Grappler Baki (OVA)

Grappler Baki (OVA)
Information
Directed	Yuji Asada
Produced	Chiaki Yasuda Tsuneo Seto
Written	Yoshihisa Araki
Music	Takahiro Saito
Studio	Sung San
Licensed	Manga Entertainment Central Park Media
Released	August 21, 1994
Runtime	45 minutes (OVA)

Grappler Baki (グラップラー刃牙, Gurappurā Baki), known as Grappler Baki: The Ultimate Fighter in the English version, is a 45-minute original video animation (OVA) was released in 1994. The story is a close adaptation of the first few volumes of the original manga, in which Baki Hanma fights Shinogi Koushou. It was licensed and released on VHS and DVD, under the title Baki The Grappler: The Ultimate Fighter, in North America by Central Park Media on VHS in February 1997, and DVD on December 1, 1998. Manga Entertainment later released it in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Plot

Baki Hanma is a high school student who likes his athletics to be a little more extreme than the school football team. He is a martial artist on the no-holds barred fighting scene, is flying up the ranks. Baki proves himself a force to be reckoned with despite being the youngest one there. As he moves up the ranks, however, the competition gets harder. He then moves on to the real challenge – Koushou Shinogi, the "Cord-Cutter", known for ripping out and severing people's nerves and muscle tendons.

Characters

• Baki Hanma
• Oowada
• Shigeru Akatsuka
• Doppo Orochi
• Atsushi Suedou
• Seicho Katou
• Kozue Matsumoto
• Kinuyo Matsumoto
• Musashi
• Mitsunari Tokugawa
• Ryuukongou
• Kouhei Kuzumi
• Matsuo
• Hayashi
• Koushou Shinogi
• Doctor

Screenshots

Trivia

• Although set squarely in the middle of the manga, no mention of Yuujirou Hanma can be found. Even after Baki and Shinogi's match, Mitsunari Tokugawa does not mention anything about Yuujirou (as he did in manga).