Baki, Wacky Martial Arts Anime

On December 19th 2018, Netflix released Baki in Canada. I saw it while scrolling through Netflix one day, and thought to myself “I haven’t watched a new anime in a while, maybe I could write a ‘What We Can Learn from Anime’ article.” This article is not that. But I’m not even sad about it, because right from the start Baki was fueled by high adrenaline martial arts ridiculousness, and I loved every moment.

Baki The Grappler is a super popular action manga from Japan. It had its run in the 90s, and since then, Baki has been one of Japan's most iconic action heroes. I had no idea about this, or that the Netflix series was celebrating 25 years of Baki. If you have never heard of this manga before either, don’t worry, you can jump right in and have a great time. Those who are close to me know that I get up ridiculously early, and therefore, never stay up late. The night I started watching this, I stayed up until the time I normally get up (4AM). I just couldn’t stop binging it; I was having too much fun.

Baki The Grappler is a super popular action manga from Japan. It had its run in the 90s, and since then, Baki has been one of Japan's most iconic action heroes. I had no idea about this, or that the Netflix series was celebrating 25 years of Baki. If you have never heard of this manga before either, don’t worry, you can jump right in and have a great time. Those who are close to me know that I get up ridiculously early, and therefore, never stay up late. The night I started watching this, I stayed up until the time I normally get up (4AM). I just couldn’t stop binging it; I was having too much fun.

The show starts off with someone telling Baki that five insanely dangerous prisoners have escaped from all over the world and are making their way to Japan. The five prisoners have never been defeated and are seeking out Baki in order to “taste defeat.” That doesn’t mean that they’re going to pull any punches and let anyone win though. Once the escaped prisoners arrive in Japan and start causing havoc, an underground fight promoter gathers fighters from around Japan, including Baki, and organizes a meeting with the prisoners. They decide that there will be no rules for these fights and they can happen anywhere, anytime.

If you're an old martial arts movie fan, you will love what comes next. The characters are basically superheroes compared to an average human. Some have special offensive powers, while others can withstand bullets, knives, and explosions. As I said above, it’s ridiculous, over the top, and awesome. Seriously, the battles are so fun. All the powers and abilities are grounded in honor, discipline, training, and ancient martial art techniques. The kind of stuff we like to fantasize could be real. For some, this may break your suspension of disbelief, which would normally happen to me, but with this show, it just didn’t. Once I understood how things worked in this world, I got sucked in even further and started caring about the characters.

The first season ends abruptly. Not in a satisfying way, but as if it was halfway through the story. That was disappointing, and originally where this article ended. However, because of procrastinating, the second season came out and of course, I watched it.

​Season 2 brings the conclusion to the escaped prisoners arc, and boy is it not well done. It was so poorly written and unsatisfyingly wrapped up that I had to look up what other people thought. Turns out the creator is notorious for being a bad writer. Self-admitted even. This is why good editors are so important! It kinda just stops and moves onto the next arc of the story, and you’re left wondering, “Was that it? That was the wrap-up, and now we’re just moving on?”

Season 2 also boasts one of the most hilarious ‘level-up’ sequences I’ve ever seen. Most of Baki’s arc in this season is trying to have sex with his girlfriend. Things keep happening that stop them from doing so (including his dad walking in on them on purpose). Then, spoiler, it happens and not only is it ridiculously cringey and hilarious to watch (find the part on Netflix because on YouTube it’s cut and shortened) but it somehow is the thing that makes Baki realize how to be a better fighter. There is even a voice-over during the sex scenes explaining what Baki is thinking and feeling and why it translates to him being a better fighter. So ridiculous! Prior to having sex Baki was having trouble with even one of the escaped prisoners, and after having sex he kicks the shit out of two of them at once. I was laughing so hard watching those couple episodes. Imagine Goku not being able to go Super Saiyan until he had sex, and they made it a central point of an entire arc.

Given the unsatisfying ending to the arc, and the strange way in which they just throw Baki into the next arc, I hesitate to recommend this Netflix anime. If you don’t care about the story, and just want to see really cool fight sequences, then this anime is for you. If you care about story then I’d probably skip this one. Sadly I’m too far into it to stop now.

If you’ve watched season two what are your thoughts? Let us know on our Facebook page.

Author: Cole Elliot

Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.