Why Baki? Why?

Today I have just wrote a post that is something different from what I usually do. An Anime Review, that is right guys, your old reptilian friend @turtledance24 is now doing Anime reviews.

For my first Anime review, I will be reviewing this Anime titled "Baki 2018". Yeah, only 2018 because the old ones like "Baki season 1" was all aired a decade ago and there is no way that I will be rewatching all of those again with the schedule that I have right now.

For a difference from what @maid-chan's review do, I will not be focusing with the plot and characters of the Anime, instead, I will be focusing more on pointing out and ridiculing this Anime's flaws and ridiculousness. So basically this review is more of like a "rant" review rather than your normal review. In case that you are new with Anime reviews, I just want to tell you that "rant" reviews aren't really new, we have a lot of them in Youtube and these type of reviews or commentaries(another way you call it) isn't just limited to Animes. Some of them are "rant" reviews for movies, games, religion or even politics.

Yayksii! Politics and religion? Boy, I will not be touching those things. This turtle doesn't want to be dirty so let's just let the other guys do those religious and political reviews for us!

That Was a Long Introduction! Let's Go Start Nit Picking Baki!

Baki is an old series that has been around for decades now. I remember the first Anime adaptation of this work being aired in our TV stations here in the Philippines when I was still at my teens.

I first learned about this show in a commercial. As far as I remember the commercial was like this: A really loud rock music plays while a small mascular kid's back(that kid is Baki) is being shown while he is facing a big punching bag. For a couple of seconds the rock music just keeps on playing while the kid's back is being shown then a question is displayed on the screen. "Do you want to become the strongest in the world?", the question isn't exactly like that but the question has something to do with being the strongest. Then after the question the display then returns to the scene where Baki is about to hit the punching bag with a karate chop. Slash! He hits the punching bag and slices it in half with a karate chop.Then another question pops out and other things about the show is shown(like schedule of the show and title). That was my first encounter with this show.

For me, my first impression for this show was bad. It was too bizarre for me cause of the it's unusual art and on how it was pitched to me as a viewer.

Well, even my impression on this show was bad, I had no choice. I go back at home from school at 4PM and during that time, 4-6PM were the times where Animes are aired on TV and our TV can only receive one channel and that channel was the channel that airs Baki. So you see how it was for me...

How I got invested to the show was slow. Baki wasn't like One Piece or Bleach that made me a fan with just one episode. No, the show took a whole season for it just to be able to make me like it.

What made me like it is when my friends started talking about how ridiculous it was as a show. Right at the point, this fucking Anime is fucking sooo serious that its fucking God damned ridiculous and as children we can already distinguish the insanity of this Anime and for us, that was funny!

The show aired for months and it had some reruns in our local tv channels. This show somehow became one of the known Animes together with Lupin the 3rd, Flame of Recca, Ghost Fighter(Yuyu Hakushou) and other Animes that most people here will recognize.

Years past and somehow the show died out, for my interest at least. And then, Netflix made a new season of it.

First of all, I want to give Netflix a salute for giving us quality shows with variety. Netflix is trully a hero! It gives us fantastic shows like, Bojack Horseman, F is for Family and other shows(hahaha, these two are the only shows that I actually watch there other than Baki).

Moving on, Baki 2018 is the continuation of the old Baki, the Baki that I mentioned here in this review earlier, it is safe to say that Baki 2018 is Baki season 3.

Baki 2018's plot is about 6 very strong prisoners who escaped their imprisonments so they are able to find someone who can beat them in a battle. Baki 2019 starts out with showing the audience how strong these individuals are by showing how each of them escaped.

Man, right of the bat these escape scenes are so ridiculous to the point that you will see scenes of a man shattering a thick bulletproof glass with just putting his palm on the glass and removing his hand from it. Yes, folks, this guy, just placed his hand on the surface of a thick glass and removed his hand from it's surface and then the glass shatters. Why? Cause his hand can do some kind of vacuum mechanic.

There was also this other scene were one of these 6 prisoners escaped from an underwater prison(a submarine) which is in a very deep part of the ocean where humans in any way can not survive! It's so exaggerated that not only that he manages to get out and swim away from the submarine he even was able to swim across the atlantic and swim his way to the land of Japan!

And we have a lot more of those exaggerated feat. Obviously, these scenes were just showing it's audience the strength of these individuals in that way.

So, yeah, the 6 prisoners went to Japan with the same objective, they wanted to experience defeat! Since the title of this show is Baki 2018, we should expect now who will be the people who are the candidates for granting their dream. Yeah, it's Baki and friends...

You see, this show right from it's roots is crazy, why on Earth would someone work his way into finding his own defeat? Why not just put your energy into something else like... Jumping from Earth to Mars, since they are already that strong? Or impregnate blue whales in the atlantic ocean with their own pee pee so these whales don't go extinct. Like hell dude, I know as a person that does nothing but draw all day and browse the internet that I have no life and what so ever but at least I know how to put my energy into something productive and these people are looking for something or someone that has no point at all. If you just want to be killed, just jump off a volcano or something. That would be epic, that would gain some views on Youtube.

