English Dub Season Review: Baki Hanma One

Overview:

Baki Hanma, son of the ogre, Yujiro Hanma. He is just about ready to take on his father in the ultimate father versus son in history. Before that though, he has to take on the second strongest person in the world, Biscuit Oliva. Otherwise known as “Mr. Unchained” because he can leave prison whenever he wishes. Will Baki be able to surmount his greatest hurdle yet?

Our Take:

The Baki series is one of the wildest rides I have been on in a long time. I want to say it’s gritty and grounded but that feels incredibly disingenuous. Like the fights are more realistic than say Dragonball or Naruto but only barely. I really don’t know how some of these people are still alive.

After surviving five of the deadliest killers in the world and one of the most dangerous underground martial arts tournaments is Baki ready to finally face his father? Not quite apparently, even though that is the impression most of the marketing material gives off. This season feels like a big prologue and buildup to the fight we all wanted to see. So minor spoiler alert here, Baki does not in fact fight his father this season. That’s both good and bad news because it’s awesome that we’re going to get more Baki but also frustrating cause I was expecting to finally see an amazing fight.

Luckily, there are still plenty of amazing fights to be had, ending with an amazing fight between Baki and Oliva. There are some new characters introduced like the number two of the prison, Jun Guevara. Then there are the “Terrible Triplets” known as Lips, Teeth, and Tongue. Jun was really cool and had a huge bone to pick with President George Bosch (totally no George Bush) because of how his country is treated. The triplets used their unique bond to cooperate perfectly in fights but their stay is a short one in the series so far.

There were times that the VA of Jun Guevara sounded an awful lot like Robbie Daymond but Netflix didn’t have their English dub cast credits up yet so I’m not sure. I am fairly certain that the triplets were played by Ray Chase though. With them all having unique personalities and different voice inflections his work was impressive as usual.

I am so glad they got Troy Baker back to voice Baki. He has been leaning away from anime work as of late but this is one of the roles he will continue to reprise I hope. Baki is very confident and cocky, usually, it would come off as annoying. For some reason, Baki doesn’t feel like an asshole and I think that is in no small part due to Troy’s performance.

Baki is an amazingly fun character. He is usually the strongest wherever he goes but it definitely isn’t unearned. Few people in the world can claim to have worked as hard as he has. One of my biggest problems with the Baki series (what is on Netflix at least) is with how little he is actually in it. For being the titular character, he rarely gets big fights, the fights he does get are usually over rather quickly.

This was another wild and crazy season of Baki that is undeniable. It just felt like an appetizer to the main dish is the main issue. I just felt a little misled, don’t say that Baki is finally ready to take on his father if that isn’t going to happen. Still, seeing him take on Oliva was a lot of fun. It’s always a lot of fun to see Baki go all out in a fight, but the scary part is I don’t even know if we have seen Baki’s full potential.

Baki Hanma is a must-watch if you are a fan of the series and have watched at least what is on Netflix. I can’t really recommend this as your entry to the series though. If you like sports, fighting, or even romance then you will like Baki and should give it a try, just don’t start with this one. Speaking of the romance, this season had a huge lack of Kozue and that is a huge shame.