Baki the Grappler


Grappler Baki, known as Baki the Grappler in North America, is a manga series written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1991 to 1999 and collected into 42 tankōbon volumes by Akita Shoten. The story follows teenager Baki Hanma as he trains and tests his fighting skills against a variety of different opponents in deadly, no rules hand-to-hand combat.
The series was followed by three sequels in the same magazine; Baki, which was serialized from 1999 to 2005 and collected into 31 volumes, Baki Hanma, which was serialized from 2005 to 2012 and collected into 37 volumes, and Baki-Dou, which was serialized from 2014 to 2018 and collected into 22 volumes. A fifth series, also named Baki Dou but with Baki's name written in katakana instead of kanji, began on October 4, 2018.
A 45-minute original video animation was released in 1994. A 24-episode anime aired on TV Tokyo between January 8 and June 25, 2001, and was quickly followed by a second 24-episode series from July 22 to December 24, 2001. An Original net animation was released on Netflix between June 25 and September 24, 2018, followed by a second season that was released on June 4, 2020. The OVA was the first to be licensed and released in North America, in 1998 by Central Park Media, followed by the original manga series in 2002 by Gutsoon! Entertainment, and finally both anime series in 2005 by Funimation Entertainment. Media Do International began releasing the second manga series digitally in August 2018. As of 2018, the first four Baki series had over 75 million copies in circulation.

Plot

Baki Hanma is raised by his wealthy mother, Emi Akezawa, who also funds his training in the hopes that he can be a powerful warrior like his father, Yujiro Hanma. Around the start of the series, Baki outgrows traditional training and heads out to follow the path of his ruthless father's training and meets many powerful fighters along the way. Eventually, Baki fights his father and is beaten without a challenge.
After being beaten, Baki travels around the world continuing his training. Years down the road he finds an underground fighting arena where he fights some of the most powerful fighters of various styles of martial arts. It is here he truly begins to hone his martial arts skills.

Media

Manga

Main series

A 45-minutes original video animation was released in 1994. The story is a close adaptation of the first few volumes of the original manga, adapting the Karate Tournament arc and Baki's fight with Shinogi Koushou, later adapted in the episode 18 of the Baki the Grappler TV series. It was licensed and released under the title Grappler Baki: The Ultimate Fighter in North America by Central Park Media on VHS on December 1, 1996 and on DVD on December 1, 1998. Manga Entertainment later released it in Australia and the United Kingdom.
A 15-minutes original animation DVD, referred to as, was included with the limited edition of the 14th volume of Baki-Dou on December 6, 2016. However, it adapts the arc of the same name from the second manga series, which is titled simply Baki. Created by Telecom Animation Film, it was directed by Teiichi Takiguchi and focuses on five inmates who break out of prison from around the world and travel to Japan.

Anime series

A 24-episode anime series aired on TV Tokyo between January 8, 2001 and June 25, 2001. It faithfully follows the original manga series, but changes the order of arcs, and does not adapt some of the chapters adapted in the preceding OVA. Notably, the anime was produced by Free-Will, a music record label. A second 24-episode series, titled as it tells the story from that part of the manga, aired from July 23, 2001 to December 24, 2001. All of the series' music was written and composed by "Project Baki", and all the theme songs performed by Ryōko Aoyagi. The first anime's opening theme is "Ai Believe", while its closing theme is "Reborn". For the second series, "All Alone" is used as the opening and "Loved..." as the closing. Baki the Grappler: Original Soundtrack was released on March 27, 2003.
Both series were licensed for a North American English release by Funimation Entertainment. They released both series as one on 12 DVDs, each with four episodes, beginning on June 14, 2005 with the last released on February 27, 2007. Two box sets were released on January 23, 2007 and March 25, 2008, the first included volumes 1-6, while the second included 7-12. A set including every episode was released on September 2, 2008.
Funimation's English version was one of the launch-shows on their own television channel, Funimation Channel, which debuted on June 19, 2006. Baki was broadcast on weekends at 11:30pm, switching to the 10:00pm slot on September 4, 2006. Dubbed in English, the episodes were edited for time but do not appear to have been edited for content. The opening theme is the song "Child Prey" by Japanese metal band Dir en grey, who is signed to Free-Will.
In December 2016, it was announced that the "Most Evil Death Row Convicts" arc of the second manga series would be receiving an anime television adaptation. Titled Baki, like the second manga series, the 26 episode series is directed by Toshiki Hirano at TMS Entertainment with character designs handled by Fujio Suzuki and scripts overseen by Tatsuhiko Urahata. It began streaming on Netflix on June 25, 2018 in Japan, and started streaming on December 18, 2018 outside Japan. The series then started airing on several Japanese television channels beginning with Tokyo MX1 on July 1. Its opening theme song is "Beastful" by Granrodeo and its ending theme "Resolve" is performed by Azusa Tadokoro with lyrics by Miho Karasawa.
Netflix renewed the series for a second season on March 19, 2019. On March 5, 2020, it was announced that the main staff TMS Entertainment would be returning to produce the second season with the addition of a new character designer and art director. The 13 episode second season was released exclusively on Netflix on June 4, 2020. Its opening theme song is performed by Granrodeo and its ending theme is performed by Ena Fujita.

Video games

There have been a few video games based on the series. A fighting game developed by Tomy was released for the PlayStation 2 as in Japan in 2000 and as Fighting Fury in the United Kingdom during 2003.

Reception

As of 2018, the first four Baki series had over 75 million collected volumes in circulation. The Baki Gaiden: Scarface spin-off series had 3.5 million copies in print as of February 2019.
Allen Divers and Jason Thompson, both writing for Anime News Network, briefly described the series as "very compelling" and a "demented fighting manga", respectively.
Anime News Network had four different writers review the first volume of the second manga series. Faye Hopper scored it the highest, four out of five, and wrote that she was captivated the entire read with its appeal lying in "its absurdity held up by its absolutely incredible artistry." Amy McNulty gave it a 2.5 rating and also praised Itagaki's art, but felt the character designs were not particularly memorable. She also wrote that the volume "succeeds in identifying the stakes, but it completely fails in anchoring the reader with characters to care about." Rebecca Silverman and Teresa Navarro both gave it a 2 and noted its status as a "set-up book," with each new character introduced in the same manner. Both Hopper and Silverman said that Baki reminded them of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Reviewing the first 24 episodes of the 2001 anime, Mark Thomas of Mania Entertainment gave it a B− rating, stating that fans of shōnen and fight series would enjoy it, but others should look elsewhere. He felt it had plenty of good, realistic fight scenes, but fell short on the story. Explaining that despite a lot of story arcs, it ultimately feels like a setup for the second season. Thomas gave the same rating to the final 24 episodes, and "mildly recommended" the series. While he started to enjoy this set more thanks to its more action focus, he stated that not showing Baki's final fight with Yujiro, which was built up the entire show, really ruined it for him.
The 2012 comedy film Graffreeter Toki is based on the March 2011 play of the same name, which in turn was inspired by Grappler Baki.