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155 - Fist of the North Star - Hokuto no Ken (北斗の拳) Kenshiro Penci…
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Estimate €150 - €250
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Description
Fist of the North Star - Hokuto no Ken (北斗の拳) Kenshiro Pencil and coloured pencil artwork created for the production of the anime Fist of the North Star, based on the work of Buronson (武論尊) and Tetsuo Hara (原 哲夫). Produced by Toei Animation 1984–1988, Japan H25 L26.5 Kenshiro is depicted here bare-chested, with four of his seven Big Dipper-shaped scars visible on his chest, in the midst of executing a flurry of circular punches. The central composition of the dôga is a circle of seven fists arranged in rotation, drawn in coloured pencils alternating between blue and red — two distinct colours representing two phases or two alternating hands of the same movement. This type of representation is a circular kinetic decomposition dôga — one of the most complex forms of Japanese action animation from the 1980s. The seven fists do not represent seven distinct strikes in time: they are seven successive positions of the same rotational movement drawn simultaneously on the same sheet of paper, to allow the animator to check the consistency of the trajectory before moving on to inking. At broadcast speed, the viewer’s eye will see only a single fist moving at an impossible speed — but the dôga preserves the entire visible trajectory at a single glance. The alternation of blue and red colours is a production convention: it allows the alternating phases of the punching cycle — left hand and right hand, or even and odd phases of the movement — to be visually distinguished, leaving no room for confusion for the chief animator who approves the drawing. These colour markings disappear from the final inked and painted cell: they exist only in the preparatory dôga, making this document a unique record of Toei’s internal production process. This circular burst technique is one of the visual hallmarks of *Fist of the North Star* — a series in which the fights rely on the depiction of speeds and powers that exceed human perception. Kenshiro bare-chested, scars visible, seven fists in flight: the dôga conveys in a single drawing what the animation unfolds over several seconds on screen. In collections of animation documents, doga showing the breakdown of circular motion in several coloured phases are among the rarest and most sought-after — they document not a shot but a kinetic intention, the movement captured at the stage of pure conception, before production techniques transform it into a broadcast-ready image.
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About the sale Knights, Armour and Samurai + Animation Art Selection
Auction location
Auction time 06/28/2026 at 3:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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