Baki Hanma (2024)

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Baki Hanma is the titular main protagonist of the martial arts anime and manga series, Grappler Baki or Baki Series. He is the second son of Yujiro Hanma, the legendary Strongest Creature on Earth and the half-younger brother of Jack Hanma.

In the anime, he is voiced by Masami Kikuchi (seasons 1-2), Nobunaga Shimazaki (season 3) in Japanese and in English he is voiced by Robert McCollum (seasons 1-2) and Troy Baker (season 3).

Appearance[]

Baki's appearance drastically changes throughout the series as he gets older. At the age of 13, he is a boy that stands approximately 5'6 (167 cm) and later has a somewhat child-like demeanor and short hair that is long in the back when he is 17 years old at the first initial appearance at the beginning of the series. Baki's body throughout the entire series is shown to be severely scarred body all around due to the diligent and uncompromising training he puts himself through, with the only exception being his face. Another noticeable feature of Baki's appearance is the mole he has just above his upper lip on the side (this is also a physical trait he shares with his mother).

At 13, his appearance had a minor change. His hair was shorter, with a spiky style, and had an orange color (most likely this was because he was trying to be more like his father).

In the second manga series, when Baki is 17, his appearance reverts back to its initial version at the beginning of Grappler Baki, with a more mature look. His childlike demeanor is replaced by a carefree, almost weary demeanor. His hair is now much longer, going below his ears. Baki's appearance at an 18 in the third manga series is not much different than his previous look in New Grappler Baki. The only changes in his appearance are that his hair is now more curly, and he has grown to be 167 cm (5'6") tall.

Having gone intense physical training since childhood, Baki's body is very muscular, flexible and durable. His physique has been described as resulting from constant, rigorous combat training, and is far beyond that of a typical adolescent's. His bones and muscles are also described as being better than that of an Olympic sportsman.

Personality[]

Overview[]

Throughout most of the series, Baki is usually shown to be a carefree, laid-back, hard-training, and sometimes aggressive teenage boy.

Baki strives to defeat his father, Yuujiro Hanma, who is indisputably considered the strongest man alive, capable of stopping an earthquake with a punch and kill a giant elephant immune to conventional weapons. However, Baki's dream is not to replace Yujiro as the strongest man alive, but only to become strong enough to defeat him. This goal stems from a natural desire to surpass his father as well as a desire to avenge his mother, Emi Akezawa, whom Yujiro murdered.

Baki trains on a near constant basis, day and night, attempting to hone his skills as quickly as possible. As a fairly well-known martial artist (amongst those aware of the Underground Arena), Baki frequently tends to get into fights with various extravagant fighters quite often, sometimes being intentional, others by circ*mstances of bad luck (usually the latter). Baki realizes that the fastest and only way for him to get stronger is to battle other people stronger than himself, so his body will get stronger and learn from the experience, because this is an aspect of the Hanma bloodline. Baki has a strong sense of love and respect for those close to him, especially his girlfriend Kozue Matsumoto.

He eventually develops the demon face on his back when fighting his brother, but only for a fleeting moment. Unlike his father, he chooses to control his killing intent and fight his battles fair and honorably no matter what the outcome. Many of Baki's unusual training methods often earn him the admiration of many of the fighters of the underground arena; for example, shadowboxing, or visualizing fighting an opponent, is a big part of Baki's regimen - sometimes, his visions take an almost corporeal form and given he can easily remember and replicate any technique he sees this gives him a huge edge over his opponents, as he can "fight" them and learn their weaknesses before actually fighting them.

