Grappler Baki
Baki the Grappler

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

I'm a good target for this since the author is heavy on k1 and combat sports as me, but even so this is not that good. I feel his love for it and that passion, but the execution is too farfetched. Always in a really narrow line between being based on realistic fights but also on absolute fantasy as if they were superheroes.

Who I find believable and somewhat rooted on the personality of some women is Baki's mother, usually portrayed as one of the worst manga mothers. And yeah the main motive for it it's her sex drive and animal instincts that the ones that ... are like that are notchs above almost any man, Yuujiro is more important for her than her son who is just what keeps her in contact with Yuujiro. And without spoiling anything for her to gain Yuujiro again she needs that Yuujiro feels proud of Baki's strenght so she would do anything she could to regain that ultimate man, more manly and agressive than anyone, don't know if this term exist but yeah a "thug digger" that usualy ends thrown stabbed in a road after upgrading 4 boyfriends each one crazier than the previous one because of loving that feeling of being the woman with the ultimate motherfucker around.

Sometimes Baki it's fun because of being so hyped up but at other times it just doesn't feel engaging. I would not recomend it since if you don't even are into these things I don't see what could be the appeal of almost 42 volumes that 40 could be fights. Only recomended as I said before if you really like fighting things or if you find really worth an anime / manga just for the sake of having strong man or love those chad alpha sigma homoerotic memes for betas ;P hahaha

I like many of those GAR mangas and could be one of my top genres but not just because Guts is such a MAN, what a chad, pff..

I really recomend Shamo that could be similar in some thing to Grappler Baki and that it's only problem is its TERRIBLE ending, everything else is great.

Grappler Baki is the first serialization of the Baki series, an absurdist martial arts manga that's still going on today. I started the Baki series with the Netflix adaptation of the next serialization, so I decided to read this for more context (Although context is only somewhat helpful when it comes to this series). While it is heavily flawed, I did very much enjoy it.

The setup is very basic for the most part. Baki Hanma is a 15 year old who wants to beat his dad Yujiro Hanma, who is the strongest creature in the series. I have no issues with a basic setup, but ... Grappler Baki fumbles a bit with a Golden Age-Esque setup where it starts with Baki as a 15 year old, cuts to him 2 years ago for about half the series, then cuts back to Baki at 15. The series would've worked much better if it was chronological, but I assume the creator wasn't thinking ahead because in terms of actual plot, it's pretty non-existent. Like I said, not an issue for me as long as it's entertaining, and, well...

Grappler Baki is a bit more straightforward than its sequels. It's certainly absurd, but not to the extent of something like 'Hanma Baki'. Like sure, Baki fights a Big Monke, haha funny. But something strange happened. Baki and the Big Monke had a bonding moment after their battle, and I... Got emotional? I've been reading Vagabond, one of the most acclaimed Manga of all time, and I haven't really gotten emotional. Don't get me wrong it's good, but I rarely feel anything while reading it. But when Baki and the Big Monke became buddies after their fight, I was genuinely happy despite how stupid it was. I can explain why I usually enjoy the series: Great art and absurdity, but Grappler Baki rarely has those, yet I still enjoy it.

The characters, for the most part, are extremely shallow, but they can be fun. Yujiro Hanma is undoubtedly the best character. He's better in later parts, but he's still really entertaining here. Baki is alright, but most of the value of his character is just seeing him progress as a fighter, and even that seems uneven in times. I think Tokugawa is funny, Retsu and Doppo are cool I guess, Emi is kind of interesting, etc... There's a lot of characters who only show up once and very little after, many of which have little personality, but the best characters are usually the ones who show up the most.

The art starts off pretty basic, and the composition can be really confusing. However, as the series continues, the art gets better and better. Near the end, I can say it's illustrated well, with great posing, style, and indication of movement.

I enjoy Grappler Baki, but most probably won't. Try it out though. I haven't watched the anime and can't even make a guess on how it handles the story.

"It's alright"

A simple test for me is did I finish a manga, and in Baki's case I definitely did, and enjoyed much of the final arc, which is something I can't say about enough manga. Baki is an enjoyable ride as long as you're will to get on and ignore some rather big issues.

