Baoh Raihousha
Baoh

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Baoh: The Visitor is a very short manga only spanning 9 chapters( short and sweet), but it's still good. Baoh has an art style very similar to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood which makes sense as Phantom Blood was made several years after Baoh. Personally I think Baoh is a story that was best made short and if it were to come back I don't think it would be as good. A new anime wouldn't really be great and the OVA was oka, but I don't feel it captured Baoh accurately. I also think that Baoh's appearance in All Star Battle was awesome and I ... hope he returns in Eyes of Heaven.

Hirohiko Araki is of course incredibly well-known for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but after getting current on that, I decided to check out one of his earlier works -- Baoh. This is a manga that I feel suffers from simply being too short. I think the idea has some potential, but it fails to ever become anything great, simply being "just ok".

The story centers around our main character Ikuro, who is forcibly given superpowers by an evil organization. Thus he is able to transform into Baoh. He escapes with a young girl and then the organization hunts them down until Ikuro eventually makes his way to ... their headquarters for a showdown. The concept is nothing special, but it's not particularly bad either. The problem lies in the fact that we are overall given very little explanation of the world and characters.

Baoh pulls his powers from nowhere with little to no explanation of them. For the most part, they are self-explanatory, but the problem is we never really know just what Baoh is capable of. It's hard to feel suspense during a fight when we know the character could very well just unveil some new power that we've never seen before. Every fight is like a deus ex machina because of this.

Second, the characters aren't explained very well. Who are Doress, and why did they create Baoh? To use him as a weapon, but for what purpose? The pacing is extremely tight, which ends up being detrimental since very important things like the characters' motivations end up getting kind of brushed over in favor of more fight scenes.

Speaking of the fight scenes, they are, again, nothing special. Araki's art is of course very distinct, and we see something close to what is seen in his other early works like Part 1 of JoJo or Mashounen BT. They're nice to look at, but when it comes to the content, they're certainly lacking the cleverness and creativeness that his later series JoJo has become known for. Rather, these fights are usually fairly straightforward, but then Baoh uses a new power to win. Having the hero develop new powers can be nice, but there's little buildup and it gets old.

Overall, I can't really give this a strong recommendation. If you're a fan of Araki like I am, you might enjoy this. However, between Baoh, Mashounen BT, and JoJo, Baoh is without a doubt the weakest of his works.

Baoh presents an intriguing premise, but unfortunately, the story isn’t fully realized. It’s somewhat disheartening to consider that this work had the potential to be great, but it took too long to set up and was trying to compete with the titans of Shonen Jump. Notably, Dragon Ball Z was released in the same year (1984) and achieved such immense success that Shonen Jump has yet to surpass its peak annual sales since its serialization ended.

For those willing to see a prototype of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, you'll find a captivating experience. Baoh contains all the hallmarks of a non-JoJo part: a fascinating premise, ... characters that feel distinct and alive, and a blend of the bizarre, the esoteric, and the skeptical. It also features a mix of body horror and gore intertwined with hilariously over-the-top action and dialogue. The theme of “love for humanity,” which is central to JoJo's, might also have been a core element in Baoh.

However, the decision by Jump to cancel it before we’re even introduced to the first real climax leaves a significant mark. The ending doesn’t just feel rushed; it is rushed. Just when you think it’s building toward a substantial series, it feels as if it cuts off prematurely— you thought it was going to be an actual series, but it was Dio instead.

For those who aren’t particularly interested in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or Araki’s work in general, I unfortunately can’t see a compelling reason to read this.