Anime: Shin Kyuuseishu Densetsu Hokuto no Ken Raou-den Jun`ai no Shou

When reading this here opinion you should probably note that I am a very big fan of the Original 1986 F.O.T.N.S. movie.

...and being such an avid fan of the first movie I was really anticipating having a whole movie dedicated to Raoh's story as he is a major character in the original movie and an interesting one at that.
This is where my first real disappointment / criticism comes in.

For being a movie pegged as having Raoh's side story, there sure is little information about him at the start. It is also very much still a movie about Kenshiro and essentially still told from his perspective.

Maybe I was projecting too much into the movie before I watched it, but personally I would have liked to see a movie much more from Raoh's point of view.
But enough speculating and back to the movie, as towards the later part of the story you do start to find out a fair bit about Raoh - although much of what makes him "tick" is unfolded to the viewer only in the very last scene.
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I found the art to be very appealing and "true" to the original.
My biggest dislike was for the way that both Lin and Bat were drawn. They seem fairly far removed from the original designs [in the way of style and exactly how they were drawn]. Maybe it's because of the style of the new characters, but it's still something that bugged me.
Throughout the movie you will see some very typical FOTNS scenes which a lot of the time have to do with the Zeed gang.
In fact some scenes look like they are carbon copies of some scenes from the original movie, just spruced up to current age quality.
These homages to the original were actually quite appreciated and I feel it keeps this movie very much in the realm of a "real FOTNS movie". In fact, there is a fair bit of fan service throughout the movie.

The movements and mannerisms of characters are all instantly recognisable, no matter how small a role they play.
The one thing I wasn't terribly impressed with was the toning down of some of the gore, as that too is an intrinsic part of the original movie. This aspect though, does not really detract and there are still instances of somewhat gory death.

Another noticeable style that made it across from the originals is that depending on the situation characters appearance can change in size.
When a character is to be shown as powerful in a certain situation for example, he can sometimes be made to look like twice his original size, which is another detail I enjoyed.

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The music too is still very reminiscent of the originals and is applied well and turns suitably dramatic at the right times.
Being a true FOTNS movie you also have a fair few "80's rock" sounding tunes thrown into the mix, but again I must say that I felt that even though it's not my choice type of music; it is still very fitting.
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Final Words
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On the whole I would say that this story feels less epic than the original, but then again I guess it would be seeing as it's main focus is on back story. I would argue though, that the closing battle could have done with a little more trademark FOTNS "epicness".

At the start of the movie it feels like this will be just another story in the world of the Fists, but soon enough back stories and intentions start to seep through and you quickly start to gain deeper insight into the characters.
If you are a fan of FOTNS then you probably will want to watch this alone for the added insight. At best you can just revel in the FOTNS style with it's gratuitous violence, interesting fight choreographies and artistic and epic approaches to scenes.

If you are just a casual watcher and not a FOTNS fan per se, then the back story may be lost on you and you will be left with a movie that has decent action and a somewhat confusing plot. I would guess that it is still worth a watch, but you will probably want to take the score down one notch if you fall into this category.