Baki Hanma

Japan

5' 6" feet tall

168 pounds

Emi Akezawa

Yuujirou Hanma

Jack Hanma

Yuuichirou Hanma

Kozue Matsumoto

Musashi

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).

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 is a boy that stands approximately 5'6 (167 cm). Baki's appearance drastically changes throughout the series as he gets older. Baki's first initial appearance at the beginning of Grappler Baki when he is 17 years old is that of a somewhat childlike demeanor, with short hair that is long in the back. Throughout the entire series, Baki is shown to have a severely scarred body all around due to the diligent and uncompromising training he puts himself through, with the only exception being his face. Another noticeable feature of Baki's appearance is his mole just above his upper lip on the side (a physical trait he shares with his mother, Emi Akezawa). In the second manga series, when Baki is 17, his appearance reverts to its initial version at the beginning of Grappler Baki, with a more mature look. A carefree, almost weary demeanor replaces his childlike behavior. His hair is now much longer, going below his ears. Baki's appearance as an 18-year-old in the third manga series is not much different than his previous look in New Grappler Baki. The only changes in his appearance are that his hair is now more curly, and he has grown to be 167 cm (5'6") tall. Since childhood, Baki's body has undergone intense physical training; Baki is very muscular, flexible, and durable. His physique results from constant, rigorous combat training and is far beyond that of a typical adolescent. His bones and muscles are also described as being better than those of an Olympic sportsman.

Baki's strength is constantly growing throughout the series. Baki's initial introduction at the very beginning of the series, 17-year-old Baki was already the champion of the Tokyo Underground Dome. In the beginning, Baki was shown to bench press over 320 lbs when training. At first, Baki was shown to be on the same level as Mount Toba, a wrestler who was shown to be strong enough to easily defeat Junichi Hanada and crush his bike in the process. 17-year-old Baki's strength grew more, until he was strong enough to face Kureha Shinogi, and defeat him. As Baki's never stops getting stronger throughout the series, it is difficult to set a definitive level to his strength. At the start of the anime, Baki at age 13, was able to defeat 37 of 100 thugs by himself. When he confronted Kaoru Hanayama, he was shown to effortlessly overpower several men trying to hold him back, and kick Hanayama's 250 lb desk out the window with ease. He was shown fast enough to catch a knife thrown at him from 15 feet away. Baki's strength increased more during his fight with Gaia, when he learned to utilize his endorphins to boost his strength and speed. When he activates his endorphins, it also allows his body to react and move on its own, without his conscious effort. By the time 13-year-old Baki faced Yuujirou Hanma, Baki was shown strong enough to tank Hanayama's punches (which are powerful enough to split a fence open), without damage. He was able to push Hanayama's 350 lb body 30 meters away with a punch and proved to be faster than boxer named Yuri Chakovsky, by easily dodging all his punches. Baki had enough stamina to fight for 12 hours straight with Hanayama and Yuri without stopping, all while wearing a 45 lb training belt, proclaiming the 12-hour session as a warm-up. In the second series of the manga, when Baki is 17, he has shown much improvement. While in gym class, Baki was shown to do 10 pull-ups in 2 seconds (breaking the pull-up bar in the process), jump 20 ft in the air over a 20 ft gap from a standing position, and broke his arm cast into pieces by simply flexing his arm. He was fast enough to effortlessly dodge a thug's chain weapon with a rock attached to it for blunt damage, while the thug was able to swing his chain at speeds of over 100 mph. He also took a knife out of another thug's hand without the thug even seeing him do so (the thug could swing his knife back and forth in his hands at imperceptible speeds to the human eye). Baki fought one of the escaped convicts, Sikorsky, and won easily by smashing his nuts. His fight was interrupted twice by Biscuit Oliva. Baki was shown to able to kick Oliva who has a weight of 180kg using a back kick. Baki also fought with two escaped convicts at once, Sikorsky and Ryuukou Yanagi, and was able to defeat them easily. When Baki was poisoned by Yanagi, he participated in the Chinese Tournament and cured his poison. His body was renewed and Baki remarked that his body feels light like a feather. Baki easily defeats Shunsei Kaku in 2 seconds without the opponent landing a hit. It should be noted that by this time in the story, Baki can be considered one of the strongest characters in the series, with his strength, speed, stamina, and an arsenal of techniques being superior to most everyone else (excluding Yuujirou Hanma, Biscuit Oliva, and Kaiou Kaku). Baki is not seen fighting much at all throughout the rest of the second series though. Baki's last fight with Mohammad Alai Jr was an easy victory and Baki effortlessly outclassed and almost killed him, until Alai Sr intervenes. In Hanma Baki series, Baki decides that the only way for him to get stronger is to send himself to the same prison that Biscuit Oliva is contained in, and fight him. To do so, Baki kidnapped the US President under heavy security just to request to be sent to The Arizona Prison to fight Oliva. To get Oliva's attention, Baki escaped the most secure prison by dodging bullets and defeating the prison guards in a split second. Even when he was cornered by 5 guards holding M-16's, Baki was able to take the buttons off their uniform and crack the glasses of the Director. Hence, he was able to reverse the situation by taking them hostage even though they have guns. Baki was eventually able to fight Oliva and he kicked him so hard that Oliva was sent flying. Baki was also able to stand up and kick Oliva after being slammed into concrete walls and falling from the top floor of the prison. He was able to knock out Oliva by utilizing the 0.5 second when Oliva was getting ready to move. Baki manages to succeed over Oliva in a bout of pure strength, by a brawl of fists until Oliva loses. Baki was able to withstand Pickle's "Test of Strength" attack, while the latter charges at Baki with the force to rival a Triceratops. Baki was able to knock down Pickle in two moves, using a double leg kick and a high roundhouse kick to Pickle's face. Baki was able to endure the pain and survived a leap to death with Pickle from the top of the kourakuen arena. Baki demonstrated his genius prowess by knocking out Pickle by gently tapping his chin. Baki was able to avoid Pickle's attacks by barely dodging them at skin breath. Baki also demonstrated his mastery of the Five Animals martial art, combing all of the dinosaurs' style and making Pickle see the illusion that he is more dangerous than the dinosaurs. Close to the end of the fight, Baki was able to match Pickle's speed and pushed him back. Baki challenged Pickle to an all-out fight, with Baki losing due to Pickle using a jujutsu technique (Aiki). However, Baki was able to instill fear into Pickle, thus making him the victor. By the end of the third series, before Baki's ultimate fight with his father, Baki is shown to be so strong, that he can completely vaporize a punching machine pad, with a casual punch. At this point, it can be safely assumed that Baki is possibly the second strongest character of the series (being equal to or greater than Kaku Kaiou). Baki was shown to still be vastly inferior to Yuujirou however until Baki's demon back had activated. When Baki's demon back appeared in his fight with Yuujirou, he was shown to be powerful enough to actually hurt Yuujirou (this being something that no other character had been shown to be able to do). Baki ends up losing to Yuujirou when they have a punch-out until one falls, although there is still enough of a difference between them that Yuujirou is able to stop and let Baki attack him, as Baki is no longer able to effectively fight due to injuries and exhaustion. However, Yuujirou admits in the end, that he can no longer be called the only strongest creature alive, as Baki is worthy of being considered Yuujirou's equal due to him forcing him to use more effort than he had in the past. The hand-to-hand combat techniques used by Baki are also varied in nature. Which are developed and expanded throughout the series, his combat style is clearly mixed martial arts integrating movements of various doctrines this would be mainly karate and pro wrestling, and in his minority judo, kempo, jujutsu, this includes both original movements and movements of his previous rivals and opponents obtained through his training, creativity and experience. He is known for his unusual training methods which include shadow boxing while imagining that his next opponent is actually with him. This allows him to anticipate every move of his opponent in the actual fight and also helps him spot their weaknesses much before the combat. Despite not being able master any style of combat instantly like his father, Baki is able to learn them much faster that others and coupled with his imagining make him near equal to Yuujirou.

