Review of Baki: The Great Raitai Tournament Saga
Allow me to just say a couple of things before I get started: 1) the original Baki from 2001 is still the best; 2) Netflix continues to stain Baki's legacy and the sequel is actually worse than last season. Animation: 1) incredibly inconsistent and CGI usage is cringy. The characters' bodies change in the middle of fighting (ex: Yujiro's devil back muscles disappear and reappear at will; Baki's body proportions; etc.) 2) it's 2020. It's about time we see movement in fights rather than random lazer beams. Hajimo no Ippo is also an old school anime with a rough art style and managed to update itsvisuals while maintaining its visual style.
3) Chest without nipples, regardless of gender, will always look weird
Sound:
1) I hated the OP but enjoyed the ED
2) the soundtrack is pretty good overall
3) sound effects make no sense: whenever a wooden door is smashed, it sounds the exact same as when you smash a window.
4) the script that seiyuus follow do not match the animation (ex: a character is laughing but visually, it looks like they're talking regularly)
Story and characters:
1) Similar to last season, Netflix still can't produce accurate subtitles.
2) The fights' predictability make them unsatisfying to watch
3) SPOILER: last season, it was clearly stated that Muhammad Ali is the real great late boxing champion Muhammad Ali in real life. Someone still thought it would be a great idea to have a BOXING athlete to be concerned over someone sitting down in the middle of the ring. I'm pretty sure that knowing that boxing is only practiced when both athletes are standing upwards is common knowledge. This piece of plot would've been fine if they just thought of a famous MMA fighter instead.
4) SPOILER: on the 3rd episode, there's this guy sucking on a piece of candy during his match. Eventually, he's forced to spit it out. A couple of events later, another character enters the arena, picks up the dirty ass candy piece (it was even visually dirty), licks it up and feeds it to the 1st guy. This scene was just plain disgusting for no good reason. The same point could be made by having the same guy give a brand new piece of candy to the other dude. I almost threw up.
5) SPOILER ABOUT THE ENDING: everything about the ending is stupid, disgusting and insulting. Junior's strategy is to provoke jealousy so Baki fights him, going as far as telling Kozue that her job is being (someone's) woman. The entire thing from start to finish is cringe. Baki's response and philosophy to Junior's plan is correct (something along the lines of "Kozue is a free woman and she's free to date whover she wants") but Junior still goes on this insane idea that if he defeats Baki, then Kozue will develop feelings for him. The next few episodes are about Junior's challenging characters from last season in one poor attempt at nostalgia that ultimately ends up with him having his limbs, feet, hands and fingers broken. Yet, Netflix still thought it would be exciting and entertaining to watch a close-to-paraplegic man to be beaten up to a pulp. Eventually, Baki accepts to fight Junior but only if he's fully recovered and in his top shape (contradicting every character that beat up Junior before). This fight lasted 3 seconds. So much "hype", so much blood, sweat and tears to get this "fight for the woman" and it ends in 3 seconds. However, Baki doesn't waste time celebrating an easy win and challenges Yujiro. Yujiro gets so excited to the point that Netflix decides to punch every viewer in the gut by pushing a "THE END" screen on the 12th episode. But there are 13 episodes, right? Yes, unfortunately. The 13th episode is a "special" that last 24 minutes and it's about the police officer investigating the Death Row inmates from last season. Does it sound interesting? It's because it's not and I'm furious with whoever is in charge of this Netflix adaptation. Oh and here's a bonus: Kozue leaves Baki alone after a stupid 3 word conversation after challenging Yujiro for a fight, runs into Junior and both hug it out crying. Kozue used to be the best character in the entire Netflix adaptation and now there are no good characters left. Great job, Netflix. Great job!
Overall, this sequel is a 5/10 for me and I honestly would not recommend any of the Netflix series to anyone, regardless if they're major fans of Baki or not.