Sōkoku no Garō : Hokuto no Ken Rei Gaiden

Sōkoku no Garō : Hokuto no Ken Rei Gaiden (蒼黒の餓狼 北斗の拳 レイ外伝) is a manga in six volumes, prepublished on a bimonthly basis from May 2007 to July 2009 in Weekly Comic Bunch. The art is by Nekoi Yasuyuki, based on an original concept by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara. The second gaiden in the series launched in this magazine, between Ten no Haoh and Shirogane no Seija, this story dedicated to Rei takes place before his encounter with Kenshiro and chronicles his quest for the man with seven scars who abducted his sister Airi. It introduces the city of Asgarzul and a gallery of original characters: its queen Eva, the young Yū, Rima, Frida, and Rofū, Rei's former master.

Synopsis

Across the scorched steppes of a post-apocalyptic world, a man consumed by vengeance hunts down his sister's kidnapper. His only lead: seven scars adorn the abductor's chest. Heir to Nanto Suichôken, the most graceful and most merciless martial art ever created, the one known as "the Hungry Wolf of the Wasteland" is ready to make any sacrifice to find his only family. His name is... Rei!

The enigma of Asgarzul

The murder of Eva transforms the gaiden into a manhunt: accused and hunted by the Evas Valkyria, Rei conducts his investigation alongside Yū, whose story reveals that she is a young girl in disguise, and the younger sister of the deceased. The search for the killer unearths the hero's past, the school of the Suichōken and its two paths, the fist of man and the fist of woman, the succession trial sabotaged by Amiba, and the shadows of Yuda and Rofū in the ancient days of Nanto.

The fall of Asgarzul into the hands of Rofū, the former heir turned tyrant, shifts the investigation into a matter of succession. Zan, Shū, Souther, Rihaku: the figures of Nanto converge, and the final duel pits student against master before the eyes of the six sacred stars and Kenoh himself, culminating in Rei's awakening to the star of Justice. The final chapter sets the wolf back on the road to Airi, at the threshold of the original manga.

Hara's carte blanche

The project was born under Hara's direct patronage. The first installment of the one-shot Karei naru Fukushūsha was published alongside a cross-interview between Tetsuo Hara and Nekoi Yasuyuki, recorded in February 2006 in Hara's studio, and the magazine's sidebar introduced the artist as a duo of creators from Hyōgo Prefecture, brought to prominence by Drop☆Kick. The pair described themselves as readers from the very first hour, having assembled the complete Hokuto no Ken collection three times over, his mother having thrown it out twice, and expressed their preference for the early Rei, drawn almost like an enemy before his redemption. Hara encouraged them to draw according to their own sensibility rather than efface themselves before the original work, and concluded the interview with the words "I want you to demolish the existing Hokuto no Ken!".

The author's comments published in the six volumes, written in the first person, extend this interview. Nekoi recounts the creation of Asgarzul, initially conceived based on the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter of the Edo period, then reoriented toward a Middle Eastern setting. He names Rima, then Frida, as his favorite characters among the series' original figures, and in the final volume thanks Buronson and Tetsuo Hara for the carte blanche granted over all six volumes.

Volumes

• Volume 1, released on October 15, 2007, eight chapters.
• Volume 2, released on February 15, 2008, nine chapters.
• Volume 3, released on August 15, 2008, ten chapters.
• Volume 4, released on February 15, 2009, nine chapters.
• Volume 5, released on May 15, 2009, nine chapters.
• Volume 6, released on August 15, 2009, nine chapters.