BAKI: Season 1 - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

BAKI: Season 1 - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

An action-adventure with spirit.

Baki is an action series set against the backdrop of an underground fight scene and the tournament world. The anime series is from original creator Keisuke Itagaki. Featuring animation produced by Double Eagle and TMS Entertainment, the action-packed production offers a dark- and-gritty action-packed saga. As produced by Kei Watabiki and Yuki Yokoi, Baki is a co-production with Netflix (as released in North America). Released on home media by Sentai Filmworks, Baki will please fans of high octane fight scenes.

Yujiro Hanma (Akio Ohtsuka) is known simply as “the ogre” in the world of underground fighting. Believed to be one of the strongest fighters in the world, Yujiro is a skilled martial artist who is in command of the fight ring. Yet sometimes legends become eclipsed.

Yujiro's own son, Baki Hanma (Nobunaga Shimazaki), might one day eclipse him as an even greater fighter. Fighting for the top spot, Baki pushes himself to be the best fighter he can be. Yet dangerous convicts are determined to murder Baki and take him out of the playing field. Can Baki survive on his journey to becoming a super star fighter himself?

The series is aimed squarely at the action crowd. This is not a slice-of-life story for the faint of heart. The production aims to showcase gritty and intense action sequences with plenty of intensity ingrained in to the DNA of the series. The fight scenes are a bit more intense – and darker – than productions like Naruto or Bleach. Baki aims to impress with dark stylistic flourishes and those audiences might find it more compelling than audiences who enjoy zanier productions.

The characters on Baki are somewhat simplistic in approach. The action seems to drive the characters – rather than the characters driving the story. This makes the character-development less polished than on some productions. Though there are some elements at play which showcase the character personalities, everything else feels secondary to the fight scenes.

The fight rages on.

The animation on the series is engaging if not particularly memorable. Under the art direction of Jirou Kouno (Castle Town Dandelion, Rainbow Samurai) and Noriko Ooishi, Baki is a series with a much darker color palette. The animation appears overcast and brooding – with a lot of emphasis on both brown and gray color tones.

This is not a rainbow-hued production and the dark aesthetic fits with the tone of the storytelling. Much of this is also due to the cinematography by Tatsuo Noguchi (Lupin III: The Secret of Twilight Gemini, Lupin III: The Columbus Files). The color palette is grim and helps enhance the fight scenes.

The anime has a unique approach to the character designs by Fujio Suzuki (New Getter Robo, Midori no Makibao). The characters are big and bold in appearance – extremely muscular characters with larger-than-life qualities which are fascinating to behold. The character designs are effective for the fighting-icons of Baki.

The music composed by Kenji Fujisawa (Before Green Gables, Hyakko) provides the action scenes with an effective backdrop. The score manages to help enhance the tone of the epic fight scenes. A score that fits the material well – though it never manages to stand out as something that would be memorable to listen to standalone (which is a drawback for some). Nonetheless, the score fits the material nicely and doesn't seem out of place in the storytelling universe.

Written by Tatsuhiko Urahata (Brave Witches, Black Bullet), Baki isn't a series with the same level of storytelling prowess as the best anime series. Yet the screenwriting by Urahata does try to imbue some personality to the production. The main emphasis remains on building the core story revolving around Baki and his quest towards greatness – as an ultimate fighter. This element is fundamentally important to the story and Urahata explores the journey of Baki along the way.

Directed by Toshiki Hirano (Angel Heart, Vampire Princess Miyu), Baki is a series focused on excelling in the action realm and in that regard the series offers fans exactly what they want to experience. The action is intense. The production showcases the creative range of Hirano and what he brings to the table. These elements help push the production further – as the action builds.

BAKI: Season 1 - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks, Baki is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The release has an impressive presentation of the series. Colors are crisp and dynamic on the production. This is an effective encoding with good compression. The encoding doesn't exhibit any serious issues in compression, banding, and the like.

BAKI: Season 1 - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes two lossless audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo (with English subtitles). The lossless audio sounds remarkably crisp and clear throughout the audio presentation. Dialogue is clear and easy enough to understand. The music score sounds excellent and well preserved as well. Though this isn't the most dynamic stereo mix in regards to sound design, the audio sounds clean and the bass reproduction is effective for the action scenes.

BAKI: Season 1 - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release is light on extras. The only main bonus feature is a selection of Japanese Promos (HD, 5:22).

The release also includes a selection of trailers promoting other releases available from distributor Sentai Filmworks: Hero = Mask (HD, 1:31), Kaiji (HD, 00:52), Sword Gai (HD, 1:02), and Dororo (HD, 1:32).

BAKI: Season 1 - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Baki is a reasonably entertaining action-anime centered around underground fighting and the quest of the central protagonist to become the ultimate fighter. The series has effective animation (with a dark and grim landscape). The release includes a reasonably engaging video-audio presentation. Though the release is light on supplemental features, Baki is worth a pick-up for series fans.