Although there are many genres in anime, Action is a genre that is appealing to most fans. In the Action genre, you do not only get battles that leave you sitting at the edge of your seat but also are introduced to strong characters. These characters are often compared to other strong characters that are from the same anime or from another anime. In any Action anime, however, there are some characters bound to be stronger than the main character. These stronger characters are often given more respect, regardless of whether they are the antagonist of the story or not. Thus, Baki is an anime that introduces us to many strong characters who aren’t powerful because of any superpowers but rely on physical strength alone. Below mentioned are some of the strongest characters from Baki.
Baki is an anime based on the manga of the same name by Keisuke Itagaki. It tells us the story of Baki Hanma. Baki is a character who is raised by his mother to grow up and live the life his father lived, as a powerful fighter. However, he completes the traditional training and goes on a journey to train the way his father did. After meeting some fighters, he comes across his father. He then fights his father but loses which makes him travel more. While travelling to train more, he comes across an arena that is located underground, a place where many powerful fighters fight using different forms of martial arts. Fighting here helps Baki grow strong as a fighter as he takes on the challenge to fight most of the powerful fighters from the arena.
Yuujiro Hanma:
He is known as the strongest character in the entire series. Yuuijiro Hanma is the father of the main character Baki. As mentioned above, Baki was raised to live up to become the strongest fighter like his father. However, his father is more of a ruthless man who views mercy as something that makes one weak. Baki has lost to his father before in a fight.
However, although he doesn’t treat Baki with love, he wishes for his son to grow stronger. Yuuijiro is also called “The Ogre”, a name that is feared. To train, he joined the Vietnam War at the young age of 16. He works for many governments and organizations that pay him a high price to do the dirty works that include assassinating people.
Baki Hanma:
Next up we have the protagonist of the series, Baki. It is expected that Baki is strong because of his training and will grow stronger to be able to defeat his father. His ultimate goal lies not in becoming the strongest fighter but in becoming strong enough to avenge his mother who was killed by his father Yuuijiro.
Baki is seen as a character who appears to be laid-back until there is some threat possessed on his loved ones. He is eager to learn and is often seen as someone who shows affection to the people he loves, especially his girlfriend, Kozue. However, he sometimes appears to be very aggressive. He takes his training seriously and strives to defeat many strong opponents.
Jack Hanma:
Being the son of Yuuijiro Hanma, he is Baki’s step-brother. Jack Hanma is one of the strongest characters with many aggressive moves. Like his father, he is very ruthless in a battleground. His goal is very similar to his brother’s Baki. He wishes to surpass his father and avenge his mother whom Yuujiro had raped during the Vietnam War. Although being Baki’s brother, he lived and trained in Canada.
Jack Hanma is a character who is obsessed with fights. He takes many steroids that damage his body. Not only that but he underwent many operations to structure his skeleton to appear bigger than usual. He trains his body in such a way that ends up being pressure on his own body. Doing things more than his body can take, he ends up becoming some sort of monster whose only goal is to become strong.
Kaioh Retsu:
Retsu was one of the antagonists of the series at the start. He specializes in Chinese Kenpo, also known as Chinese Kung Fu. Besides being one of the strongest, he also is considered to be a character who excels in intelligence. He is defeated by Baki in the semi-finals where Baki awakens the “blood of the Hanma”.
Retsu still continues his training wanting to grow stronger. He holds the title of being China’s second strongest fighter. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to hold this title for a long time.
Kaoru Hanayama:
He is considered to be the most powerful and strongest Yakuza in Japan. His appearance itself tells us that he comes from a very intense background. Hanayama’s face as well as his body is covered with a lot of scars. Although he is the second leader of the Yakuza group, he is only 19 years old.
The relationship between Baki and Hanayama is that of a younger brother and his older brother. He also shows respect to other characters who are stronger and acknowledges their skills.
Gouki Shibukawa:
Known as “The Master”, Gouki Shibukawa is a character that specialized in Jiu-jutsu. His fighting style mostly consists of using tactics and his knowledge and skills in Jiu-jutsu. He doesn’t do any preparation before any fight as he believes that real martial art disciples shouldn’t prepare for a fight before the match but should always be prepared to fight.
Despite being quite comical in nature, he takes martial arts seriously. His journey as a fighter started during World War 2 as he joined the war as an assassin who killed and fought purely for the joy of it.
Doppo Orochi:
He is the founder Shinshinkai Karate tournament. Doppo Orochi has trained in martial arts for more than 50 years. His love for martial arts gives him strong willpower to do better in fights and never back down. Orochi is considered to be one of the strongest characters who can hold a fight against Yuujiro Hanma.
He has two students Kiyosumi Katou and Atsushi Suedou. In a fight against Goki Shibukawa, he requested his opponent to kill him with an honourable warrior’s death. However, Shibukawa told him to continue training throughout his life.
Biscuit Oliva:
He is considered to be the strongest man in America. Biscuit Oliva works as a jailer in the Arizona prison. Not only this but the government considers him to be somebody of greater importance as they make his wishes their priority. He is also useful when it comes to arresting criminals that are difficult to handle. However, he too is kind of a criminal however he isn’t treated like one but is considered to the a “staff” member of the prison.
Biscuit Oliva is known for having a very strong body. He even was able to take a bullet once without it impacting him a lot. Oliva is also an old acquaintance of Yuujiro Hanma. He is very similar to Yuujiro however, he isn’t as smart as most of the people in the series. Thus, if his opponent is using a technique that requires a lot of thinking, he could have a hard time.
Dorian:
Dorian is a character who escaped prison and his death sentence by killing off all the guards. Besides this, he is also an intelligent man and he often uses skilled and unexpected tactics in his fights, like crying to make his opponents feel pity. Like Kaioh Retsu, he specializes in Chinese Martial Arts. Dorian and Retsu, thus, form a bond in the story.
Dorian has a childish side to him. Sometimes, he can be overtaken by his own ego. For instance, he doesn’t respect martial arts and even decides to abandon it. He mostly uses weapons or the aforementioned tactics in his fights.
Kaioh Kaku:
Taking the first spot as China’s strongest fighter is Kaioh Kaku. He is not only one of the strongest but also the oldest characters in the story. Kaku is more than 140 years old. He prefers using martial art logics in his fights. Kaku is man who takes pride in his chinese culture and martial arts. He sometimes appears to be a ruthless as he even has killed people in order to give China an edge in tournaments.
Since he is very old, he has an extensive knowledge in martial arts that comes very handy when trying to be deceptive in fights. He has fought and escaped death at the hands of Yuujiro Hanma before. Both, Kaku and Yuujiro respect and acknowledge each other’s abilities.
