How Baki-Dou: The Invincible Samurai Will Continue in a ‘Very Scary’ Part 2

As with other arcs in the anime, the story follows the battles of Baki Hanma, a teen underground fighter whose initial arc culminates in him facing off against his father, Yujiro Hanma. That fight wrapped up prior to the launch of Baki-Dou, and Hirano confirms that the production team was somewhat worried about maintaining narrative momentum past that epic face-off. “But, for this series, when you start out, you see all [of the] characters are actually burned out and very bored,” Hirano said. “By having Musashi Miyamoto [appear], he’s a very appealing, interesting character. He’s a fun character. So then you see that people do get their motivation, and then now they get their drive back.”

Hirano credits Musashi’s appeal partially to his use of a weapon; that’s somewhat unusual in the world of Baki, which is driven by weapons-free martial arts brawls. “Musashi is a character that wields the sword,” Hirano said. “So it was very difficult to work on animating these swords and the movements too. He’s a human character, but he’s also inhuman in many ways. And also the performance that [Japanese voice actor Naoya Uchida] gives in the show is great.”

Watabiki confirms that the production team knew from the outset that Baki-Dou would be told in two parts. “So we then have to think about how we break down these episodes into those two seasons,” he says. “And of course, if they are separated into two seasons, there will be a pause in between. So we did not want to conclude the first part in a boring manner. We wanted to make sure that there was some kind of drop or hook so that people would stay hooked.”

Part 1 built to a showdown between Musashi and Yujiro Hanma. Musashi’s signature move – a psychic sword strike with the power of the corporeal – fails to work on Yujiro, who is firmly grounded in the reality of the moment. Hirano calls that scene, along with the death of Retsu, as the Part 1 sequences of which he is most proud. While there isn’t an official winner in the fight, Yujiro’s dominance leaves Musashi with a damaged ego, making him more dangerous than ever heading into Part 2.

The Part 1 finale also teases the return of Pickle, a primal fighter who had previously been found preserved in a saline rock formation…as sometimes happens. His looming face-off against Musashi, another fighter living outside of his original time, is poised to be a highlight of Part 2. “When you look at when you enjoy each fight sequence or scene, there’s a variety. There’s these different renditions or variations of how they fight,” says Hirano of what to look forward to in the coming episodes. “So I’m sure people will enjoy that experience as well. And, as you see in the manga, we have this shocking ending as well.”

When asked about the enduring popularity of the Baki story, which began in manga form back in 1991, Hirano notes that there might be something powerful about the way in which the world of the titular grappler stays the same. “Time stops,” he says. “If you look at shows like Dragon Ball or Conan, it’s basically the same. For Baki, Baki is always a high school student. So in that sense, there’s no time progression. And also this franchise has these universal themes. Presidents do change, so there are some changes or progression too, but it’s something that goes really beyond time.”