It's kinda sad that so many people hate FONS, especially since they are basing it off the streamline and mangay dubbed crap. About 8 years ago, I saw the dub of the movie and thought it was the worst movie I had ever seen. But going back to it in Japanese after watching the TV series, I loved it. It's a retelling of the first story arc of the TV series and doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you've never seen the TV show or read the manga. Much like CLAMP's X the Movie, actually. FONS does get repetitive in that in pretty much every episode, Kenshirou goes to a town being oppressive by gang members and then makes their heads explode, but overall I found the series enjoyable. While the second arc of FONS 2 kinda lame with the rehashed villain, it at least offered some change from the stock formula. The violence level in the movie (and now, the new FONS OVAs) is really toned up - you can see the little pieces of brain matter and gore.
"Bart" and "Julia" ARE the names for the characters. BAATO (that's a long-a sound in Japanese) is how you say "Bart" in Japanese. If his name was "Bat" it would be BATTO. The name "Julian" is said YURIAN, so I am guessing YULIA/Julia works the same way, as it's the female form of the name.
New FONS is 3 episodes. It is a sequel to the TV series. ADV just announced they had bought them for American DVD distribution.
The HK bootlegs do not have top notch audio and video quality. 9 episodes per disc (which are uncut) lead to some severe artifacting problems in every second of the series. The subtitles start off as marginally readable yet obviously ESOL, and by episode 16 they dissolve into complete Engrish to the point of the show making as much sense with the subtitles off as with them on. Also, the flashback sequence of Shin stealing Julia (ep 4, I think) is ruined because of a pressing or authoring error, so you don't see much of that scene; the DVD skips. The Movie DVD is a boot of the LD with some very amusing flaws in the left side of the picture. Also, one boot is of the actual LD; the other is a boot of the Streamline dub and a Chinese-subbed only boot of the movie.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
MASSIVE, HUGE SPOILER
To answer the last question, Kenshirou does get back together with Julia, but she eventually dies of radiation poisoning.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Don't read above, spoilers.
Why doesn't anybody ever notice that the Mad Max series is a complete rip off of HOKUTO NO KEN. Hell the frist Mad Max and the Fist of North Star movie even end the same way!
