Baki turns 30

Ahoy captain cats here and today we are going to look at one of the longest-running martial arts manga series that turns 30 this year and that series is Grappler Baki or Baki the Grappler here in North America.

The series was created by Keisuke Itagaki and is still being published by Akita Shoten in its Weekly Shonen Champion magazine. The series was introduced to the world back in October of 1991 and since then it has spawned a total of 137 volumes through five different manga series:

Grappler Baki – 1991 to 1991 with a total of 42 volumes
Baki – 1991 to2005 with a total of 31 volumes
Baki Hanma – 2005 to 2012 with a total of 37 volumes
Baki-Dou – 2014 to 2018 with a total of 22 volumes
Baki Dou – 2018 and still ongoing with a total of 8 volumes so far

In case you’re wondering why the last two are the same name it’s because the fourth series main title name was written in Kanji, while the fifth series main title was written in Katakana. Besides the manga series, the Baki series was also turned into an OVA, an anime TV series, and the ONA series which are the Netflix Baki series, and as of now the third of the Netflix series is due to be out sometime this year.

The series story is about a young man name Baki Hanma, and he wants to be the strongest fighter in the world and to do so he needs to beat his dad, who is the strongest man in the world. What makes the Baki series last for so long is the art itself, if you want a good idea of how the series art style is then I would recommend watching the Netflix series and you’ll see what I’m talking about. If you like the Netflix series, then take some time and go read the series from the very beginning and enjoy 30 years’ worth of great storytelling and wonderful martial art fighting.