User blog:DarkClaw3/PE Proposal: Jackal

So, with Jagi having been brought up as the subject of a recent proposal, I decided to look into some more Fist of the North Star villains who have yet to be officially approved (which is pretty much all of them). And perhaps the first that came to mind was the ruthless and very fittingly-named Jackal from Chapters 19 through 23.

What's the Work?
Hokuto no Ken, aka Fist of the North Star, is a Mad Max-inspired Shōnen manga series that has been the subject of numerous anime, film and video game adaptations over the years—although regardless of the adaptation the series always centers around a lone warrior named Kenshiro, who traverses a bombed-out post-apocalyptic world defending the innocent from deadly gangs, warlords, etc using his signature martial art style, Hokuto Shinken, which allows him to utilize numerous superhuman abilities and kill most foes by striking their vital points (in case you didn't know where the "You are already dead" meme came from). However, for this proposal we'll be focusing mostly on the original manga, since it the only version of the story where Jackal actually has a chance of qualifying.

Who is He?
Little is known about Jackal's past beyond the fact that he was a criminal once held in the high-security Villainy Prison, and since the apocalypse has been the leader of a band of vicious bikers. He is first seen in a bar bathing, where he overhears the orphan Taki recruiting Ken to help dig a new well for their village, learning of the quantities of water held there. He then summons two of his men who had tried to pick a fight with Ken over to him, explaining his philosophy of not picking fights with opponents you can't beat before killing them both by squishing their heads together. Jackal and his minions later head out to the village, although he decides to wait until Ken leaves town to attack (since, unsurprisingly, hew easily beats the crap out of all the thugs who attack immediately). Once Ken leaves, Jackal launches his raid and, after being shot in the face by her, manages to force Toyo into surrendering by threatening to blow her and the children around her up with the dynamite under his coat. He then stabs her near-fatally with the blade hidden underneath his coat ("Whaaat? I barely touched her. This way she can die slowly."), takes over the town, and employs his right-hand Fox to suggest a way to properly finish Toyo off, with both sadistically deciding to kill her orphans one-by-one right in front of her.

Luckily, Ken returns, saves the orphans and confronts Jackal and his gang, with the former quickly losing interest and deciding to avoid a fight with him, having Fox plant dynamite on two of the orphans in order to make a get away. Ken quickly acts to save the kids, although Toyo succumbs to her woulds after saving one of them herself. Ken is understandably infuriated by this and starts to hunt after Jackal, first sending one of his minions back to him as a warning (the minion dying almost immediately after delivering Ken's message due to the Hokuto Shinken); although, unphased by this, Jackal accepts his "challenge" before deciding to not warn the separated Fox about Ken, abandoning him in order to buy him and his minions to escape. While making his way to Villainy Prison, Jackal stops at his usual bar only to find that the bartender is refusing to give him water since Ken is coming after him, revealing Fox's corpse. Furious, Jackal kills the man while his men try to run, only to discover their bikes have been emptied and that Ken is approaching. Without any options left, Jackal's minions turn back and confront their leader as he is angrily kicking Fox's corpse, deciding that the only way to appease Ken is to kill him. Jackal instead decapitates Hawk and blows up the rest of his minions with dynamite, before being met with Ken and cowardly running for his life.

With no options left, Jackal runs to Villainy Prison and, after first killing another one of his men for refusing to give up the dungeon keys, releases the monstrous Devil Rebirth from his cell, using a picture of his mother to fool him into believing that they are brothers. He sends Devil against Ken, who initially holds his own thanks to his Rakan Nioken style, but is soon overwhelmed when he uses his Tenryu (budget Super Sayain) technique to pummel him into submission. With his last asset defeated, Jackal makes one last attempt to fool Ken by betraying Devil, although he obviously doesn't buy it and leaves the both of them to be blown up by the former's dynamite.

