Anticipation for the new Baki series was certainly building previously but with it being on the Netflix track it meant that fans outside of Japan had little legal access to it until they went worldwide with it. That was recently updated as Netflix US revealed a December 18th, 2018 debut for the series. The show has now gone live and it has some great options with the original Japanese language available as well as French, Spanish, German, and the English language dubs available. We also get Spanish, Japanese, English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles.
The show is directed by Toshiki Hirano with Tatsuhiko Urahata handling the series composition. Fujio Suzuki is working on the character designs and TMS Entertainment is handling the animation production.
The previously revealed Japanese cast includes Nobunaga Shimazaki as Baki, which is a change from when Masami Kikuchi voiced him in the previous anime series. Additional casting includes Kenjiro Tsuda as Sikorsky, Takehito Koyasu as Doyle, Issei Futamata as Yanagi Ryūkō, Banjou Ginga as Dorian, and Chafurin as Speck.
Originally set for a planned fall 2018 debut, the series shifted to a summer 2018 debut – in Japan at least – for the 26-episode series that will be focused on the “Most Evil DeEath Row Convicts” arc from the manga.
The original work, Grappler Baki, began back in 1991 and ran for 42 volumes through 1999 as done by Keisuke Itagaki. He then kicked off the next series in the property in 1999 with Baki: The Search of Our Strongest Hero, which ran until 2005 with a total of 31 volumes released. That was followed up at the end of 2005 with Grappler Baki: Son of Ogre, which ran until the summer of 2012 for a total of 37 volumes. That’s 110 volumes of the main series not including the spinoffs and side stories or the new series that populates it. That’s a lot of material.
Series concept: The protagonist, Baki Hanma, trains with an intense focus to become strong enough to surpass his father, Yujiro Hanma, the strongest fighter in the world. Five of the world’s most violent and brutal death row inmates are gathering to face Baki. Their objective is to taste defeat — their unmatched strength and skill have led them to grow bored of life itself, and they now seek out Baki in the hopes that he can overwhelm and utterly crush them. In this crisis, other underground martial art warriors gather to fight by Baki’s side: Kaoru Hanayama, Gouki Shibukawa, Retsu Kaioh, and Doppo Orochi. An epic showdown between violent death row inmates and Baki and his friends begins!
