Baki-Dou: The Invincible Samurai - Part 1 Review

Baki-Dou: The Invincible Samurai is disposable connected Netflix now.

In a satellite of cartoonishly ripped men whose lone extremity successful beingness is to hone and beryllium their spot successful a bid of no-holds-barred, weapons-free fights, one’s top force is not a mighty foe; it is yawning boredom. This is the archetypal set-up for Netflix’s latest anime offering: Baki-Dou: The Invincible Samurai, and it makes for an entertaining, amazingly relatable introduction constituent for viewers caller to the franchise.

Based connected Keisuke Itagaki’s massively fashionable manga, Baki-Dou: The Invincible Samurai is the 4th bid adaptation of the Baki story, pursuing 2 seasons of Baki the Grappler (2001), 2 seasons of Baki (2018), and 2 seasons of Baki Hanma (2021). The franchise follows the battles of Baki Hanma (voiced by Troy Baker and Nobunaga Shimazaki), who begins the communicative arsenic a teen underground fighter. In the hopes of increasing beardown capable to champion his cruel begetter successful combat, helium travels the satellite to conflict others.

By the clip Baki-Dou: The Invincible Samurai starts, Baki has settled the people with his father, Yujiro “Strongest Creature connected Earth” Hanma (voiced by Kirk Thornton and Akio Ōtsuka), and is near feeling aimless. He inactive trains, but it is without urgency, excitement, oregon purpose. Baki isn’t the lone one—all the world’s fighters are caught up successful this ennui, and it’s unexpectedly relatable. I whitethorn not beryllium an anime musculus man, but I cognize what it’s similar to consciousness a deficiency of purpose, seemingly exacerbated by the profit-driven humdrum of the modern world. It besides aligns Baki with fans astatine home, wondering if the franchise volition ever again beryllium capable to lucifer the strength of its father-son brawl.

In the satellite of Baki-Dou, the big-swing solution to our corporate boredom isn’t casual but it is possible: bring history’s top samurai swordsman, Musashi Miyamoto (voiced by Sung-won Cho and Naoya Uchida), backmost from the dead. The task is spearheaded by Mitsunari Tokugawa (voiced by Matthew Yang King and Mugihito), the martial arts-obsessed billionaire who funds and runs the Underground Arena wherever our characters look off. (Note: I judge Tokugawa to beryllium this franchise’s existent villain.)

Tokugawa comes up with the brainsick resurrection program arsenic a mode to reinvigorate his planetary unchangeable of fighters, and helium hires a squad of scientists (and his psychic sister) to marque it happen. Viewers who are present solely for the conflict sequences whitethorn beryllium bored by the archetypal fewer Baki-Dou episodes, which absorption much connected however Miyamoto is resurrected than martial arts, but the bid is stronger for its slow-burn start. It allows america to amended recognize Baki’s boredom, portion besides providing discourse for Miyamoto’s return. As the bid progresses, and Miyamoto is near to accommodate (or not) to the modern satellite connected his own, the Dr. Frankenstein-like selfishness of Tokugawa’s enactment serves arsenic subtext for each that follows.

The creativity successful however ferocity is depicted—from wrong a fighter’s caput to arsenic described connected an evening quality report—keeps the face-offs successful Baki-Dou from turning stale.“

Actually, this isn’t the archetypal clip Baki has fought a combatant resurrected from the past, but it arguably works amended present owed to the narrative space fixed to Miyamoto’s quality aboriginal successful the story. He died successful the Sengoku-era and woke up 400 years aboriginal successful modern-day Tokyo. Overwhelmed by the changes, his codification of combat becomes the lone mode for him to marque consciousness of the world. In that sense, helium fits close successful with astir of the story’s characters. In different ways, of course, his samurai-era position acts arsenic a counterpoint to these modern characters. His interactions with them—from conversations to combat—make up the backbone (not an intentional notation to however Miyamoto was cloned) of this series.

While Baki-Dou whitethorn easiness america into the series’ martial arts moments, erstwhile they come, they are precise and dynamic, making usage of the unreal limits of the format to marque each jump, jab, and motorboat into a convenience store travel to life. The combat of Baki-Dou is not simply 1 of strength, but besides a level of accomplishment that ascends to the supernatural. Baki senses Miyamoto’s resurrections earlier the clone afloat revives, drawn successful by a mysterious and distant heartbeat. Miyamoto is truthful almighty that his visualizations of however a swordstrike mightiness spell tin origin existent symptom to his opponent. The creativity successful however ferocity is depicted—from wrong a fighter’s caput to arsenic described connected an evening quality report—keeps the face-offs from turning stale.

As a franchise, Baki has ne'er been known for its animation, but the utilitarian creativity displayed successful Baki-Dou works for the satellite and looks the champion it ever has. Baki-Dou manager Toshiki Hirano told Animation Magazine that helium hadn’t watched overmuch of the erstwhile Baki incarnations earlier helming 2018’s Baki. “Since ocular look and directing methods proceed to alteration implicit time, I didn’t spot peculiar accent connected the earlier adaptations,” helium said, adding that helium was influenced by live-action samurai films similar the 1970s Lone Wolf and Cub series, which is besides a manga adaptation.

Instead, Hirano built his ocular benignant astir the Baki manga, and it shows successful the finished product, which sometimes recreates panels precisely arsenic they look successful the root material. Depending connected however you consciousness astir this level of ocular faithfulness successful adaptation, mileage whitethorn vary. “I deliberation the hand-drawn benignant amended suits the facial expressions and performances of the characters successful this work, compared to CG,” says Hirano. “The astir challenging characters to animate are those with a batch of enactment work. Effectively depicting their enactment scenes is thing we conflict with each time.” In the property of AI, for a communicative that is astatine slightest partially astir the morals of rogue science, the hand-drawn benignant gives the anime further thematic depth.

But Baki-Dou’s top spot whitethorn conscionable beryllium however amusive and comic it is. The bid strikes the cleanable code by allowing its characters to instrumentality its absurdist satellite unflinchingly earnestly portion ne'er taking itself too seriously. An hostile gets irritated erstwhile Baki’s eyes capable with h2o arsenic helium fights to support a yawn down mid-fight. A sunglasses-wearing psychic granny surprises a squad of scientists by dropping immoderate integrated chemistry knowledge. It can’t beryllium each fighting, and Baki-Dou gets originative astir however to physique retired its satellite and its characters by some leaning into and subverting shonen expectations with adjacent humor.

Frustratingly, the 13 episodes released connected Netflix lone correspond the archetypal portion of the Baki-Dou arc, which means viewers volition person to hold for different portion to driblet earlier we spot the decision of this section of Baki’s growth. However, arsenic the measured pacing of Baki-Dou’s archetypal portion proves, sometimes determination is worth successful the waiting.