Baki the Grappler

Plot

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.

Baki the Grappler (グラップラー刃牙, Gurappurā Baki)

Tells the story of the young Baki Hanma who enters a world of illegal underground fights and quickly becomes the champion of the fighting arena below the Tokyo Dome stadium. Later in the story, Baki's past is shown, in which a 13-year-old Baki trains to defeat his father Yujiro Hanma in battle, doing so to earn his mother's love. After Emi interrupts Baki and Yujiro's fight, the latter murders her and Baki swears revenge. Back in the present day, the promoter of the underground arena, Mitsunari Tokugawa arranges for a special tournament titled the "Maximum Tournament" to be held in order to decide who is the strongest fighter in the world. After winning all of his fights, Baki fights Jack Hammer, his half-brother and another son of Yujiro.

Baki (バキ; officially romanized as New Grappler Baki: In Search of Our Strongest Hero)

Set shortly after the conclusion of the previous series, it showcases Baki's attempts at going to study at high school like a regular teenager. However, his efforts are cut short when five death row inmates escape confinement and head to Tokyo in order to "know defeat". These inmates are the American Kung-fu fighter Dorian, the British assassin Hector Doyle, the Russian convict Sikorsky with a powerful pinching ability, the American Spec with a formidable lung capacity, and the Japanese poisoner Ryuko Yanagi. Following Baki's fight with Yanagi, the former becomes fatally poisoned and is flown to China to participate in the Chinese "Great Raitai Tournament" to save his life. Following a match against a Chinese poison master who reverses Baki's poisoning, Baki is saved and proceeds to fight alongside his allies in the tournament. Following the tournament's conclusion, the son of Mohammad Alai, Mohammad Alai Jr., challenges Baki to win over the heart of Baki's girlfriend, Kozue. When the fight between the two ends, Baki challenges his father for a rematch to conclude his career as a fighter. Yujiro accepts this invitation and declares Baki to be worthy of being his "prey".

Production

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.

Itagaki imitated the ending scene of the 1982 American film Rocky III for the match between Antonio Igari and Mount Toba in Grappler Baki Gaiden. When it was announced that the Baki Hanma series would be ending in ten chapters, Itagaki had not yet thought up what he would draw. He also said that he originally decided that Baki Hanma would be the end of the franchise. But, just before the fight between Baki and his father was to begin, he suddenly had the thought, "What would happen if Musashi Miyamoto was born in the modern day?", leading to Baki-Dou. When asked about the titles of Baki-Dou and Bakidou, Itagaki said that with the story of a parent-child conflict concluded in Baki Hanma, he shifted to the theme of "What does it mean to be strong?" and the word dō (道, 'way') came to mind.

Media

Manga

Baki the Grappler was serialized in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from September 30, 1991, to 1999, with the chapters collected into 42 tankōbon volumes. It was licensed for a North American release by Gutsoon! Entertainment, who published the first 46 chapters in their English-language manga anthology magazine Raijin Comics. The magazine's first issue was released on December 18, 2002, but in July 2004 it was discontinued. Four collected volumes were planned by Gutsoon!, but it is unknown if they were released. In May 2025, Kodama Tales announced it had licensed the series for a worldwide English release. They published the kanzenban edition both physically and digitally between October 2025 and September 2026.

The second manga series, simply titled Baki, was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1999 to November 24, 2005, and collected into 31 volumes. It was licensed for English release by Media Do International, who released it digitally between August 2018 and August 2019. In April 2026, Kodama announced they will begin publishing the second manga series in November under the "New Grappler Baki" title.

Baki Hanma was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion from December 1, 2005, to August 16, 2012, and collected into 37 volumes. It was followed by Baki-Dou, which was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion from March 20, 2014, to April 5, 2018, and collected into 22 volumes. The fifth series has the same name as the fourth, but with Baki's name written in katakana instead of kanji. Bakidou was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion from October 4, 2018, to June 15, 2023, and collected into 17 volumes. Baki Rahen began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Champion on August 24, 2023.

Grappler Baki Gaiden (グラップラー刃牙外伝) ― Set immediately after the Maximum Tournament, it depicts a wrestling match between Antonio Igari and Mount Toba. Nine chapters were published in one volume in 1999. An epilogue for Igari ran in Weekly Shōnen Champion's 48th issue on October 27, 2022.

