Grappler Baki

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Ah, Baki, where to start where to start
At surface level, Baki seems like a stereotypical shounen, about a boy training to become the worlds strongest and face it all head on, and technically that's not a wrong synopsis.
So what separates Baki from other shounen anime? Well, the creator, Keisuke Itagaki, did his homework to say the least, having military experience and a degree in Shorinji Kenpo, he didn’t need to rely on things like ‘increasing power level/chakra/ki’, and instead gave a mixture of fantasy martial arts and real ones taken to the next level, all having basis in the principles and applied knowledge ... (Physics, anatomy, slight psychological elements, etc) that tend to make up actual martial arts.
As a result, pretty much all of the fight scenes are incredibly detailed and well written, the reader will know exactly what it happening and how, which adds a huge layer of excitement to the many fight scenes in the series. Instead of just blood flying everywhere as characters are slashed and blasted, Grappler Baki makes sure to let the reader know what got hit and why it’s important, giving the reader an idea of how this will impact the fight as well as the fighter, which provides a suspense that can’t be found in most other action anime/manga
This dedication to martial arts not only makes up the combat of Baki, but a lot of the story and especially the characters. In modern martial arts, it’s believed that not only the style is important, but the way each unique individual utilizes it is more. A fighting style tends to be forged by experience and personality, and the series captures this perfectly.
It’s not at all uncommon for flashbacks to be shown mid-fight, showing us how these fighters came to be who they are, the struggles they faced, and how their fighting styles were basically forged by said struggles. Be it the young man who fearlessly took up responsibility after his father’s death in order to be a pillar of strength for his ill mother, the boxer whose warrior spirit was brought out by his heritage and his desire to protect his little sister, the wrestler who went from someone who genuinely loved the sport to rather fame obsessed and self-indulgent.
The thing is, these backstories, regardless of the character, tend to be pretty sympathetic and actually realistic. There were plenty of boxers who used it as a way to survive the crime ridden neighborhoods, and get themselves and their families out of the slums. There are plenty of fighters in general who lost sight of their passion when they let fame get to their head.
To top it off, a lot of these backstories tend to have themes that honestly wouldn’t be expected of a shounen. This especially shows with Baki’s mother, whose story is pretty much a cautionary tale of how a submissive woman having an abusive relationship with a charismatic devil of a man can turn her into just as much of a monster as he is due to her sheer desire for his approval
To get to the titular character himself, he’s a very interesting case of character development. Notably, the series is just as much about Baki’s growth as a person as it is about his growth as a martial artist. It’s revealed rather early on in the manga, Baki was quite literally born to fight. His father Yujiro, the strongest creature on earth, essentially had a child with the intent of making and eventually breaking a warrior that would give him a satisfying fight. The first saga, the champion saga, is merely an introduction for this world of fighters, however, next up is the prequel saga, ‘the child saga’, in which we start to see who Baki is. The young Baki, age 13, is rather hotheaded and impulsive, fighting is pretty much all on his mind. This mindset goes to the point where he goes out of his way to pick fights with gangsters, boxers, and even wild beasts. Starting with that arc, we start to see Baki slowly learn to control his fighting instinct, and after a certain event happens, he ends up developing in ridiculous ways and beginning to see the bigger picture of life.
Finally, what many view as the downside of the Baki series, the art style. Even if you like Baki’s art style, you clearly see why it turns so many people away. As said before, Baki is rather heavy on the detail in pretty much everything it does, this includes the human facial and bodily features, and it has no problem showing the ugly to it. The physiques of the fighters are that of fighters, not male models. There tends to be things like veins bulging from muscles, horrendous scars, no one is that handsome after being constantly socked in the face. Honestly, the ‘ugly’ art style tends to work in the manga’s favor, except when it starts to exaggerate certain features, often the limbs seem to bend in ways they shouldn’t, similar to early JoJo, and, at times, there are clear exaggerated bends and curves that can raise eyebrows. If you don’t mind characters who aren’t sights for sore eyes and can handle the exaggeration, then the art style is both extremely fitting and an interesting change of pace in my opinion.
All in all, as said, Baki, at surface, is your stereotypical shounen, as you start to read it, you realize it’s one of the manliest series ever written, but as you read on and go further and further into the series, you realize something else. An attention to detail that truly makes the series. In the long run, Baki doesn’t just focus on the why and the what, it also focuses on the how. In fight scenes, it focuses on how the action and the injury effects the fight. In the story, it’s a huge aspect to the characters, we not only see how Baki’s experiences and relationships come to start forging him as a person, we see how the people who make up those experiences and relationships came to be who they were up until that point, and we see how their experiences and affiliation with Baki effects them as people.
The final result of this, especially when combining all four series so far, you get the story of Baki’s transition from boy to man to master, seeing how the world impacted him and seeing how he impacted it back, full of some of the best action scenes you will ever see, each fight getting you more and more hyped up as you wonder where it’s gonna go next.

