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New Baki Anime Casts Anri Katsu, Kenji Nomura as Shinshinkai Members
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The official website for the new anime of Keisuke Itagaki's Baki (New Grappler Baki: In Search of Our Strongest Hero) manga revealed two new cast members for the anime on Monday. The new cast members are:
Kenji Nomura as Atsushi Suedō, the champion of the Shinshinkai's National Karate Tournament for three consecutive years, and a colleague of Katō. He has an unusually large body for a Japanese person, can bench press 270 kilos (about 595 pounds), and can run 100 meters (about 328 feet) in 11 seconds while barefoot.
Nobunaga Shimazaki voices the protagonist Baki Hanma. Masami Kikuchi voiced the character in previous Baki anime.
The other cast members include:
Takehito Koyasu as Doyle
Issei Futamata as Yanagi Ryūkō
Banjō Ginga as Dorian
Chafūrin as Speck
Bin Shimada as Gōki Shibukawa, the master of the Shibukawa fighting style of aikidō
Rikiya Koyama as Kaiō Retsu, a grappler who attained the title "Kaiō" with Chinese martial arts
Takuya Eguchi as Kaoru Hanayama, "Japan's top brawler" who became the second head of Hanayama group at the age of 15
Yoshihisa Kawahara as Katsumi Orochi, the adopted son of Karate Shinshinkai founder Doppo Orochi
Sora Amamiya as Kozue Matsumoto, Baki's schoolmate and the daughter of Baki's landlady
Akio Ohtsuka as Yūjirō Hanma, Baki's father
Tohru Furuya provides the narration.
Netflix is premiering the anime this summer inside Japan, and this fall outside of Japan. The series will have 26 episodes and is also airing on television.
Netflix describes the story:
The protagonist, Baki Hanma, trains with an intense focus to become strong enough to surpass his father, Yujiro Hanma, the strongest fighter in the world. Five of the world's most violent and brutal death row inmates are gathering to face Baki. Their objective is to taste defeat -- their unmatched strength and skill have led them to grow bored of life itself, and they now seek out Baki in the hopes that he can overwhelm and utterly crush them. In this crisis, other underground martial art warriors gather to fight by Baki's side: Kaoru Hanayama, Gouki Shibukawa, Retsu Kaioh, and Doppo Orochi. An epic showdown between violent death row inmates and Baki and his friends begins!
The anime features the "Most Evil Death Row Convicts" arc from the manga, which features underground ring fighters in the no-rules combat environment of death row convicts.
Toshiki Hirano (Rayearth, Dangaioh, Magic Kaito: Kid the Phantom Thief) is directing the anime at TMS Entertainment (Lupin III, ReLIFE). Fujio Suzuki (Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo, 009-1, New Getter Robo) is designing the characters. Tatsuhiko Urahata (DNA², Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Tsuredure Children) is in charge of series composition.
GRANRODEO performs the show's opening theme song "Beastful," and Azusa Tadokoro performs the ending theme song "Resolve."
In addition to the Netflix premiere screenings, the anime is running on the Tokyo MX 1, Sun TV, TV Q Kyuushuu, TV Aichi, KBS Kyoto, and Hokkaido TV channels. The anime premiered on Tokyo MX1 on July 1, about one week after it started running on Netflix on June 25.
Baki is the second installment in Itagaki's overall series. The manga ran for 31 volumes in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1999 to 2005. The manga recently inspired an original anime DVD (OAD) adaptation that also depicts the "Most Evil Death Row Convicts" arc. The OAD was bundled with a limited edition of Itagaki's 14th Baki-Dou manga volume in December 2016.
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. The series has received two television anime adaptations and an original animation video.
After the Baki sequel manga finished in 2005, Hanma Baki then ran in the same magazine from 2005 to 2012. The Baki-Dou sequel series launched in Weekly Shōnen Champion in March 2014 as the third sequel to the original Baki The Grappler manga, and it ended on April 5. The manga's fifth part is in the works. Media Do licensed the Baki manga, and will release it digitally first, with a possible print release in the future.
