Netflix Anime revealed during the Netflix Anime Festival 2020 on Monday that Grappler Baki is one of their highest performing Netflix Original anime titles. According to Chief Anime Producer Taiki Sakurai, Grappler Baki makes the top ten in over 50 countries.
Grappler Baki is based on the long running manga series by Keisuke Itagaki. The first part of the manga received an anime in 2001, and was immediately followed by a sequel. Funimation released both seasons in 2005 as Baki the Grappler.
There was also a 45-minute OVA from 1994 called Grappler Baki: The Ultimate Fighter. It covers the first few volumes of the first part of the manga. Central Park Media released it in 1998.
Both the anime series and the OVA are long out of print in the US.
Netflix shocked dorks like me in 2017 when they announced they were producing additional seasons. After 17 years, Baki was back. Rebranded as Baki, it picks up where the previous series leaves off, adapting the Most Evil Death Row Convicts arc and The Great Raitai Tournament.
TMS Entertainment, the studio behind Baki, announced in September that they were adapting the next part of the manga, Hanma Baki: Son of Orge. The sequel series is set to hit Netflix in 2021.
With how popular Grappler Baki is proving to be for Netflix, we may finally see the entire manga animated. Maybe they’ll even go back and remake the first part.