グラップラー刃牙 1 [Gurappurā Baki: 1] - Grappler Baki, vol. 1

グラップラー刃牙 [Grappler Baki] #1

by Keisuke Itagaki

vol. 1 of 42. Contains chapters 1-8.
The story revolves around Baki Hanma and his quest to proclaim himself as the strongest grappler in the world, thus taking the title from his father. Baki also fights to gain the trust of his overly psychotic mother.
Volumes: 42
Chapters: 371
Status: Finished
Published: 1991 to 1999

Genres: Manga, Comics, Action, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Martial Arts, Sports

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Keisuke Itagaki (板垣恵介; Itagaki Keisuke) is a Japanese mangaka, creator of the Baki The Grappler series. He is the father of Paru Itagaki.

Reviews

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grappler Baki is the classic martial arts manga against which all others must measure themselves. What sets it apart from other famous iterations are its contemporary setting and its respect for the tradition of various martial arts in Japan and across the globe.

Itagaki begins Baki's story in medias res and from the perspective of Baki's enemy, Suedou. Shrouding Baki in mystery, Itagaki does a great job of setting up various plot and character revelations that will follow.

In terms of the art and action, Baki is excellent. It is clear the extent to which Itagaki has influenced those that have followed him.

[alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

[volumes 1-14, chapters 1-190?] A dumb glorification of physical power with the cartoon science logic of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, combined with the truly disgusting men of Kaiji, but with the exaggerated hypermasculinity/violence someone who doesn’t like Berserk is imagining when they picture Berserk. Surprisingly sexist, too, since I genuinely didn’t expect women to exist in this universe. Obviously the wacky body horror science is VERY funny, but it’s way less frequent towards the beginning - all the panels I’ve seen of men moving their brains around inside their skulls to dodge sniper bullets probably won’t happen for another 600 chapters/20 years. How messed up will it be if I read this instead of One Piece.

I’m mostly fascinated seeing the art slowly escalate over time. Once characters started pissing themselves I knew it was headed down a dark path. As of chapter ~190 no one has the over-sculpted jaw muscles that really define the Netflix anime preview images, but a lot of the foreshortening is genuinely confounding. The anatomy is Disgusting. It feels like the most No Homo version of JJBA, where Itagaki’s clearly using a LOT of visual reference but not in any way you’d expect.

Side note: it’s funny how candid everyone is about the fact that getting kicked in the balls is like THE ultimate move in every underground no rules, free-for-all illegal cage match.

EDIT:
[volumes 14-40, chapters ~200-420?] got way more explicitly racist for a while there. I guess I enjoyed the weird Metal Gear Solid vietnam war attempt at a solid Baki/liquid Baki

[Mustakim · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Bingus Boingus · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 it was ight

[নাজমুল হাসান · Rating 3 out of 5]

There isn't much character development in the first volume. The only information we get about the protagonist Baki is that, he is a training freak and participates in underground fighting. And since the series is about martial arts, it starts off with a tournament right off the bat. Baki seems like a easy going fellow with little manners and knack for pissing people off. Hopefully the next few volumes will tell more about the characters.

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally starting Baki the grappler manga series and really loving it so far! Really great Martial Arts series 😁😻🥋👌

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lemme just hide anything I say about the original anime behind a spoiler tag. IF the anime and manga follow similar lines then there might be legit spoilers too XD


Baki The Grappler and DBZ can be linked to a passion I have for working out. If there’s a show that can fire me up ON THE SPOT, it’s this m*&@^# f&*@#% right here. Listen to this jam right here! Ohhhh my GOODNESS!

AHHHHHHHHH CELEBRATE AHHHHHHHHH CELEBRATE

Hahah! Misheard lyrics. I know what they are but this is how I was saying it in high school LOL. There are very few fighting anime that have touched me as deeply as Baki. Kenichi was great for its humor (might have one of the all-time funniest moments in anime for me), Fighting Spirit is great because it has Sendo, and there are many others that are good and great or don’t really hang around in this realm of possibility or use weapons lol (like DBZ, Sengoku Basara, Shigirui, Naruto).

