Baki Hanma

 ン, Chanpion) of the Underground Arena in Tokyo Dome. In the fourth manga series, he is often called "the World's Strongest Boy" (地上最強のガキ, Chijō Saikyō no Gaki).

BAKI WIKI

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BAKI WIKI

Baki Hanma

House of the Dragon Roars - The Loop

01:43

Baki Hanma

Baki profile.png

Name

Kanji Name 範馬 刃牙

Kana Name はんま ばき

Why do I feel the sense of being hugged... whenever I strike him...?

BAKI DURING HIS FIGHT WITH YUUJIROU.

Baki Hanma (範馬 刃牙, Hanma Baki) is the main character and protagonist of the Baki the Grappler franchise. At thirteen, he decided to take his training into his own hands to perform more intense training in his father's footsteps. He later aims to defeat him. Baki first fought in the no-rules arena at fifteen and went on to become its champion. He is the son of Yuujirou Hanma and Emi Akezawa and the half-brother of Jack Hanma.

He is known as the "Champion" (チャンピオン, Chanpion) of the Underground Arena in Tokyo Dome. In the fourth manga series, he is often called "the World's Strongest Boy" (地上最強のガキ, Chijō Saikyō no Gaki).

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Personality

Baki is usually a carefree, laid-back, hard-training, and sometimes an aggressive teenage boy throughout most of the series. Baki strives to defeat his father, Yuujirou Hanma, who is indisputably considered the strongest man alive. However, Baki's dream is not to replace Yuujirou as the strongest man alive, but only to become strong enough to defeat him. This goal stems from a natural desire to surpass his father and avenge his mother, Emi Akezawa, whom Yuujirou murdered.

Baki trains on a near-constant basis, day and night, attempting to hone his skills as quickly as possible. As a relatively well-known martial artist (among those aware of the Underground Arena), Baki frequently tends to get into fights with various people quite often, sometimes intentionally, other times by terrible luck circumstances (usually the latter). Baki realizes that the fastest and only way to get stronger is to battle other people stronger than himself, so his body will get stronger and learn from the experience because this is an aspect of the Hanma bloodline. However, at one point, Baki realized that his way of fighting was very different from Yuujirou. He said that building relationships with strong opponents gives him incredible strength, while his father believes that everyone should be brutally crushed to gain absolute power. Baki is also often too merciful to his opponents, which always makes Yuujirou angry.

Baki has a strong sense of love and respect for those close to him. He is known to be very protective of his girlfriend, Kozue Matsumoto. He can become aggressive if she is threatened, such as when Sikorsky kidnapped her, and Baki hunted him down immediately to defeat him. By the second series of the manga, he's shown to be highly attached to his girlfriend, who acted as a great source of strength for him through her constant love and emotional support. Later, however, it has changed somehow, and they probably started to see each other less. At a certain point in the manga, Mohammad Alai Jr tried to gain Kozue's affection, which led to complications in the relationship between her and Baki. Possibly that's what caused this change.

His intelligence is immensely high in terms of martial prowess, a resourceful and tactful fighter who uses multiple styles of combat at once when facing his adversaries. Makes use of savvy and rather pragmatic tactics to gain an advantage over opponents, such as using his blood to blind them. Knows how to effectively rattle someone's brain by a positioned punch to the chin. Capable of imagining and even outright interacting to some degree with mental visualizations of creatures and individuals to develop new stances and techniques without the need of them physically being there. At the same time, a significant portion of his time primarily focused on training or fighting much of his formal education is spent sleeping in class.

Usually, Baki never actively fights with anybody weaker than him and has no desire to hurt any of the thugs that constantly try to attack him. This version of his personality was shown an enormous contrast later in Grappler Baki, though, when Baki was 13. At this point in the story, Baki is a cocky hot-headed punk who is always looking for a battle with those he wants to prove himself to. He likely developed this attitude because of his urge to be as strong and like his father. This aspect of his personality is short-lived, though, as by the end of Baki the Grappler, Baki becomes his kind, laid-back self again while still trying to surpass Yuujirou. By then, he proclaims that he doesn't want anymore to be the strongest man alive. Still, he'd be happy to be even slightly stronger than his father, even claiming that if Yuujirou were the weakest man in the world, he'd be glad to be just the second most vulnerable. However, when finally Yuujirou acknowledges him as the strongest boy in the world, Baki starts to feel bored and detached, accepting the challenges from Musashi Miyamoto. The second Nomi no Sukune is a way to relieve his boredom and feel himself again tethered to the world.

Baki is also very polite towards people while not training or fighting, showing good and refined manners, probably for being born and raised in a wealthy family with luxuries until he was 13 years old. Although polite, Baki can be very provocative to his opponents to get them to fight him using their full strength. He believes that a true fighter doesn't need rules excuses or conditions to fight, considering that if he wants to, he just has to do it and that's it.

His relationship with his father is very ambiguous and sad. Baki almost always speaks about him with great reluctance and anger. At the same time, it can be seen that Baki is not indifferent about what Yuujirou thinks about him. Although they are even deadly enemies, Baki and Yuujirou can play as a team when needed (just like during Great Chinese Tournament). They both never say it directly, but they feel a strange family connection between them, even if Baki sometimes calls his father by his name. This can be seen when Baki invites him to dinner or when they suddenly start to play a scene where they both pretend to eat an imaginary meal together during their battle. Baki and Yuujirou seem to have strong emotions for each other, although those feelings are not typically family. The deeper psychological aspect of their confusing relationship is best shown during their final fight in the third manga series. Also, even though he wants to defeat his father, Baki respects Yuujirou's strength, openly acknowledging him as the most powerful creature in the world. Rumina Ayukawa pointed out that despite he considers Yuujirou his enemy, they way Baki describes his father's strength suggests that he somewhat admires him.

He eventually develops the demon face on his back when fighting his brother, but only for a fleeting moment. Unlike Yuujirou, he chooses to control his killing intent and fight his battles fair and honorably no matter the outcome. Many of Baki's unusual training methods often earn him the admiration of many of the fighters of the Underground Arena; for example, shadowboxing, or visualizing fighting an opponent, is a big part of Baki's regimen - sometimes, his visions take an almost human form and given he can easily remember and replicate any technique he sees this gives him a considerable edge over his opponents, as he can "fight" them and learn their weaknesses before actually fighting them.

Why do I feel the sense of being hugged... whenever I strike him...?

BAKI DURING HIS FIGHT WITH YUUJIROU.