Having defeated Kureha Shinogi, despite the man's intimate knowledge of the human body gained at the cost of dozens of other's lives, Baki almost immediately seeks his next fight. He's spotted fighting 100 delinquents at once, knocking out over thirty of them before they overpower him. A Mr. Kuriyagawa is scouting for fighters who can take Baki down, burning through delinquents, yakuza and pro boxers to find someone who can defeat Baki. Meanwhile, Baki himself has faced and lost to his father and is driven to become someone who defeat him.

On of the repeated pieces of information we learn in Baki The Grappler, Volumes 5-6 is that Baki Hanma, winner of the karate championship and bane to delinquents everywhere…is thirteen years old. When I learned that, I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud. Sue, he's small compared to the hulk-like bodies of his opponents, but thirteen? But wait! Baki isn't the first, and isn't the only ridiculously powerful thirteen year old fighter in manga. I have long loved the girl-gang epic Hana no Asuka-gumi!, a manga that ran for thirty-three volumes, then was revived for eight volume and again for another two and most recently for nine, plus movies, novels and a massively popular television show in the 1980s. That manga predates Baki by some years. Like Baki, Asuka is thirteen when she begins her decades-long battle against her enemies. While Asuka lives in middle-class comfort between deadly battle against the gangs of Tokyo, in an incredible panel, we see Baki is likewise the target for the delinquents.

Like Asuka, Baki's just gonna keep fighting until he can't. We're reminded (constantly) that not only is Baki thirteen, the opponent that Kuriyagawa has lined up to defeat Baki is an enormous fifteen-year-old, who is also a second of a yakuza family. Just in case we forgot for a moment that this manga is actually pretty silly, behind all the violence.

Baki, unaware that he is being set up, takes it upon himself to face professional boxing champions, including one that hands him his ass. He's motivated to seek out his father's trainer, Ando the Giant, who offers the unique advice that, "Basically, when it comes to fightin', the one who eats the most, wins." Who knew. I coulda been a contender. With this advice, Baki sets out to fight a legendary beast and finally finds himself confronted with an opponent he fears. This is new for him. He's never once faced fear in any fight. This is an important development, because after almost six volumes of him confident whether he wins or loses—and no matter his age— Baki is giving psychopath. It's obvious it runs in the family, but still. It's getting harder to care what happens as he's just walking in to every fight face first.

Finally, in Volume six, our child soldier Baki Hanma, faces a situation he cannot control. There are losses, there is rogue medical treatment that would make Black Jack blush, there is blood and gore aplenty. There may even be death! Nah, probably not. This manga doesn't like to kill kill people, only to almost mostly kill them and then they /handwave/ don't die, for reasons. This isn't a manga that looks deeply into its own conscience and faces consequences.

This is a manga in which a thirteen-year-old bulks up by eating and training so effing hard he hits galaxy brain mode and bulks up in ways that are impossible. Shout out here to the continuing random bits of anatomical information that probably motivated a bunch of middle schoolers in the 1990s to hurt themselves with overtraining. For, me, a fan of training scenes since my childhood, and whose favorite hobby is watching heavily muscled people beat the living crap out of one another while I sit on the sofa and eat potato chips…reading Baki The Grappler is bliss.

Do I care if Baki beats the legendary ape? No. Do I want to know the minutiae of how he avenges the defeat of his mentor of 3 pages? Hell, yes, I do. I want to know every stupid factoid about ape and human bodies and exactly what unreal death-touch technique Baki comes up with to destroy what will obviously be the last of the long line of mountain guardians.

Also, in Volume 6, we meet Baki's mom and she's a creepy, super-rich sexpot who in no sane story would have ever been within ten meters of Baki's father. She's awful. I loved her instantly.

I want to take a moment or two once again and note that David Evelyn's translation here is chef's kiss perfect. The level of profanity is clever while also being amusingly vulgar. This isn't an f-bomb manga, it's “How's your nuts hangin'? We hear Baki crushed them like grapes.” kind of manga. That's also about the only humor here. With all the trash-talking and chest-thumping, there's very little room for jokes. Well, okay, Baki's endorphin-fueled galaxy brain was pretty funny. Evelyn and letterer Rafael Zaiats once again gets a shout out for the lettering every single one of the multitudes of hate graffiti on and near Baki's home, just to really hammer home that level of threat this kid (did you know he is thirteen? In case you forgot) lives under.