Fist of the North Star Pentology
This is a series of 3 movies and 2 OAVs released about 5 years ago in order to help Japanese kids understand what their dads and uncles were so crazy about. The first four parts focus on memorable parts of the original story, which look amazing in modern animation, while the final part is a new story that takes place between parts of the timeline. I should mention that they do not take place in strict chronological order, so if a dude that died in part 3 shows up in part 4, this is why. These shows are pretty awesome overall, and I think it's a great way to introduce Hokuto no Ken to neophytes without making them commit to a 108 episode TV series or a 27 volume manga,
It's really tough to describe what Fist of the North Star actually is with any due justice because it's such a huge property (in pretty much the entire world except north America, due to the bungling of the series' release over here on several occasions). FotNS is a post-apocalyptic action/martial arts story that set the agenda for modern shounen action stories. It's about secret techniques, exploding heads, the complex relationships between three brothers, and manly tears.
So many manly tears.
Now, this is definitely a starter set, meant to entice you to go see/read the whole thing. When certain characters die in the Pentology, people who haven't been following their stories for dozens of chapters/episodes might not feel the full emotional weight of the situation. Also, some of the original seiyuu such as Akira Kamiya are not present in these shows, so Kenshiro's performance isn't quite up to
this level, though it is very good.
But that's all OK because I know that people will jump straight into the TV series after seeing these, right? Right? RIGHT??
Invincible Superman Zambot 3
Zambot 3 is a 70s Yoshiuki Tomino directed super robot show that is known for being depressing, but it's also very very good. Tomino was fresh off of working on stuff for the Robot Romance trilogy (Combattler V, Voltes V and Tosho Daimos) and wanted to apply what he learned there (robot shows can have a plot!) and also take the next step.
It's pre-Gundam, but it's decidedly Tomino: marginalized group of people who posses a unique weapon fight a defensive war against invaders. Zambot 3, however, proves to be some of Tomino's best execution of that outline. What really helps it is that it's only 23 episodes. It ddin't get canceled or anything; Tomino just got in, said what he wanted to say, and got out. So, though this is a monster of the week series, it doesn't get too, too monotonous.
Speaking of monsters, Zambot 3 boasts my personal favorite enemy mech designs. I should clarify that by enemy designs I don't mean the design of either the main antagonist's machine or a standard issue machien that shows up over and over and over. Each enemy, known as a Mecha Boost in the show, is uniquely designed. They certainly bear a resemblance to a lot of Go Nagai's kaiju meets mecha designs, but one can also see that the designer for Gurren Lagann was influenced by this show a lot.
As far as the show being depressing, it is but not hopelessly so and not all the time. There's a gradual build to the real heart-wrenching stuff, and it seemed to be more...I dunno...meaningful (?) than Ideon, which seemed to be wallowing in hopelessness at times.
If anyone is interested in older robot shows, Zambot 3 is not a bad place to start actually. It's a good representation of a seminal director for the genre, it's short(er than most robot shows) and the storyline is pretty compelling.
Although this does not feel particularly fast-paced, I am enjoying it just being what it is enough to not mind.
Yay! I've now become helplessly attached to Todd's Allen and will never be able to go back to Sanae Kobayashi XD And I agree, Kanda is rather similar to Mustang - especially when he calls Allen "shortstack" 
Just. 
It's like a wonderfully bizzare fairy tale with ballet.
