Hokuto no Ken Kin’yoku no Garuda : Nanto Goshasei Zenshi

Hokuto no Ken Kin'yoku no Garuda : Nanto Goshasei Zenshi ("Golden-Winged Garuda, the Prehistory of the Five Chariot Stars of Nanto") is a manga drawn by Yamaguchi Yoshiji based on an original concept by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, serialized in Monthly Comic Zenon from April to August 2013 and compiled into one volume. The only spin-off of the saga devoted to an entirely original character, absent from the manga, it tells how a forgotten Nanto warrior set the Goshasei in motion. The series has been available in French since January 2025 from Crunchyroll under the title Hokuto no Ken, La Légende de Garuda.

Synopsis

In a ravaged world, a mysterious warrior walks dusty trails on the track of a general. Guided by his sense of justice, he swears to restore peace to the Earth. But to achieve this, he will have to overcome six fighters, each more formidable than the last. His name is... Garuda! Discover the story of this forgotten warrior of Nanto!

An original hero within the canon

The story takes place before Rihaku's call, at the time when the only remaining general of Nanto is the Last General, bearer of the star of the Benevolent Mother. Where other spin-offs follow the major figures of the original manga, Garuda sheds light on the Five Chariot Stars from a different angle than the Juza Gaiden, that of an adversary who confronts Hyui of the Wind, Shuren of the Flame, and Rihaku of the Ocean one after another. A general and spy within Ken'oh's army, he practices Nanto Shinchoken, an art absent from the hundred and eight schools of Nanto and without lineage, transmitted by his mother Vinata, whose heirs fulfill the destiny of the forgotten star: protecting the General while remaining in the shadows. The volume's dossier details his decisive influence on the canon, as he is the one who pushes Ryuga to seek out Kenshiro, enables Ken'oh to locate the Last General's fortress, and convinces Rihaku to set the Five Chariot Stars in motion.

From pachislot to manga

Garuda is a character created for the thirtieth anniversary of the saga in the world of Hokuto no Ken pachislot machines, where he appears in CGI and where two scenes remain unpublished in manga form: his encounter with Toki in the prison of Cassandra and the bestowing of a reward by Raoh. The special feature that closes the volume traces the character's genesis, from the early sketches by Tetsuo Hara, who describes him as halfway between Rei and Yuda, to the facial studies produced by Sato Masaki for the La Légende du Véritable Sauveur series, through to the final version by Yamaguchi Yoshiji. In his afterword, the latter recounts having accepted the project just after leaving the hospital, having endured the serialization between an anaphylactic shock and page submissions barely completed in time, and having retouched several passages from the magazine serialization for the collected volume.

The volumes

The series was compiled into a single volume released in 2013. The volume summary is translated from Japanese by us, with the chapter titles taken from the French edition.

• Volume 1