Baki-dou

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Baki's Path

Japanese: 刃牙道

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 22

Chapters: 198

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 20, 2014 to Apr 5, 2018

Genre: Action

Themes: Gore, Martial Arts

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Champion (Weekly)

Authors: Itagaki, Keisuke (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.63¹ (scored by 9,682 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2152²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1066

Members: 18,893

Favorites: 297

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Wikipedia

7.63

Ranked #2152Popularity #1066Members 18,893

MangaShounen Champion (Weekly)Itagaki, Keisuke (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /22

Chapters: /198

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Synopsis

Growing complacent with his title of "World's Strongest Boy," Baki Hanma spends his days in a haze of boredom. After finally settling the feud with his demonic father Yuujirou, Baki defends his title in the Kourakuen Underground Arena while stifling yawns brought about by the ease with which he defeats his challengers. Baki's friends and mentors also struggle with this new peaceful stasis, completing great feats of strength training with little enthusiasm.

Soon, Japan is shaken by the reveal of a long-gestating science experiment that results in the successful cloning of legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto. The famed warrior relishes in testing his strength against Baki and the other fighting icons of Tokyo, but he struggles to assimilate with the modern era. Miyamoto clings to his ancient ideals of honor and dueling to the death, a philosophy that clashes with the more tranquil present.

As the resurrected swordsman attempts to rise to the top of this unfamiliar society by cutting through Baki's friends, he finds himself on a collision course with the vengeful teenager. Baki embraces this rush of excitement and meets his new rival head-on.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Characters

Hanma, Baki

Main

Miyamoto, Musashi

Main

Hanma, Yuujirou

Supporting

Hanayama, Kaoru

Supporting

Hanma, Jack

Supporting

Ozma, Barack

Supporting

Kaiou, Retsu

Supporting

Orochi, Doppo

Supporting

Trump, Donald

Supporting

Orochi, Katsumi

Supporting

Reviews

Feb 13, 2025

Boozarda

Recommended

Once again Baki Delivers with a strong, and very cool entry.

Although I would agree that after Reading Baki: Son of ogre, this part of the series can be a bit far-fetched and/or slow, I still believe it delivers one of Baki's principles of never stop answering the most ridiculous fighting what-ifs in the coolest way possible.

In this entrance, a central part of the story is the revival of a legendary japanese samurai, and camparing him to modern day martial artists and swordsmen. So if you are into that, you will love it as much as any of the other parts of the manga.

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Jul 25, 2022

DeltaWDarko

Mixed Feelings

After the Masterpiece that was Hanma Baki, I decided to take a break from the series. This was mainly because aside from a certain subplot, Hanma Baki was really a perfect conclusion. I knew Baki-Dou would be fighting an uphill battle trying to justify a continuation.

Baki-Dou actually acknowledges this directly, as all of the characters are bored out of their minds despite doing some incredible training. Compared to that battle between Baki and Yujiro, the insanity of earlier parts of Baki has become dull.

So what's a better way to drum up interest than to clone Miyamoto Musashi with the help of scientists and Tokugawa's sister? ... Characteristically insane of the Baki series, but I think there were some issues. This Musashi storyline makes up the entirety of Baki-Dou (198 Chapters) and is really directionless. Most of the story is just Musashi fighting the extensive backlog of Baki characters. He loses against Yujiro and... Motobe. Yes, Motobe. I think having Motobe in the spotlight is interesting because Motobe, just like Musashi, uses weapons. However, Motobe's made a bit too overpowered here, considering he was a low ranker of the Maximum Tournament. He talks about how he's gonna protect the likes of Baki, Yujro, and Pickle. And somehow, he wins. But Musashi wasn't being serious or something so the story continues.

The conclusion is a fight against Baki and Musashi where Tokugawa's sister sucks Musashi's soul out of him, effectively killing him. Musashi is then put on ice indefinitely. For such a long saga, this was a bit anticlimactic. Nothing felt gained in this arc and it wasn't particularly fun either. I don't think one particular thing ruined this arc. It was a combination of its length, lack of rising tension, unimportance to the overall series, and other issues. There was one thing that I haven't talked about yet though: Retsu.

