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<blockquote data-quote="Scorch" data-source="post: 1627282" data-attributes="member: 1502">Ah, Fist of the Blue Sky.&nbsp; A prequel of sorts to Fist of the North Star.&nbsp; Where North Star takes place in a post-apocalyptic world resembling &quot;Mad Max&quot;, Blue Sky takes place in a world more resembling a John Woo/Chow Yun Fat Hong Kong gangster flick.&nbsp; By taking the martial art, Hokuto Shinken, and placing in a 1930's Singapore setting, the story focuses more on the assasination and infiltration techniques of this deadly style.The story tells of Kasumi Kenshiro, a distant relative of the Kenshiro we know from the original series.&nbsp; After a mispent youth where he hung with gangsters in Singapore he has settled in as a teacher at a girl's prep school in pre-WW2 Japan.&nbsp; He is trying out a new profession that is different from the discipline of his Hokuto art's training and the wild &quot;devil may care&quot; lifestyle of the Chinese mafia.His past catches up when he receives news from his old friends in Singapore that their gangs have been crushed and his former &quot;brothers&quot; are being hunted down like dogs.&nbsp; He returns to Singapore and finds his one best friend missing in action and the other horribly crippled by burn scars.&nbsp; Kasumi dives right into the Singapore underworld to find out what happened and to right some wrongs.&nbsp; If you like old style Hong Kong gangster flicks like &quot;A Better Tomorrow&quot; or &quot;The Killer&quot; then you will dig this story.&nbsp; Once again they play fast and loose with the Hokuto mythos much like the original series did near the end (other secret Hokuto styles?&nbsp; Sure!&nbsp; Long lost brothers?&nbsp; OK!).&nbsp; There are a lot of nice little touches such as Kasumi not acting like the invulnerable force of nature that Kenshiro did in the original series.&nbsp; One reason for this:&nbsp; GUNS!&nbsp; There are a lot of them.&nbsp; Modern day mechanisation makes Hokuto Shinken more of a style that favors attacks from the shadows rather than up front fisticuffs.&nbsp; When Kasumi is confronted by a french regiment of soldiers he quite wisely sneaks around and avoids them.One of my favorite characters is a French Jew who happens to be a high ranking officer of the French police in Singapore.&nbsp; Oh, have I mentioned he also managed to sneak into one of the secret Hokuto temples and actually have a master teach him?&nbsp; Wild stuff.&nbsp; One great fight is where he confronts another Hokuto practitioner and says something along the lines of:&nbsp; &quot;Hokuto Shinken is the deadliest style of unarmed combat and I have been taught in it.&nbsp; Think of what I could do if I used it with a gun&quot; and then promptly pulls out a pistol.&nbsp; The other Hokuto practitioner wisely turns tail and runs for it.I should note that the heroes in this world work in a very morally ambiguous setting.&nbsp; By that I mean that the resource they are fighting over in Singapore is opium distribution.&nbsp; It is a little disconcerting that the guys you are cheering for are drug dealers fighting other drug dealers.A fun read.&nbsp; I hope someone else picks up the story now that Raijin has gone bust.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Scorch, post: 1627282, member: 1502"] Ah, Fist of the Blue Sky. A prequel of sorts to Fist of the North Star. Where North Star takes place in a post-apocalyptic world resembling "Mad Max", Blue Sky takes place in a world more resembling a John Woo/Chow Yun Fat Hong Kong gangster flick. By taking the martial art, Hokuto Shinken, and placing in a 1930's Singapore setting, the story focuses more on the assasination and infiltration techniques of this deadly style. The story tells of Kasumi Kenshiro, a distant relative of the Kenshiro we know from the original series. After a mispent youth where he hung with gangsters in Singapore he has settled in as a teacher at a girl's prep school in pre-WW2 Japan. He is trying out a new profession that is different from the discipline of his Hokuto art's training and the wild "devil may care" lifestyle of the Chinese mafia. His past catches up when he receives news from his old friends in Singapore that their gangs have been crushed and his former "brothers" are being hunted down like dogs. He returns to Singapore and finds his one best friend missing in action and the other horribly crippled by burn scars. Kasumi dives right into the Singapore underworld to find out what happened and to right some wrongs. If you like old style Hong Kong gangster flicks like "A Better Tomorrow" or "The Killer" then you will dig this story. Once again they play fast and loose with the Hokuto mythos much like the original series did near the end (other secret Hokuto styles? Sure! Long lost brothers? OK!). There are a lot of nice little touches such as Kasumi not acting like the invulnerable force of nature that Kenshiro did in the original series. One reason for this: GUNS! There are a lot of them. Modern day mechanisation makes Hokuto Shinken more of a style that favors attacks from the shadows rather than up front fisticuffs. When Kasumi is confronted by a french regiment of soldiers he quite wisely sneaks around and avoids them. One of my favorite characters is a French Jew who happens to be a high ranking officer of the French police in Singapore. Oh, have I mentioned he also managed to sneak into one of the secret Hokuto temples and actually have a master teach him? Wild stuff. One great fight is where he confronts another Hokuto practitioner and says something along the lines of: "Hokuto Shinken is the deadliest style of unarmed combat and I have been taught in it. Think of what I could do if I used it with a gun" and then promptly pulls out a pistol. The other Hokuto practitioner wisely turns tail and runs for it. I should note that the heroes in this world work in a very morally ambiguous setting. By that I mean that the resource they are fighting over in Singapore is opium distribution. It is a little disconcerting that the guys you are cheering for are drug dealers fighting other drug dealers. A fun read. I hope someone else picks up the story now that Raijin has gone bust. [/QUOTE]

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