Review of Baki: The Great Raitai Tournament Saga
Baki is back reminding everyone that it is the absolute, unrefuted, number one KING of mindless fighting in anime. Fight scenes galore (although some of them were kind of short) and completely ridiculous feats of strength, speed, and skill. If you liked Baki 2018 you’re going to like Baki 2020. Tl;dr Baki 2020 is a continuation of the Baki 2018, so much so you’d seriously wonder why there was a 2-year gap between the two seasons. It's so similar in fact it's so much alike that most of the parts of this review is ripped straight out of my last one.--Minor spoilers below--
Story 5 Arguably its weakest point
In all honesty, I feel like I should give this a lower score, there’s honestly not much in terms of story AT ALL. But I also feel like it doesn’t really matter since the show doesn’t NEED a story either. That being said, compared to baki 2018 the surprise element is pretty much gone, they’ll match up some bozo who’s greatest feat is akin to lifting up a large rock vs the man who could probably throw cars for a living. They also buffed the main character (Baki) so much that ALMOST every fight with him in it ends in about two seconds. There was a weird side plot near the end but at the end of the day, who cares what the story is like when the action is the main focal point.
Art 7
In baki 2018, ironically enough, the still images were probably the worst part of the art in the show. It’s the exact same thing here but somehow the still shots are even worse (looking at you, Ogre), the animation stays relatively consistent (which is a feat in its own right if you look at the original manga.) but doesn’t feel like enough of an upgrade to call is “better” or “worse” than Baki 2018
Sound 10
Literally the same as Baki 2018 (again cementing the confusion on why there was a two-year gap between these different seasons). I’ll just leave this here: “part of the reason why every hit felt genuine was the sound, from fracturing bone to explosions, everything had a certain weight behind it that I really can’t properly explain”
Character 6
The characters this season feel like a huge downgrade from last season we were introduced to a couple of characters, out of about 12 of them, 7 of them were completely worthless and out of the 4 that managed not to embarrass themselves two were pitted against Baki and were annihilated in a few seconds and another two were pitted against someone else and… you guessed it, annihilated (however one of them managed to put up a decent fight). Finally, Kaku Katoh, who was one of the coolest in the season finally made an appearance, I’d probably give the “Character” tag a 5 or a 6 if it wasn’t for him. I’m just a huge fan of Kaku Kaioh lol.
Enjoyment: 8 Dumb fun
Baki is the true TOURNAMENT ARC anime and I LOVE it for that. <--Even more so since 8 episodes of this was one large TOOOOOOOURNAMENT AAAAAAARRRRCCCCCC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall: I really wish I could give 7.5s but I’ll round it down to a 7
Again, there’s not much else to say except: “wow, this show is fun to watch”