Reviews

Oct 9, 2021
I watched the original Baki the Grappler (2001) back in 2015 and I've watched everything this series has to offer. Before I proceed with this review, I want to give you an overview of the scores I gave to each title so you can understand better if my review will resonate with you or not.

Baki the Grappler (TV) - 7/10
Baki the Grappler (OVA) - 7/10
Grappler Baki: Saidai Tournament-hen - 6/10
Baki: Most Evil Death Row Convicts Special - 6/10
Baki - 6/10
Baki: Dai Raitaisai-hen - 5/10


So, as you can see the enjoyment I've been getting from Baki animes as time goes on is decreasing and in my opinion Netflix continues to drag Baki through the mud.

Visuals:
1) the animation is very inconsistent, specially noticeable when throws stupid CGI in the mix.
2) anatomically incorrect body designs which shatter my immersion


Sound: without being a masterpiece it's the best aspect of this season

Characters and story:
1) This season seems to be one of those shows made by incredibly insecure dudes featuring themselves trying to be as macho as they can and failing miserably at it but without being aware of how pathetic they are. I'm so masculine, I'd rather spend time rolling around with half naked dudes all the time and come up with ridiculous excuses to do it more often. I'm so masculine I love golden showers between men. Even the script is cringe.
2) No character development whatsoever
3) you'll see plenty of references to real life events and real life people (Che Guevara, George Bush, JFK's assassination, Mike Tyson, etc.) to try and bring immersion and realism to this season but everything is so over the top ridiculous that it's laughable in a bad way. You'll see someone get physically injured because their shadowboxing became too realistic (shadowboxing is fighting air while imagining there's someone fighting you), someone else shooting a few strands of hair at someone and ripping their eardrums with it and plenty of other stupid BS while a random (yes, random because it changes every few moments) temporary character narrates what's going on, sometimes giving science trivia as if whatever's going on could be plausible.
4) Most fights, which should be the main focus of this season as there's literally no character development as I've said previously, don't happen in real time. What I mean is that these actions sequences are constantly interrupted by unnamed temporary and random characters narrating whatever is happening when we're not watching the actual fights. Imagine you're watching a movie and every couple of seconds you get a close up of a random person telling you about the movie you're trying to watch in the 1st place.


My expectations were already low because in my opinion Netflix hasn't done anything remotely good for the Baki franchise but they managed to surprise me. However, I can compliment Netflix for one thing: subtitles. For the 1st time the official subtitles were accurate, except for one small occasion where the characters said 100,000 calories and the subtitle read 10,000 calories instead.


All things considered, I hated watching this. It gets a 3/10 from me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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