News Reporting

Keisuke Itagaki’s “Baki” Manga Gets Anime TV Series


The world’s greatest grappler is ready to face the world in his greatest challenge yet.

The latest issue of Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shonen Champion Magazine (#1, 2017) reports that Keisuke Itagaki’s Baki (New Grappler Baki: In Search of Our Strongest Hero) will get an anime adaptation.

The project will be a TV series, focuses on the manga’s “Most Evil Death Row Convicts” arc. As of press time, no further details are known, but more information will be revealed in future issues of Weekly Shonen Champion.

The “Most Evil Death Row Convicts” arc is set near the start of Baki. The section revolves around five condemned criminals, who escape from prison and make their way to Tokyo. There, they decide to pit their fists against Japan’s finest fighters in an underground martial arts tournament. Baki, himself, stands at the top as champion.

baki-tv-anime-announcement-visual-001-20161128

In addition to the TV series, a new Baki OAD will ship with Volume 14 of Baki-Dou, which hits Japanese retailers on December 6. The feature will also depict events from the “Most Evil Death Row Convicts” arc.

baki-oad-announcement-001-20161128ki,

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the original Baki the Grappler (Grappler Baki) manga, which debuted in the pages of Weekly Shonen Champion in 1991. The series ran through 1999, and spanned 42 collected volumes.

Sequel series Baki launched in Weekly Shonen Champion in June 1999. The title ran in the publication through November 2005, spanning 31 compiled volumes.

Baki Hanma kicked off in the following issue of Weekly Shonen Champion, which hit newsstands on December 1, 2005. Baki Hanma ran through August 16, 2012, spanning 37 compiled books.

The most recent series, Baki-Dou is ongoing in Weekly Shonen Champion. The title began in March 2014, and currently spans eleven volumes. The 14th book will hit retailers on December 6, in both a standard and a limited edition. The limited edition will include an OVA.

Baki the Grappler received two TV 24-episode anime adaptations in 2001, as well as a 1994 OVA. Central Park Media released the OVA in the west on VHS and DVD, while Funimation distributed the TV adaptations.

Source: Otakomu

About the author

Samantha Ferreira

Samantha Ferreira is Anime Herald’s founder and editor-in-chief. A Rhode Island native, Samantha has been an anime fan since 1992, and an active member of the anime press since 2002, when she began working as a reviewer for Anime Dream. She launched Anime Herald in 2010, and continues to oversee its operations to this day. Outside of journalism, Samantha actively studies the history of the North American anime fandom and industry, with a particular focus on the 2000s anime boom and bust. She’s a huge fan of all things Sakura Wars, and maintains series fansite Combat Revue Review when she has free time available. When not in the Anime Herald Discord, Samantha can typically be found on Bluesky.

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