Baoh Raihousha

An innocent young man, Ikuroo, has a parasite known as Baoh implanted in his brain by an evil organization, Doress. The parasite makes him nearly immortal and gives him the ability to transform into a really powerful beastie when he's in trouble.

Doress intends to use him in some sort of ploy for financial success, world domination, or something along those lines, but when they're transporting him on a train, a young psychic girl, Sumire (who's being held by the organization due to her abilities), sets him free and the two escape together.

Of course, Dr. Kasuminome is the mad scientist behind the whole Baoh thing, and he isn't about to let his test subject get away and he has considerable resources (including some superpowered lackeys, as well as a small army) at his disposal.

(Source: AnimeDB)

Hashizawa, Ikurou Main

Hori, Hideyuki Japanese

Sumire Main

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Dr. Kasuminome Main

Nagai, Ichiro Japanese

Walken Supporting

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

Dordo Supporting

Ikeda, Shuuichi Japanese

Sophine Supporting

Inoue, You Japanese

Matsuura, Noriyoshi Sound Director

Yokoyama, Hiroyuki Episode Director

Terada, Kenji Script

Machida, Yoshito Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Jan 2, 2026

Y-MELLY

Recommended

Baoh the Visitor is a raw, aggressive slice of 80s sci-fi horror that doesn’t try to ease the viewer in. It’s short, violent, and leaves a strong impression despite its limited runtime.

Story 👇🏽

The story follows Ikuro Hashizawa, an ordinary boy who becomes infected with a living bioweapon known as Baoh. This organism grants him terrifying abilities while slowly stripping away his humanity. From the moment Baoh awakens, Ikuro is forced into constant conflict.

A young girl helps him escape, acting as an emotional anchor and representing innocence in contrast to Ikuro’s growing monstrosity. Their relationship gives the story a human core and prevents it from becoming ... pure shock value.

Pursuing them is the scientist responsible for Baoh, a cold and obsessive figure determined to reclaim his “experiment.” To him, Ikuro isn’t a person'just lost property. This chase drives the tension and reinforces the anime’s critique of inhuman scientific ambition.

Pacing & Power System ✊🏼

That said, I do have a major issue with this anime: the pacing is extremely fast 🏃‍♂️. Events escalate rapidly, sometimes too rapidly. The protagonist constantly pulls out new abilities during fights, often without buildup, and strangely, he almost never uses the same ability twice. One enemy, one power… then it’s gone 😱.

While this keeps fights unpredictable, it also makes the power system feel inconsistent and underdeveloped.

Presentation & Creator 👨

The animation leans heavily into body horror and brutal violence, very much a product of its era. It may look dated, but it’s effective. The discomfort is intentional.

The story was written by Hirohiko Araki, later famous for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. You can clearly see early traces of his style here: bizarre abilities, exaggerated violence, and a fascination with pushing the human body beyond its limits.

Final Take 🤝🏽

Despite its flaws, Baoh the Visitor remains quite interesting. I personally enjoyed this show 📺, especially as a piece of retro anime history, and I hope you enjoy it too 😉.

It’s not perfect, but it’s bold, memorable, and undeniably influential, exactly the kind of OVA that reminds you why old-school anime still hits differently.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Y-MELLY (54)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 28, 2022

NoahRules

Mixed Feelings

TL;DR
only watch BAOH if you want an action-packed 80s anime with little focus on story/characters.

BAOH is one of Araki's first ever works and it shows. it's clear that Araki was still getting the hand of writing stories and characters but at the same time, you can tell Araki really knew how to make a good action scene, hell I'd say that some action scenes here are better than some in JoJo given how the action scenes in BAOH are a lot more fast-paced and flashy.

I'd recommend the anime over the manga, the anime does skip some scenes which would be a problem but like I ... said the story isn't really what you should be looking for in this anime.

Despite everything I've said I think BAOH has a good concept, sure the idea of the main character having a parasite that he can't fully control has been done before, but I'd like to see modern Araki try something with that concept, or Araki should let another author try and write a revival/continuation for BAOH, like what he did with Cool Shock Old B.T

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by NoahRules (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 16, 2025

FAKEANIMEGIRL

Not Recommended

(Check out my profile for a link to my site containing more up-to-date reviews and bonus media!)

Oh yeah. This. This is a thing I watched. What the fuck is it, right? Baoh: The Visitor is a 1989 OVA adaptation of a Hirohiko Araki manga from before he wrote JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The OVA is about 45 minutes, and the manga itself spans a multi-generational, genre-hopping, epic two volumes. Naturally, I assume the OVA is comprehensive and faithful.

With all that in mind, there’s justification for finding Baoh disappointing. There is little of Araki’s now-trademark eccentric creativity and style. The only reason you’d have to expect he ... was involved is that dogs are beaten and shot within the first five minutes.

In Baoh, a teenager after an accident is turned into a bio-weapon by a secret organization. Another captive of the organization, a little girl with psychic powers, inadvertently frees the guy as she tries to escape. It turns out a parasite inside of Ikurou gives him the ability to turn into a primal creature uncannily similar to Beast from X-Men that has super strength, sharp claws, and can generate electricity. Ikurou and Sumire escape together and are on the lam from the Doress organization, and soon have to take the fight to them.

Baoh is a barren story and setting. It feels like the foundation for something that should’ve grown more extravagant and detailed; like a pilot manga. Whether it was one or not, even the basic concept doesn’t feel fresh. Transforming bio-weapon mutant is a cliche in and of itself. Also, Baoh’s standard abilities never grow to anything beyond what they seem at a glance.

The antagonists of Baoh have no goals other than to bury their Baoh experiment and use it to gain world influence. Certain characters having psychic abilities is never explained or related to the Baoh project in any way. A little girl has visions she can use to foresee events—and that’s all there is to it. We know nothing about our heroes other than they don’t want to be captured by Doress, which is completely expected.

The action scenes, of which there are many, lack the pieces necessary to make compelling set pieces or combat. Baoh dispatches all of his rivals with total ease and almost purely brute force, allowing for that B-movie kind of violent ’90s OVA with a ton of exploding heads and gore. Even when it comes to being weird and unnecessarily violent—the appeal of a lot of these pulp OVAs—Baoh is fairly tame, and the exploding head trick is about all it has to show.

Production values are fine. It looks better than your average series, but not by much. I noticed some reused head shots and still backgrounds which are the kind of thing I normally hope to not see in an OVA (or anywhere), but motion is fluid and I didn’t spot any obvious low frame rates. Background music is a lot of that completely stock squeal “tense” ambiance and electro rock ‘n roll when Baoh goes on the attack.

I don’t think there’s any reason to recommend this. It doesn’t conform to people’s expectations of Araki, the violence isn’t that extreme even if you’re a “gorehound,” and it doesn’t have much of that camp appeal due to how straightforward and natural of a story it is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by FAKEANIMEGIRL (125)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Complete Anime Adaptations (part 1)

by Yuriko_Sakai

50 Entries · 261 Restacks

Unhappy Lolis

by ChugLoliLemonade

50 Entries · 112 Restacks

Weekly Shōnen Jump Anime Part 2

by AcidTyphoon

50 Entries · 28 Restacks

	Poll: Baoh Episode 1 Discussion Zepwich - Jan 30, 2011	34 replies	by Y-MELLY »» Jan 2, 4:28 PM
	Read the manga first busterbeam - Sep 28, 2017	0 replies	by busterbeam »» Sep 28, 2017 2:50 PM