Well-known among fans around the world for its hot-blooded, epic martial arts battles and out-of-the-world muscle-bound fighting, Baki, one of Japan's most iconic action mangas, is celebrating the franchise's 25th anniversary with the return of the brand-new show for a new Netflix anime series. The anime premiered in Japan in the summer of 2018, and now Netflix is releasing it worldwide with a total of 26 episodes, split into two seasons.
The Netflix series is called Baki, based on Keisuke Itagaki's popular manga Baki The Grappler. It's one of the most entertaining and bizarre martial arts series and has been popular among fans for almost three decades now. The series started in the early 90s in manga form and consists of several main story arcs. The manga previously received two TV anime adaptations.
The story is centred on the life of fictional professional fighter Baki Hanma, who seeks to become a better fighter, primarily to surpass his father who's being hailed as the strongest fighter on Earth.
The new show will be adapting the second arc of the manga series, Most Evil Death Row Convicts. The storyline pits Baki Hanma against five of the world's most violent and brutal death-row inmates, none of whom has ever lost a fight and all of whom crave the exciting embrace of 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.
The five individuals break out of their respective prisons and head to Japan, forcing Baki to fight in the ring once again in an underground mixed-martial-arts tournament under the Tokyo Dome, in the second of four instalments.
