That Netflix tends to ruin every preexisting series it gets its hands upon is no big secret, with various anime titles having suffered particularly, with the latest “Ghost in the Shell” being the biggest disappointment. With “Baki”, however, the quality so far was not that bad, and the extreme fights among monstrous individuals element was carried in rather entertaining fashion. Until this, the third season, which adapts the third part of the manga in the most boring way possible.
In the previous season, we left Baki having reached a level that enabled him to actually project the enemy he wanted in front of him with his mental ability, in order to train more efficiently for his ultimate fight against his father. Before that however, Baki wants to fight the man who is considered the strongest American, the strongest inmate, and the strongest human (since the Ogre is not considered human anymore) ‘unchained' Oliva. To do so, he enters Arizona State Prison where Oliva is living at the moment. Even before that, however, Baki interacts with a normal high school student, while he fights a (projected) giant praying mantis. Eventually, he enters the prison, where he finds that before him, another man has challenged Oliva, Guevaru.
Probably the most entertaining aspect here is that the creators have included real-life historical figures, who are presented in the most absurd way however. As with Mohammad Alai and his son in the previous season, this time inside the prison lie Iron Mike (a direct copy of Mike Tyson) and Guevaru, who either you believe it or not, is inspired by Che Guevara, even to the point of being someone that has liberated a small island somewhere in the continent. This absurdness extends to Oliva's girlfriend, who, in another amusing element, is tremendously fat, to the point that she can barely move from the bed she seems always to lie on. Lastly, Oliva's bon viveur and lovey dovey ways, that are only interrupted by his sociopathic tendencies also add to the comic aspect of the series.
This turn, however, definitely faults the series, who used to be overly violent with almost constant fights, and is now rather heavily dialogue-driven and pedantically funny, to the point where some episodes are truly unwatchable. Even more so, and even if the build up to the two major battles is rather good, the battles themselves are largely disappointing, starting with the one between Guevaru and the triplets, continuing to Guevaru against Oliva, and finishing with the inevitable final one between Baki and Oliva. That the latter's main move is becoming a ball of muscles that sucks Baki in can only be perceived as ridiculous, with the whole battle actually being highly underwhelming.
The only thing that saves the series actually is the continuous hyperbole in terms of build and power of the participants, with Shingo Ishikawa doing an excellent job in that department. The animation by TMS Entertainment is also quite good, with hand-drawn style, not CGI, but all of these are wasted due to the awful writing and Toshiki Hirano's direction.
The effort to make the title tame is rather obvious here, probably in order to attract viewers that cannot handle the brutality associated with the franchise, but this decision has truly ruined a series that was mostly watched for its bloody fights. I just hope that the next one, which seems to have The Ogre fighting a Tyrannosaurus Rex, will be better, although I highly doubt it.
