Whichever name you call it, Baki the Grappler, or Grappler Baki, falls in line as one of the several anime dealing with a martial art. In this case, obviously, is grappling. Licensed by Funimation, I was taken aback when I saw this series.
The titular character is Baki Hanma, an individual that trained in martial arts since the age of 3. He is the son of the legendary Yujiro Hanma, known as the King, and chooses to follow in his footsteps to become as strong as him. However, be becomes disillusioned by his father's persona, and admiration turns into resentment. Where Yujiro is ruthless, Baki is instead honorable, and suppresses his instinct to kill, unlike his father. In the beginning, he is seen challenging many fighters in an 100-man battle, but only defeats 37 men. From there, the anime takes its run as it follows the career, training methods, and the life of Baki as a mixed martial artist, employing many styles in his fights. All the while, he strives to challenge, and hopefully defeat OR kill, his father.
The anime was featured as part of the Funimation Channel in the US. It was indeed edited for time, but retained much of the original content. It's assumed that it is 2 separate, yet chronological anime, as one of which follows after Baki's defeat and his mother's death at the hands of Yujiro. To emphasize, Baki sports different looks in the two. When we first see him, his hair is bright orange and short. Later, after being defeated by Yujiro, time passes, and we see Baki with longer, dark red hair. Robert McCollum provides Baki's English voice, who also did roles as Hattori Kyohachiro of Basilisk, and Keisuke Moroto of Birdy the Mighty Decode. The TV anime is 24 episodes long, and is succeeded by another 24 episode anime Grappler Baki: Maximum Tournament. In all, I'll give it an 8 of 10, because the voices were well executed, plus the action was enough to keep me hooked onto it.
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