Grappler Baki is a long-running action, martial arts manga, written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki.

Grappler Baki is a massive manga, having over 130 volumes and is still publishing to this day, the series is currently divided into 5 parts: Grappler Baki (1), New Grappler Baki (2), Hanma Baki Son of Ogre (3), Baki Dou Part 1 (4) and Baki Dou Part 2 (5).

The core focus of Grappler Baki is fighting and fighting only, to quote Super Eye Patch Wolf “Baki is a series for fighting, for fighting sake.”
Realism? It does not exist in Baki, what you get out of Baki is high amounts ... of entertainment, massive amounts of hype, and some insane fights.

Set in Japan, we follow the journey of Baki Hanma, a 17-year-old boy of inconceivable strength, fighting prowess, and potential, the champion of the Underground Arena within Tokyo, an illegal fighting arena, a place where anything goes and has a high chance of death. Baki strives to become the strongest fighter in the world, wowing that he will one day surpass and defeat his father, the invincible Yujiro Hanma. A man so strong, that can seemingly crush and kill any person or creature, thus being given the epithet “The Strongest Creature on Earth”. Just a small demonstration of his strength allows him to quiet literally stop a natural disaster such as an earthquake with a single punch.

The series begins with an introductory arc on Baki, where we view his strength as he fights different martial artists within the Underground Arena. The following 2nd arc takes a Berserk Golden Age approach, chronologically being the 1st arc within the story, showing a much younger, 13-year old Baki pushing himself in various degrees, giving the reader an outlook on the harsh life he lives to achieve the strength he gains as a 17-year old. The 3rd and final arc within the 1st part of the Baki Franchise being the Maximum Tournament arc, a humongous tournament with over 30 battles of fighters trying to prove their strength.

The highlight of Grappler Baki are the fights. It is the main reason why you read the series, the various number of fights can go from good-great to amazing.
Why are the fights great?

First and foremost, the author has great paneling skills, when a fight happens you will receive various shots of the character’s physically intimidating frame to establish an atmosphere. The fights are expertly choreographed because of the author's ingenious if sometimes exaggerated, drawing style of expressing movement. Itagaki is not scared to sacrifice page space, as he will put very small details within his pages: like the startup, launch, and ending impact of techniques.

Also showing various close-ups and facial expressions of the characters battles, showing power and weight within the blows, crazy fighter physiques, superhuman feats in abundance, double-page spread pages of exchanging blows, blood in high quality, teeth flying around, it is all here in Grappler Baki. When someone gets punched in the gut by a powerful fighter like Hanayama. The author makes sure to show you the damage in large amounts and detail, more than the average battle manga would.

In terms of art quality, early Baki is much more inferior in terms of detail and style compared to Itagaki's later work. The first hundred chapters look slightly above average, while later on the detail in the art improves and the last hundred chapters end up looking amazing. Rich detail and noticeable improvement if you compare chapter 1 to the chapters within the three hundred mark.

Baki does not have that deepest story, it does not contain any overarching plot mechanics and most of the character development is only focused on the main character. However, it is a series with a lot of passion and heart put within. The characters love to fight, they are extremely passionate, entertaining, and decently designed. You have various numbers of fighting styles and techniques being showcased within the series. The author also has a good idea of how the power scaling within his series should be and is able to write out pretty consistent fights.

The series is ridiculous and ultimately does not have any amazing storytelling. If you wish to read a simple hype manga, full of fights and receive large amounts of entertainment, Grappler Baki is a great manga just for you. I am giving the 1st part of the Baki franchise a 9/10.