Baki hits hard. Every character’s back story was incredibly cool to witness. Every fighter is damn near the lowest of scoundrels or somehow has their hands dirty, which makes the fights exciting, or even emotional. It’s no holds barred, they tell and show. ‘Every man dreams once in his lifetime of becoming the strongest in the world’ it definitely touches upon something in the masculine for sure. Especially when viewing the relationship between Baki, his father and his mother. I know I’m speaking out of my bounds for the first volume of the manga. I HAVE to express my whole feelings for the original anime here as well.

Baki is one of those things that dug its way into my subconscious. And not all of that is because it’s that good. It just eloquently captures what you can go through in heated, tough situations. The fight with the yasha ape goes down as one of my all-time favorite fights EVER. It’s the abandonment of self-survival in the face of superior force. Always, always Baki has to ditch convention for the sake of coming out alive. I mean, this is life dude. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. Your opponents aren’t lesser or better doubly so no matter the outcome of the fight.

Hanayamas tattoo back story is eteched into my mind both musically and as a parable. I know that story nearly better than any in the Bible. Orochi's story about losing his fight and Baki's wisdom 'alcohol's a weakness not an excuse" the very idea of endorphins was introduced to me while Baki fought Gaia. To have the experience, and sometimes the wisdom, that Baki learns or represents was so satisfying to watch. None of the fights ever really end the way you want them to. And maybe that's my real joy right there.

I can go on forever. Baki is like spiritual for me.



It’s like this if I had to say the shows that had the deepest most profound impact on my life Baki is no doubt among them. I might not continue with the manga for the same reason I don't watch any of the latest anime series. I just wanna preserve my love for what got me hyped in high school. And to this day I listen to Baki's music while I'm in the gym! :D

You're damned right I pose like Yujiro after crushing three sets and utter, "this man is injured" spectators probably think I'm a freak, least of all cause I talk to myself, but I relish the strength.

"Yup, that stings!"

It's great to sit here and think I take this stuff way too seriously, yet at the same time I don't think anyone comes anywhere close to training with as much joy as I have. I do wonder sometimes why I torture my body to be in the shape that I'm in. Baki's likely the answer. Cheers!

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning of it all. The foot of the Mt Everest of long running, terrible manga. Baki is an absolute achievement in human stupidity. It is easily one of the dumbest pieces of media I've ever encountered in my life. Yet it is absolutely compelling. I have been devouring this manga over the last 2 years. The art starts out simply hideous and "improves" over the years. If by improvement you mean it looks like Rob Liefeld hatefucked Tetsuo Hara. Baki is the kind of series that defies explanation. Hundreds of amazing and incredibly stupid things have happened over 1000+ chapters. This series has been running for over 30 freaking years. Let me at least try to explain. There are some big, muscle men and they fight. There are dozens and dozens of scenes of men pissing in other men's faces to flex on them. The author's self-insert threatens to rape Donald Trump and Elon Musk, which was the best Baki thing to happen in 2025 so far. One of the most recent chapters was just one character getting punched for 22 pages and 11 of those pages were the same punch. That's because Baki is essentially a flipbook masquerading as a comic at least half the time. Everyone had that one literature professor in high school or college who really looked down on comics as trash media and not worthy of being called "real" literature. Baki is like that snobby professor's idea of what a comic is...then somehow make that 10 times dumber. Baki is an absolute MASTERPIECE of silliness.

[Vicente Ribes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un manga de ostias muy disfrutable. Baki quiere ser el hombre más fuerte del mundo para poder enfrentarse a su padre, el ogro, un psicopata que en su busca para poder enfrentarse al rival más fuerte del mundo tuvo a Baki y intentó que este se convirtiese en una máquina de matar.
Pero Baki seguirá su propio camino con valores honestos en la lucha y respetando a sus rivales.
Los capítulos refrentes a los torneos de artes marciales donde aparecen una gran variedad de contrincantes,cada uno más loco que el anterior( yakuzas, boxeadores, karatekas,ect) son los mejores.
El autor del manga tiene una gran conocimiento sobre los diferentes estilos de lucha y los refleja fielmente.
No es el mejor manga del mundo pero entretiene bastante y se lee del tirón.

