Episode 7 of the Hokuto no Ken – Fist of the North Star 2026 anime, titled “The Ultimate Assassin” (究極の暗殺者), sends Kenshiro into the heart of God’s Land, the Golan’s HQ. On the agenda: a frontal assault against Mad Sarge and his men, the entrance of the Colonel, and a 2D flashback that leaves a lasting impression. Here is our verdict.
Episode 7 summary
Kenshiro enters God’s Land alone, the Golan’s headquarters, to strike at the heart of the organization. He first encounters Mad Sarge, the group’s soldier instructor and a former member of the red berets, a special unit renowned for its combat effectiveness. Mad Sarge sends his men to attack Kenshiro in a coordinated assault, but the bearer of Hokuto Shinken sweeps them aside before going on the offensive himself. The episode then shifts to the entrance of the Colonel, leader of the Golan, whose presence radically changes the tone of the confrontation.
The staff
Episode 7 is directed by Ogasawara Kazuma, co-director of the series, with a screenplay by Inukai Kazuhiko. The storyboard is credited to Maeda Hiroshi, Ogasawara Kazuma, Itō Hiroki, and Kanayama Yoshishige. This is the same team that supervised episodes 5 and 6, a sign of production continuity across this Golan arc.
The arrival of Colonel portrayed by Takanori Hoshino
Episode 7 marks the entrance of the Colonel, leader of the Golan, voiced by seiyuu Takanori Hoshino. His involvement in the series had been officially confirmed a few days before the broadcast by the official website, along with a message in which the actor expressed his honor at participating in a Hokuto no Ken “in the Reiwa era” and shared that he had grown up with the franchise.
For more information about the seiyuu and his official comment, see our dedicated article: Hokuto no Ken (2026) Takanori Hoshino reveals his role as Colonel.
Our verdict
Episode 7 confirms the CGI trajectory that began last week, with some very good and some very bad moments within the same episode. And that is precisely the problem: it feels like watching two different episodes stitched together.
The first part is the most painful. The animations are poor, a huge number of shots are static, and the character design of Kenshiro and the Golan soldiers veers into the caricatural, with misshapen necks and butchered proportions. Kenshiro’s fight against the troops never takes off, and the confrontation with Mad Sarge suffers from the same flaws. This is exactly the type of sequence that validates the international criticism voiced from the very first episodes.
Everything changes with the arrival of the Colonel. The CGI becomes dynamic again, the fight gains in clarity, the editing is more intense, and the character commands attention from his very first shots. The shift is abrupt, and the contrast with the first part is striking. If the production team can deliver this, you have to wonder why the rest of the episode isn’t at the same level…
The most striking moment of the episode remains the 2D flashback of Colonel, which revisits the collapse of the world and settles scores with the politicians, “those pigs,” who drove the world to its end. The sequence is intense, well executed, and establishes a character with real ideological depth. It is also a useful reminder of what 2D can bring to this series when used effectively.
Ultimately, our opinion of this episode remains fairly positive, especially thanks to the second half and that flashback, and the faithfulness to the manga continues to be followed to the letter. But the visual inconsistency is very frustrating: the CGI is acceptable when done well, but it is the unevenness from one shot to the next that remains the fundamental problem of the series.
The Golan arc: manga VS anime
If the Golan arc is, in the original manga, a transitional arc that serves to reintroduce Rin and lay the groundwork for the post-Shin world, it is also the arc that establishes Colonel as the first ideological antagonist of the series. Where Heart, Diamond, and Club embodied pure brutality, Colonel introduces a political dimension to the villain of Hokuto no Ken, a structured fanaticism born from the disillusionment of a military man facing the corruption of his own side.
A small historical note: in the 1984 anime, this political backstory had been entirely removed. Colonel was rewritten as a simple fanatic serving Shin, and the Golan was reduced to a subdivision of the King organization. The 2026 anime makes the opposite choice from its predecessor and returns to the manga version, restoring this flashback that Buronson and Hara had written from the very beginning.
Watch Hokuto no Ken on Prime Video
The first 7 episodes are available now on Prime Video with subtitles and dubbed. One episode every Friday. An Amazon Prime subscription is required; the free 30-day trial allows you to watch all available episodes with no commitment.
