‘Baki Hanma’: Here Is Why Baki Lost to Pickle

One of the best fights in the entire ‘Baki Hanma’ storyline was between Baki Hanma and the caveman named Pickle. What made this one of the best fights was that a small man like Baki could give a gigantic prehistoric man like Pickle the toughest fight of his life. Of course, while Baki was able to give Pickle everything he had, it was the caveman that won the fight. So, why did Baki lose to Pickle?

Baki lost to Pickle when he decided to make the battle an all-out fight of stamina. He had a chance to beat Pickle when he pushed him back using his speed and power. But he respected Pickle and allowed him to brawl with him until Pickle defeated him using a jujutsu technique that forced the caveman to evolve.

The thing about the fight between Baki and Pickle is that it was just more than someone defeating the other opponent. In fact, the ending of that fight was more meaningful than anything else when you look at how Pickle had to change to adapt to an opponent he knew he couldn’t defeat. So, with that said, let’s look at why Baki lost to Pickle and how it happened.

Did Pickle really win against Baki?

The entire Pickle Wars arc of the ‘Baki Hanma’ anime was one of the storyline’s most interesting and brutal points. That’s because a prehistoric caveman named Pickle was taken to Japan, where he was challenged by some of the greatest fighters in the entire world. And the thing about Pickle was that he only agreed to fight these men because he saw them as prey he could eat if he won.

In that regard, Pickle fought and won a lot of strong fighters, including Kaiou Retsu, Katsumi Orochi, and Jack Hanma. After fighting and winning against these strong fighters, Pickle no longer needed to fight for his food because Professor Payne started feeding him the T-Rex meat he hunted before he was frozen in ice.

And that was when Baki had to resort to attacking Pickle’s pride to goad him into fighting him even though Pickle saw him as a friend and playmate rather than a meal.

Initially, Baki had little to no interest in Pickle because he wanted to fight his father and beat him. But when he realized that Pickle was strong enough to defeat some of Baki’s strongest rivals, he decided that it was time to fight him so that he could become strong enough to challenge his old man. And that was when the fight between Baki and the caveman started.

During the start of the fight, Baki had already suffered internal injuries after he and Pickle fell from the top of the arena. While Pickle’s caveman physique allowed him to survive that fall unscathed, Baki suffered internal damage as a result. Despite that, he continued fighting the prehistoric man while incorporating some of the best techniques he developed on the fly.

While Baki’s techniques were enough to push Pickle to unleash his strongest form, it was the fact that Baki mastered the art of imitating the movements of the dinosaurs that made the caveman realize that he was an even bigger threat than all of the dinosaurs that he had fought before during his time.

And Pickle was both afraid and amazed after seeing that Baki could do things that the dinosaurs were capable of, even though he was much smaller than them.

Attacks such as the whip strike and mental imaging were more than enough to hurt Pickle. But it was when Baki resorted to his martial arts skills to ultimately match Pickle’s superior strength and speed. The caveman was surprised by the fact that this man, who was much smaller than he was, was capable of hurting him in ways that the dinosaurs weren’t capable of. And Baki could have easily won that fight had he relied more on martial arts tactics during his fight with Pickle.

Eventually, however, Baki allowed Pickle to fight him toe-to-toe. He offered the caveman a chance to end the fight in a battle of stamina, with both men fighting in an all-out brawl that tested their strength and stamina. This fight pushed Pickle to the limit, as he ended up using a jujutsu move that allowed him to throw Baki to the ground. In the end, the caveman was the one left standing, but even Pickle realized that he won in a manner that was not familiar to him.

In the eyes of an ordinary man, Pickle won that fight with Baki because he was the one left standing. But in the trained eyes of the fighters watching that bout, they realized that Baki had won.

Was Pickle stronger than Baki?

According to the onlookers, Pickle didn’t win that fight. They stated that Pickle never used any techniques in his fights with his different opponents, as he only used hunting moves that allowed him to bridge the gap between himself and the dinosaurs of the past. On top of that, he was always stronger, faster, and more durable than the other martial artists he fought. 

But in the final moments of that fight with Baki, he needed to evolve and use a tool or weapon to defeat a man who was supposed to be smaller and weaker. And that was when he had to use martial arts.

Martial arts were created and developed as tools or weapons that mankind needed to win fights against people or even animals that were stronger than them. For example, a smaller and weaker person can win a fight against a bigger and stronger man if he is well-trained in martial arts. In that regard, martial arts are now weapons used to bridge the gap between a weaker man and a stronger opponent.

As stated by the onlookers of that fight, a weaker man would only use a tool or weapon against someone or something he deemed stronger than he was. After all, no one would need to use a weapon against someone deemed weaker. But if faced against a stronger opponent, a weaker man would resort to using tools or weapons to bridge the gap.

For Pickle to instinctively evolve and use a tool in the form of martial arts to defeat Baki, he realized that Baki was stronger than he was. And it was also clear that Pickle feared Baki in their fight because he could do things that no other person or creature had ever done to him.

So, while Pickle won that fight against Baki, it was clear that Baki could prove that he was stronger because he pushed Pickle to his very limits using his unconventional tactics and his ability to control a fight using martial arts. The fact that Pickle feared him and was pushed to a point where he was forced to evolve and use martial arts was proof that Baki had grown to become stronger than he was even though it was the caveman that was left standing.