You're missing an entire series of context. Not completely your fault, but Netflix's anime adapts the second of 5 manga series. So, why Baki?Ī large portion of this just goes to show why a series shouldn't be jumped into midway through. Heck, we don't even really see him much in this series (at least in the Netflix series). He doesn't even have a distinctive fighting style, does he? We just see him embarrass other fighters into submission, which isn't so much badass as it is upsetting since he's so unlikeable.Īnd this also brings me to the last point, and perhaps elephant in the room-there isn't much interesting seeming about Baki himself, other than the fact that he's strong, and we don't get an explanation of why that is or why we should care. We get some weird flashback for him completely taking down Muhammed Ali, which was annoying and unnecessary (especially since he goes on to patronize him for saying that even though he's so much stronger than him he really admires him in other ways), but we don't really get an explanation for why his dad is so strong. We are not given an explanation for why he is stronger and more talented than others, and his personality and backstory seem uncompelling, unlike Oliva. the inmate with the candy fight), and the criteria for how someone lost (when tbey decided to sound the gong) was unclear.Īnd where did Muhammed Ali Jr come from as a character? That felt super random, as did the composition of the tournament fighters overall.Īlso, maybe this is clarified in earlier seasons, but Baki's dad's strength is not well explained. They just decided to restructure the whole tournament after the first round into a 5 on 5? With multiple new fighters that happened to be undefeated but didn't participate in the original tournament? And then restructured the 5 on 5 into a winner take all final 1 on 1?Įven before the restructuring the fights were weird (e.g. And the way he was healed was also weird (sugar water?)Įven within the China tournament the plot went all over the place. It was not well-explained how participating in the tournament was going to heal Baki. The outcome of Baki being poisoned and the tournament in China was also super random and felt like low-tier fan-fiction quality plot transition. Biscuit Oliva was a very interesting character to me, but even some of his stuff was a bit weird (where did his philosophy on love and fighting come from?) There was really no structure to the plot in the prison saga, except for some vague love / coming of age sub plot. Less of a fatal flaw and more of just a source of confusion: for some reason the shin shin Kai dojo kept getting screen time, and also kept getting burned and reconstructed over and over again. The monologue was also super cringey and confusing (the guy said stuff like "but we are talking about Hanayama here." and "that's Hanayama for you" over and over again). This was not explained, and there was no apparent reason. The police narration of Hanayamas fight with the 97 year old inmate was also random and was completely unrelated to the other narration of fights. the guy in the wheel chair being carted to deliver the final blow seemed unnecessary, the random bandana environmental fighting guy switching in to defeat Skorsky made no sense). So many of the fights changed and lost momentum out of nowhere (e.g. Baki's gf's response to Hanayama also didn't make much sense, and it wasn't really resolved after that. Hanayama's confrontation with Baki's gf was random and not well-explained (telling baki he could get a bumch of women fkr him-why?). This was not well-motivated or explained. the old guy that lost first) completely disappeared after losing one fight. When pressed on how that squared with the taste of defeat motivation, the response was incoherent to me.Ī lot of them also "tasted defeat" multiple times but then came back, whereas others (e.g. All 5 inmates came to Tokyo.why? How was this coordinated? Why did they all want to taste defeat? In one case one of the prisoners said all he wanted was to be the strongest in the world. To start, the "taste of defeat" motivation was not well-explained or motivated. Feel free to post any feelings or thoughts in support or in contrast: To give a sense of my frustration, here is a list of elements of the Netflix series that flabbergasted me the most. As the title suggests, Biscuit Oliva is the only saving grace of this series for me. It's been so bad that I am kind of embarrassed for watching the whole thing, and am confused about how it's become both a successful manga and ongoing anime. I honestly can't get over how completely chaotic and non-sensical Baki (the Netflix series) has been to watch.
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