Kenshiro: The protagonist of the series, Kenshiro is the successor of the assassination art of Hokuto Shinken. He, along with his 3 stepbrothers, were orphaned and raised by the 63rd master of the Hokuto Shinken art, Ryuken. It was the tradition of the art that only one heir can be chosen among the pupils. The rest were never allowed to use the fighting style ever again. As expected, when Kenshiro was chosen, some of his brothers grew insanely jealous. Kenshiro is in love with a woman named Yuria (Julia in the dub, the J having a Y sound to make up for the name change), but his friend Shin was manipulated by Kenshiro's brother Jagi to forcibly take her away from him. As such, Kenshiro seeks revenge by trying to find Shin. Eventually he succeeds in killing Shin, but realizes that Shin wasn't truly evil, he was only trying to win Yuria's heart. He also opts to find his brothers after many long years. He travels with orphans Lin and Bat (Lynn & Bart in the dub).


Jagi: One of Kenshiro's 3 brothers, he is the black sheep of the Hokuto Shinken bloodline. He fights using dirty tricks and cheating to gain the upper hand. When he and Kenshiro were young, he used to tease his brother by saying that he could never become heir. But when he did become the heir, Jagi became very pissed off at his brother. He attacked him in an attempt to kill him, but Kenshiro gained the upper hand, and fatally wounded him, leaving his head and face horribly disfigured. It was a failed attempt to make his head explode, leaving it only halfway there. Because Kenshiro spared his life, Jagi grew insane with rage and hatred, and eventually becomes the antagonist of the 2nd story arc. To hide his ugly mug, he wears a mask similar to the Mortal Kombat ninjas. Also, he gives Kenshiro a bad name by terrorizing villages, kidnapping their women and raping them, and other vile and despicable doings. After a long, heated battle with Kenshiro, he is killed when Kenshiro hits a pressure point, restarting the process which caused his head to explode. Before he dies, he reveals that he was the one who manipulated Shin into abducting Yuria, and that Kenshiro's two other brothers are still alive.

Toki: The lead figure in the Village of Miracles, Toki is the 3rd Hokuto brother. Raised alongside Kenshiro, Jagi, and his biological brother Raoh, he was trained in the assassination arts much like his brothers. However, he does not wish to use Hokuto Shinken to kill, but rather to heal. It is his dream to use Hokuto Shinken for healing purposes, to discover cures for the seemingly uncurable diseases. After Kenshiro was chosen, he began his own journey to fulfill his dream. He stumbles upon the Place of Beginning, which was plagued with poverty, cruelty, and disease. He began his work there, and the villagers were very thankful for his efforts. The villagers eventually began to see him as a messiah-like figure (he even LOOKS like Jesus, beard and all), and pronounced him as the Lord of the village. After the nuclear holocaust, however, he contracts radiation poisoning, and, after being found by Kenshiro, joins his group. In the end, however, he is killed by his brother Raoh in defense of Kenshiro. It should be noted that, before he had been exposed to the fatal level of fallout, he was to be chosen as Hokuto Shinken's heir, as Ryuken knew that Toki would use it to help all of mankind.

Raoh: The main antagonist of the series, Raoh is statistically the most powerful and the eldest of all the Hokuto brothers, with Kenshiro being the youngest. When he and his biological brother Toki were both very young, Ryuken challenged them to climb a waterfall on their own. Toki came close to the top, but began to falter. Raoh grabbed Toki as he fell, and carried him all the way to the top. As Ryuken reached his hand out to grab them, Raoh, with tears in his eyes, declared that he would only come up if Ryuken would accept them both as the winner. On that day, Raoh swore that he would never cry again, and that he would forever strive to be the strongest in the world. After Kenshiro is chosen as the heir to the throne, Raoh breaks tradition by continuing to use the fighting style. Due to his ferocity, he becomes an emperor among many lands, giving himself the title of "Ken-Oh", or "King of the Fist". He is seen as an ambitious tyrant by many, but in reality he is seen as a benevolent dictator figure similar to Adolf Hitler, except he does not seek to destroy, only conquer. When he confronts Ryuken later, Ryuken is disease ridden. He challenges Ryuken, and is close to being beaten, when Ryuken finally succumbs to not only his disease, but also the wounds inflicted upon him by Raoh. In essence, it was not a legitimate victory. In the final arc of the series, it is discovered that Yuria is alive, and Raoh took her in since she was also poisoned by the radiation of the holocaust. When Yuria admitted she was sick, she asked Raoh to kill her, but he hesitated, admitting that he, too, loved her. Instead, he put her into a comatose state. Kenshiro later arrives, and challenges Raoh. Raoh admits that he was also jealous of Kenshiro's succession, and accepts. The result is one of the most epic battles in anime history.