The subplot with Retsu was the only thing that wasn't really resolved in Hanma Baki. It seems others weren't huge on it, but I was excited to see the battle between Retsu and Usain Bolt. The thing is, the battle was mostly offscreen. After becoming the champion of the world, Retsu just quits. That's a bit anti-climactic. Then he goes to fight Musashi and DIES. Yes, the first major death since Emi. You'd think this would leave a massive impact, but it felt less resonant than Retsu losing his leg in the Pickle arc. Aside from removing a character, this death means nothing in the story.

Even the art wasn't quite as good as in Hanma Baki. Although I'd say the posing is stronger, it lacks a lot of the toning and volume that made it incredible. There's also a weird paneling choice that's used often where the same drawing will be repeated multiple times with no changes. Sometimes it seems to be used for comedic intent, but often it seems to be used for no reason. I also have to shout out Musashi's design. It's an incredible mix of bizarre and intimidating.

At the end of the day, I somewhat enjoyed Baki-Dou, but it has a lot of issues I can't overlook. It has many of the issues in the Inmates Arc, but it also has only one character and very little tension or commentary on fighting. Many Baki fans will enjoy it, but I wasn't impressed.

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Aug 29, 2019

Maleficent1996

Not Recommended

Having recently finished the third manga of the Baki series, I wasn't sure on what to expect from this one. What can possibly up Baki's journey through 3 manga parts, to finally fight his father, Yujiro? With hesitation, but excitement, I gave this a try.

Warning: Spoiler

~Story~ (3/10)

This story frustrated me beyond belief. It reminded me of this one 'popular' book, written by a famous author, which resulted me in almost throwing it across the bus that I was riding in. Guess what, this manga gave me the same feeling. The beginning of the story is great, for the most part. The only thing I found ... a bit off putting in the beginning, was how everyone, and I mean everyone, was bored out of their minds. These same characters and the past manga have made one thing clear: It doesn't matter who you fight, where, when, how or why, a fight can and will happen. Just accept it, because it's part of a fighter's life. Enjoy it while at it. Seeing Baki and the others so bored has taken this message and thrown it out of the window, but I didn't expect it to last for long. After all, Miyamoto Musashi was in the scene. The idea of cloning such a famous historical figure is something that I didn't mind rolling along with. I'm a history buff, and sometimes I like being served the idea of bringing in historical people into present day. They've done it with Pickle, and quite well, so what made this one different? The difference wasn't shown right off the bat. The story draws you in to sympathize and like this character. After all, he was now stuck in modern day. A time so different from his own (400 years!). Okay, some characters come, meet him (to try and make sure that what they heard was true) and pick a fight with him. Fine, what else do you expect from this franchise? But as you keep reading, it slowly dawns onto you how over powered they made Miyamoto. He could go toe-to-toe with Yujiro, of all people! Then one of the characters, a beloved one, ends up dead. Why? Because the arena raised the rule of 'no weapons allowed', because how could they not allow THE Miyamoto Musashi fight without a sword? Then you have a character going around, beating into everybody's heads that he's going to protect them from Miyamoto. He even said it to the famous swordsman himself, that he's going to protect him... from himself? What? Then this same swordsman is let loose onto the world, going around killing the police force, and so on and so forth. Are you still following me? Then let me tell you one important thing about this guy. This man has no honour. He will kill because he can, as nobody can stop him. He will even start to fight or attack those that ask him to stop. He will continue chopping and cutting at someone, even with their backs turned, having decided that the fight has ended. He looks at some of the characters, and sees riches and recognition. By the time you finish, you realize that Baki is barely in this story, and it's no longer a Baki story to begin with. It's Miyamoto, because he's now the 'hero' and everybody must bow down to his greatness.

