Fist of the North Star is famous for being hyper-violent with heart. It has the gore of Devilman with the optimism of a classic Superman comic. But like Superman and co, it has a wide roster of heroes and villains performing astounding feats of strength.
It’s been enough to get fans speculating over which characters were the strongest in the series. So, let's figure it out in this ranking of Fist of the North Star's 10 most powerful pugilists.
10 Fudoh
Fellow Nanto Seiken practitioner Rei could’ve killed Raoh, the 'King of Fists' if he hadn’t seen through his technique. While Juza, master of Garyu No Ken, managed to keep fighting him even after he died. But Fudoh actually managed to beat Raoh. Albeit on a technicality. To overcome his fear, borne from an earlier encounter with Fudoh, Raoh challenged him to a fight. He would either kill Fudoh or be killed by his own troops if he fled past a certain line.
Raoh fought well, yet he couldn’t decisively put the giant down. Then, just as he was going to fight back, his troops impaled Fudoh with a ballista shot. Without noticing, Raoh’s foot had gone past the line. Fudoh successfully beat him at his own game, and his mortal wound meant Raoh would never have another chance to beat his fear. So, out of the many warriors who died fighting the 'Conqueror of Century's End', Fudoh was the only one who got a victory out of it.
9 Souther
Beating Raoh on a technicality is good. Beating Kenshiro decisively is better. The ‘Holy Emperor’ Souther had an immunity to Kenshiro’s pressure point presses, which left the fighter vulnerable to his Nanto Ho-ohken style. Without a way to fight back, Kenshiro was left unconscious, wounded, and imprisoned by Souther’s troops. It wasn’t until he escaped and got better that Kenshiro got a rematch.
During the battle, Kenshiro learned the secret to his ‘immunity’: he was born with his heart on his right side instead of his left. Thus, his pressure points were reversed. Once Kenshiro realized this, the odds became even. Though even after his secret was revealed, Souther put in a strong effort against Kenshiro before falling to him. It just wasn’t strong enough to get him any higher in the rankings.
8 Ryuken
Ramon ‘Ryuken’ Kasumi was the 63rd successor to Hokuto Shinken, having won the role after hand-to-hand combat with Koryu. Despite the rules saying the martial art could only be passed down to one person at a time, Ryuken taught four students, knowing all but one would end up either exiled, mind-wiped, or broken to prevent the Hokuto’s skills from entering the wrong hands.
After naming Kenshiro the next successor, he was going to seal Raoh’s fists for good. Unfortunately, his old age got the better of him, and a sudden heart attack gave Raoh the opening to finish him off. A younger Ryuken might’ve topped the list, but his ailing health and age knocked him down significantly.
7 Toki
Toki, the blood brother of Raoh and Kaioh, wasn’t meant to be trained in Hokuto Shinken. It was only at a young Raoh’s protests that Ryuken decided to adopt him as well. Utilizing his swift speed and parrying techniques, Toki mastered the art so well that Kenshiro thought he would be the next successor for sure. However, his downfall was his martyr complex.
When the nuclear attacks started, he pushed Kenshiro and his girlfriend Yuria into a shelter to save them. The fallout gave him the radiation sickness that would weaken him across the series. Even after pressing his Sekkatsukou pressure points to boost his strength at the cost of his lifespan, it wasn’t enough to overcome Raoh.
6 Falco
Even with one leg, the Golden General has proven himself to be a force to be reckoned with. He was strong enough to keep Kenshiro at bay until his lover Myu, and the Heavenly Emperor Lui were saved. Once they were, he joined Kenshiro’s side. He met his end after being ambushed by the Nameless Asura, a warrior with inhuman speed and agility.
While his injuries were fatal, Kenshiro pressed his Sekkatsukou pressure points to give Falco the power to get revenge on the Nameless Asura before he died. If his luck hadn’t run out, Falco might’ve gotten to test his skills against the next entry.
5 Han
Han was one of the three Rasho that ruled the land of Asura, but he was also considered the weakest of the three. This meant he received the most assassination attempts, which went from being a threat to being more boring than playing chess against himself. His knowledge of Hokuto Ryu Ken, a rival art to Hokuto Shinken, made them so trivial that he’d spare some assassins just for being too weak to challenge him.
Once his forces kidnaped Kenshiro’s friend Lin, he finally met his match when the man himself turned up at his castle. Kenshiro got a decisive win, but it took using one of Raoh's techniques, the Tensho Honretsu, to get the upper hand.
4 Hyoh
Hyoh was the biological brother of Kenshiro and a master of Hokuto Ryu Ken. As he grew up, he became one of the three Rasho alongside Han and his foster brother Kaioh. On paper, he’s the strongest of the Three Rasho, and possibly stronger than Kaioh.
But he sealed Hyoh's memories, leaving him under his spell until he lost to Kenshiro. With his mind freed, he tried to beat Kaioh. But the injuries from his fight against one brother made him easy pickings for the other, with Kaioh mortally wounding him. Without those caveats, he might've climbed even higher in the rankings.
3 Raoh
As Ryuken’s first student, he spent the longest learning Hokuto Shinken’s secrets. Even in the final test between himself and Kenshiro, he announced his ambition to take over everything under Heaven before starting on Heaven itself. He’s become the series’ most iconic villain ever since then, even over his near-identical elder brother Kaioh.
But he couldn’t overcome his fear effectively enough to master Hokuto Shinken’s ultimate technique: Musou Tensei. He lacked the additional strength that this skill gave Kenshiro. Thus, the Conqueror got conquered.
2 Kaioh
Design-wise, Kaioh isn’t that impressive. He looks a lot like his younger brother Raoh, has similar moves, and had the same voice actor in the anime series. What sets him apart is his absolute dedication to evil. After his mother died saving a baby Kenshiro from a burning building, Kaioh devoted himself to destroying the Hokuto Shinken line and replacing it with Hokuto Ryu Ken.
He committed all sorts of atrocities, like killing his own sister, to achieve his goals. It even made him strong enough to overcome the Musou Tensei technique. But not strong enough to beat the true strongest character in Fist of the North Star.
1 Kenshiro
This isn’t a surprise. The 64th Successor to the Hokuto Shinken line has proven time and again why Ryuken chose him. Despite being the youngest, and initially the weakest, of the 4 Hokuto Brothers, he overcame all challengers thanks to his keen skills and gentle heart. He has the strength to reduce a tank to scrap metal with his bare hands yet doesn’t use that strength to oppress others. Anyone who’s tried to kill him, from Souther to Kaioh, has only made him stronger.
This strength comes at a cost. The successor is doomed to be alone until he finds a new student to pass the martial art onto. The only thing keeping his few friends from succumbing to the surrounding chaos is the arm’s length he keeps them at. As brutal as Fist of the North Star gets, it has a sadness at its core that makes it more touching than the bloody action would suggest.