Powers and Abilities[]

Baki's strength is constantly growing throughout the series. Baki's intial introduction at the very beginning of the series, 17 year old Baki was already the champion of the Tokyo Underground Dome. At the beginning, Baki was shown to benchpress over 320lbs when training. At first, Baki was shown to be on the same level as Mount Toba, a wrestler who was shown to be strong enough to easily defeat Hanada and crush his bike in the process. 18 year old Baki's strength grew more, until he was strong enough to face Kureha, and defeat him. As Baki's never stops getting stronger throughout the series, it is difficult to set a definitive level to his strength. At the start of the anime, Baki at age 13, was able to defeat 37 of 100 thugs by himself. When he confronted the huge Yakuza boss Hanayama, he was shown to effortlessly overpower several men trying to hold him back, and kick Hanyama's 250lb desk out the window with ease. He was shown fast enough to catch a knife thrown at him from 15 feet away. Baki's strength increased more during his fight with the mercenary Gaia, when he learned to utilize his endorphins to boost his strength and speed. When he activates his endorphins, it also allows his body to, react and move on its own, without his conscious effort. By the time 13 year old Baki faced Yujiro, Baki was shown strong enough to tank Hanayama's punches (which are powerful enough to split a fence open), without damage. He was able to push Hanayama's 350lb body 30 meters away with a punch, and proved to be faster than Yuri's boxing, by easily dodging all his punches. Baki had enough stamina to fight for 12 hours straight with Hanayama and Yuri without stopping, all while wearing a 45lb training belt, proclaiming the 12 hour session as a warm-up.

In the sequel New Grappler Baki, when Baki is now 17, Baki has shown much improvement. While in gym class, Baki was shown to do 10 pull-ups in 2 seconds (breaking the pull-up bar in the process), jump 20ft in the air over a 20ft gap from a standing position, and broke his arm cast into pieces by simply flexing his arm. He was fast enough to effortlesly dodge a thug's chain weapon with a rock attached to it for blunt damage, while the thug was able to swing his chain at speeds of over 100mph. He also took a knife out of another thug's hand without the thug even seeing him do so (despite the fact that the thug could swing his knife back and forth in his hands at imperceptible speeds to the human eye). Baki fought one of the escaped superhuman convicts, Sikorsky and won easily by smashing his genitals. His fight was interrupted twice by Oliver. Baki was shown to able to kick Oliver who weights 180kg using a back kick. Baki also fought with two escaped convicts at once, Sikorsky and Yannagi, and was able to defeat them easily. When Baki was poisoned by Yannagi, he participated in the Chinese Tournament and cured his poison. His body was renewed and Baki remarked that his body feels light like a feather. Baki easily defeats Kaku Shunshei in 2 seconds without the opponent landing a hit. It should be noted that by this time in the story, Baki can be considered one of the strongest characters in the Grappler Baki series, with his strength, speed, stamina, and arsenal of techniques being superior to mostly everyone else (excluding his father Yuujiro Hanma, Biscuit Oliver, and Kaku Kaioh).

Physical Abilities[]

• Superhuman Strength:
• Superhuman Condition:
  • Demon Back:
• Superhuman Reflexes:

Fighting Style[]

• Master Combatant:

Techniques[]

• Endorphin
• Death Concentration
• Ippon Ken
• Rear Naked Choke
• Roll Kick
• Bow and Arrow
• Seiken
• Armlock
• Kinteki Geri
• Suplex
• Goutaijutsu
• Enzuigiri
• New Cobra
• Single-Leg Figure-Four
• New Swastika
• Backdrop
• Antonio Driver
• Spinning Lotus
• Soccer Ball Kick
• Shining Wizard
• Cord-Cut
• Mach Punch
• Arm Breaker
• Front Neck-Lock
• Backhand Blow
• Axe Kick
• Whip Strike
• Yawara
• 0.5 Second Unconscious
• Slap
• Triceratops Fist
• co*ckroach Dash
• Hand Pocket
• King Tiger
• Aiki

Weaknesses[]

he cannot activate Demon Back at will and only when you are in a risky situation.

Relationships[]

Trivia[]

• The name Baki means "blade, sword" (刃) (ba) and "fang, tusk" (牙) (ki). Baki's surname Hanma means "pattern, example, model" (範) (han) and "horse" (馬) (ma).
• Baki's character was based on Taira Naoyuki.
• In the Funimation dub version of the first anime series, from seasons 1-2, Baki was voiced by Robert McCollum. By the start of the third season, however, he was then voiced by Troy Baker, who ironically voiced Kiyosumi Katou in the Funimation dub.
• The character Gai Tendou from the SNK multiverse is based on Baki.