Elegy for the Henchmen: Fist of the North Star Anime Posts New Video

The official website for the short anime of Hiroshi Kurao's Elegy for the Henchmen: Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken: Ken'ō-gun Zako-tachi no Banka or Fist of the North Star: Elegy of Ken-Oh's Army Grunts) spinoff manga posted its second full promotional video on Thursday. The video showcases how FrontierWorks and Do-Raku's Animatica label is recreating the manga panels for the five-minute comedy shorts.

Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Japan

© 武論尊・原哲夫／コアミックス 1983, ©ザコたちの挽歌製作委員会

The comedy has a tagline, "Three daily meals included, company room and board, no experience necessary!"  In the year 199X after the nuclear apocalypse, our protagonist Nobu finds work as just another grunt in Ken-Oh's army. Nobu learns how long he can last in a workplace where deaths outnumber even the job applicants. 

The cast includes Hiro Shimono as Nobu, Shinnosuke Ogami as Zaku, Masaaki Yano as Buzz, and Shinya Takahashi as the narrator.

Takuma Hase and Yūma Saitō are serving as technical directors on the anime at Do-Raku, and are also credited as the editors. Daisuke Miura is the animation director. Mirai Iwai is the art director and the color key artist. Sayoko Itō is the compositing director of photography. Seiji Miura is composing the music.

Itsuka performs the opening theme "Blacker Co., Ltd." while The Canbellz performs the ending theme "Elegy of the Enemies."

The anime will premiere on the AT-X and Tokyo MX channels on January 5.

The manga launched on Coamix's Manga Hot app in November 2017, and ended in February 2020. The manga's third and final compiled book volume shipped in March 2020.

Buronson and Tetsuo Hara's original landmark manga Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken) is also inspiring a new anime next year.

Sources: Fist of the North Star: Elegy of Ken-Oh's Army Grunts anime's website, Comic Natalie