Baki: Tokubetsuhen Saga (バキ特別編SAGA; or The Romantic Contact Chapter) ― Side story that develops at the same time as volume 15 of the second manga. One volume was published in 2002.

Baki Gaiden: Scarface (バキ外伝 疵面 -スカーフェイス-; or Scarface: Legend of the Invincible Fist) ― Spinoff series, written and illustrated by Yukinao Yamauchi, depicting Kaoru Hanayama's yakuza adventures. Ran from March 2005 to December 2007 in Champion Red, then from July 2009 in Weekly Shōnen Champion. Collected into eight volumes.

Original video animations

A 45-minute original video animation (OVA) created by Knack Productions and directed by Yuji Asada was released in 1994. The story is a close adaptation of the first few volumes of the original manga, adapting the Karate Tournament arc (not adapted in the later TV series) and Baki's fight with Kosho Shinogi, later adapted in the episode 18 of the Baki the Grappler TV series. It was licensed and released under the title Grappler Baki: The Ultimate Fighter in North America by Central Park Media on VHS on December 1, 1996, and on DVD on December 1, 1998. Manga Entertainment later released it in Australia and the United Kingdom.

A 15-minute original animation DVD (OAD), referred to as Baki: Most Evil Death Row Convicts Special Anime (バキ 最凶死刑囚編SP(スペシャル)アニメ), was included with the limited edition of the 14th volume of Baki-Dou on December 6, 2016. However, it adapts the arc of the same name from the second manga series, which is titled simply Baki. Created by Telecom Animation Film, it was directed by Teiichi Takiguchi and focuses on five inmates who break out of prison from around the world and travel to Japan.

Anime

A 24-episode anime series aired on TV Tokyo between January 8 and June 25, 2001. The anime was produced by Free-Will, a music record label. A second 24-episode series, titled Baki the Grappler: Maximum Tournament (グラップラー刃牙 最大トーナメント編), as it tells the story from that part of the manga, aired from July 23 to December 24. All of the series' music was written and composed by "Project Baki", and all the theme songs were performed by Ryōko Aoyagi. The first anime's opening theme is "Ai Believe" (哀 believe), while its closing theme is "Reborn". For the second series, "All Alone" is used as the opening and "Loved..." as the closing. Baki the Grappler: Original Soundtrack was released on March 27, 2003.

Both series were licensed for a North American English release by Funimation Entertainment. They released both series as one on 12 DVDs, each with four episodes, beginning on June 14, 2005, with the last released on February 27, 2007. Two box sets were released on January 23, 2007, and March 25, 2008, the first included volumes 1-6 (1st series), while the second included 7-12 (2nd series). A set including every episode was released on September 2, 2008.

Funimation's English version was one of the launch shows on their own television channel, Funimation Channel, which debuted on June 19, 2006. Baki was broadcast on weekends at 11:30 pm, switching to the 10:00 pm slot on September 4, 2006. Dubbed in English, the episodes were edited for time but do not appear to have been edited for content. The opening theme is the song "Child Prey" by Japanese metal band Dir En Grey, which is signed to Free-Will.

In December 2016, it was announced that the "Most Evil Death Row Convicts" arc of the second manga series would be receiving an anime television adaptation. Titled Baki, like the second manga series, the 26-episode series is directed by Toshiki Hirano at TMS Entertainment with character designs handled by Fujio Suzuki and scripts overseen by Tatsuhiko Urahata. It began streaming on Netflix on June 25, 2018, in Japan, and started streaming on December 18, 2018, outside Japan. The series then started airing on several Japanese television channels beginning with Tokyo MX1 on July 1. Its opening theme song is "Beastful" by Granrodeo and its ending theme "Resolve" is performed by Azusa Tadokoro with lyrics by Miho Karasawa. Sentai Filmworks released it on Blu-ray on May 25, 2021, with a new English dub.

Netflix renewed the series for a second season on March 19, 2019. On March 5, 2020, it was announced that the main staff TMS Entertainment would be returning to produce the second season with the addition of a new character designer and art director. The 13-episode second season covering the "Great Chinese Challenge" and the Alai Jr. arcs was released exclusively on Netflix on June 4, 2020. Its opening theme is "Jounetsu wa Oboete Iru" performed by Granrodeo and its ending theme is "Dead Stroke" performed by Ena Fujita.