What Has He Done?
Despite not having the highest bodycount or being overall the most destructive, Jackal is definitely among the more vile Fist of the North Star villains out there, if not just because of what he accomplishes in his relatively small appearance. First of all, he not only targets Toyo's village with the plan of taking it over and looting it's water supply (which, obviously, would cause death to it's inhabitants regardless of whether or not he actually harmed them), but stabs Toyo just so she can die slowly and then be forced to watch him murder her adopted children—all out of spite for her shooting him. Of course, he planned to kill her and the kids regardless, but that kind of petty sadism really takes the cake. And after failing that, he tries to blow two of the children up just so he can get away, with Ken and Toyo narrowly saving them. Later on, when he believes that Devil Rebirth has killed Ken, he declares that the two of them will head back to the village to kill all of the children and then take their water (keep in mind, he said they would kill the kids first, even when there's pretty much no reason that he needs to do so—except maybe to spite the now long-dead Toyo even more).

As one can imagine from his name and the fact that he openly targets/wants to kill a large group of helpless kids, Jackal is an utterly irredeemable coward, even by the standards of other cowardly villains in the series. This same behavior leads him to betray his right-hand Fox to buy himself time, kill pretty much every single member of his own gang (honestly, he kills more of his minions than Kenshiro does in the whole arc), and emotionally manipulate and then betray Devil Rebirth in an attempt to save himself (granted, Devil Rebirth had killed at least 700 people before being imprisoned, but it's made out clearly to the reader that he did actually care about his mother and "brother").

Redeeming Qualities?
Absolutely none. Unlike his more comedic and incompetent anime counterpart, manga Jackal is a black-hearted murderer motivated solely by doing whatever it takes to save his own skin, and betrays/kills just about every one of his henchmen in order to accomplish this. Despite his convincing brotherly act towards Devil Rebirth, he cares nothing for him and sees him only as a tool that he can use to kill Ken, take over the village's water supply and become virtually untouchable, remarking on this fact quite frequently throughout the story. And in the end, he sells Devil out while trying to con Ken into sparing his life, which, as you can imagine, doesn't work out in his favor.

Heinous Standard?
By no means is Fist of the North Star a lighthearted series, with gruesome murders, rape, and all sorts of other atrocities being a common occurrence. And Jackal is far from the first vicious gang leader or brutal murderer that Ken has had to deal with throughout his adventures (click on a random villain on the template and you'll probably find one). However, the key thing that makes Jackal stick out from the rest is the fact that, as opposed to those the likes of Kiba Daioh or Zeed, he explicitly targets a group of children and their elderly caretaker, and, even though they have very little chance to fight back, he wants to kill them all anyway out of spite. Adding to this, his methods of trying to harm said kids range from hanging them in front of Toyo, blowing them up with dynamite, and god-know what he would've had Devil Rebirth do to them, which makes him stand out far more from the various other child murderers in the series.

Lastly, and perhaps the most key thing about Jackal when it comes to why he stands out as such a heinous character even by the standards of this series, is his resources. Unlike Jagi, Amiba or Uighur, Jackal lacks any kind of skills/physical abilities beyond his cunning, brute strength, and the nearly limitless amount of dynamite that he's packing under his coat. The only reason he lasted as long as he did was his improbable ability to trick, outmaneuver and escape his enemies—boasting that he could fool God himself after abandoning Fox...ironic, given one of Ken's nickname is the "God of Death"—and the fact that he used this same ability to sway Devil Rebirth into working for him. Other than that, he was just as disposable as all the other bandits that Ken has fought. And unlike Jakoh, who similarly lacked any talent in martial arts and was also an utter coward, he doesn't have much of a standing overall, being one of many similar gang leaders in Ken's world as opposed to being an actual political figure with vast power and capable minions under his command. In fact, he loses most his followers by the end of the story (having either lost them to Ken, betrayed them, blown them up, had them decapitated, or chopped them in half), leaving him with pretty much nothing beyond his aforementioned skills.

Verdict?
Jackal definitely earned his name as a cowardly predator. A yes from me.