Baki the Grappler Vol-5: Young Champion (2001)
Released by: Funimation
Running Time: 100 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

As you may have noticed we have certain shows we like to follow here at the anime labs. One of our favorite series being released at this time is Baki the Grappler from our pals at Funimation. A show that I passed over at first due to the rather unattractive character designs. Fortunately I later was fortunate enough to actually catch a glimpse of it and it was love at first sight. Now seeing how the show has evolved and changed with the latest volume, it’s interesting to look back at the first two volumes as the tone and overarching direction have changed so much.

Change does bring about some terrific things in this situation, however, as Baki the Grappler finally enters an official tournament mode that facilitates our hero's over-the-top battles. Let’s get into the ring and find out what this is all about.

Story

"Baki has become the champion of an underground circuit known for employing some of the best fighters in the world. Tokugawa, the commissioner of the circuit, throws the best competitors he can find in Baki's path, to no avail: The Champ seems invincible! But two incredible adversaries await.

A battle against an opponent with an unusual fighting style takes Baki to the limit of his abilities. With his arm disabled early on in the fight, Baki has to push through agonizing pain to survive the bout of his career. Should he make it out in one piece, he will face a wresting icon of mammoth proportions. Will Baki have the strength to bring victory to his name?" -- DVD Box

Review

The fifth volume in Funimation' s release of Baki the Grappler features episodes seventeen through twenty one in the series, which include:

Episode 17: Champion
Kato, one of the Shinshinkaikan’s dojo most promising students who left 4 years ago to pursue a criminal career has returned to his old training grounds in search of stronger opponents, but what he ends up finding is the promised land of ultimate fighting beneath Tokyo Dome. A secretive stage where the world’s top fighter take each other on, not for money or amazing prizes, but rather, for the honor of being the top ranked fighter in the world.

Now 3 years after he returned Baki reigns supreme in this league as an undefeated champion. Will Kato get a chance to take Baki on? First he may need to see what our hero is capable of.

Episode 18: The Cord Cutter
Baki’s newest opponent is a master of the terrifying cord cutting technique, a fighting style that incapacitates opponents by destroying their nerve cords. Can Baki overcome this latest threat to his undefeated record?

Episode 19: The Right to Fight
While Baki takes some time off to recover from his latest bout everyone is itching for the chance to take him on behind the scenes. By the end of it all his opponent will be revealed to be none other than Japan’s top pro-wrestler, a giant who easily dwarfs Baki in stature and overall body size. The next battle of titans is about to begin!

Episode 20: An Honorable Loss
The heat is on as Baki takes an almost unending barrage of attacks from his pro-wrestling opponent. Is there a way for him to counter this powerful giant?

With this set of four episodes two things became very apparent about this show. On the one hand it has moved well beyond its original premise to include a better laid-out tournament battle format and a more complex living situation for Baki, who has grown not only older and stronger, but also deeper emotionally. On the other hand the series retains many of the core elements on which it has relied up to this point to get the plot moving and engaging Baki as a person with other fighters.

As far as the new additions and changes made to the story, I absolutely love them as they humanize Baki and make him seem more real. Of these changes the biggest one is that our hero now rather than live by himself in a beat-up home, he rents a place out from a widow of one of the fighters in the underground tournament Baki is now taking part in. She and her daughter don’t have a terribly involved life with our protagonist, but it’s obvious that an emotional bond has formed. From the woman’s angle, Baki reminds her of her deceased husband and his presence brings a calming peace to her existence. To her daughter, Baki is a mystery, one that she is interested in deciphering. Baki being the disciplined singled-focused person that he is though misses a lot of the cues that both woman throw his way, adding to the relationship they have and giving Baki a refreshed personality and situation that brings him out from the “trouble youth” persona he had in the previous episodes.

The other big change in his life is that now rather than traveling the world in search of good fighters Baki exists at the center of the fighting world’s stage and all the top fighters in the world now come to him, since he is the champion and has been so for 3 consecutive years. The bouts that take place here harden Baki and help develop him as someone who may one day be able to take on his father. Interestingly despite the format change, here is where one of those familiar elements I mention above comes in, and that is Baki’s view and reaction to each person he fights after their encounter.

When the new storyline was unveiled I figured Baki would have changed a lot and maybe not be as likeable as he was early on, when he was inexperienced. Interestingly they kept Baki’s sense of honor and comradely intact. After each match he still makes it a point to go over to the people he just defeated and thank them for their match, while at the time complementing their efforts. This isn’t necessarily a huge thing, but in the past it has added a lot to Baki as a character, so I’m glad they kept it.

On the flip-side of Baki’s story we now also expand this universe via the introduction of several new characters and their stories. This adds tremendously to the depth of the plot and enriches the narrative layer several times over as it brings in several new perspectives for us to look at the story from. We know why Baki is doing this, but now we also see how other characters see Baki and why they think they should be in the position he is enjoying in the underground fighting arena. It’ll be fun to watch future episodes and see how this idea is expanded upon.

As with the previous episodes the productions values here were quite good with a solid frame rate, sharp looking visuals, a varied color palette and neat visual effects. The action scenes are depicted with a lot of kinetic energy and interesting angles that add to their explosiveness onscreen. The one thing that I continue to not be impressed by are some of the character designs, especially Baki’s, which remind me a lot of hybrid anime drawings by people trained in more Marvel/DC-like comic art style.

As far as the audio component of goes I loved all aspects of it. The soundtrack in particular noteworthy with several good techno pieces that pump up the action and add another layer of energy to the fighting/training scenes (as if they weren’t energy-packed already). The voice acting was on-target with everyone putting in a solid performance on both the Japanese and English dubbed tracks.

The DVD itself is an all around well packaged product with a variety of extras that round off the episodes in this volume on a positive note. DVD extras include director/actor commentary for episode 17, episode summaries, clean copies of the opening and ending themes, character profiles, an art gallery and previews of other Funimation releases. Inside the DVD box there is also a small booklet with more info on the company’s other properties and releases as well as little cardboard cutout pieces with the characters from the show in them. Both the audio and video transfers are crystal clear with no real issues to speak of.

Final Thoughts

This is a powerhouse anime for fans of fighting/martial arts shows. Make sure this one is on your radar screen next time you head out to your favorite anime shop!

Highly recommended.

Jeffrey Couto