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Media Do International Licenses Keisuke Itagaki's Baki Manga
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Media Do International announced at the Manga Publishing Industry Roundtable panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego on Thursday that it has licensed Keisuke Itagaki's Baki manga. The company will release the manga digitally first, with a possible print release in the future.
Itagaki's original Baki The Grappler martial arts manga ran for 42 volumes in Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from 1991 to 1999. The manga has more than 63 million copies in circulation. Media Do International's license is for the Baki sequel manga, which ran for 31 volumes from 1999 to 2005. The company clarified that it is also interested in releasing the original manga, but it is waiting to see how its Baki release does.
Gutsoon! Entertainment released the first 46 chapters of the original manga in English under the title Baki The Grappler in the Raijin Comics anthology in 2002-2004.
After Baki, Itagaki published the 37-volume Hanma Baki manga in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 2005 to 2012. Baki-Dou, the fourth manga in the franchise, launched in Weekly Shōnen Champion in March 2014 and ended on April 5 with 22 volumes. The manga's fifth part is in the works.
The original series has received two television anime adaptations and an original animation video. The new Baki anime series, which adapts the sequel Baki manga, premiered on Netflix on June 25. The anime later premiered on TV in Japan on July 1, and is slated to premiere on Netflix outside of Japan this fall.
Source: Manga Publishing Industry Roundtable panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego (Thanks, Deb Aoki)
