and received full knowledge from the Hokuto Obelisk, becoming powerful enough to eliminate Majin Rasho Kaioh, the person that brainwashed Hyo into forgetting Kenshiro and regarding him, his training partner and servant, as his brother after Jukei failed with the power of love, and left the brain-erased Rin with Baato so she could find a good love and live a comfortable life because battles await Ken forever.
So who is Ken based on? Ken can heal people via touching, can rise from the dead, is known as the saviour, contrary to ruler, of the century‘s end, has defeated all of his foes in the end, was almost killed with his blood being literally forced out, was crucified for sacrifice, was brought back to life again after about 3 days, was rejected by some of the people that were awaiting the saviour, was born in Palestine without known father or mother and was sent to be raised somewhere else? Clearly the retcon on season 2 was instigated so Ken could be more of a Jesus/Messiah figure than he already was before that and he surely sounded a lot like Yahweh/Jesus many times.
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