AMIME MANGA
EXPLOSION.

This program contains violent fight scenes.
Viewer discretion is advised.

The stronger is already here.
Beasts don't compare.

"Baki" is all about mixed martial arts fighters!

The incredible fight scenes have captivated fans worldwide.

In July 2023, the anime "Baki Hanma" hit second in total international viewers on a major streaming service.

The original shōnen manga began serialization in 1991.

Over 85 million standalone releases have been sold in Japan.

Fans across the globe can't get enough of the unpredictable battle sequences.

I love the eccentric characters.

The praying mantis battle is the best!

The manga has even captivated professional fighters.

Here's what former kickboxing champion and professional boxer Nasukawa Tenshin had to say:

Growing strong enriches the soul.
"Baki" taught me that.

The Baki Pose Challenge is also going viral on international social media platforms!

Baki is very popular.
In Nigeria, my friends also love Baki.

The original creator's passion helped birth a groundbreaking manga.

I wanted to show that my work
was the superior martial arts manga.

Let's unravel Baki's secrets and learn how the legendary series came to be!

"Baki" made its debut as a manga in 1991.

The story follows high school student Hanma Baki.

Hanma Baki is the champion of a secret arena, where he fights powerful men in matches without rules.

Baki has one ultimate goal -

- To surpass his father, Hanma Yujiro, known as the strongest creature on earth.

Hanma Yujiro's incredible fighting ability is said to exceed the military strength of an entire country.

He has defeated giant elephants with his bare hands -

- And is so strong not even a lightning strike can move him.

Hanma Yujiro believes nobody can match his power.

But Baki's goal is to become stronger and defeat his father.

We were able to interview the creator at his workplace.

Itagaki Keisuke has been working on the Baki series for over 30 years.

He is currently focused on his newest serialized manga, "Baki Rahen."

Itagaki has a very unique method of drawing.

He uses small pieces of paper, which he moves around with his left hand as he draws.

The paper comes in all sizes.

He cuts them in the same shape as each manga panel and then works one by one.

- You move the paper?
- Yes. I turn it around freely as I draw.

- Is it easier?
- I can't imagine any other way.

I don't know how people draw
without moving the paper.

The exciting battle scenes and muscular depictions are crucial to the manga's popularity.

For Itagaki, it is easier to draw these scenes when he can use different angles.

He also has another unique method of structuring the panels.

- What's this small paper?
- It's the storyboard for the manga.

I made it so I can simultaneously look
at storyboards for eight pages.

This helps prevent monotonous structure
with repeating panels.

I'm able to balance the action across all the pages.

In Japanese, a manga storyboard is called a "name."

Usually, each storyboard represents a single panel,

but Itagaki puts all eight panels on the storyboard at once.

From a bird's-eye view, he is able to form detailed panel layouts that keep audiences entertained.

Fans also love how Baki represents fighters from a variety of martial arts disciplines.

Itagaki aimed to make each character unique with different muscular builds.

Baki is skilled in both speed and power, so he has a balanced build.

But Oliva, who fights with power rather than skill, has bulging muscles, particularly in his upper body.

This fight emphasizes those muscles.

Itagaki believes a close relationship exists between a character's martial arts discipline and muscular build.

For years, Itagaki has been collecting images of muscles in this scrapbook.

I've been using this for 20 years now.

It's a collection of easy-to-understand
muscular builds and poses.

The scrapbook contains photos of muscles shot from various angles, gripped fingers, and more.

Itagaki is particularly fond of back muscles.

To me, backs represent
how strong someone is.

Even in real life, the hardest-hitting
fighters have muscular backs.

Itagaki gave unique muscles to Hanma Yujiro, Baki's father and strongest creature on earth.

When Yujiro gets serious, the muscles on his back look like a demon's face.

Itagaki uses the muscles as a symbol of the character's strength.

Itagaki's focus on muscles even includes the face.

These extreme facial expressions are called "kao-gei" by fans.

When expressing emotion,
I think it's okay to overdo it.

Something else in his workspace grabbed our attention.

What are those?

Training equipment, obviously.

Do you train while you work?

When I don't have time to go to the gym.

