Baki (2018)

Moments:

Attention, before you watch this anime you should know something.
‘Baki (2018)’ is a brutal fighting anime!
Sometimes so brutal that I even had to laugh about how absurd some scenes were.

And although Baki is the name of the anime and the main character is also called Baki, he is usually barely present in the anime.
It is mostly more about other fighters and their brawls.

Actually I decided to watch this anime because I just wanted to watch a fighting anime and because I wanted to know how brutal it really is.

Thereby it turned out for me from episode 4 on, that Baki (2018) also contains romance elements.
Surprisingly even very well done.

Unfortunately only few romance moments are contained in the anime.
Most of them, in the first season and only when Baki Hanma and Kozue Matsumoto have a scene together. (about every 5 episodes or so)

The good thing about it, however, is that when romance moments are shown, they get approached in the right way.
Mostly very heartwarming and vanilla.
Sometimes also a bit exaggerated and weird, but all in all very well staged.

Animation:

I find the animation is top.
Sometimes with some CGI, but it’ s not really disturbing.

Characters:

Baki Hanma and Kozue Matsumoto:

In the 1st season and the first half of the 2nd season Baki Hanma and Kozue Matsumoto are very close and loyal to each other.

They are in love and dare to take many romantic steps in their relationship.
Unfortunately, there are not so many moments together with them, but when there are, it usually always becomes romantic.

For Baki Hanma fighting and Kozue Matsumoto is important.
His love for her makes him even stronger.
He protects Kozue Matsumoto and when she is in need, Baki Hanma comes to help immediately.

And for Kozue Matsumoto too, Baki Hanma is important and supports him as much as she can.
She always stands at Baki Hanma’s side when he fights.

Even though she is very worried when Baki Hanma fights, she still cheers him on.
And also when Baki Hanma gets sick she is there and gives him strength.
However, sometimes she can overreact a little.

Then the second half of the 2nd season starts and from here on the romance goes downhill.
Baki Hanma is hardly present anymore.

The story revolves mainly just around Mohammad Alai Jr. , his fights and his attempts to win over Kozue Matsumoto.
(For more information ➜ Couple/s? ➜ NTR)

But in short, Baki Hanma and Kozue Matsumoto have changed their personality in some way, in fact, in a negative way.

Baki Hanma is only interested about fighting and how he is determined to become stronger in order to defeat his father.
It does not seem that Kozue Matsumoto is still important to him.

Also Kozue Matsumoto, makes the impression that she is no longer interested in Baki Hanma.
Let’s just say that they are not really fighting for their relationship anymore, which was so important to them in the first season.

Suddenly there is talk of decisions that are in Kozue Matsumoto’s hands.
There is no longer talk of love, rather she should decide for the better man.
Either Baki Hanma or Mohammad Alai Jr. …

What a pity, because Baki Hanma and Kozue Matsumoto were so loyal to each other in the first season and had always managed the romantic stuff immediately and straightforward.
Now Kozue Matsumoto finds herself in a dilemma, and cannot speak out for which “better” man she should decide.

Ending:

Unfortunately, the ending was unsatisfactory in regard to the romance.
Nevertheless, I found the story interesting and will also watch future episodes of the anime.

So I’m looking forward to the next season, even though Romance will most likely not be represented that much anymore.

Seasons 3 Update:

Nope, there was no trace of romance, apart from a really short romance between an antagonist and his wife.

Kozue Matsumoto was neither shown nor even mentioned.

Episode Rating:

As already mentioned, Baki (2018) doesn’t have that much romance but it is of high quality.
Therefore I will now tell you here the episodes in which romance happens with the couple.

The worst episode was season 2, episode 9, and from here on it went only downhill.

The other episodes were for the most part only brutal brawls.

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