15 Best Anime Like Baki You Need to Watch
The story of Baki is told in five main works: Grappler Baki, published between 1991 and 1999 and compiled into forty-two volumes; Baki, published between 1999 and 2005 comprising thirty-one volumes; Hanma Baki, published between 2005 and 2012 comprising thirty-three volumes; Baki-Dou, published between 2014 and 2018 comprising 22 volumes; and Bakidou, published since October 4, 2018.
The series has been adapted into an ONA anime series and in this article, we are going to give you a list of the 15 best anime to all of you who liked Baki.
1. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Original Run: October 6, 2012 – present
Number of Episodes: 164 + 17 OVA + 1 film
The plot unfolds around the story of the Joestar bloodline, a powerful family of British origin destined to combat evil supernatural forces using acquired powers; the work covers several generations of said lineage, which are adapted in each part by putting a descendant as the protagonist, starting with Jonathan in the year 1880.
Parts 1 to 6 have a continuous and linear story, while parts 7 and 8 take place in an alternate universe. The name “JoJo”, present in the title of the work, consists of a play on words composed of the name of the protagonists of each part, which can be abbreviated as “Jojo” and used as a nickname.
2. Record of Ragnarok
Original Run: June 17, 2021
Number of Episodes: 12
Every thousand years, all the gods, all pantheons united, meet in Valhalla, the paradise of souls, during an assembly presided over by Zeus, the supreme Greek god, in order to decide the fate of humans. However, that year, it was almost unanimously decided to destroy humanity. But the Valkyrie Brunhild interrupts the conference and proposes to the gods to measure themselves against mortals during the Ragnarök tournament, to determine if they are really worth destroying.
This tournament will pit 13 gods from various mythologies against 13 powerful humans who have made history. If humanity wins at least seven of the 13 duels, then the gods will spare humanity. But faced with the extraordinary abilities of gods such as Zeus, Poseidon or Shiva, the human representatives will have to surpass themselves to hope to have a chance of winning. For this, they can count on the help of the Valkyries. By the principle of Volund, each of the 13 sisters will fuse with one of the 13 mortal fighters and take on the form of a weapon capable of injuring the gods. This is how the gods will realize as the tournament progresses that humans are not as weak as they thought.
3. Hajime no Ippo
Original Run: October 4, 2000 – March 29, 2014
Number of Episodes: 127 (+ 1 film + 1 OVA)
Ippo Makunouchi is an extremely shy student who cannot make friends because he has to constantly help his mother run her fishing business. Because he stays to himself, he is bullied by a group led by Umezawa. One day he is badly beaten, but a passing middleweight professional boxer Mamoru Takamura stops them and takes the injured Ippo to the Kamogawa gym owned by retired boxer Genji Kamogawa. This treats his wounds.
After Ippo wakes up to the noises of boxing training, Takamura tries to cheer Ippo by letting him drain his frustrations on a sandbag. The men get the first glimpse of Ippo’s talent for boxing. After this incident, Ippo thinks a lot about the situation and decides that he wants to start a career as a professional boxer.
In delivering this message to Mamoru Takamura, Takamura believes Ippo is taking professional boxing too lightly. He can’t turn Ippo down right away, however, especially because of his feat of punching the sandbag much harder than anyone in the gym except Takamura.
4. The God of High School
Original Run: July 6, 2020 – September 28, 2020
Number of Episodes: 13
The manhwa chronicles the adventures of protagonist Jin Mo-Ri, a 17-year-old martial artist in Seoul. At the beginning of the story, he is invited to a martial arts tournament called “The God Of High School”. The event, sponsored by a shady corporation, brings together participants from all over South Korea for the regional and then national phases to choose three representatives for the world tournament.
As a reward, the winner sees the wish of his choice fulfilled. This intrigues Mo-Ri, and as he progresses through the preliminaries, he will encounter many other contestants, each with their own unique style and motivations. Among them are two martial arts prodigies: Full-contact karate expert Han Dae-Wi and swordsman Yu Mi-Ra.
These two fighters will befriend Mo-Ri after facing him, and all three characters will be selected together as South Korea’s representatives for the World Stages. As the preliminaries end and the teams are formed, the veil is lifted on the nature of the mysterious organization and the dark intentions of its members.
5. Megalobox
Original Run: April 6, 2018 – June 27, 2021
Number of Episodes: 26
The series is set in the future where registered citizens live comfortably in a wealthy city, while unregistered citizens are forced to survive in a slum on its outskirts. In this universe, the Megalobox is a very popular sport in all strata of society. It is a form of boxing enhanced by the Gears, exoskeletons worn on the shoulders and arms allowing boxers to punch much harder than before.
