The second season of the Netflix edition of “Grappler Baki” deals with two radically different arcs from the manga, “The Great Chinese Challenge Saga” revolving around the Raitai Tournament and “Godlike Clash of the Kids Saga”, which deals with Mohammad Alai Jr., and his challenge towards Baki, which extends to a level no one anticipated.
The first part deals exclusively with the tournament, where Retsu helps Baki overcome the poison that has been tormenting him, using his first opponent in the tournament to do so, a man whose technique of poison hands eventually negates the poison. In the meanwhile, all the fearsome beasts of the world are gathered for the once-in-every-100 years tournament, including Yujiro Hanma, Biscuit Oliva, and the 144-old winner of the previous one, Kaioh Kaku. As the various dragons, heads of the martial arts schools of China and the pride of the Chinese audience which has filled the stadium to watch the tournament, get beaten one after the other, Kaku takes an initiative and announces that the tournament will become a team confrontation, between China and the rest of the world, in a rather misplaced (?) propagandistic concept. Of course, the main dish of the tournament is the fight between Yujiro and Kaku, which is the most impressive in the series, despite the rather ridiculous ending.
The fights, as is usually the case, are fought between true monsters in terms of presentation, with muscles and size filling up the screen, with the exception of Baki and Kaku, who are drawn in order to stand out. All the fights are quite brutal as they are impressive, but there is not much context here, with the exception of Kozue’s (Baki’s girlfriend) growing frustration for his neglect of his own body and her feelings, and another side of Yujiro who exhibits elements of fatherhood and team leadership, and appearing more human than ever, to a point at least.
Kozue takes a more central, if somewhat indirect role in the second arc, where the protagonist is actually Mohammad Alai Jr (son of Mohammad Alai who is in essence, Muhammad Ali). The arc examines his relationship with his father, his challenging of other fighters, including old men Orochi and Shibukawa and the devastating defeat he suffers from Jack Hanma, which changes his whole attitude eventually. The quite interesting part, however, is that all the while, he courts Kozue openly, and even starts growing on her, as he meets her after each fight, more injured than the previous one. His clear and intense showing of love, which is the exact opposite of the way Baki conducts himself, move this relationship in a much unexpected direction, in the finale of the saga.
The series ends with an episode that seems like a filler, which highlights the fact that the terrible convicts of the previous saga are not yet completely defeated, preparing the ground for the next arc, where, additionally, the final clash between father and son Hanma seems inevitable.
In their desperate effort to add some new elements in the story, the filmmakers have also added some brief moments of humor, while the focus, once more, is not on Baki, but on Yujiro and Kaku on the first, and Alai Jr in the second. The second part works well for the narrative, but not the first one.
Of course, once more, the focus is on the brutal fights and not context, and in that regard, “Baki” delivers once more, with a number of utterly impressive one-on-ones, particularly in the tournament part. Some very brief and anticlimactic ones do exist, but in general, the level is very high, and the new characters and techniques introduced are worthy of the title’s legacy. The finale of a number of fights, however, and particularly some of the most central ones, is rather anticlimactic, in a tactic that may imply that the creators were rushing to finish the two sagas in 12 episodes.
The animation is excellent as always and the characters design as excessive as ever, with a number of unlikely-shaped characters, particularly regarding their size and muscle built, in two of the trademarks of the series.
Not much more to say, if anyone enjoyed the previous chapters in the Baki saga, they will enjoy this one too, while the way the protagonist’s relationship with his girlfriend unfolds provides a rather interesting additional element in the story. And on a personal note, I would really like to see a match between Yujiro and Oliva at some point, who are the two undefeated characters in the series.
