Souten no Ken Anime !!!!

[Mazinkaizer]

From Animnation News:

Comic Bunch Magazine has published the first character image from the upcoming Souten no Ken anime television series, and announced that protagonist Kasumi Kenshiro will be played by veteran voice actor Koichi Yamadera. The Souten no Ken TV series will premier on October 4th. Souten no Ken ("Fist of the Blue Sky") is a prequel to Hokuto no Ken ("Fist of the North Star.")

Source: Moon Phase

http://www.comicbunch.com/sp/souten-tv/


Hummm, since Akira Kamiya did play the role of Kasumi Kenshiro in the 1 Chapter Drama CD i was hoping that he would finally return to the prequal anime. Oh well, it seems that Akira has no future in any Hokuto No Ken plans (not even the Sammy fighting game) /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif

But having Kouchi Yamdera is actually great (since no Akira) as that i always prefer veteran seiyuu for my favorite shows anyway. Plus i am sure that he can pull a great Kenshiro /images/graemlins/wink.gif.I don't know how much of the manga will the show cover but i hope it covers as much as possible or even better the whole thing /images/graemlins/knowital.gif /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

It is worth mentioning that the 1st movie of the new Saga: Raoh Gaiden Junai-hen will also be out on DVD in Oct. The Hokuto/Soten No Ken fever is coming /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[wrex]

Sadly, it looks like not many people seem interested in Souten no Ken (Fist of the Blue Sky). Probably only older fans of Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) are watching this anime.

After watching the first three episodes, I'd say the animation or art quality has been pretty decent. Koichi Yamadera does do the character well, from both deep-voiced killer Ken to the "ata-ta-ta-ta's" when he's fighting. The story's pacing seems a bit slow for me.... I would've wanted the story to get a little grittier a little faster... I think I read somewhere that the pacing actually follows the manga. Personally, I'd like to see Kenshiro fight stronger opponents, but I guess I'll have to be patient.

I have summaries and screencaps (http://wrexgrafix.com/anime/blog/?cat=20) of Souten no Ken, if anyone's interested.

[NeoEra]

It's also worth mentioning that Yasuhiro Imagawa is behind the writing on this show.

[Chacranajxy]

Hopefully this is at least as good as New Fist of the North Star... I really, really liked that OVA series so it'd be nice to see more quality violence with an at least servicable storyline.

[Mazinkaizer]

Thanks for the info wrex, i am glad the series is a decent quality one /images/graemlins/happy.gif

Btw, here is the seiyuu cast of Soten No Ken:

Kouichi Yamadera as Kenshiro Kasumi
Aya Hisakawa as Yu-Ling Pan & Aya Kitaoji
Masaki Terasoma as Guang-Lin Pan
Mugihito as Ramon Kasumi
Chafurin as Dong-Lai Wu
Hiroshi Yanaka as Puyi Aisin-Gioro
Issei Futamata as Juan-Min Chen/Itachi no Chen
Katsuhiko Sasaki as Takeshi Kitaoji
Katsuhisa Houki as Ying-Zheng Ping
Kazuhiro Nakata as Vice Principal Masao Kondo
Kinryuu Arimoto as Ye
Kyooko Hamura as Yukiyo Ohara
Masaru Ikeda as Jean Carne, Mysterious old man, & Narration
Ryûzaburô Ôtomo as Ke-Rong Jin
Toshiharu Sakurai as Jun Hirata
Umeji Sasaki as Yong-Jian Li
Yousuke Akimoto as Xi-Fei Huang
Yuudai Satou as Zi-Ying Ye

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/

[geraldr]

[ QUOTE ]
NeoEra said:
It's also worth mentioning that Yasuhiro Imagawa is behind the writing on this show.

[/ QUOTE ]

See, that's what I'm trying to figure out, what writing did he do? From what I've seen of the show, it's exactly like the mange page for page basically. If he can get a writing credit just copying the manga, then hell, I want that job. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[wrex]

[ QUOTE ]
Mazinkaizer said:
Thanks for the info wrex, i am glad the series is a decent quality one /images/graemlins/happy.gif

Btw, here is the seiyuu cast of Soten No Ken:

Kouichi Yamadera as Kenshiro Kasumi
Aya Hisakawa as Yu-Ling Pan & Aya Kitaoji
Masaki Terasoma as Guang-Lin Pan
Mugihito as Ramon Kasumi
Chafurin as Dong-Lai Wu
Hiroshi Yanaka as Puyi Aisin-Gioro
Issei Futamata as Juan-Min Chen/Itachi no Chen
Katsuhiko Sasaki as Takeshi Kitaoji
Katsuhisa Houki as Ying-Zheng Ping
Kazuhiro Nakata as Vice Principal Masao Kondo
Kinryuu Arimoto as Ye
Kyooko Hamura as Yukiyo Ohara
Masaru Ikeda as Jean Carne, Mysterious old man, & Narration
Ryûzaburô Ôtomo as Ke-Rong Jin
Toshiharu Sakurai as Jun Hirata
Umeji Sasaki as Yong-Jian Li
Yousuke Akimoto as Xi-Fei Huang
Yuudai Satou as Zi-Ying Ye

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/


[/ QUOTE ]

That list shows the Chinese names with ...er... Chinese "pronunciations." But in the show, they use the Japanese way of saying those Chinese names. Thus, "Yu-Ling Pan" is "Gyokurei Han," "Guang-Lin" is "Kourin" "Puyi Aisin-Gioro" is "Fugi Aishin Kakura." And as much as I like Aya Hisakawa, I can't help but think she has a tomboyish voice, so it doesn't seem to match Gyokurei/Aya Kitaouji.

[DKL]

Saw the trailer for this and it looked pretty cool...

But yes, I have to rely on someone picking it up for US distribution if I ever want to see it...

Dammit... we haven't even gotten the new movie yet (fist, I mean)...

[Mazinkaizer]

Thanks for the extra info wrex, i am totally clueless about the difference between the Japanese & Chinese pronunciation so i appreciate the info very much /images/graemlins/happy.gif else i would have wondered through the whole show of why the names are different from the manga /images/graemlins/shy00000.gif

As for Aya Hisikawa, i think that she's fits the role IMO. But i am only using my imagination here since i didn't watch the anime yet.