Apr 2, 2020
Baki Dou (2018) is still relatively early in its run (60ish chapters in what will likely end up being a couple hundred) but I thought I'd write this review to encapsulate some of my problems with the early parts of the series, how it continues some of the biggest flaws of the previous series and why so far this has been more or less the nadir of the long Baki series.
First, the good. Baki still has great art. The art is detailed and has a sense of weight that feels very rare in modern manga. Everything Itagaki draws has a sense of momentum and vitality
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to it, and it makes the fight scenes feel very meaningful and impactful. Secondly, Baki is still weird, and this gives it a surreal sense of charm that makes it hard not to love. Whether its Conor McGregor lookalikes or sumo wrestlers participating in rock climbing, it is still consistently memorable. There are very few series that seem to have the earnest sense of passion that Baki has, and this remains true over 130 volumes into this long, LONG, series.
Now for where things go wrong (spoilers forthcoming). Baki Dou (2014) managed to annoy people with how it seemingly overwrote the original ending of the series, where Baki fights Yujiro and everyone goes home fairly happy. It opted to introduce an entirely new character, who was far stronger than the established main cast, while also being less interesting and likeable. In a bid to make this new character threatening, he came in and kicked the crap out of characters who fans actually did like, hogged the spotlight as far as storytelling, and more or less seemed designed to artificially extend a series that had reached its natural conclusion.
Why am I rehashing this? Because this series HAS THE EXACT SAME FORMULA. A new character, never previously mentioned, who is a famous martial artist from a prior era of Japanese history, shows up, hands established beloved characters their own ass (sorry Oliva) and then gets a bunch more chapters to stress how great and undefinable they are. This could get better from here, but what I've described is basically the story up till this point. And it all just feels so unnatural and uninteresting after I've been invested in the story up till this point.
So, in conclusion, Baki remains a very weird and very well drawn martial arts series with alot of unique appeal, but the story has been pushed beyond its original scope repeatedly and new, uninteresting characters are being pushed over the ones people actually wanted to see. I hope it gets better from here, but so far it just doesnt have the sheer awesomeness of the earlier parts of the series.
Thanks to Spinybackteam for making the series readable in english.
Story: 5
Art: 9
Character: 6
Enjoyment: 6
Overall: 6
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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