Netflix announced on Wednesday that BAKI-DOU: The Invincible Samurai, the anime of Keisuke Itagaki’s first Baki-Dou manga, has ranked at #2 on its Weekly Global Top 10 for Non-English Shows list. The series had a total of 3.4 million views with approximately 18.5 million hours viewed and an average watch time of 5 hours and 29 minutes.
Image courtesy of Netflix
© 板垣恵介（秋田書店）／刃牙道製作委員会
The series is only behind The Art of Sarah: Limited Series on the list.
Image via Baki’s X/Twitter account
©板垣恵介（秋田書店）／刃牙道製作委員会
The anime debuted worldwide on Netflix on February 26. The anime’s 13 episodes became available all at once.
Naoya Uchida stars in the anime as Miyamoto Musashi.
Rock band WANIMA perform the opening theme song “Furuboko,” and singer-songwriter Novel Core performs the ending theme song “Mountain Top.”
Itagaki’s original Baki The Grappler martial arts manga ran for 42 volumes in Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from 1991 to 1999. Kodama Tales began publishing the manga worldwide in English in October.
The Baki sequel manga ran for 31 volumes from 1999 to 2005. Media Do releases the manga in English. After Baki, Itagaki published the 37-volume Hanma Baki manga in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 2005 to 2012. The first Baki-Dou manga, the overall fourth manga in the franchise, launched in Weekly Shōnen Champion in March 2014 and ended in April 2018 with 22 volumes.
A new Baki-Dou manga launched in Weekly Shōnen Champion in October 2018, and it ended in June 2023. (The new Baki-Dou manga uses different characters for “Baki” in the title from the previous Baki-Dou manga, although it retains the name “Baki-Dou.”) The latest manga in the franchise, Baki Rahen, launched in Weekly Shōnen Champion in August 2023.
The new anime of Itagaki’s Baki (New Grappler Baki: In Search of Our Strongest Hero) manga debuted its first season on Netflix in June 2018 inside Japan, and it ran for 26 episodes ending in December 2018. Netflix posted the first 13 episodes outside of Japan in December 2018, followed by the second half of the first season in March 2019.
The Baki: Dai Raitaisai-hen anime then debuted worldwide on Netflix with all episodes at once in June 2020.
Baki Hanma is the third Baki series on Netflix, and a sequel to the Baki: Dai Raitaisai-hen series. The anime debuted worldwide on Netflix in September 2021 with all 12 episodes.
The second season of Baki Hanma debuted worldwide on Netflix in July 2023, with the “Tale of Pickle & The Pickle War Saga” story. The anime’s “The Father VS Son Saga” story debuted in August 2023.
Sources: Press release, Tudum