Moving on... The six prisoners and Baki and friends meet up in some kind of underground arena. They had their moments to exchange words and agree on a rule on how and when they will fight. They agreed with the rules that there will be no rules. They can fight anywhere they want, anytime regardless if someone is doing something or none. Its dumb. Period.

So after agreeing with that, each of them went home in their respective homes other than Doppo Orochi(eyepatch bald guy)and Mr.Dorian(an american prisoner with a lot of shenanigans under his sleeves).

This part where Orochi and Dorian first fought was my most favorite scene in this show, I think this part was the epitome of ridiculousness of this show.

Their fight started out with Orochi throwing his bag on Dorian's face and kicking the bag. The damage was real cause Dorian's face got mutated and stretched out to the max cause of the impact of the attack-- or did he really got hurt from it?

Dorian backs off a little cause of the damage he received from Doppo's attack. They had some moments and swish,a sharp invisible string cuts Doppos hand! During this scene I was like, "what the fuck! his hand was cut off!"

That hand cut scene was so intense that if the author didn't know what he was doing I would probably be dead right now cause of drowning, drowning from all of these hype! Thank God, they stopped for some time and just started talking about how wonderful that sharp string was... What a magnificent sharp string to have a short background story.

And then, they just kept talking for a while until Doppo reveals his own dillemas for having a hand! Yes guys, having a hand is a nuisance to him cause punching as hard as he can with a hand only breaks his fingers, now, since that he no longer have a left hand he no longer needs to suffer from the pain of having broken fingers whenever he punches. How convenient! And then he uses his handless arm to punch Dorian right on the face.... Dorian suffered some pain from the punch and then Orochi and the Chinese guy were gone(I forgot to mention that the Chinese guy was watching them fight).

You see how crazy this show is? They are ready to take pains and damage just because of something pointless, basically, Baki is a Shonen battle Anime minus Douryouku(hardwork), yume(dreams) and yuujou(friendship)... Its just plain battle with no reason, its like a written story of a kid that loves the fighting in Shonen battles so much that he removes the other elements of the genre itself and just sticks with fighting. Its story is like that only that its written "professionally" by a good writer.

Then, several episodes later Dorian kept on doing damage to everyone that he wants to fight with. He barged into Doppo's home while Baki and friends were having a small meeting. He fought Doppo Orochi's students and even made Kato go into a comma(well, not completely a comma but the show kept saying that he is on the verge of death and as always, a lot of things doesn't makes sense in this show).

And cause all of the damage Dorian done, everyone in Doppo's school(dojo) got so angry that everyone went out to go after him. And again, since they are just extras, all they did was give Dorian an excercise.

After some time with the extras, finally, Doppo and Dorian faced each other again, one on one. And guess who's hand just got stitched back like nothing happened? Thats right folks, in Baki, same like on other Animes, having your arm get amputated is not really a problem(I'm looking at you Naruto and Toriko).

And so they fought, Doppo won with overpowering Dorian because Dorian already needs to get defeated. Because its already episode 12 and Dorian and Speck(another retarded prisoner in this show) are the only ones who got most of the fights and there are still 4 prisoners to go.

Dorian cries cause of his defeat pleading for his life, so he was then carried to a hospital. And guess what, it didn't ended there. After everyone got home and was already asleep, he wokes up and goes back to Doppo's to explode something something implanted in his wrist on Doppo's face. Doppo didn't die but due to the explosion, his face was damaged that he can no longer fight anymore.

Then Chinese guy shows up to Dorian and they had this moral talk to each other. The talk was about Dorian being strong and being able to defeat a lot of people but never really having a win his whole life.

Chinese guy said that Dorian never had even a single win because... Because... Because... I actually don't know, I think they just want to sound epic and moral at this point cause the author wants to put a moral conclusion to Dorian's actions. And guess what, those talks are bullshit, theres no character development there, nothing was realized there, theres no moral story there, so don't scratch your head and keep thinking about the message of the fucking character named Dorian. All that matters is the fight he did was exaggerated.

And so, that is one of the short arcs of Baki 2018 and there are more of it, right now, as I type this blog, I think episode 13 or 14(not sure) is already released in the wild.

There are other more things to nit pick in this show like, Baki dating his girlfriend more often, now that he is in an agreed fight with some maniacs. Like hell dude, ensure your win and safety first before fondling you girlfriend. And why out of all times, why at this time and moment did you got fond of fondling her? Why not before when everything was more peaceful? Why? Maybe just to show some romantic scenes in the show? Yeah, I think that's the only point of those scenes. LeL.

All and all, regardless of the nonsense philosopy and logic of this show, I would still say that Baki 2018 is a good show(even the old seasons). Its entertaining and funny even though its not comedy show. Would I recommend it to people? Ofcourse, if they are old enough to watch it. But it might still depend. Not everyone will appreciate this show like some of us do. Baki is like BDSM, BDSM appeals to some people and to most people it doesn't.

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Well, that is all for this Anime rant, I will try to make one review a week. But since Lennystar's anime review contest's deadline is near, I think, I'll commit myself into making two more before September 28.

Well, with all that said, thank you for reading and please do support me in these websites!

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the photos used in this blog are photos that had been cropped via snipping tool from a video of Baki 2018 in gogoanime.com, Baki 2018 is owned by netflix and is written by Akita Shoten