Baki is not really defined by having a great narrative structure, as the arcs are almost separate from each other, save a few characters and overarching plot that crawls bit by bit. Its most defining features, in my opinion, are in its dedication to the battle manga ethos and the mastery of this by Keisuke Itagaki. The fight scenes are well drawn and the mangaka's understanding of body mechanics clearly lends itself to the quality. The characters *generally* serve the plot or the main character, so if you are not interested in Baki's character and his version of the hero's journey, this may not be ... for you. Personally, I would not call this a story you read in binge-sittings, but rather a story that you read a couple chapters per day to see what Baki is up to. A very fun read, although to be honest I lost interest and moved on about halfway through the manga; its narrative structure began to be too repetitive for me, but you get what you pay for with battle shounen

I'm a good target for this since the author is heavy on k1 and combat sports as me, but even so this is not that good. I feel his love for it and that passion, but the execution is too farfetched. Always in a really narrow line between being based on realistic fights but also on absolute fantasy as if they were superheroes.

Who I find believable and somewhat rooted on the personality of some women is Baki's mother, usually portrayed as one of the worst manga mothers. And yeah the main motive for it it's her sex drive and animal instincts that the ones that ... are like that are notchs above almost any man, Yuujiro is more important for her than her son who is just what keeps her in contact with Yuujiro. And without spoiling anything for her to gain Yuujiro again she needs that Yuujiro feels proud of Baki's strenght so she would do anything she could to regain that ultimate man, more manly and agressive than anyone, don't know if this term exist but yeah a "thug digger" that usualy ends thrown stabbed in a road after upgrading 4 boyfriends each one crazier than the previous one because of loving that feeling of being the woman with the ultimate motherfucker around.

Sometimes Baki it's fun because of being so hyped up but at other times it just doesn't feel engaging. I would not recomend it since if you don't even are into these things I don't see what could be the appeal of almost 42 volumes that 40 could be fights. Only recomended as I said before if you really like fighting things or if you find really worth an anime / manga just for the sake of having strong man or love those chad alpha sigma homoerotic memes for betas ;P hahaha

I like many of those GAR mangas and could be one of my top genres but not just because Guts is such a MAN, what a chad, pff..

I really recomend Shamo that could be similar in some thing to Grappler Baki and that it's only problem is its TERRIBLE ending, everything else is great.

Like I've mentioned many times before I really don't like doing a review until the series is finished(this one is), but this is one of the very few exceptions, mainly the scanners are for some reason way behind in the original series but have most of the others finished, lol.

I really do like this manga it is one of the many I would recommend to old and new alike. But the one main thing that nags at me the entire time I was reading it is that Baki is an arrogant asshole. Now i would like to mention that as of now(11/03/17) only 197 chapters ... have been fully translated and uploaded so i would say about 70% of the "read" people are lying, the other 30% either have a better "group" then me or can read japanese.

Again my reader has a very weird arrangement of the manga which i'm gonna assume was the original way it was published to give the readers a refresher over a couple of years period that the series ran.

Worth the read i'm serious when i say time flew as i was reading chapter after chapter. The story is engrossing if a bit "normal" shonen fight series. Worth multiple reads, based off how fast i was reading it, if it ever finishes.

~SPOILERS~

Baki fights his dad and loses and his dad kills his mom this would be bad normally but his mom is some slut who gets wet off of death and blood, which this series is fucking filled with gore(thank god older manga is so good) and some nudity full frontal[Baki's mom only though :-(]. Then we see Baki travel fighting all sorts of bad asses and win, he then reaches someone who may at one time might have been strong but never shows it(powerful in influence, name, money, and political) then it shows Baki fighting some people in the arena, no rules except no weapons, and becomes the champ. We then are transported to the past about 2-3 years when he's 13 and Baki's rise through the ranks of the world, that's right Baki is the rich spoiled brat of an extremely wealthy whore. Though there is a pang of sympathy when we find out he was born to fight his dad and that's it, only to satisfy this sick fuck who gets even harder off death then his booty call.

