Long before Kenshiro said, You're already dead, a different Kenshiro walked the violent streets of Shanghai. The city is in constant crisis as two mafia families battle one another for supremacy. In the crossfire, a little girl named Erika is orphaned and soon taken under the wing of martial artist Liu Fei-Yan. Sorrow seems to follow the girl, as every time Fei-Yan attempts to hand her off, her new guardians end up dead. Fei-Yan decides to bring the girl to a man named Guise but instead crosses paths with powerful Kenshiro Kasumi. (Source: ANN)

A mysterious man known as the King of Death roams the streets of pre-war Shanghai in this action-packed prequel to Fist of the North Star. Shanghai in the 1930s is a dangerous place. Foreign governments and Chinese factions have carved the city into different quarters, each with its own laws and government, and all rife with corruption. As the major powers vie for political control, the streets are left to local gangs. Life is cheap, and death is always near. In days past, one man walked these mean streets battling the forces of evil. He was known only as Yan Wang, the King of Death. Few knew who he really was, but many knew that he was a master of Hokuto Shinken - Fist of the North Star - a lethal martial art. He disappeared years ago after dispatching the city's worst gangsters, and is now rumored to be in Japan. Various people have come to Japan in search of him, but who will find him first?

Ten years after the Bubble War, the dichotomy between the rich and the poor in the world becomes more prominent and Japan is no exception. The rich seek to satisfy their desires and derive pleasure for themselves, and Tokyo has materialized into such a city as a result. Saiga, once a war photographer, works for Hibara Ginza in the capitalist state of Tokyo. He infiltrates the Roppongi Club, a secretive base located in the red light district of the city, to collect information about them. However, he was caught in the process and brought forward to a girl called Kagura who was in the midst of a ritual. His contact with Kagura awakens his special ability: the power to make things explode when photographed. In order to unravel the mystery behind the Roppongi Club and Kagura, Saiga begins his solitary battle.

Underneath the surface of the Earth lies the Inner World, a realm where a war rages on between intelligent spiders and the invading humanoid insects known as Insectors. However, the spiders are not alone, as Spider Riders—humans from the Outer World, known as Earthens in the Inner World, that are chosen by the Oracle—fight alongside them. Filled with wondrous tales of a mysterious pyramid and entrusted with his grandfather's journal, a young boy called Hunter Steele sets out on an exploration. There, his destined meeting with the Oracle occurs, and he is transported into the Inner World as a Spider Rider. Finding himself lost and confused in the middle of a forest, Hunter crosses paths with a giant spider named Shadow. Although reluctant, Shadow agrees to fight by his side. He then meets Corona—a skilled Spider Hunter and kind girl with a penchant for normal life. She shows him the ropes of being a Spider Rider, and educates him about the fate of the Inner World if the Insectors continue their tyrannical reign. Thus begins the story of Hunter Steele, a heedless young boy on a quest to save the Inner World. But his task of retrieving the four Oracle Keys holding the Oracle's true power will lead him to an ultimate clash against Mantid, leader of the Insectors.