Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 9 “Shaken Shinshinkai”

Welcome back to another episode recap. It’s episode nine of Netflix’s Baki and we’re coming off one of the wildest fucking things I’ve ever seen where Kaioh Dorian hocked up a hand grenade in the middle of a fight and pulled the pin causing a massive explosion at the home of fight promoter Tokugawa.

All the good guys are MIA. They’ve all disappeared in the aftermath as did Dorian who retreated to a secret underground hideout he keeps. It wasn’t a good enough secret, though, because as Dorian settles himself in, he’s met by Kiyosumi Kato (apparently it’s “Kato” in the show and “Katou” in comics as I kept calling him yesterday), the “master” – as he’s called – of Katsumi Orochi who runs the Shinshinkai Dojo. Dorian warns Kato that he’s out of his league and when we left off, Dorian was dipping his hands in grease and rolling them in glass shards because he fights for keeps. Kato ain’t about this life, but he’s got no choice.

Now remember: this is happening in the immediate aftermath of a FUCKING GRENADE going off in someone’s house that both these guys were inside of. If I survived that, sticking broken glass to my fists would be the last think on my mind. Legit, I’m going to go home, order something from Uber Eats and lay on the couch. I’m not even going to shower. My couch is just going to have to suck it up and smell like explosion until I Febreze it.

But that’s where we are. Broken glass hands starts now.

Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 8 “A Match Vs. A True Fight”

Welcome to a hump day cartoon episode recap! Now that we’ve gotten into the thick of this series with most (all?) of the intros behind us, we’re starting to see expansion of the characters and what makes them tick, so to speak.

Baki Hanma, our title character, has surprisingly been on the back burner for most of this as the writers have kept the focus, for the most part, on the group of five escaped death row inmates, using that time to build them up and present them as a massive threat.

For his part, Baki has mostly been talked about and mentioned as this legit teenage wunderkind, but although his reputation proceeds him, we haven’t seen much of what made him the winner of the last big tournament that was held in Tokyo. Finally, yesterday’s episode gave us a taste of what he is capable of, but when Yanagi had finally had enough, he was able to put Baki down rather easily.

I’d imagine that this is a pretty tough pill for Baki to swallow and today’s episode will pick up in the aftermath of that as Baki is just coming to the realization that he was defeated. All this and more on today’s exciting episode of Baki!

Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 7 “A Formidable Team”

Welcome back to another episode recap as we delve further into Netflix’s Baki. Real talk, this shit has been bananas from the jump and now that Baki himself is finally involved in a fight, I’m thinking today’s installment is going to go to 11.

It’s about time Baki got himself into some shit. Before this, he’s been mostly an urban legend with some short flashes, but we’ve yet to see him really do some wild shit like cut a dude’s hand off or fill a man’s mouth with bullets. Ya know, the traditional honor code of fighting stuff.

Also take into account that when we left off, Baki was in school so this is yet another time where good innocent citizens of Tokyo are thrown into harm’s way for the sake of having a Bloodsport tournament. Moral of the story: never go to Tokyo.

Now that I’ve gotten my now-daily PSA about Tokyo out of the way, let’s hit play and watch a cartoon.

Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 6: “Sergeant Katahira’s Report”

Welcome back to another week of BAKI episode recaps! We had a pretty exciting first week getting introduced to a new show and now that we’re smack in the middle of the fighting I’d expect the action and excitement to only rise to another level.

When we left off, Spec and Hanayama were in the midst of battle with Hanayama looking for Spec to yield. Spec has no honor, of course, so as he said he’d had enough, he shoved a handful of bullets into Hanayama’s mouth and punched him in the face setting them off. We closed with an explosion, not knowing whether one or both men were injured or killed.

Credit where it’s due: that’s a pretty damn ingenious method of attempted murder.

We’ll see the fallout of this fight and whether the herd has been thinned and jumpstart plenty more, I’m sure. If there’s one thing this show has mastered, it’s how to engineer a fight scene.

Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 5 “Want Some More?”

Welcome to another cartoon recap! We’ve had a nice thing going the past few months and we’re going to keep rolling through with the Netflix series Baki.

