Keisuke Itagaki’s Baki series is one of the most long running manga series, and now fans are excited to see it get a slick anime production that seems much different than its past adaptations.
Netflix is setting to adapt Grappler Baki: In Search of Our Strongest Hero and has revealed its staff, voice cast, and a teaser trailer to cap it all off. Fans of the bloody and violent series can’t wait to see it all in action.
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Premiering on Netflix this Summer in Japan, and in the Fall in other regions, the series will run for 26 episodes. It has been confirmed to adapt the “Most Evil Death Row Convicts” arc of the manga, which features death row convicts fighting without rules in an underground fighting ring. This no holds barred results in the bloody outcome seen in the trailer, with many violent and gripping fights that will definitely garner attention.
Toshiki Hirano (Rayearth) is directing the series for TMS Entertainment (ReLIFE), Fujio Suzuki is designing the characters (New Getter Robo), Tatsuhiko Urahata (Tsuredere Children) is composing the series, and Nobunaga Shimazaki will voice the main character, Baki Hanma.
Netflix describes Baki as such:
“The protagonist, Baki Hanma, trains with an intense focus to become strong enough to surpass his father, Yujiro Hanma, the strongest fighter in the world. Five of the world’s most violent and brutal death row inmates are gathering to face Baki. Their objective is to taste defeat — their unmatched strength and skill have led them to grow bored of life itself, and they now seek out Baki in the hopes that he can overwhelm and utterly crush them. In this crisis, other underground martial art warriors gather to fight by Baki’s side: Kaoru Hanayama, Gouki Shibukawa, Retsu Kaioh, and Doppo Orochi. An epic showdown between violent death row inmates and Baki and his friends begins!”
Originally created by Keisuke Itagaki for Weekly Shonen Magazine, Baki The Grappler ran between 1991 and 1999 and has been collected into 42 volumes. The sequel Baki, which the upcoming anime is based on, ran in Weekly Shonen Champion from 1999 to 2005, and has been collected into 31 volumes. The third series, Baki Hanma, ran from 2005 to 2012 and collected into 37 volumes, and the most recent sequel Baki-Dou began serialization in March 2014. It has since been adapted into several anime series, OVAs, and spin-off manga.