Then it goes back to the first chapter fighting his dad with everyone's whose ass he kicked and somehow befriended them even though we never see this at anytime, unless you want to say visiting the guy you put in the hospital and smiling at him while he lost half his teeth and is wrapped in a huge amount of casts smiles back, a friendship, and now we're in a new competition in the underground arena to see who's really the best.

°English Version°

After so much time I finished Grappler Baki by Keisuke Itagaki and it effectively becomes one of my favorite works by now. A manga full of incredible moments, completely exaggerated and surreal. But besides that, a frantic madness that does not stop.

The story also engages very quickly, especially when they tell us the most pre-adolescent part of Baki, with the theme of his mother and showing him that he is also as strong as his father. The hardest moments for him take place here and that greatly improves the work later on.

The tournament arc is excellent on its own, one of the best tournaments ... I've seen. Also adding and bringing back so many characters makes it even better.
Jack, Retsu, Katsumi, Hanayama, Shibukawa, are some of those excellent fighters who are now joining the group.

Baki is an excellent protagonist and his development suits the story very well. Everything that happens to him in his life has his weight and, above all, Baki is basically an excellent person who avoids, unlike his father, being too lethal when it comes to fighting.

But the crown goes to HIM, Yujiro Hanma. The weight that this guy has in the story is incredible, no matter what is happening, when he shows up everyone focuses on him and what is happening loses importance. Not ironically the best antagonist I've seen in an anime/manga.

Now it's time to start New Grappler Baki with the whole arc of the prisoners, which was what made me start this series in general.
This manga does not disappoint and only gets better.
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°Versión en español°

Después de tanto tiempo me termine Grappler Baki de Keisuke Itagaki y efectivamente se convierte por ahora en una de mis obras favoritas. Un manga lleno de momentos increíbles, completamente exagerados y surrealistas. Pero además de eso, una locura frenética que no para.

La historia también engancha muy rápido, sobre todo cuando nos cuentan la parte más preadolescente de Baki, con el tema de su madre y el demostrarle que el también es tan fuerte como su padre. Los momentos más duros para él se dan acá y eso mejora muchísimo la obra más adelante.

El arco del torneo es excelente por sí solo, uno de los mejores torneos que vi. El hecho también de agregar y traer otra vez a tantos personajes lo hace aún mejor.
Jack, Retsu, Katsumi, Hanayama, Shibukawa, son algunos de esos excelentes luchadores que ahora se suman al grupo.

Baki es un protagonista excelente y su desarrollo se adaptan muy bien a la historia. Todo lo que le va pasando en su vida tiene su peso y, por sobre todo, Baki es en el fondo una excelente persona que evita, a diferencia de su padre, ser demasiado letal a la hora de luchar.

Pero la corona se la lleva EL, Yujiro Hanma. El peso que tiene este tipo en la historia es increíble, no importa lo que esté pasando, cuando aparece todos se centran en él y lo que esté pasando pierde importancia. No irónicamente, el mejor antagonista que vi en un anime/manga.

Ahora toca empezar New Grappler Baki con todo el arco de los presos, que fue lo que me hizo empezar esta saga en general.
Este manga no defrauda y solo mejora.

Grappler Baki is a simple and straightforward story about becoming the strongest man in the world, make great largely by its brilliant execution that makes it the giant that it is today.

To start with, I believe that Baki series as a whole is one of those shows where your experience is far better now that you can binge-read it rather than waiting for the next weekly or monthly for chapter. I know the same can be said to other series too, but Baki is different because the pages can be filled with tons of fight choreography and very little dialogue, making your reading-time a lot ... shorter than your average manga. This, along with some other things, is what really becomes grating when you wait for the newer, still ongoing Baki sequels like Baki-dou (2018).

The fights are, from start to end, both well told and well choreograph in a way that manage to immerse you so much that, at least for just a moment, you might actually believe anything they said is true and possible.

The characters are iconic, each with their fighting style and batshit insane backstory that still manage to make you grin and laugh over how ridiculously over the top they are even 20 years after it's written.

Of course, things are rarely all sunshine and rainbow. The Baki series, especially later on has these little quirks that can annoy you at times. For example, falsely hyping up characters for chapters after chapters only to beat them in one or two panel, and a long and repetitive narrations that interrupt the flow of a fight without adding much of anything to its nonexistent plot.

