English Dub Season Review: Baki-Dou Part 2
Baki-Dou returns for its second half as Baki and the other remaining fighters in Japan must deal with the increasing threat of the revived Musashi Miyamoto. In the first half, we saw how series philanthropist Tokugawa used his vast resources to revive Musashi through illegal cloning technology, as well as his previously unmentioned spiritualist sister to bring Musashi’s soul into the clone body. The culture shocked Musashi quickly made his presence known among the great fighters of the day, including Baki and his father Yujiro, and fought his way through all who wanted to test their mettle against one who was known as the greatest fighter in Japan, if not the world. Unfortunately, this led to the tragic defeat and death of Sea King Retsu, and even if this was an agreed upon fight where this outcome was possible, it made clear that Musashi was only going to become an increasing threat. This half of the season picks up where the last left off, with Musashi turning his sights on Pickle, the revived caveman who was the focus of the previous season and also a time displaced fighter brought to the modern age by Tokugawa. But Musashi soon works his way through other fighters and eventually faces Baki himself.
While the first half was mostly about the novelty of having a revived Musashi Miyamoto walking around modern day Japan and getting accustomed to modern culture, it was never shy to remind us of how he was a threatening presence. Not just in his fighting ability which put the contemporary characters to shame, or his odd cat-like appearance, but also in that his mindset of being raised during a time when fighting was the main way to obtain power and authority. And in a world that has long since left that behind, a being like Musashi has no place in it. That becomes clear once the police start viewing him suspiciously, leading to him slicing many in half with his swords. As much as this is very much a story about fighters going to great and almost lethal lengths to gain strength, it is only so they can face others of comparable strength, not terrorize innocent civilians. While I haven’t seen the earlier season of Baki, the ones I have seen show Baki has often been pretty self-serving in his pursuit of strength and fights, with this season’s conflict against Musashi being the first time it feels like he has to face someone for the greater good of others.
In terms of recommendations, if you’ve enjoyed the other Baki seasons up until this point, you’ll more than likely enjoy this, though there are some annoying recurring issues that seem to be across the series. For one, this is one of those anime where it can be noticeable how much of it is not actually animated, though I’ve noticed that tends to happen when the character designs are as uniquely detailed as these are. In addition, there are way too many instances of them cutting away to the testimony of someone who is recounting an incident currently happening in the story, which I can’t help but wonder if it’s just so they don’t have to rely on the narrator too much. But the fights themselves are definitely up there with the best ones in anime made today, and the author’s pension for making fun of American presidents gave us a clip of anime Trump pissing his pants, so I’d consider that a plus. All of this to say that Baki fans will enjoy this and you should start the season from the beginning to find out if you are one of those. Now we wait for the next season, Baki Dou. Not Baki-Dou like this season was, it’s Baki Dou, as two separate words. Also it’s about sumo wrestling, so look forward to that.
