New Manga Read - Fist of the North Star, Volume 12
Welcome to the apocalypse!
Volume 11 is about this man on the cover, Falco.
Falco is the inheritor of Gento Kōken (roughly translated as Original Dipper Imperial Fist). The followers of Genko Kōken were sworn to protect the Celestial Emperor (Tentei) from harm.
In this volume, Kenshiro is returning to help the Hokuto Army which is led by Lin and Bat to free those under the thumb of Jaco. Falco, who appears to be nothing but good and compassionate, is somehow the evil Jaco's second in command. Why? Jaco has kidnapped the Tentei and kept them hostage.
This volume is filled to the brim with reveals. Some about Lin. A lot of backstory about Falco, which makes him such a fascinating character. Also, the reveal about the Tentei and who they are was HUGE. Doing minimal spoilers despite this manga being as old as I am.
Falco has a prosthetic leg due to Raoh destroying his leg in the past. Raoh told him that he needed to kill Jaco or, one day, Jaco would manipulate and dominate him. Raoh was right.
While we get a brutal match between Falco and Kenshiro, the ending of the volume is well done with a cliffhanger for the next volume.
ALSO (which I say a lot), Fist of the North Star constantly reminds you that toxic masculinity is bad and that you can be masculine and have feelings / cry. Kenshiro feels, always. Kenshiro allows himself to cry over loss, cry over the suffering of others. He allows himself to feel. There is nothing un-masculine about having emotions. Kenshiro constantly reminds the reader of that...amongst all the brutal violence.