~Art~ (9/10)

If you have read the first manga, you can see the great differences between it and this one. The art seems to continue to evolve over time, with great detail, love, time and care put into it. No matter how much this manga has disappointed me, I know that the one thing that will not disappoint me is the art style itself. The only small issue I find is that sometimes you find the same exact picture, drawn over and over again, 10X into two whole rows of panels. No change in feature expressions. No change in the background (if there is one to begin with). Nothing is different. What is the point behind it? The first two times it happened, I had to stop and study the drawings carefully. I tried to find even the smallest of differences, but there were none. I can't help but shake my head in confusion whenever I see them.

~Character~ (3/10)

The characters have gone to shit. No joke. There is no better way to describe them in any other way. One character is practically assassinated, while another is a crazy parrot going around repeating the same thing over and over, and Yujiro is made to look like a joke when two things happened. One, as I said before, Miyamoto is able to go toe-to-toe with him. What?! Two, that parrot guy even told him, THE Ogre, that he needs to be protected from Miyamoto and he will do it. Then there are the other characters. Everybody is so bored out of their minds that their unique personalities are no longer there. You can basically describe them as 'background characters', until they fight Miyamoto. They'll have their 15 minutes of fame (if not having died in the end), then they'll go back to the way they were before. There's no more motivation behind their training, if any training at all. They're too busy yawning in their corners, too lazy to get up and fight each other (why not at least for fun?), and even one said that he retired so no one should expect anything from him anymore. What?! Even Baki, the main character that we followed for so long, is a background character and thus subjected to all of this. At one point he said that he needed someone to teach him how to fight, so that he could beat Miyamoto. Why can't he do it himself? Where has all his motivation gone? All he's doing now is just walking around, bored out of his mind and doing nothing productive with his time. You don't see him going to school. You don't see him with his girlfriend. You see only a bit of his training in the beginning, before his main character role was taken by Miyamoto. He just... does nothing. There's no point in him being around anymore.

~Enjoyment~ (3/10)

I'm so disappointed in this manga part. It had such a great promising beginning, but you are slapped in the face by the time you get into the middle. And when you get to the middle, you are so deep in that you can't help but keep going. You have to, because you tell yourself "it must get better from here!", when it never does. It gets worse and worse. I went from a 7/10 to a 3/10 by the time I finished this. I've read a lot in my short life. In all of these years, only two books made me want to show disrespect to them by throwing them across the room (or bus, on one occasion). This one makes me want to do it, but also close it and mourn the loss of good story and characters. I can't find myself wanting to read the next part, because of how horrible this part has treated its predecessors, their accomplishments and the characters. Everything that we've grown attached to, grown to admire, love or even be distasteful towards, is now gone. The only way I can describe it is that this manga will leave you feeling soulless. I know that it sounds over-dramatic, but this is the experience that I got from this.

~Overall~ (3/10)

I do not recommend this manga to old and new readers of this franchise. I refuse to acknowledge this as canon to the original, but rather an alternative universe. There's simply no way that these characters and story has gone so off the deep end, in the way that they did. The franchise has ended with the fight between Baki and his dad, and that's a fact. Anything from here on out, is an unknown, which you can turn your back to and walk away and not miss a thing.

Read this at your own risk. If you do, good luck.

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Mar 31, 2024 12:00 PM by Hyperion_PS | Discuss (13 comments)

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Poll: Baki-dou Chapter 41 Discussion Komlan_6 - Dec 26, 2024	0 replies	by Komlan_6 »» Dec 26, 2024 7:58 PM
Poll: Baki-dou Chapter 40 Discussion Komlan_6 - Dec 26, 2024	0 replies	by Komlan_6 »» Dec 26, 2024 7:37 PM
Poll: Baki-dou Chapter 39 Discussion Komlan_6 - Oct 18, 2023	0 replies	by Komlan_6 »» Oct 18, 2023 8:53 PM
baki rehan Kimo45 - Sep 3, 2023	5 replies	by BugsBuggy »» Sep 3, 2023 3:53 PM
Poll: Baki-dou Chapter 38 Discussion Komlan_6 - May 27, 2023	0 replies	by Komlan_6 »» May 27, 2023 4:30 PM

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