Review will be broken down like so :
Keisuke Itagaki is great for coming up with the most over the top made-up martial arts which always sounds damn convincing. For some this may put them off from the absurd powers certain characters wield. Personally, it’s so over the top and it takes itself so seriously it's hard not to enjoy it. You can tell Itagaki-sensei puts in a lot of thought for the characters he creates. People argue that “oh Baki’s characters are bad because they have absurd martial arts techniques and they’re lazy and boring” I would say otherwise, no one but itagaki can come up with this out of the world of martial arts.
However, where the story kinda felt boring at times was how they have this build-up on this epic-scale tournament which kinda falls flat for me. Don’t get me wrong, the fights were just as insane as they usually are but the tournament itself didn’t bear any weight to why they were all there fighting. Like the victors become the new Sea Emperor, which has no build-up or explanation to what they are. I know Itagaki could care less about this, because from the way he writes and creates characters, it’s safe to say he just wants to see a good beat down between these crazy characters he’s made.
The overarching narrative of Baki wanting to beat his dad is still very present but not nearly as prominent as the original Grappler Baki manga. That’s the one consistent thing in Baki, and I’m glad they haven’t forgotten that especially since the previous season, it wasn’t nearly as present.
All in all, the story is really just men fighting men to come out on top. It’s a basic premise with crazy characters and I sure as hell enjoyed it. If you’re looking for something deeper, this really isn’t it. Despite my score I know for a fact I enjoyed the hell out of it, I just wanted to be unbiased as much as possible.
My problem with the art comes from the way characters dress, they’re really uninspiring and a lot of the time characters dress really similarly. There really isn’t any standout in clothing of the characters. Itagaki thrives in shirtless battles where his skill in overexaggerating the muscle anatomy.
Another gripe I have, is the overuse of punch lines:
The animation in this way is really good but nothing too groundbreaking, for it failed in having clean straight action. I think there are too many cuts and action lines to express punches and speed. While it is not wrong or bad but personally I felt slightly let down and wished for more long takes and such.
The Chinese Sea Kings in this arc didn’t feel too significant, even though they’re supposed to be the highlight of the entire arc. I felt that if you were to compare the Most Deadly Convicts to the Sea Kings, the convicts had some build up to them and had relatively cool backstories. While the Sea Kings were kinda like punching bags. They were strong, but they didn’t really impact the story that much, they were quite pathetic to be brutally honest. I still enjoyed the fights though, well choreographed and they had cool powers.
In my opinion the savior to the Sea Kings was the Sea Emperor Kaku. His fight with Yujiro was pretty epic. Two opposites clash. Two ideals going against each other. He’s a wise but really brutal elderly man. He pulls off a lot of what people would refer to as “big brain”. He had a major impact in the story, particularly bringing two individuals together without us expecting it.
I love the OP, the OP is an absolute banger, I’m listening to it as I write this review. My typing speed has increased, my adrenaline has shot up and I want to taste defeat. But in all seriousness Granrodeo nailed Baki’s new OP. It captures and escalates the hype of the show, it really gets me pumped before the start of the episode. But obviously if I was to compare this to Beastful, Beastful is still definitely better but 2 great phenomenal songs.
For me it fell at the ED. The ED doesn’t capture Baki and if I’m being really honest, I forgot how it sounded and had to listen to it again. It just doesn’t suit Baki. If it was a traditional sports anime it would work but this is Baki we’re talking about. It feels like a shounen song with Junior and Baki having a friendly rivalry, when in reality it’s nothing but. For me it was forgettable and not really a good song and even in the context of another shounen sports anime, it just does not feel all that great.
The OSTs were pretty hype though I would like to point out that it isn’t utilized as much as the previous seasons. I felt like they were holding back in using the soundtrack. But it did feel amazing whenever it was on. No real qualms about it, really good soundtrack to get your blood pumping.
Foley in this show was pretty mediocre, at times during bloody, gory, and literal bone-crushing scenes, it sounds so brutal and disgusting. Where in others it sounds like they really like the “wshhh” sound effect. I don’t know why I noticed that but I hear a lot of sharp sounds, which isn’t bad, but gets repetitive. Maybe adding variety to the type of sounds may help but overall pretty standard.
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