Baki the Grappler
A martial arts saga of a son seeking to surpass his father.
Keisuke Itagaki created the manga Baki the Grappler, which ran in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1991 to 1999. It centers on teen Baki Hanma, who hones his skills in brutal, rule-free fights against many challengers. With over 100 million copies sold, the Baki franchise ranks among the highest-selling manga ever.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Martial arts
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Baki Hanma is raised by his wealthy mother, Emi Akezawa, who funds his training in the hope that he can become a powerful warrior like his father, Yujiro Hanma. Early in the series, Baki outgrows traditional training and sets out to follow his father's path, meeting many powerful fighters along the way. He eventually fights Yujiro and is beaten without challenge; when Emi tries to save him, Yujiro kills her, causing Baki to hate him. After this defeat, Baki travels the world continuing his training. Years later, he discovers an underground fighting arena where he fights some of the most powerful martial artists of various styles, honing his skills. The story follows Baki as he enters the world of illegal underground fights and becomes champion of the arena below the Tokyo Dome stadium. Flashbacks show a 13-year-old Baki training to defeat his father to earn his mother's love. In the present, promoter Mitsunari Tokugawa arranges the Maximum Tournament to decide the world's strongest fighter. Baki wins all his fights and eventually faces Jack Hammer, his half-brother and another son of Yujiro.
Production
Keisuke Itagaki credits the series' thirty-plus-year run to its oddball cast, insisting he does not invent the plot but that the characters drive it forward. He picked up this lesson within his first ten minutes at Kazuo Koike's Gekiga Sonjuku school in 1987. To sidestep the typical battle manga trap of endlessly escalating power levels, he constantly looks for unconventional fight endings, pointing to the Baki versus Yujiro match as a case in point. Even his most brutal male fighters are given a distinct form of beauty. Baki Hanma himself began as a traced drawing of a girl by Keibun Ōta, then masculinized with thicker eyebrows and a heavier neck. For Kaoru Hanayama's eyes, Itagaki borrowed the feminine style of artist Pater Sato. He always draws characters' hands oversized, but Hanayama's are so large they can completely cover his face. Before settling on the demon face on Yujiro's back, Itagaki thought about giving him a dragon tattoo with limbs merging into his body. Then he saw a photo of a bodybuilder whose back resembled a Heikegani crab, which look like human faces, and pushed the idea further into a more vicious expression. The match between Antonio Igari and Mount Toba in Grappler Baki Gaiden copied the final scene from the 1982 film Rocky III. When the Baki Hanma series was announced to end in ten chapters, Itagaki had no idea what to draw next. He had originally planned that arc to be the franchise's conclusion. But just before the father-son fight began, he suddenly asked himself what would happen if Musashi Miyamoto were born today, which spawned Baki-Dou. With the parent-child conflict resolved, he moved on to exploring what strength truly means, and the word "Dou" came to him.
Media
Baki the Grappler was serialized in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion from September 30, 1991, to 1999, with chapters collected into 42 tankōbon volumes. Gutsoon! Entertainment licensed it for North America, publishing the first 46 chapters in their English-language manga anthology Raijin Comics from December 18, 2002, until the magazine's discontinuation in July 2004; four collected volumes were planned but it is unknown if they were released. Kodama Tales announced a worldwide English license in May 2025 and began publishing a kanzenban edition physically and digitally in October 2025. The second manga series, simply titled Baki, ran from 1999 to November 24, 2005, collected into 31 volumes; Media Do International released it digitally from August 2018 to August 2019, and Kodama announced in April 2026 it would publish the series starting November under the title New Grappler Baki. Baki Hanma was serialized from December 1, 2005, to August 16, 2012, collected into 37 volumes. Baki-Dou ran from March 20, 2014, to April 5, 2018, collected into 22 volumes. The fifth series, with Baki's name in katakana, ran from October 4, 2018, to June 15, 2023, collected into 17 volumes. Baki Rahen began serialization on August 24, 2023. Several spin-offs exist: Grappler Baki Gaiden (one volume, 1999), Baki: Tokubetsuhen Saga (one volume, 2002), Baki Gaiden: Scarface (eight volumes, 2005-2009), and Baki Hanma 10.5 Gaiden: Pickle (one volume, 2008).
Reception
By May 2021, the Baki franchise had sold over 85 million volumes, a figure that climbed past 100 million by May 2024. Its spin-off, Scarface, had 3.5 million copies in print as of February 2019. Anime News Network’s Allen Divers called the series “very compelling,” while Jason Thompson labeled it a “demented fighting manga.” Two of that site’s reviewers, Faye Hopper and Rebecca Silverman, compared Baki to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Hopper gave the first volume of the second manga a 4 out of 5, praising its absurdity and “absolutely incredible artistry.” Amy McNulty scored the same volume 2.5, lauding the art but finding character designs forgettable and the story failing to make readers care about anyone. Rebecca Silverman and Teresa Navarro each gave it a 2, calling it a “set-up book” where every new character is introduced the same way. Mark Thomas of Mania Entertainment rated the first 24 episodes of the 2001 anime a B−, saying fight fans would enjoy it but others should look elsewhere; he praised the realistic fights but criticized the weak story as mere setup for season two. He gave the same grade to the final 24 episodes, “mildly recommending” them but noting that skipping Baki’s final fight with Yujiro ruined the experience. Baki inspired the design of Gai Tendo in the 1999 game Buriki One. The 2012 comedy film Graffreeter Toki is based on a March 2011 play, which itself was inspired by Baki. Sociologist Junko Kaneda interpreted the series as homoerotic, publishing an essay book titled Notes of a Girl Who Spent 30 Hours a Day for 300 Days Thinking “So Baki The Grappler Is BL, Right?” This was adapted into a live-action TV series, A Story of Grappler Baki and Me, which aired on Wowow in August 2021.
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