It's also worth mention that this is the first of the Baki series, so the art can be seen as less refined when compared to the later Baki. While some people can see it as a plus. either to see the artist growing or preferring the older art style, others might see the art as amateurish and ugly. Also the head feels too big in the earlier chapters, especially for the bigger guys.

Overall, it's pretty excellent. Just keep in mind that Baki is a manga purely about fighting and you shouldn't expect first-class Shakespearian story inside of it.

Grappler Baki is the first serialization of the Baki series, an absurdist martial arts manga that's still going on today. I started the Baki series with the Netflix adaptation of the next serialization, so I decided to read this for more context (Although context is only somewhat helpful when it comes to this series). While it is heavily flawed, I did very much enjoy it.

The setup is very basic for the most part. Baki Hanma is a 15 year old who wants to beat his dad Yujiro Hanma, who is the strongest creature in the series. I have no issues with a basic setup, but ... Grappler Baki fumbles a bit with a Golden Age-Esque setup where it starts with Baki as a 15 year old, cuts to him 2 years ago for about half the series, then cuts back to Baki at 15. The series would've worked much better if it was chronological, but I assume the creator wasn't thinking ahead because in terms of actual plot, it's pretty non-existent. Like I said, not an issue for me as long as it's entertaining, and, well...

Grappler Baki is a bit more straightforward than its sequels. It's certainly absurd, but not to the extent of something like 'Hanma Baki'. Like sure, Baki fights a Big Monke, haha funny. But something strange happened. Baki and the Big Monke had a bonding moment after their battle, and I... Got emotional? I've been reading Vagabond, one of the most acclaimed Manga of all time, and I haven't really gotten emotional. Don't get me wrong it's good, but I rarely feel anything while reading it. But when Baki and the Big Monke became buddies after their fight, I was genuinely happy despite how stupid it was. I can explain why I usually enjoy the series: Great art and absurdity, but Grappler Baki rarely has those, yet I still enjoy it.

The characters, for the most part, are extremely shallow, but they can be fun. Yujiro Hanma is undoubtedly the best character. He's better in later parts, but he's still really entertaining here. Baki is alright, but most of the value of his character is just seeing him progress as a fighter, and even that seems uneven in times. I think Tokugawa is funny, Retsu and Doppo are cool I guess, Emi is kind of interesting, etc... There's a lot of characters who only show up once and very little after, many of which have little personality, but the best characters are usually the ones who show up the most.

The art starts off pretty basic, and the composition can be really confusing. However, as the series continues, the art gets better and better. Near the end, I can say it's illustrated well, with great posing, style, and indication of movement.

I enjoy Grappler Baki, but most probably won't. Try it out though. I haven't watched the anime and can't even make a guess on how it handles the story.

"It's alright"

A simple test for me is did I finish a manga, and in Baki's case I definitely did, and enjoyed much of the final arc, which is something I can't say about enough manga. Baki is an enjoyable ride as long as you're will to get on and ignore some rather big issues.

Grappler Baki is a very polished martial arts manga, which combines a variety of different disciplines and creates a tournament... Well it does that eventually.

The thing is, Grappler Baki is all about the fights, and it's a polished gem in that way where it's so focused on ... the fight, that it has removed important other parts of the story. In fact it's removed the story.

What does Baki want? To become strong? Why? To beat his father. How does he do this? Training various forms of fighting. Do we see this training? A single page each, and most of the time not even that.

The first arc in the book just seems to focus on Grappler Baki fighting a lot, and that's really what the rest of the manga is. The reader is just thrown in Baki's life in the ring, and in fact you don't even know why he's fighting for a decent chunk of the book. Then more fights happen. Then there's a flashback and more fights happen.. and then a major fight happens, and then a tournament kicks off... But the thing is none of this is connect. The only truely important fight to Baki is the major fight in the middle, and the final fight, and even then.. the final fight is only important because of an asspull of a reveal, that then takes 7 chapters to set up of completely new information that makes it plausable.

In fact there's a lot of times that the author just pulls out a new technique because he needs the characters to get stronger. Baki doesn't really have a defined fighting style, which is probably intentional so that the author can change what he needs to do on a scene by scene basis. But he just seems to grab random abilities or powers that work. And to be clear, I have mentioned training montages. But often times he's fighting multiple fights between training sessions, and even when he's in a major tournament, the abilities he shows in the final battle aren't even hinted at in the first. He just keeps gaining new abilities.

