Stop me if you've heard this one... An unknown kid shows up at a karate tournament and promptly defeats everyone like they were standing still. Their last champion goes all-out against the kid. So then some of the people from the karate school go to a secret underground arena and see him fighting in an all-out fight-to-the-death VanDamme-esque competition.
Not too original, right? But that's the plot of GRAPPLER BAKI: THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER, one of the latest releases from U.S. Manga Corps. BAKI is a rather bizarre character indeed. He looks as if a young, cute, astro-boy type head was stuck on the body of any male character from FIST OF THE NORTH STAR. And to complete the effect, he has hideous scars all over his overly-buffed body.
The rest of the characters are rather strange, too. There is, of course, the typical old man karate master, the hideously muscled guy with the cruel looking face, the young and earnest karate student, and a host of other stereotypical characters. But the most bizarre is Baki's opponent in the underground arena, Shinogi, who is also known as the "cord cutter" because his specialty is to pierce his victim's flesh and sever their nerves. It's not pretty, and neither is he, with his flaming red hair and purple lipstick.
And apparently Shinogi never studied basic anatomy, either, as he threatens to rip out Baki's optic nerves and then severs the nerve in his neck. (The optic nerve goes directly from the back of the eye into the brain. But no one in BAKI knows that--after all, this is a show about fighters, not research scientists).
The plot is basically Baki fights his way to his next fight. We never learn where he got those scars, nor do we ever really want to. Baki is an overconfident, obnoxious twit, and it's hard to really care if he wins or loses. And that is a problem--if you don't care about the main character in a fighting show, why bother to watch it at all? BAKI is very predictable and very overdone, to the point where it is campy. But that turns out to be a good thing as the stilted, stereotypical voices fit right in with the rest of the show.
I'm not sure what audience USMC is trying to target with this release, but my guess would be that this was done to satisfy those same people who think that FIST OF THE NORTH STAR is the jewel in the anime crown.
GRAPPLER BAKI may appeal to some anime fans who enjoyed shows like FIST OF THE NORTH STAR, but if you're not a fan of this genre I would advise you to pass over this title. While it's not the worst show USMC has ever released, it's certainly not one of their stellar titles. Even fans of the fighting show genre may find themselves bored by BAKI.

GRAPPLER BAKI US MANGA CORPS $19.95 / ENGLISH DUBBED / 50 MIN CATALOG #: USM 1545 © 1994 ITAGAKI KEISUKE, AKITA PUBLISHING, KNACK CO. LTD ENGLISH VERSION © 1996 CENTRAL PARK MEDIA CORPORATION AVAILABLE: FEBRUARY 1997