Training can be painful,
so you need to prepare beforehand.

Otherwise, you won't last 30 minutes.

Using training as a break from work
won't help you form good ideas.

Itagaki has always admired physical strength.

In high school, he immersed himself in shorinji kempo.

After graduating, he joined the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

During his service, Itagaki picked up boxing and participated in national competitions.

At 25, he left the JSDF to create manga.

He attended a manga training school while working part-time and debuted at 32.

The training school taught Itagaki a crucial secret.

We manga authors call it
"the character theory."

It's a formula for absolute success
where characters are the key to popularity.

Itagaki has always been obsessed with creating strong characters.

Put simply, characters must capture
the reader's attention.

It's like finding the perfect actor
for each character.

Take "Spider-Man" for example.

Although I don't understand
a third of the logic,

the story explains
insect capability in layers.

A solid explanation takes away any doubt
about each character's existence.

Then I just let the characters
create their own stories.

Itagaki packed Baki with a variety of unique characters, each with their own distinctive stories.

Even when Baki battles with imaginary foes, he takes his training so seriously

the imaginary attacks damage him.

One battle is with a praying mantis Baki caught on a riverbank.

A fight to the death with an imaginary giant praying mantis!

Master of Chinese Kempo, Retsu Kaio, has a well-balanced muscular build.

He is quick with both his fists and feet.

Imbued with 4,000 years of Chinese history, Retsu Kaio has unimaginable power.

With powerful lungs, he can use his breath to blind opponents.

He can even run across the water while carrying someone.

Biscuit Oliva is rumored to have power that rivals Hanma Yujiro.

Oliva can turn his well-trained, muscular body into a sphere capable of trapping and crushing opponents.

What happens when these unique characters fight each other?

Thrill and excitement pack the pages of Baki.

There's no "kamehameha"
like in "Dragon Ball."

Fighters can't shoot light
out of their hands.

They need to feel just as strong
but maintain a sense of reality.

Characters with distinct personalities
make that possible.

Itagaki has a specialized approach to depicting fight scenes.

The moment an attack makes impact is represented with a still image.

I exaggerate the impact of the attack.

Sweat flying off the characters
is key in those scenes.

When I want to express beauty,
action lines get in the way.

When Itagaki wants to express speed in an image, he uses action lines in the background.

But when an attack makes impact -

- Itagaki focuses on the attacking character -

- And the face of the character being attacked.

Dust and smoke dance around the fighters.

Itagaki creates exciting scenes like this by being conscious of both details and overall composition.

Another unique technique Itagaki implements is spreading an attack's impact across multiple pages.

Continuous two-page spreads
are very attention-grabbing.

The first time, it's like, "Whoa!"

Then, "What!? It's still going!!"

And by the third spread,
"The author is a genius!"

2001's Maximum Tournament Saga pushed Baki's popularity to new heights.

Itagaki made sure to include every match between all 32 fighters,

each with their own style and muscular build.

I wanted the "Maximum Tournament Saga"
to be a big surprise event.

It would be full of new characters
and depict every single battle.

I wanted to show I could draw
amateur wrestling, judo, and more.

With 32 fights to go through, nearly a year went by without any action from the main character, Baki.

I was worried fans wanted Baki
to fight more, but it remained popular.

That's because I made sure
each character was thoroughly formed.

Itagaki's editor at the time was surprised at the unprecedented challenge.

I thought he would
skip a match somewhere.

No other manga
aimed to be as thorough.

Plus, every episode was entertaining.

Careful depiction of every aspect of each fight made the tournament feel real.

Itagaki had broken new ground in the martial arts genre.

I wanted to show that my work
was the superior martial arts manga.

Sawa says thrill is not Baki's only secret to success.

According to reader polls,
some of the most popular episodes

feature characters
eating together after a fight.

I was amazed at how created

a manga that balanced exciting action
with genuine human kindness.

Dynamic storylines and the bonds between fighters are big parts of Baki's appeal.

To commemorate the manga's 30th anniversary, the Baki Exhibition was held across Japan.

It kicked off in Tokyo, where over forty thousand people visited over the month-and-a-half run.

Fans of the intense martial arts manga came in all ages, both male and female!

