‘baki’ It’s one of those animes where anything can happen, and it’s really not an exaggeration. the sleeve of Keisuke Itaki It has been in publication since 1991, and although it began as a martial arts story with certain peculiarities, since then the ball has grown to become the mastodon that it is today.
Although back in 2001 we had a first anime with ‘Baki the Grappler’, starting in 2018 Baki has entered the stage again with a kick thanks to Netflix, which is in charge of recovering some older series such as ‘Spriggan’ and ‘Bastard!!!’ to give them a new life, although without losing their essence.
And well, after the first seasons of ‘Baki’ to reintroduce ourselves to the adolescent fighter we came to ‘Baki Hanma’, a new chapter in the family drama at the Hanma house.
all for the muscle
Broadly speaking, the story of ‘Baki’ revolves around the aforementioned baki hanmawho has been training all his life to be able to measure himself with his father Yujiro Hanma, the strongest man in the world. Since history began we have had a roller coaster of fights against thugs, the Yakuza, impossible clandestine tournaments, death matches against dangerous escaped prisoners, more tournaments with the best fighters in the world…
Despite everything that has happened to him and how freakishly strong he has become during the series, Baki still can’t get over his father Yujiro, because this is a force of nature in itself at the level of stopping an earthquake with a punch because a natural disaster was a bit bad for him at that moment. So the best option for Baki is to continue training.
Getting into the fair spoilers,’baki hanma‘ leaves us with some of the most iconic scenes of the entire series, starting with the death match against an imaginary praying mantis of two meters and about a hundred tons. After a productive training session that was spectacular in Baki’s head, the young fighter decides to go after his next target: Biscuit Oliva, the strongest man in America.
It downhill without brakes
Unfortunately, Oliva is locked up in a high-security prison, with which he Baki’s best chance to come face to face with him is to kidnap the President of the United States and earn himself a good sentence.. Surprisingly, this part of the plan works out and Baki is one step closer to a deadly and exhaustive new training that will undoubtedly help him incredibly on his path to becoming the World’s Strongest Man.
All the defects and virtues that the previous animes had are taken even more to the extreme in ‘Baki Hanma’, from the old-fashioned fights to the hyperbolic character designs to a somewhat cowardly homoeroticism. TMS Entertainment still handles the animation, which is still pretty stiff and over-the-top and doesn’t necessarily shine either, but it does the trick perfectly. Because in the end we are not seeing Baki’s story either because of cutting-edge animation or because of a plot that is going to change your life, you see it because of the morbidity and the show.
The truth is that the plot of ‘Baki Hanma‘ improvement compared to how repetitive the previous anime could be made by changing the scenery a bit. And if you don’t take it too seriously and you’re here for the pure splurge of testosterone you’re going to have a pipe.
Because after so much time and despite the fact that he is dumber than a stone, you take a certain affection for Baki… Although the truth is that in this section of the story you miss more scenes with Yujiro because the atrocities he does tend to be the highlight of the season.
‘Baki Hanma’ Is Absolutely Ridiculous And Absurd, But Surprisingly Addictive. We already know that we have another season underway, and if we thought that Baki had reached his limit, it seems that the new chapters will bring us a thawed prehistoric man as his next rival. And as stupid as it sounds and as much as I hate every minute of it, I’m going to be front row to see it.
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