Baoh Raihousha

An innocent young man, Ikuroo, has a parasite known as Baoh implanted in his brain by an evil organization, Doress. The parasite makes him nearly immortal and gives him the ability to transform into a really powerful beastie when he's in trouble.

Doress intends to use him in some sort of ploy for financial success, world domination, or something along those lines, but when they're transporting him on a train, a young psychic girl, Sumire (who's being held by the organization due to her abilities), sets him free and the two escape together.

Of course, Dr. Kasuminome is the mad scientist behind the whole Baoh thing, and he isn't about to let his test subject get away and he has considerable resources (including some superpowered lackeys, as well as a small army) at his disposal.

(Source: AnimeDB)

Hashizawa, Ikurou Main

Hori, Hideyuki Japanese

Sumire Main

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Dr. Kasuminome Main

Nagai, Ichiro Japanese

Walken Supporting

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

Dordo Supporting

Ikeda, Shuuichi Japanese

Sophine Supporting

Inoue, You Japanese

Matsuura, Noriyoshi Sound Director

Terada, Kenji Script

Machida, Yoshito Theme Song Performance

Araki, Hirohiko Original Creator

Reviews

Apr 6, 2024

Karrakanna

Recommended

A quick paced and simple story about an evil lab and a boy who was experimented on by unethical scientists. The animation is nice to look at and and the voice acting is good. Fun, pacey action scenes with lots of variety in abilities and powers, and there's some tension towards the middle and end. The look of Baoh as a creature is very interesting and the OVA doesn't shy away from gore or extreme violence. There's nothing particularly remarkable about this OVA by itself- it's a fairly standard 80s OVA- but of course the context of its creator is what makes it notable.

Baoh is ... almost more interesting as an artefact than it is as entertainment. You can see the beginnings of the style and flair which would go into Jojo, but it's still underdeveloped. Additionally, the story has been trimmed down and shorn of some plot elements in order to fit into the runtime and structure of an OVA. This makes it feel a little rushed and shallow. The characters are compelling enough, but are missing the development which was present in the manga (and there wasn't much there, either). The protagonist is astonishingly dull- he's a nice young man burdened by this great power, but he doesn't seem to feel any particular way about his horrifying transformations, nor about the deaths of his parents and his new status. What is he now? Is he going to die? He tends to go along with things as they happen to him, and is rather passive. It also just sort of... stops at the end, with a short eplogue. Nothing really feels like it mattered all that much.

Despite this I think there's enough good here to recommend Baoh. It's a fun watch and compelling enough if you can get around the ethnic stereotyping of native Americans in the second half. Watch out for dying dogs, as per with Araki.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 28, 2022

NoahRules

Mixed Feelings

TL;DR
only watch BAOH if you want an action-packed 80s anime with little focus on story/characters.

BAOH is one of Araki's first ever works and it shows. it's clear that Araki was still getting the hand of writing stories and characters but at the same time, you can tell Araki really knew how to make a good action scene, hell I'd say that some action scenes here are better than some in JoJo given how the action scenes in BAOH are a lot more fast-paced and flashy.

I'd recommend the anime over the manga, the anime does skip some scenes which would be a problem but like I ... said the story isn't really what you should be looking for in this anime.

Despite everything I've said I think BAOH has a good concept, sure the idea of the main character having a parasite that he can't fully control has been done before, but I'd like to see modern Araki try something with that concept, or Araki should let another author try and write a revival/continuation for BAOH, like what he did with Cool Shock Old B.T

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 16, 2024

FAKEANIMEGIRL

Not Recommended

(Check out my profile for a link to my site containing more up-to-date reviews and bonus media!)

Oh yeah. This. This is a thing I watched. What the fuck is it, right? It's actually a Hirohiko Araki adaptation of a manga before he wrote JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The OVA is about 45 minutes and the manga itself spans a multi-generational, genre-hopping, epic two volumes so I assume the OVA is full and faithful. With that in mind, we have reason to be disappointed here. There is little of the eccentric creativity or style to remind you of anything Araki. The only reason you'd have to expect ... he was involved is that dogs are beat and shot in the first five minutes.

In Baoh, a teenager after an accident is turned into a bio-weapon by a secret organization. Another captive of the organization, a little girl with psychic powers, inadvertently frees the guy as she tries to escape. It turns out a parasite inside of Ikurou gives him the ability to turn into a primal creature uncannily similar to Beast from X-Men that has super strength, sharp claws, and can generate electricity. Ikurou and Sumire escape together and are on the lam from the Doress organization, and soon have to take the fight to them.

Baoh is a barren story and setting. It feels like the foundation for something that should've grown more extravagant and detailed, like a pilot manga. Whether this was one or not, even the basic concept doesn't feel fresh. Transforming bio-weapon mutant is a cliche in and of itself, and Baoh's standard abilities never grow to anything beyond what they seem at a glance. The action scenes, of which there are many, lack the pieces necessary to make compelling set pieces or combat. Baoh dispatches all of his rivals with total ease and almost purely brute force, allowing for that B-movie kind of violent 90s OVA with a ton of exploding heads and gore. Even when it comes to being weird and unnecessarily violent, the appeal of a lot of these pulp OVAs, Baoh is fairly tame and the exploding head trick is about all it has to show. The antagonists have no goal other than to bury their Baoh experiment and use it to gain world influence, and certain characters having psychic abilities is never explained or related to the Baoh project in any way. This little girl has visions she can use to foresee events, and that's all there is to it. We know nothing about our heroes other than they don't want to be captured by Doress, which is completely expected.

Production values are fine. It looks better than your average series, but not by much. I noticed some reused head shots and still backgrounds which are the kind of thing I normally hope to not see in an OVA (or anywhere), but motion is fluid and I didn't spot any obvious low frame rates. Background music is a lot of that completely stock squeal "tense" ambiance and electro rock 'n roll when Baoh goes on the attack. In conclusion, I don't think there's any reason to recommend this. It doesn't conform to people's expectations of Araki, the violence isn't that extreme even if you're a "gorehound", and it doesn't have much of that camp appeal due to how straightforward and natural of a story it is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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