There's no foreshadowing here, there's no development of the world. There's just epic fights, and while the fight are really good, in fact excellent in the most case, it still feels like there's somethng important missing. Even the ending, feels a touch unsatisfying for a specific reason that would be a spoiler.

Yet this isn't a bad thing necessarily. If you enjoy over powered monsters of men, muscular architecture in each character's body, and so much testotorone this is exactly what you want. Think of a version of Dragonball Z where every character "powers up" at the right moment, only remove the magical elements and focus on just raw martial arts, and Baki is exactly that in a lot of way.

But at the same time, this is JUST a testatorone laden machismo that focuses on the fights more than anything, and actually the biggest issue is when it doesn't. There's a story about a girl who likes Baki... and it really doesn't go anywhere or do anything. There's Baki's father, which is the driving force of Baki's desire but.. he also doesn't really do much half of the times he shows up. He doesn't have a strong purpose in the finale for instance.

So ultiamtely, that's the thing. If you just want extremely well drawn and designed fights with various martial arts, which does sometimes feel like it's just making up new techniques over and over so the battle can go back and forth, Grappler Baki is excellent. If you want a well designed story or world, and a focus on a character who constantly grows more powerful, I would not recomment Grappler Baki to you.

For me.. "It was alright"

Baki simultaneously has the dumbest writing ever and yet one the most compelling stories.

Pretty much any character that gets introduced (expect for Yujiro) eventually jobs, dies or just completely fades to the background for long stretches of chapters, making it so that when they show up again you have zero clue who the hell that even is because in the span of their dissapearance like 5 other guys with absolute batshit insane backstories show up.

It's also one that's simultaneously ugly yet also beautiful. I especially loved how the hair was drawn later on. There is so much detail on a page that seems so simple ... at first glance. From the muscles to the veins, the eyebrows, and best of all (I find) are how the mouths change and contort depending on the character's emotions and mental state.

Yujiro is an absolute monster in the worst way possible and the more you read the more you get legitimately intimidated by this absolute creature of a man. Due to this being the first part in a loooooooooooooooooooong and old series you don't even get to know just HOW and WHY this man is so powerful and the sheer embodiment of lust for battle.

There are so many negatives I found such as the pacing, weak/samey personalities, sudden twists that are more confusing than engaging, a lot of sexism and a even MORE amount of jobbing. Yet most of these qualities I found myself not caring about much because I constantly went "what the fuck" in the best way possible.

It starts off a bit weak and normal, but by the time Yujiro is introduced you'll understand why.

Grappler Baki

The first part of an extremely long manga series that cost me a lot of time. To be honest, the manga itself wavers between hate and love until the current Baki-Dou part.

The manga always manages to create completely bizarre fights in which you have to rearrange the power of the characters again and again according to fluctuating proportions, especially later it becomes extremely difficult to determine who is above whom in the food chain.

In any case, the author loves to bring bizarre visualizations of strength, training, and explanations into the manga. I have always found this aspect very appealing and at the same time ... daunting.

In the realm of the plot, Baki owns absolutely nothing. The story only revolves around Baki's growth and how he wants to face his father and what he needs to do so. On the way, he fights against a wide variety of opponents, learns a number of techniques, and is defeated or wins. And so it goes until the finale of the third Baki Manga when he finally gets the duel of his life.

When it comes to characters, there is only one thing you can say about Baki. They are dull and clichéd, all of them. However, it's the positive nature of it, they are still interesting despite everything and give the shounen setting a certain charm through their charisma.

The representation of the fights in the first manga is poor and the author develops tremendously in the visual presentation. Until then, you have to get used to fluctuating chapters at the beginning.


Long story short, he is always interested in material arts and bizarre battles full of brutality will find his love here. Baki is one of my favorites when it comes to this genre. Unfortunately, he is quite mediocre in terms of turnover. You should get an idea of ​​this for yourself. In the worst case, you can skip the first manga and read a short synopsis. The other manga has a lot more dynamic in battles.


Enjoyment -6
Overall -5