If you want to understand the big anime of today, you have to go back a few decades. While the West has long been a hotbed for shonen anime that have been influenced by Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, it is only one category that manga often fall into. Another is seinen manga, which includes iconic works like Berserk, Vinland Saga, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. For seinen anime, their “Dragon Ball” is an ultraviolent, apocalyptic journey called Fist of the North Star.

While it might not have the same pop culture penetration, Fist of the North Star can be seen as a contemporary of Dragon Ball in almost every regard. Both debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump and followed a hero as he battled increasingly powerful and outlandish enemies. While Goku battled enemies from other worlds while flying through the sky, Kenshiro was slightly more