Besides galleries featuring various original artwork,

the event also featured life-sized characters, muscles and all.

Fans went wild for Hanma Baki in his fighting pose.

Their bodies and muscles
are full of so much power!

Each character is so unique.

It's a lot of fun watching
characters you like fight each other.

The praying mantis battle is the best!

I love the eccentric characters.

I mean, some have extra bones!

- But they're drawn with such truth!
- You can't help but accept it.

One fan from China said he learned about Baki outside of manga or anime.

Many Chinese fans discover "Baki"
through social media.

Fans enjoy Baki in unique ways across various social media platforms.

This is the Baki Pose Challenge.

Fans from around the world attempt poses that appear in Baki.

Nigerian fan Dark Hero supported his body with just his thumbs.

Baki is very popular.
In Nigeria, my friends love Baki.

Most people are interested to check out
what the characters can do.

Seeing someone that bulk
looking very cool

gets you interested in knowing
what the character is about.

Chinh of Vietnam posed by supporting her body with one arm.

I started doing Baki Poses
because of a social media trend.

I like Baki because of
his will and determination

to train and grind everyday
to become stronger.

"All want to do is fight you."

"The match starts now."

The Hanma Baki anime boosted the series' popularity even more.

In July 2023, it hit number two worldwide on a major streaming service's non-English TV rankings.

The anime was produced by the long-established TMS Entertainment Studio -

- and directed by veteran Hirano Toshiki.

Hirano looked to the original manga panels for inspiration.

I was told to use panels
from the original work.

I storyboarded the first two episodes
directly from the manga.

I lined them up and decided
which to use and take out.

Then I figured out which panels
should be animated from different angles.

I surprisingly enjoyed the process.
It was a perfect fit for "Hanma Baki."

For Baki and Oliva's fight, Hirano directly animated the two-page spreads from the manga.

The fight with the praying mantis was also powerfully recreated on screen.

The anime was drawn by hand, which was a lot of work due to the source material.

There are way too many lines.

In Baki's case, he has
muscles and scars.

We had to decrease
the number of lines.

But there were still so many
it felt like a robot anime.

Countless character lines became a major hurdle during production.

Hirano ended up using camera angles to add movement to still images.

Itagaki uses a lot of vertical panels
in his manga.

But anime is made
for horizontal screens.

We had no choice but to pan vertically.

We pan up, down,
and recently diagonally.

It's about what comes before
and after the best scenes.

With skilled camerawork, Hirano kept the charm of the original manga and its muscular depictions.

"Technique, Using brains."

"They do happen, don't they?
Fight like that."

Many professional fighters are fans of the Baki series.

Former kickboxing champion and professional boxer Nasukawa Tenshin is one of them.

He even incorporates stances from the series during his professional matches.

Tenshin told us how Baki is full of elements that any fighter can relate to.

I think image training
is the most important part.

I practice through imaginary battles
with different opponents.

You know how Baki fights
a praying mantis?

I did the same thing.
The praying mantis was strong!

A mantis is capable
of things humans can't do.

It's a great way to improve
your imagination.

What does Tenshin like most about Baki?

I think Baki's form
is incredibly beautiful.

All his techniques and stances
look so refined.

The way his legs are aligned
when he kicks,

or how he kicks
with his small toe.

It's beautiful.

In his real matches, Tenshin strives to "fight beautifully."

He describes Baki's existence as something special.

Getting stronger enriches the soul.

We can be kind
because of our strength.

Baki is both strong and kind.
I've learned a lot from him.

Fans across the globe love Baki's superhuman but somehow realistic battles.

Hanma Baki's ultimate goal was to fight his father, Hanma Yujiro.

In the manga, the battle already ended through mutual recognition.

But since then, Baki's story has continued for over a decade.

How does Itagaki envision the manga ending?

Ever since the story moved past
Baki's fight with his father,

I've had no plans for an ending.

My pursuit of the meaning of strength
is what got me this far.

I doubt that will change.

Plus, I've never
experienced cancellation,

so I've never had to
come up with an ending.

I'll probably just keep drawing.

Itagaki and Baki's journey to discover the ultimate meaning of strength continues…