Ken: The Legend of Kenshiro (2008)

Directed by: Kobun Shizuno | 90 minutes | action, drama, horror, animation, fantasy, science fiction | Original voice cast: Hiroshi Abe, Takashi Ukaji, Kou Shibasaki, Akio Ôtsuka, Hôchû Ôtsuka, Kenyû Horiuchi, Unshô Ishizuka, Daisuke Namikawa

It remains fascinating that millions of Japanese have fallen for the charms of the taciturn Kenshiro. This stiff anti-hero is in fact a very flat character who does little more than look tormented, occasionally sheds a tear for his beloved and mainly crushes thousands of people. Well, steeds… Kenshiro literally explodes them. A well-aimed blow from this gruff loner is so fierce that the blood of his opponents literally boils. When the boiling point is reached, the unlucky one explodes, producing impressive fountains of blood. But hey! Kenshiro is a righteous man. Only true villains deserve such a gruesome death. Then it’s good right?

‘Ken: The Legend of Kenshiro’ is the concluding part of a trilogy about the formidable fighter. The previous parts were ‘Ken – The Age of Raoh’ and ‘Ken: The Heir of the Hokuto’. If you haven’t seen the previous parts, there’s little point in picking up this part. So this part is all about Kenshiro. He was also seen in the previous parts, but other characters were more important. So here Kenshiro demands all the attention. The setting is a Japan devastated by nuclear war. The population lives in a kind of ‘Mad Max-like’ world where the law of the fittest applies. Women and children are seen as merchandise and weak men are walking corpses in the eyes of gang leaders. When the taciturn Kenshiro is taken to a town seriously injured, a market trader thinks he has made his move. He’s trying to sell our wounded hero for a few cents. However, that is not easy, because also half-dead Kenshiro turns out to be a formidable opponent.

In the 1980s, there was a long-running cartoon series in Japan. This ‘Fist of the Northstar’ was immensely popular and justified a remake in the form of three animes and a few spin-offs. Fans of the series will love this ‘Ken’ trilogy, as the animation quality is very strong. The films are detailed and still incredibly gory. For that reason alone, any self-respecting horror fan should give this franchise a shot, because how often do you see one man kicking a thousand soldiers with skulls exploding as a result? ‘Ken: The Legend of Kenshiro’ is a wonderfully curious film from Japan. A kind of drawn version of ‘Riki Oh’, another cult classic.

If you feel like a not too in-depth cartoon full of violence, misplaced melodrama and a lot of action, then you cannot ignore this anime. Watch the first two parts before you start this movie.