McDonald’s recently launched a new ad featuring animation by Tetsuo Hara, the main artist for Fist of the North Star.

The ad features a buff protagonist scaling a rocky cliffside in pursuit of the “Samurai Mac,” a new sandwich that will be available at Japanese McDonald’s stores starting Jan. 4. This sandwich has two different variations, each priced at 500 yen (approximately $3.75 at the time of writing.)

The version that the macho hero is shown eating at the end of the video is called the “Wafu Barbecue Tamago Nikuatsu Beef,” a cheeseburger featuring a thick slab of egg with Japanese-style barbecue sauce and hatcho miso sauce, a premium miso paste produced in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan. The other variation of the Samurai Mac is the “Ninniku Zakugiri Potato Nikuatsu Beef,” a beef burger featuring an additional potato patty, smoked bacon, and spicy garlic chili and pepper sauces.

The Fist of the North Star Manga

Tetsuo Hara created the original Fist of the North Star manga alongside Buronson, who wrote the story. The manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1983 to 1988. Toei Animation and Studio Live adapted the series into a 109-episode anime, which aired on Fuji Television from October 1984 to March 1987. A second season consisting of 43 episodes followed, airing from March 1987 to February 1988. Set in the remnants of a post-nuclear future, the series revolves around a man named Kenshiro, the rightful successor of the Hokuto School of Martial Arts, which competes against the opposing Nanto School. One day, Shin, a representative of Nanto, kidnaps Kenshiro’s girlfriend, Julia, which sets Ken off on a quest to rescue her. Despite Shin’s villainous actions, the primary antagonist in the series is actually Kenshiro’s older brother, Raoh, who desires to become the ultimate martial arts master and battles with Kenshiro for the succession of Hokuto.

The First of the North Star franchise has garnered a huge following over the years, with over 100 million copies of the manga sold worldwide. The series’ popularity subsequently led to several additional animated series, films and spinoff manga. The most recent Fist of the North Star spinoff manga, serialized in Comic Zenon starting October 25, 2021, is titled Fist of the North Star Side Story: Genius Amiba’s Another World Overlord Legend – Even If I Go to Another World, I Am a Genius!! Huh? Was I Mistaken… Written by Sokra Nishiki with art by Natto Gohan, this lengthily titled isekai manga revolves around the character Amiba, a self-proclaimed genius from the original manga that believed he could outpace anyone in learning martial arts. In this story, Amiba is defeated by Kenshiro and subsequently transported to a new world.

Fist of the North Star is available to stream on Crunchyroll. The manga is available in English from VIZ Media.

Source: YouTube, via Soranews24