Yesterday’s episode was the beginning of the actual tournament, but we learned that it wasn’t a competitive event in the traditional sense as it wouldn’t be held in the arena, but on the streets when fighters least expect it. The purpose of this is that anyone can train and fight on cue, but it takes a special kind of warrior to be ready when he doesn’t see it coming.

This has led to horribly gory fights happening on the streets of Tokyo in full view of civilians that apparently just treat these things as just another day in Tokyo. Hence, I will never visit Tokyo.

Yesterday’s episode ended with Baki out on a date with his neighbor Kozue Matsumoto and though all was quiet, it was revealed at the end that the two were being watched by escaped prisoner, Spec. Seeing as how these episodes pick up where the last left off, I’d expect that to hold true today. No sense in waiting any longer, let’s get to it.

Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 4 “The Battle Begins”

Welcome back to another Baki episode recap! These episodes go pretty quickly so being up to the fourth one already seems crazy. When we left off, Tokugawa had assembled all five of the prison escapees at his underground arena, but before anything could really pop off, Baki arrived and then Doppo Orochi.

There’s not a lot to say other than that. It’s not like I have any theories or deep-dive questions with what’s gone on thus far. It’s simply, there’s going to be a fight and we’ll see who the strongest is. Sometimes, simplicity is best.

So we begin with Episode 4!

Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 3 “They’re Finally Here!!”

Another day, another episode recap, another look at Baki on Netflix. When we left off yesterday, the five big escapees had just begun to arrive in Tokyo to challenge Baki, but Baki has already had the pleasure of meeting Spec who beat the shit out of him and then went to prison because he needed somewhere to stay until the tournament started.

We got a glimpse of how strong Baki is in the last episode when we was attacked by a group of midcarders who he made short work out of, but haven’t fully seen why Baki is such a talked about and noted fighter.

Today’s title feels like a giveaway as you’d assume everybody was already on their way to Tokyo so maybe they meet up for dinner or something at one of those family style restaurants where everybody passes around the plates of chicken parm. I’d watch that.

Speaking of watching that, let’s get to today’s episode.

Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 2 “Dark Martial Arts”

Welcome back to another cartoon recap! Yesterday, we started the Netflix anime series Baki on the suggestion of a friend of mine and I liked it enough to keep it going so we’ll be continuing along with that.

Yesterday’s episode was a basic introductory chapter where we meet the title character of Baki who is such a badass that everyone in his scope is fucking terrified of the guy. He’s approached by a fight promoter named Mitsunari Tokugawa who tells of a big underground tournament happening in Tokyo and five hardened criminals from around the world who have broken out of jail and are on their way to come compete.

We have only the most basic of insight into pretty much everybody involved to this point, but hopefully that will be expanded upon today. Despite that lack of background, we got a very quick-moving, action-packed episode and I’m interested to see where it goes. At the very least, we get some gratuitous violence and intense sequences that make this pretty impressive visually so it’s not like this has nothing to offer, I just like deeper backstories and to understand the motivations of why people are doing what they’re doing. But, it’s also only been one episode thus far so I have to be fair to Flair and give that time.

Which brings us to today! Head over to Netflix and let’s move this train along!

Daily Cartoon: BAKI Ep. 1: “Synchronicity”

Welcome back to another cartoon recap and review. Today’s cartoon was suggested by a buddy of mine, Drunk Irish Jay who came across this show while at the gym and thought I’d be interested in it.

It’s called Baki and is another Netflix show that was based off Japanese manga (I had to look up “manga”: basically it’s a Japanese comic book) which revolves around the title character of Baki and his quest to be the best underground Martial Arts fighter in all the land.

Just off that description, it sounds like some kind of hybrid of Bloodsport and Street Fighter so if that’s what it actually ends up being, then Jay was probably right and I’m here for that.

Usually, the things I write about here have some kind of connection to my childhood or something I’ve been interested in for a while, but with this series it is the ultimate clean slate. I have literally no idea what we’re getting into, but I’ll check it out and see where we go from here. Sound good? Yes? Cool. Let’s roll.