Kenshiro is a laid back and chain-smoking Tokyo professor who is secretly the successor of the deadly Chinese assassin martial art Hokuto Shinken.

At the same time he helps Pan's Qīng Bāng triad against their rivals, the immoral Hóng Huá Huì, in gaining territory and influence in Shanghai.

Many of the plot points mentioned in the comic contain real historical facts, such as how Shanghai was controlled by the foreign concessions (the story focus mainly on the French settlement) during the 1930s.

Tetsuo Hara wanted the fights in the manga to look more like traditional Chinese martial arts, so the action is somewhat faster and more detailed than those in Fist of the North Star.

Illustrated by Tetsuo Hara with supervision from Buronson, Fist of the Blue Sky was serialized in Weekly Comic Bunch throughout the magazine's entire history.

An English version of Fist of the Blue Sky was serialized in the now-defunct manga anthology Raijin Comics published by Gutsoon!

[3][4] A weekly anime series based on Sōten no Ken aired on Japan's TV Asahi on Thursdays at 2:40am from October 4, 2006 to March 14, 2007.

The complete series has been released on DVD in Region 2 format by Universal Entertainment Japan, including unaired episodes and uncensored content.