The story follows the journey of Junk Dog, a young man from the slums fighting in the underground rings during fixed fights where his trainer tells him when to win and when to lose. Not satisfied with this situation, he dreams of real fights. When he learns that the powerful Shirato Group is sponsoring a global Megalobox tournament, he is initially hesitant, believing that this challenge is beyond his reach.
But his meeting with Yuri, the defending champion of the sport, ends up changing his mind. He then decides to try his luck when he does not even have a valid identity to present to register for the tournament.
6. Air Master
Original Run: April 2, 2003 – October 1, 2003
Number of Episodes: 27
Maki Aikawa is a high school student like the others. Only, outside of high school, she’s also one of the greatest street fighters. A very lonely young girl, she will nevertheless become the friend of a small group of high school girls whom she will have previously saved from an attack. Followed by Renge, Mina and the others, she will then participate in various fights to improve her fighting skills.
7. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple
Original Run: October 7, 2006 – September 29, 2007
Number of Episodes: 50 + 11 OVA
Kenichi Shirahama, also known as ken-chan or funuken (weak legs), is a 16-year-old high school student accustomed, to his greatest shame, to being the target of his classmates. His lack of experience and know-how in the art of fighting forces him to flee violence. One day, however, when he witnesses an old man being attacked by thugs, a new student, Fuurinji Miu, manages to defend the old man with martial arts techniques that Kenichi immediately wants to learn.
For this, Miu will present him to his masters so that the young man can be trained. Unfortunately for him, the latter will not take gloves with him. But to his great surprise, the training he will undergo will allow him to make enormous progress in a short time. This will have unexpected consequences: all the gangs in the city now want to fight Kenichi, who from his first fight, had a reputation as an experienced fighter.
He belongs to the “Katsujinken” style (just like his masters), which means: the fist that gives life, or the art of defeating his opponent by sparing his life, in order to calm his ardor and make him give up fighting, an ideal for overcoming violence and the drive to kill. He will decide to embrace this philosophy to protect Miu and the people who are dear to him.
He will quickly become very powerful thanks to his unequaled practice of Ancient Karate, Chinese martial arts, Jujitsu, Muay Thai and various techniques based on the handling of weapons. It will even allow him to make friends among his former enemies.
8. Fist of the North Star
Original Run: October 11, 1984 – February 18, 1988
Number of Episodes: 152
The story takes place in the 1990s (which was then a relatively near future), in a land ravaged by a nuclear war, which has resulted in the evaporation of most of the seas and oceans, as well as the destruction of much of the vegetation.
During the introduction of the series’ plot, one can read “199X”, that is to say, an indeterminate year at the end of the 20th century. In this post-apocalyptic universe, the survivors are either humble villagers trying to survive, or vicious bandits grouped into gangs who loot and persecute the villagers.
9. Drifters
Original Run: October 7, 2016 – November 30, 2018
Number of Episodes: 12 + 4 OVA
Toyohisa Shimazu, a young samurai taking part in the Battle of Sekigahara in feudal Japan, suddenly finds himself plunged into another world. Quickly, he discovers that several other renowned warriors have drifted into this dimension.
The young man finds himself plunged into a merciless war whose ins and outs he still does not know, a war he must lead alongside two famous Japanese historical figures, Oda Nobunaga and Yoichi Nasu, before being joined by other fighters and strategists from various eras, such as Hannibal Barca and Sundance Kid.
These historical figures are all fighters or military and political strategists experienced in the art of war (sometimes both). Two characters, fictitious as for them, are at the origin of the appearance of these warrior figures in this world: the agent Purple and a young girl dressed in black named Easy.
Both remove these warriors and tacticians from the real world by a system of dimensional doors (the transfer always seems to take place when the characters concerned are on the verge of death) to carry out through them an indirect struggle whose motives still remain unknown.
The characters concerned are divided into two groups. The Outcasts, sent by Easy, want to destroy the world while the Drifters, sent by Agent Purple and aided by the October Organization, a guild of magicians, are supposed to stop them.
10. Tenjho Tenge
Original Run: April 1, 2004 – September 16, 2004
Number of Episodes: 24 + 2 OVA + 1 film
Sōichiro Nagi and Bob Makihara are two brawlers, accustomed to making their law reign with their fists in the schools they attend. But the school they transfer to is special: Tōdō Academy is a martial arts conservatory, where every student must practice one. They meet the Jyūkenbu club led by two sisters: Maya and Aya Natsume.
The latter falls in love with Sōichiro while the latter wishes to confront Masataka Takayanagi, a member of the club who defeats him soundly in a moment of intense rage. But one night, Bob has his motorcycle burned and his girlfriend raped (in the manga, abused in the anime) by a certain Ryuzaki. Defeated by the latter, they then realize that a powerful group, the Enforcers Club, rules the campus and that they will need the support of the club to become strong enough.
