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Baki the Grappler
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Baki the Grappler
Baki the Grappler (Japanese: グラップラー刃牙, Hepburn: Gurappurā Baki) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki. It was originally serialized in the shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion from September 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 five sequels in the same magazine; Baki (バキ; officially romanized as New Grappler Baki: In Search of Our Strongest Hero), which was serialized from 1999 to 2005 and collected into 31 volumes, Baki Hanma (範馬刃牙, Hanma Baki; officially romanized as Baki: Son of Ogre), which was serialized from 2005 to 2012 and collected into 37 volumes, Baki-Dou (刃牙道, Baki-Dō; lit. 'Baki's Way'), which was serialized from 2014 to 2018 and collected into 22 volumes, a fifth series, also named Bakidou (バキ道, Bakidō; lit. 'Baki's Way') but with Baki's name written in katakana instead of kanji, serialized from 2018 to 2023 and collected into 17 volumes, and Baki Rahen (刃牙らへん, Baki Rahen; lit. 'Baki and Others'), serialized from 2023.
A 45-minute original video animation (OVA) 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 (ONA) was released on Netflix between June 25 and September 24, 2018, followed by a second season that was released on June 4, 2020. A third series was released from September 30, 2021, to August 24, 2023, and an anime adaptation of Baki-Dou has been announced. 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 (incomplete), and finally both anime series in 2005 by Funimation Entertainment. Media Do International began releasing the second manga series digitally in August 2018. In May 2025, Kodama Tales licensed the first manga series for a worldwide English release.
The Baki series is one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with over 100 million copies in circulation.
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. Emi, who tries to save him, is killed by Yujiro, causing Baki to hate him.
After being beaten, Baki travels around the world continuing his training. Years later, 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. He intends to get stronger, surpass his father, and continue to endure and survive the numerous hurdles he encounters in his journey.
When asked how he is able to continue the series for over 30 years, Keisuke Itagaki said he believes it is because of all the eccentric characters; "It's not me who comes up with the story, the characters create it." He said he learned the importance of creating interesting characters in his first ten minutes at Kazuo Koike's Gekiga Sonjuku school for aspiring manga artists, which he joined in 1987. Itagaki also said he is always thinking of how to create non-traditional conclusions to the fights, in order to avoid the continuous introduction of increasingly stronger opponents often seen in battle manga, citing the Baki versus Yujiro fight as a good example.
Itagaki said he gives even the toughest male characters their own kind of beauty. He created Baki Hanma by copying an illustration of a girl by Keibun Ōta and adding masculine touches, such as raising the eyebrows and thickening the neck. He used feminine eyes in the style of artist Pater Sato as reference for those of the character Kaoru Hanayama. Although he always draws the hands of characters in the series large, Hanayama's hands in particular are made large enough to completely hide his face. Before he came up with the "demon face" that appears on Yujiro's back, Itagaki considered giving him a dragon tattoo where the limbs of the dragon blended into his own. But then he saw a photograph of a bodybuilder whose back looked like a Heikegani crab, which resemble human faces, and got the idea to deform it even further and use a more ferocious expression.
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Baki the Grappler
Baki the Grappler (Japanese: グラップラー刃牙, Hepburn: Gurappurā Baki) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki. It was originally serialized in the shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion from September 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 five sequels in the same magazine; Baki (バキ; officially romanized as New Grappler Baki: In Search of Our Strongest Hero), which was serialized from 1999 to 2005 and collected into 31 volumes, Baki Hanma (範馬刃牙, Hanma Baki; officially romanized as Baki: Son of Ogre), which was serialized from 2005 to 2012 and collected into 37 volumes, Baki-Dou (刃牙道, Baki-Dō; lit. 'Baki's Way'), which was serialized from 2014 to 2018 and collected into 22 volumes, a fifth series, also named Bakidou (バキ道, Bakidō; lit. 'Baki's Way') but with Baki's name written in katakana instead of kanji, serialized from 2018 to 2023 and collected into 17 volumes, and Baki Rahen (刃牙らへん, Baki Rahen; lit. 'Baki and Others'), serialized from 2023.
A 45-minute original video animation (OVA) 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 (ONA) was released on Netflix between June 25 and September 24, 2018, followed by a second season that was released on June 4, 2020. A third series was released from September 30, 2021, to August 24, 2023, and an anime adaptation of Baki-Dou has been announced. 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 (incomplete), and finally both anime series in 2005 by Funimation Entertainment. Media Do International began releasing the second manga series digitally in August 2018. In May 2025, Kodama Tales licensed the first manga series for a worldwide English release.
The Baki series is one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with over 100 million copies in circulation.
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. Emi, who tries to save him, is killed by Yujiro, causing Baki to hate him.
After being beaten, Baki travels around the world continuing his training. Years later, 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. He intends to get stronger, surpass his father, and continue to endure and survive the numerous hurdles he encounters in his journey.
When asked how he is able to continue the series for over 30 years, Keisuke Itagaki said he believes it is because of all the eccentric characters; "It's not me who comes up with the story, the characters create it." He said he learned the importance of creating interesting characters in his first ten minutes at Kazuo Koike's Gekiga Sonjuku school for aspiring manga artists, which he joined in 1987. Itagaki also said he is always thinking of how to create non-traditional conclusions to the fights, in order to avoid the continuous introduction of increasingly stronger opponents often seen in battle manga, citing the Baki versus Yujiro fight as a good example.
Itagaki said he gives even the toughest male characters their own kind of beauty. He created Baki Hanma by copying an illustration of a girl by Keibun Ōta and adding masculine touches, such as raising the eyebrows and thickening the neck. He used feminine eyes in the style of artist Pater Sato as reference for those of the character Kaoru Hanayama. Although he always draws the hands of characters in the series large, Hanayama's hands in particular are made large enough to completely hide his face. Before he came up with the "demon face" that appears on Yujiro's back, Itagaki considered giving him a dragon tattoo where the limbs of the dragon blended into his own. But then he saw a photograph of a bodybuilder whose back looked like a Heikegani crab, which resemble human faces, and got the idea to deform it even further and use a more ferocious expression.