[Abhilasha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yeah, no. This didn’t really make much sense to me.

I first found out about it when I saw my brother watching the anime on Netflix one day. I noticed this super hot character fighting someone way stronger and more powerful, so I assumed he had to be the hero. Imagine my disappointment when I realized he wasn't the main character.

Still out of curiosity, I thought, “Why not read the manga instead?” since I wasn’t really in the mood to watch anything at the time.

But alas—the manga just didn’t click with me.

That said, I did enjoy watching bits and pieces of the anime with my brother, even if I wasn’t fully invested in the story.

In the end, I decided not to continue reading the manga. Maybe it’s just not my thing.

[Philmore Olazo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have some questions tho.

We begin with a Karate tournament where our protagonist, Baki, competes and proceeds to crush all experts there.

This funny enough catches the attention of some high ranking martial arts experts, and that's pretty much it. We only see Baki as he fights and a semblance of his good natured personality, but nothing else. We do get some intrigue on his scared body, what happened to him? How did he get so strong? He calls himself a grappler, so what did he train?

I find it interesting and I'll have to check if that diet training is effective in fights myself.

I'll continue to check this story.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars *may change

Itagaki's art style is so incredibly goofy... Like there's really no other word. It makes me laugh whenever I look at it for too long because of how insanely caricature-like it is while also making every character as ripped as possible. Anyway, I cannot believe it's taken this long for an official English printing when I swear this manga is older than me.

*Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of the English translation.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what I expected but this was great. The art is insane, a little too complicated and a bit hard to tell exactly what is going on but I’m sure as I read further Itagaki’s style will flow more fluently for me. Excited to read more and see just how this series can continue for up to 150+ volumes

[Yasso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very quick (+fun) read. While I can't say much about the plot rn, I'm very interested in where this goes because I've seen some pretty crazy stuff and I'm excited to learn the context of them

I like baki tho, and I'll probably come to love him 🕊️

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been curious about this manga for a while, just randomly decided to start it today.

[Alexandre · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great start !

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using this to rate the whole series

One of *the* classic martial art mangas
Complete with awesome fight scenes, great and memorable characters, and the oh so loved complete absurdity

[Blaine Riesberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whelp I'll pretty much be reading this for the foreseeable future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XIrn...

[Azam Ch.]

nice 42 volume never-ending fight sequence

[MechaDragonX · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

[Omar Villafane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let’s go train 💪🏼

[Jack Koeberle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baki is still finding its footing here, but it gets better.

I’m reading this illegally, put it out in the US so I don’t have to do this.

[Jace]

The greatest story ever told

Logging for the whole first series

[RosasRojas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Que comienzo!! Nos presentan a Baki, un joven de menos de 17 años, pero con una habilidad sorprendente para las peleas. Este primer tomo empieza fuerte, mostrándonos de una vez la batalla final de un torneo, donde Baki y otro contrincante se enfrentan. Amé el estilo de dibujo, como los personajes son diseñados para diferenciarse de los demás (Baki es mi favorito, con ese cuerpo todo musculoso y, oh! Una cara de niño bueno), incluso aquellos que solo son personajes de fondo. La forma en que las peleas están dibujadas las hace ver muy dinámicas, y al mismo tiempo son fáciles de entender. Claro, el dibujo tiene algunas fallas a veces, como errores en la proporción de los personajes en algunos paneles, pero nada que arruine la lectura.

Se nota que este tomo es algo introductorio, una probadita de las cosas que vamos a ver más adelante. Yo, sinceramente, estoy muy emocionada por ello, y si este es apenas el inicio, no puedo imaginarme como será lo demás!

[DAQUARI]

great book