Here’s How Baki Hanma Got His Scars

There is no doubt that Baki is the most iconic character in the world of martial arts anime, which means that many people are familiar with him and his abilities. Of course, while Baki’s fighting prowess can never be overlooked, the thing about him is that he has the appearance of a fighter that has gone through a lot of different experiences in life. The most notable parts of his appearance are his scars. So, how did Baki get his scars?

Baki Hanma got his scars through the many different tough situations he endured in his life. He had to go through painful training sessions and fights against many different people throughout his lifetime, and his father was never the most forgiving mentor. As such, his body became scarred.

It goes without saying that Baki pushed himself to the limit and ended up having a body full of scars due to the different fights that he had to endure to become as strong as he was. Of course, his face is the only part of his body that isn’t scarred, even though he took quite a few punches. Now, let’s look at how Baki got his scars.

Baki’s Scars Explained

Baki Hanma is the star of his own anime series, and such a storyline revolves around his many battles and fights as an up-and-coming fighter trained to become the next person that could take his father’s place as the strongest creature on the planet. As such, the entirety of the Baki manga and anime storyline revolves around Baki’s training and the many different fighters he had to go through to become a child prodigy.

Ever since he was a young boy, the only thing that he did was to train, as that was what his mother made him do because she was obsessed with Baki’s father, Yuujirou Hanma, who gave her the task of making sure that Baki would grow up strong. That was why Baki had to undergo harsh training as a young boy and even had to fight some of the strongest martial artists in the entire world despite being a young teenager.

The training and fights that Baki experienced in his childhood affected his body as it was unavoidable that he would get injured, hurt, or wounded in his fights. But when Baki trained in the mountains against a powerful ape creature named Yasha-Zaru, he sustained numerous wounds due to the savage nature of this beast. Even though Baki befriended the ape, his experiences with it scarred Baki.

There’s also the fact that Yuujirou eventually took charge of Baki’s training because he perceived Baki’s mother as too weak to be the one to oversee his training. Yuujirou wasn’t the nicest father and was arguably one of the worst parents in the history of manga and anime. As such, he was a harsh mentor that trained Baki by basically throwing him into the proverbial firepit. And that’s why it was unavoidable for him to suffer numerous injuries and wounds while training under his father.

As he grew up, Baki went through harsher training sessions and fought stronger fighters that allowed him to boost his strength. At the same time, his body ended up getting beaten down more, leading to numerous injuries and wounds. That is why an older teenage version of Baki has scars all over his body except his face. All of the experiences he had as a child eventually turned him into a scarred man in both the literal and figurative senses.

Of course, these literal and figurative scars made Baki stronger as he eventually became one of the best fighters in the world due to his incredible fighting prowess and strong emotional and mental abilities. Baki may be a scarred young man inside and out, but these scars helped him become one of the strongest fighters in the entire world.

Does Baki Have Stretch Marks or Scars?

Some people think that Baki’s scars are just stretch marks because he lost weight during a certain part of the storyline but regained his strength and muscle mass. And we know that Baki lost weight during the Most Evil Death Row Convicts saga.

But while Baki did lose a ton of weight during that part of the story, he always had those scars before the events of the Most Evil Death Row Convicts saga. In the anime, he didn’t have those scars during the Maximum Tournament saga. But the continuation of the Baki anime became more faithful to the manga by adding the scars on Baki’s body during the Most Evil Death Row Convicts saga. And that’s because the manga shows that Baki got most of his scars against the Yasha ape that he fought.

Nevertheless, there’s a good chance that some of the marks on Baki’s body could also be stretch marks from the fluctuations of his weight, especially when we consider that he was always muscular but ended up losing weight when he got sick during the events of the Most Evil Death Row Convicts saga.

Why Did Baki Lose So Much Weight?

For those who are wondering, the reason why Baki lost so much weight during the Most Evil Death Row Convicts saga was that he fought a very dangerous convict named Yanagi, who possessed a technique called Poison Hand. The technique allowed him to poison his enemies with a special poison concocted using several different plants. And the user can apply the poison by using the poisoned hand in an attack.

Yanagi may not have been as good of a fighter as Baki, but he showed his strong desire to beat him using any means possible, including underhanded techniques like the Poison Hand. The poison usually kills people by rotting them from the inside, but Baki’s strong body survived the effects of the poison. However, he was left severely weakened by the poison as he lost much weight despite surviving it.

The only way for anyone to recover from Yanagi’s Poison Hand is to use the opposite version of this technique. This technique has two versions, namely the Yin and the Yang variants. Yanagi used the Yin version of the poison, and Baki couldn’t recover from it using medical treatments. That was the reason why he lost so much weight.

However, when Baki took part in the Great Chinese Challenge, he fought Kaiou Ri, who used the Yang variant of Poison Hand. He used the technique on Baki, as he unknowingly counteracted Yanagi’s Yin Poison Hand. As such, Baki fully recovered from the poison and regained his strength and muscle mass.