Details
- Title
- Hokuto no Ken: Legend of Heroes (北斗の拳 英雄伝)
- Type
- Films animés
- Author(s)
- Tetsuo Hara (supervision), d'après l'œuvre de Buronson et Tetsuo Hara
- Studio
- Digital Frontier Inc.
- Publisher
- Pony Canyon
- Broadcaster
- Fuji TV
- Release date
- 16 July 2006
Gallery
5View all imagesHokuto no Ken : Legend of Heroes
Released in 2006, Hokuto no Ken: Legend of Heroes (北斗の拳 英雄伝) is a short 3D CGI film that adapts the final confrontation between Kenshirō and Raoh. First broadcast on July 16, 2006 on Fuji TV, it was supervised by Tetsuo Hara himself and benefits from the collaboration of Sammy, a Japanese pachi-slot giant. With only 7 minutes of runtime, this ambitious project has remained largely unknown outside Japan.
The final battle condensed into seven minutes
The plot of Hokuto no Ken: Legend of Heroes focuses exclusively on the final confrontation between Kenshirō and Raoh. What the original manga by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara took nearly an entire volume to depict, the short film chose to condense into seven minutes. A radical approach that, due to time constraints, fails to convey the dramatic depth of the confrontation between the two blood brothers.
Production: Sammy, Coamix, and Digital Frontier
The short film is the result of a collaboration between Coamix, the rights holder of Hokuto no Ken, and Sammy, a pachi-slot machine manufacturer. The 3D animation was entrusted to Digital Frontier Inc. The film was produced in stereoscopic 3D, an unusual format for the time, and received a premiere screening at the Hokuto no Ken Eiyū-den: Daiba no Shō event held in Odaiba, in Tokyo Bay.
Cast and staff
Cast
| Kenshirō | Kunihiro Kawamoto (川本邦弘) |
|---|---|
| Raoh | Tesshō Genda (玄田哲章) |
Staff
| Original work | Buronson, Tetsuo Hara |
|---|---|
| Supervision | Tetsuo Hara |
| Studio | Digital Frontier Inc. |
| Production | Sammy, Coamix, North Stars Pictures |
| Broadcaster | Fuji TV (satellite) |
Éditions
On March 28, 2007, a "Special Edition" DVD was released in Japan by Pony Canyon at a price of 5,250 yen. For this steep price, the buyer received a Sega/Coamix crystal version figurine of Raoh, as well as a pair of 3D glasses for viewing the stereoscopic version of the film. As for bonus content, the edition includes two featurettes with a total runtime of approximately 33 minutes, covering the entire development process from the earliest sketches to the motion capture sessions. These making-of features paradoxically constitute the most interesting part of the DVD, offering a unique behind-the-scenes look at an atypical production within the franchise.
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