Eye-Poke – used against Yasha-Zaru.

Endorphin – used against Yasha-Zaru for the first time.

Death Concentration – used against Yasha-Zaru for the first time.

Ippon Ken – used against Kaoru Hanayama.

Rear Naked Choke – used against Kuraishi and Yuujirou Hanma, for example.

Roll Kick – used against Kurokawa and Yuujirou Hanma.

King Tiger – used against Shuumei Kanou for the first time, later used against Yuujirou Hanma.

Bow and Arrow – used once against Atsushi Suedou.

Seiken – basic karate's technique; used once against Koushou Shinogi.

Submission – one of Baki's signature moves from first series; used against Koushou Shinogi for the first time.Dropkick – used against Mount Toba.

Suplex – used against Mount Toba, for example.

Goutaijutsu – powerful fighting move based on the seiken from karate; used against Kureha Shinogi for the first time, and later against Biscuit Oliva.

Enzuigiri – used against Kanji Igari.

Front Neck-Lock – used against Kanji Igari for the first time.

New Cobra – Baki's original move; used against Kanji Igari.

Single-Leg Figure-Four – also Baki's original move; used against Kanji Igari.

New Swastika – another Baki's original technique; used against Kanji Igari.

Jumping Backdrop – used once against Kanji Igari.

Antonio Driver – Igari's original move; used once against Kanji Igari.

Spinning Lotus – used against Kaiou Retsu and Jack Hanma.

Soccer Ball Kick – used once against Jack Hanma.

Shining Wizard – used once against Jack Hanma.

Cord-Cut – involves cutting a nerve of an opponent; used once against Jack Hanma.

Mach Punch – an extremely fast punch executed using progressive movement of the big toe, ankle, knee, hip, waist, shoulder, elbow and wrist; used once against Jack Hanma.

Arm Breaker – Igari's original move; used once against Jack Hanma.

Demon Face – used once against Jack Hanma.

Backhand Blow – used once against Sikorsky.

Axe Kick – used once against Sikorsky.

Whip Strike – the user loosens up the whole body and treats it like a whip; used against Ryuukou Yanagi, Pickle and Yuujirou Hanma.

Yawara – used once against Kaiou Ri.

0.5 Second Unconscious – Baki's special skill; used against Biscuit Oliva and Yuujirou Hanma.

Slap – used once against Pickle.

Triceratops Fist – used against Pickle and Yuujirou Hanma.

Cockroach Dash – used against Chiharu Shiba and Yuujirou Hanma, for example.

Hand Pocket – used once against Yuujirou Hanma.

Aiki – used against Yuujirou Hanma.

Shocking Footwork – used once against Yuujirou Hanma.

Three-Level Attack – used against Musashi Miyamoto.

Ultra High Level Sen no Sen – used in his fight with Musashi Miyamoto.