Review of Baki the Grappler

"If someone is born a male, at least once in his life he'll dream of becoming the strongest man alive." This quintessential phrase of pure poignant basedness is the mantra by which Baki is made. This is a real man's show! This story will make you grow a second penis. The characters are MEN, the plot is MEN, the message is MEN. You've heard of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, well this is BIG MEN DOING MAN SHIT, a genre that is sadly dying as of late. But what can you expect, the based masculine male is the biggest threat to those hungry for power, that'swhy they're stuffing all the food and drinks with soy and estrogen to make men weak. But the innate male desire for strength of body, mind and spirit cannot be undermined and it will find a way, just like testosterone makes its way through the bloodstream. We will always find a way to climb any mountain!

Jokes aside, this right here is Baki. Quintessential Baki. It's a simple story, but honestly, there is comfort and fun to be had in its simplicity. There is no overly deep worldbuilding here (yet), no huge overaching story, no world threatening cataclysm to be stopped. This is just the story of a big strong boy and his desire to become the biggest strongest boy so he can defeat his menace of a father. It's a classic coming of age story and a classic journey of growth and self improvement. If you also love martial arts like I do, they play a huge role here and this is one the best martial arts stories to be found in classic shounen anime. The fights are great, the dialogue is snappy, sharp and to the point, the visuals are quite nice and the soundtrack is really catchy, with a distinctly oldschool charm. The characters aren't some profound philosophical allegory, they are simple, but charismatic and engaging people that will definitely keep you hooked from beginning to end.

Now, this specific adaptation is not without its flaws. For starters, this released in 2001, which is already old, but its still newer than things like One Piece, Naruto or Shaman King. Despite that, it actually looks like its 10 years older than it really is, with a very retro artstyle and animation approach that aligns much more with classic 80s battle shounen than it does with more modern ones. It feels much closer to Fist of the North Star or Yu Yu Hakusho than the others I mentioned before. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I personally enjoy oldschool media or newer media with an oldschool aesthetic, but here the show also comes with some of the drawbacks of the era. Firstly, the animation can drop the ball sometimes. Some segments are barely animated, some aren't animated at all and are basically shaky slideshows and animation bits get reused frequently. Also there are numerous unnecessary recaps across all the episodes that ultimately hurt the pacing of the story. Hell, one of the episodes in the middle of the season is just a recap of everything that happened up to that point with barely any new information being shared. It's very annoying, it's obviously a cost cutting measure but this was sadly something that was commonplace during this era. We can all be grateful that it fell out of favour.

All in all, I know most people today will go straight to the newer Netflix Baki anime, but I still think that this classic deserves a shot too. It's really enjoyable and really captures the essence of Baki and of this classic epoch of anime. It won't blow your mind or move you deeply with groundbreaking storytelling, but this was never the point. It has that same lovable testosterone-filled heart that classic action movies have. It's just a very fun collection of macho nonsense. And it's damn good at what it does too. Now if you excuse me, I must go lift weights this very moment to become the strongest in the world!