Grappler Baki is a very polished martial arts manga, which combines a variety of different disciplines and creates a tournament... Well it does that eventually.

The thing is, Grappler Baki is all about the fights, and it's a polished gem in that way where it's so focused on ... the fight, that it has removed important other parts of the story. In fact it's removed the story.

What does Baki want? To become strong? Why? To beat his father. How does he do this? Training various forms of fighting. Do we see this training? A single page each, and most of the time not even that.

The first arc in the book just seems to focus on Grappler Baki fighting a lot, and that's really what the rest of the manga is. The reader is just thrown in Baki's life in the ring, and in fact you don't even know why he's fighting for a decent chunk of the book. Then more fights happen. Then there's a flashback and more fights happen.. and then a major fight happens, and then a tournament kicks off... But the thing is none of this is connect. The only truely important fight to Baki is the major fight in the middle, and the final fight, and even then.. the final fight is only important because of an asspull of a reveal, that then takes 7 chapters to set up of completely new information that makes it plausable.

In fact there's a lot of times that the author just pulls out a new technique because he needs the characters to get stronger. Baki doesn't really have a defined fighting style, which is probably intentional so that the author can change what he needs to do on a scene by scene basis. But he just seems to grab random abilities or powers that work. And to be clear, I have mentioned training montages. But often times he's fighting multiple fights between training sessions, and even when he's in a major tournament, the abilities he shows in the final battle aren't even hinted at in the first. He just keeps gaining new abilities.

There's no foreshadowing here, there's no development of the world. There's just epic fights, and while the fight are really good, in fact excellent in the most case, it still feels like there's somethng important missing. Even the ending, feels a touch unsatisfying for a specific reason that would be a spoiler.

Yet this isn't a bad thing necessarily. If you enjoy over powered monsters of men, muscular architecture in each character's body, and so much testotorone this is exactly what you want. Think of a version of Dragonball Z where every character "powers up" at the right moment, only remove the magical elements and focus on just raw martial arts, and Baki is exactly that in a lot of way.

But at the same time, this is JUST a testatorone laden machismo that focuses on the fights more than anything, and actually the biggest issue is when it doesn't. There's a story about a girl who likes Baki... and it really doesn't go anywhere or do anything. There's Baki's father, which is the driving force of Baki's desire but.. he also doesn't really do much half of the times he shows up. He doesn't have a strong purpose in the finale for instance.

So ultiamtely, that's the thing. If you just want extremely well drawn and designed fights with various martial arts, which does sometimes feel like it's just making up new techniques over and over so the battle can go back and forth, Grappler Baki is excellent. If you want a well designed story or world, and a focus on a character who constantly grows more powerful, I would not recomment Grappler Baki to you.

For me.. "It was alright"

Grappler Baki

The first part of an extremely long manga series that cost me a lot of time. To be honest, the manga itself wavers between hate and love until the current Baki-Dou part.

The manga always manages to create completely bizarre fights in which you have to rearrange the power of the characters again and again according to fluctuating proportions, especially later it becomes extremely difficult to determine who is above whom in the food chain.

In any case, the author loves to bring bizarre visualizations of strength, training, and explanations into the manga. I have always found this aspect very appealing and at the same time ... daunting.

In the realm of the plot, Baki owns absolutely nothing. The story only revolves around Baki's growth and how he wants to face his father and what he needs to do so. On the way, he fights against a wide variety of opponents, learns a number of techniques, and is defeated or wins. And so it goes until the finale of the third Baki Manga when he finally gets the duel of his life.

When it comes to characters, there is only one thing you can say about Baki. They are dull and clichéd, all of them. However, it's the positive nature of it, they are still interesting despite everything and give the shounen setting a certain charm through their charisma.

The representation of the fights in the first manga is poor and the author develops tremendously in the visual presentation. Until then, you have to get used to fluctuating chapters at the beginning.


Long story short, he is always interested in material arts and bizarre battles full of brutality will find his love here. Baki is one of my favorites when it comes to this genre. Unfortunately, he is quite mediocre in terms of turnover. You should get an idea of ​​this for yourself. In the worst case, you can skip the first manga and read a short synopsis. The other manga has a lot more dynamic in battles.


Enjoyment -6
Overall -5