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 8,671 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2141²

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

Popularity: #1078

Members: 17,253

Favorites: 279

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Wikipedia

7.63

Ranked #2141Popularity #1078Members 17,253

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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Related Manga

Prequel:	Hanma Baki
Sequel:	Baki-dou
Spin-off:	Baki Gaiden: Retsu Kaiou wa Isekai Tensei shitemo Ikkou ni Kamawan!
Adaptation:	Baki-dou

More characters
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

May 15, 2020

Kenmeina

Recommended

If you love just watching Baki be Baki minus the Father-Complex then you'll like this. It's divulged into a fight-fest where Baki is just fighting whoever to quell the boredom and if you can get down with that then you'll enjoy this ride.

Do not look for character development from Baki or any of the famed cased outside of a few new injuries of a slightly different outlook on their life.

It's Baki, look at the beautiful art, the muscles and everything else it has to offer.

At this point the main climax has happened, Baki has already fought Ogre and is now growing up into the ...

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Jul 25, 2022

DeltaWDunn

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 28, 2019

JoHou

Not Recommended

Preface: If you like this manga, I have no qualms or issues with you. I just feel this needs a review of some sort to really warn people as to what they are getting into. Longtime fans especially but newcomers as well. Though if this is your introduction to Baki, I think you might enjoy it more, but it just depends.

Story 3/10: The synopsis pretty much covers the story and Baki has never been a story heavy series by any means, but I feel like it is appropriate to discuss it this time around honestly. Following the outcome of Son of Ogre (Baki part 3), ... the main cast you know, and love are all bored out of their minds. No fight could ever compare to THAT fight, so they seek new ways to entertain themselves. Tokugawa hatches a crazy plan to revive/clone someone based off a piece of their skeletal system. That someone being Miyamoto Musashi. Whether you know who he is, is irrelevant to enjoying the story. He is basically a big deal and that is all you need to know. Expect zany antics from a man born centuries ago instantly thrown into modern day Japan. I would say hilarity ensues, but not much is truly funny as the story goes on. What makes the story so bad that I had to give it a 3 out of 10? It isn’t the setup or beginning, considering the world of Baki it makes enough sense that you roll with it. The issue is the middle and ending. The middle is full of fights with outcomes you are already aware of and the ending just blue balls you for a lack of a better term. It feels like everybody got robbed in terms of the story department as time went on, with all our time being wasted, which is something I absolutely hate in manga. I am both glad that I didn’t read this on a week by week basis as it was released like some people but at the same time, I am also frustrated that something with such a solid start could turn into something so well below average.

Art 10/10: This is peak Itagaki art. I don't think his art can get any better than this, it fixes the flaws and work arounds that I had issues within Part 2 and Part 3, making everything essentially feel and flow like a good action manga should. Characters look disgustingly muscular and that is a good thing! Everybody from the previous parts are highly recognizable despite the shift in how he presents them. Fights are easy to follow, and the two-page spreads have reached an outstanding level of detail to come out of this series. Everything looks ridiculous and it just adds more intensity to the already beloved series.

Character 5/10: Characters? What characters? Baki-dou is essentially character assassination the manga. Most, if not all the returning cast are heavily neutered in terms of personality. The funny quips or interesting quirks you remember from the previous series? Pretty much all gone. Everybody has tunnel vision and that is to fight Musashi, even if they know they can't win they still want to do it and sometimes under the dumbest conditions (you will see what I mean). They make the dumbest decisions for the dumbest reasons and they obviously end up getting embarrassed for it. The embarrassment was so strong at one point, I actually felt embarrassed for one of my favorite characters in the series getting beaten in such a stupid way. Gone is fighting for honor or respect or upholding some sort of code, we just want to see Musashi fight and show off his skills! Oh, he uses swords? No problem we will just lift the ban on using weapons in a strictly martial arts-based fighting arena, nothing could go wrong! I will admit that though there are some surprising developments with one character in particular, a man achieving an almost godlike status despite having the worst track record in the series. I won't say who but boy is it silly and not in a good way. Musashi is slightly interesting, only slightly though. He can be boiled down to pretty much a singular word and it isn't positive. He has swords, he knows how to use them, and he wants to use them because you didn’t get between a man and his swords. Get used to him being the main focus and pretty much only him.

Enjoyment 5/10: Believe it or not, this manga is actually still decently enjoyable but for all the wrong reasons.Samurai stuff is typically pretty enjoyable in anime or manga, but here it just seems to be as lackluster as everything else. Going from Volume 1 to about to about Volume 8, it held a solid 9 in my book. Following major events, and I do mean major, it devolves to about a 7.5. Still decent but after that one decision? It becomes a bit difficult to sit through. It makes it to about Volume 10 before things start taking a weird and not enjoyable turn. A good fight gets interrupted and you are just left dumbfounded by the sudden involvement of one character. Despite being terrible at martial arts he is apparently able to match the swordsmanship of a master level Samurai. Insane. I know but roll with it and keep believing it because the author isn’t joking. It is right around here where I sort of just mentally checked out of the series and kind of stopped caring about what I was reading, which is no easy feat mind you. After the fight between revived clone and sudden weapons expert, you get more or less just throwaway chapters that don’t really add anything of note except for maybe an exchange between Hanayama and one of his goons which ends up being pretty hilarious. Though the biggest thing that bugged me was the violence in Baki-Dou. Anybody who knows even the slightest bit about Baki is that it is a series with crazy violence. I would say the violence gets toned down with each series but that isn’t my point. There are these inclusions of “what it would feel like to be cut by Musashi” panels, which do exactly what I just described. They are extremely explicit, and it doesn’t leave much to the imagination. The problem lies in the possibility of such actions and then those actions not being carried out. A bit hard to follow I know, but Itagaki shows an explicit scene of violence, showing he can draw such a scene and intense violence is allowed in the publication, but that same level of violence is never actually seen in actual fights or conflicts between characters where it would actually matter. It feels like wasted panels and leaves the reader baffled as to why you would include such violence but never actually implement it in a meaningful way. Still, there is at least one good fight in it so if you want to see that then maybe it is worth your time.

Overall 4/10: I actually had this at a 5 when I first finished it, but after some careful consideration I thought it deserved lower. It just left such a bad taste in my mouth that I can’t help but really give it such a score. I wouldn’t say it is the worst manga I have ever read, and I still think Baki as a whole is a pretty fun series, but this is just such a mind numbingly bad part to an otherwise enjoyable series. I would say avoid it, but even then you might just read it to see if I was overexaggerating or not.

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The official website of the Baki anime series announced on Sunday that Keisuke Itagaki's Baki-dou manga is receiving an anime adaptation produced by TMS Entert...read more

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New 'Baki' Anime Project Announced

The 32nd issue of Shounen Champion magazine, to be released on July 7, is announcing that Keisuke Itagaki's martial arts manga Baki has received an anime proje...read more

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Poll: Baki-dou Chapter 39 Discussion Komlan_6 - Oct 18, 2023	0 replies	by Komlan_6 »» Oct 18, 2023 8:53 PM
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Poll: Baki-dou Chapter 38 Discussion Komlan_6 - May 27, 2023	0 replies	by Komlan_6 »» May 27, 2023 4:30 PM
Poll: Baki-dou Chapter 37 Discussion Komlan_6 - May 4, 2023	0 replies	by Komlan_6 »» May 4, 2023 4:55 PM
Poll: Baki-dou Chapter 36 Discussion Komlan_6 - Mar 22, 2023	0 replies	by Komlan_6 »» Mar 22, 2023 4:47 PM

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