English Dub Season Review: Baki Season The Great Raitai Tournament Saga

Overview

It’s a no holds barred brawl at The Great Raitai Tournament as the most elite fighters from China, America, and Japan gather for a once-in-a-century showdown to determine who among them is the strongest man in the world. Baki, hindered by poison and doubt, prepares to face down his own father, the notorious Yujiro. His journey is paralleled by rival Mohammed Alai, Jr., who aims to replace Baki in more ways than one.

Our Take

If there’s one word to describe this season it would have to be “brutal”.

Everything from the character design to the lighting effects to the grotesque injuries inflicted on lesser fighters make these 13 episodes an intense viewing experience.

Up until Episode 7, “Kaioh”, this season manages to stay away from the shonen tradition of endless monologuing, so if ultra violent action is what you crave, this pick delivers. However, if you’re just starting out with fighting anime, jumping right into The Great Raitai Tournament Saga makes for a grotesque introduction. Wildly exaggerated muscles, bared teeth rendered in excruciating detail, a surprising amount of anatomical illustrations, and bodily fluids abound mean it’s not for the faint of heart (so, y’know, maybe ease your new-to-the-genre friends in with Yu Yu Hakusho or something?)

The grittiness is further enhanced by the voice cast, with Kirk Thornton growling it up through Yujiro’s boastful lines, while Troy Baker and Ogie Banks lend slightly more youthful gravitas to the Baki/Alai Jr. rivalry with their respective characters.

The first part of this season focuses exclusively on the tournament, where traditional martial arts styles are pitted against more modern approaches, and the idea of strength vs. technique is on full display. While it starts as a traditional tournament, an embarrassing series of defeats for Chinese martial artists leads Kaioh Kaku to proclaim a new approach, where teams are formed of the remaining competitors from his country vs. the Japanese and American challengers. The tendency of the bouts to favor new fighting styles both allow Baki to win his father’s approval for a rare moment, while seemingly setting him up for success when eventually facing him. The tournament comes to a head with the climactic showdown between reigning martial arts champion Kaku and Yujiro over the course of episodes 7 and 8.

But once the tournament is over, Baki finds himself back in Japan to continue his training, only to be continuously challenged by Alai Jr. to fight to see who the best man is. Alai Jr. means “best”, both in regards to fighting, and as a husband, as he’s set his sights on marrying Baki’s long-suffering girlfriend Kozue, voiced by Cherami Leigh.

This romantic rivalry comes a little bit out of nowhere, since Kozue and Alai Jr. have pretty minimal interaction, but Alai Jr. is determined to win her over, and starts fighting Baki’s most notorious rivals in underground street fights, with disastrous results.

He finally takes on Baki directly, which finalizes the differences between both the two fighters directly, and their fathers, with Mohammed Alai Sr. (side note- I have to wonder how the real life Muhammad Ali’s family feels about these “fictional” representations) stepping in at the last moment, while Baki seems to succumb to the darkness that lends Yujiro his supernatural might.

Overall, this season is action packed and true to the manga in style, making it an impressive addition to Netflix’s growing selection of original anime series.