Video games

There have been a few video games based on the series. A fighting game developed by Tomy was released for the PlayStation 2 as Grappler Baki: Baki Saikyō Retsuden (グラップラー刃牙 バキ最強列伝, Gurappurā Baki - Baki Saikyō Retsuden) in Japan in 2000 and as Fighting Fury in the United Kingdom during 2003. Baki the Grappler: Ultimate Championship was released for Android in 2017. A card game for web browsers called Typing Grappler Baki was created. Another browser game, Hanma Baki - Baki, was for Yahoo! Mobage. The fighting game Baki Hanma: Blood Arena came out on September 11, 2025. Yujiro Hanma appears as an unlockable character in the PlayStation 2 game, Garōden: Breakblow – Fist or Twist. He would also appear as a DLC character in the third season pass for Tekken 8 in early 2027.

Stage plays

The underground arena arc of Baki the Grappler was adapted into a play written and directed by Daisuke Tanaka, who previously adapted Sakigake!! Otokojuku, with Hideaki Okuzumi in charge of the fighting and action scenes. Titled Baki the Grappler Stage: Underground Arena Arc (刃牙 THE GRAPPLER STAGE ―地下闘技場編―), it ran at Shinjuku Face from December 4 to 8, 2024. The production starred Yugo Sato as Baki, Momoka Onishi as Kozue, Sho Higano as Katsumi and Haruto Sakuraba as Hanayama. Actual martial artists Taishin Kohiruimaki and Kozo Takeda played Shuumei Kanou and Doppo, respectively. A second play, titled Baki the Grappler Stage 2: The Most Sinister Death Row Convict Arc (刃牙 THE GRAPPLER STAGE2 ー最凶死刑囚編ー), ran at Shinjuku Face from July 23 to 28, 2026. Baki the Grappler Stage Gaiden: Retsu Kaio wa Isekai Tensei Shitemo Ikkō ni Kamawan (刃牙 THE GRAPPLER STAGE 外伝 烈海王は異世界転生しても一向にかまわんッッ), which adapts Sai Ihara and Eiji Mutsui's spinoff manga of the same name, will run at Owlspot Theatre in Tokyo from March 19 to 22, 2027. It will star Riku Noma, who is reprising his role as Kaio Retsu from the previous two plays.

Reception

By May 2021, the various Baki series had over 85 million collected volumes in circulation; it had over 100 million copies in circulation by May 2024. The Scarface spin-off series had 3.5 million copies in print by February 2019.

Allen Divers and Jason Thompson, both writing for Anime News Network, briefly described the series as "very compelling" and a "demented fighting manga", respectively.

Anime News Network had four different writers review the first volume of the second manga series. Faye Hopper scored it the highest, four out of five, and wrote that she was captivated the entire read with its appeal lying in "its absurdity held up by its absolutely incredible artistry." Amy McNulty gave it a 2.5 rating and also praised Itagaki's art, but felt the character designs were not particularly memorable. She also wrote that the volume "succeeds in identifying the stakes, but it completely fails in anchoring the reader with characters to care about." Rebecca Silverman and Teresa Navarro both gave it a 2 and noted its status as a "set-up book," with each new character introduced in the same manner. Both Hopper and Silverman said that Baki reminded them of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Reviewing the first 24 episodes of the 2001 anime, Mark Thomas of Mania Entertainment gave it a B− rating, stating that fans of shōnen and fight series would enjoy it, but others should look elsewhere. He felt it had plenty of good, realistic fight scenes, but fell short on the story. Explaining that despite a lot of story arcs, it ultimately feels like a setup for the second season. Thomas gave the same rating to the final 24 episodes, and "mildly recommended" the series. While he started to enjoy this set more thanks to its more action focus, he stated that not showing Baki's final fight with Yujiro, which was built up the entire show, really ruined it for him.

Baki influenced the appearance of the character Gai Tendo in the 1999 video game Buriki One. The 2012 comedy film Graffreeter Toki is based on the March 2011 play of the same name, which in turn was inspired by Baki the Grappler.

Sociologist Junko Kaneda interpreted Baki the Grappler as homoerotic and published an essay book about it titled Notes of a Girl Who Spent 30 Hours a Day for 300 Days Thinking "So Baki The Grappler Is BL, Right?" The essay was adapted into a live-action television series titled A Story of Grappler Baki and Me that was broadcast on Wowow in August 2021.