Fist of the North Star artist Tetsuo Hara makes a major statement about the rise in AI, saying that unlike him, machines "can't be resolved to die."
The artist behind the iconic Fist of the North Star manga, Tetsuo Hara, names one thing he is willing to do that AI couldn't possibly dream of.
"What AI can't do is be 'resolved to die,'" Hara stated to Goethe. "Suffer, suffer, suffer, and think it through. And then when you think 'I really might die,' there is 'this is what I wanted.' That's when the 'soul enters.' Those pictures with soul that make all the readers happy... To do that, to stake your life, abandon your desires, kill yourself. See it through no matter how painful. That's all I have"."
Hara illustrates Fist of the North Star, while Buronson is responsible for the story. These comments come as the Fist of the North Star Exhibit in Roppongi currently celebrates 40 years of the manga. Born on Sept. 2, 1961, the Fist of the North Star manga was Hara's first lengthy work after his The Iron Don Quijote manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump was axed after two volumes. Also illustrating Keiichiro Ryu's Keiji, works involving Hara have cumulatively sold over 117 million copies worldwide. Many fans don't know that Hara has suffered from keratoconus almost since his professional debut -- a previously thought-to-be incurable eye disease. In the interview, he revealed that he had surgery in June 2023, improving his visual acuity by 10 times. Even with extreme headaches post-surgery, he battled against both AI and himself, locking himself in his studio and drawing dozens of art pieces for the exhibition.
The biggest news to come from the 40th-anniversary celebration is arguably the new Warner Bros. Japan-produced Fist of the North Star anime, which was announced on Sept. 12, 2023. An all-new cast and visual for the anime have also been revealed, with Hara and Buronson emphasizing "the great care" the new anime series will have for the original manga. CBR breaks down the Fist of the North Star series and what fans ought to know before the reboot. First serialized in Sept. 1983, Fist of the North Star received a critically well-received anime that spanned 152 episodes from Oct. 1984 to Feb. 1988.
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VIZ Media licenses the Fist of the North Star manga for North America, with Volume 1 described as follows: "One day, a wanderer appears out of the wasteland to bring justice to the guilty and hope to the people—a warrior named Ken, a man who bears seven scars upon his chest and holds the secret of a mysterious martial art known as Hokuto Shinken, the Divine Fist of the North Star!"