11. Sakigake!! Otokojuku
Original Run: February 25, 1988 – November 14, 1988
Number of Episodes: 34 + 1 film
The private school’s principal Genius, Heihachi Edajima, is a World War II hero. It trains its students to play a role in the politics, economy and industry of Japan and the world.
12. YūYū Hakusho
Original run: October 10, 1992 – December 17, 1994
Number of episodes: 112
Fourteen-year-old Yusuke Urameshi is the perfect thug: brawler and rebel. Yet one day he dies saving a little boy from an accident, but this child would have miraculously survived even if Yusuke hadn’t intervened. Not foreseen by the authorities of the kingdom of the dead, his sacrifice poses a problem.
This is why he is offered to come back to life, after having succeeded in proving that he is worthy of it. He then becomes a detective of the spirit world without knowing it, and is endowed with powers that will help him in his various tasks, both in the human world and in that of the spirits.
Helped by Botan, the “ferryman of souls” who settled her case at the time of her “death”, of her friend Kuwabara, and under the direction of Enma junior, the son of the Dark King in charge of the examination of souls, he is tasked with finding three demons (Goki, Hiei, and Kurama) who have stolen three relics from the world of darkness: the sword of darkness, a mirror and the ball of Gaki.
13. Basilisk
Original Run: April 12, 2005 – September 20, 2005 / January 8, 2018 – June 18, 2018
Number of Episodes: 24 / 24
When the feudal lord Ieyasu Tokugawa finds himself unable to decide which of his two sons should replace him at the head of the empire, his adviser suggests an atypical contest. Just let the Emperor’s two ninja clans (one from Iga province and the other from Kōga province) fight to the death, with 10 ninja masters from each clan fighting for one or the other of his sons.
The winning clan will determine who will succeed to the throne. Ieyasu accepts this competition, stating that the Iga clan will represent his eldest son Takechiyo, and the Koga clan his second son Kunichiyo. The leaders of both clans happily accept the fight, having been in a Cold War situation for generations until then.
Finally freed from the non-aggression pact forged by leader Hattori Hanzō, the members of the Iga and Koga clans immediately begin killing each other with almost sadistic abandon.
However, to complicate matters a bit, the heirs of each clan – Gennosuke of Koga and Oboro of Iga – are deeply in love with each other. Thus begins a cruel war in which two lovers are turned against each other, forced to confront their loyalties and meet on the battlefield.
14. Kengan Ashura
Original Run: July 31, 2019 – October 31, 2019
Number of Episodes: 24
Since the Edo era, in certain areas of Japan there have been arenas for fighters, where entrepreneurs and wealthy traders hire them to make them fight in bare-knuckle fights in which whoever wins can dominate the market. In modern times, these fights still take place in secret form between the great entrepreneurs around the world.
Ōma Tokita is a fighter with a mysterious past, whose fate accidentally crosses over with that of Kazuo Yamashita, a middle-aged man without a backbone, very fearful and submissive, an employee of the entrepreneur Nogi, a shrewd and unscrupulous businessman.
Tokita and Yamashita find themselves involved by Nogi in a dangerous tournament called “Kengan”. Oma immediately demonstrates his superior technique and will have the opportunity to settle some outstanding bills for years, while Yamashita will have to pose as an entrepreneur for a bizarre strategy developed by Nogi.
15. Kinnikuman
Original Run: April 3, 1983 – March 29, 2006
Number of Episodes: 295
Crown Prince of the planet Muscla, Suguru (alias Muscleman), when he was still a baby, was mistakenly thrown by the garbage chute out of his parents’ spaceship (mistaken for a piglet), so that it passes off the planet Earth. Many years later, Suguru has grown up, become an ordinary Japanese citizen, and serves as the president of the Meat Eaters Club.
However, an event will upset his routine, a spacecraft comes to crash on the earth, and its occupant, a small being who strongly resembles Suguru, Mitsu, comes to him and reveals his royal origins. After failing in his attempt to bring Muscleman back to his home planet, Mitsu will support him in his quest to become a superhero.
The problem is that Muscleman is particularly clumsy, very ugly, a bit stupid, and moreover not very courageous. Unloved hero, and drawing his powers from the consumption of garlic, Muscleman will try to achieve recognition by participating in international or intergalactic wrestling tournaments, where he will find himself confronted with other superheroes, such as Terryman or Robin, who will sometimes be allies.
He will also find on his way supervillains in the person of Dédé cubitus or Pedro the rock, rather stupid characters, who will try to set up ambushes on the path of Muscleman. Among the recurring characters in the series, there is also Muscleman’s father who will not fail to give his offspring a thumbs up, Mademoiselle Libellule (with whom Muscleman is in love), the police, whose interventions are always at the limit of the absurd and a talkative TV presenter who always pops up out of nowhere.