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Garoden Author Baku Yumemakura's 'Martial Arts Novel' Gets Anime

Writer Baku Yumemakura commented in this year's ninth issue of Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine on Thursday that a "martial arts novel" of his will have an anime adaptation. The magazine serializes his Yūenchi: Baki Gaiden manga, a side story to the martial arts manga Baki by Keisuke Itagaki. While Yūenchi: Baki Gaiden is a manga, it is labeled as an illustrated novel in Akita Shoten's book volume releases.

Yumemakura and Itagaki also previously collaborated on the manga adaptation of Yumemakura's martial arts novel Garoden and the Garouden Boy manga.

Yumemakura launched the Yūenchi: Baki Gaiden manga in Weekly Shōnen Champion in May 2018. Akita Shoten published the manga's second volume on January 8.

Yumemakura is a prolific writer, whose works have been adapted into manga, anime, and live-action. These works include The Summit of the Gods, Garoden, Kurozuka, Onmyōji, Amon Saga, Psycho Diver: Soul Siren, and Majyugari, among others. Mamoru Oshii is directing an anime film adaptation of Yumemakura's Chimera novels.

Itagaki's original Baki The Grappler (Grappler Baki) martial arts manga ran in Akita Publishing's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from 1991 to 1999, and the 42 compiled book volumes from Akita Publishing have more than 63 million copies in circulation. The series received two television anime seasons and an original video anime (OVA) volume.

The simply titled Baki manga sequel is the second main installment in Itagaki's overall franchise. The manga also ran in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1999 to 2005 with 31 volumes published. The manga inspired the two previous anime series on Netflix, as well as an original anime DVD (OAD) adaptation that 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.

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 main sequel to the original Baki The Grappler manga, and it ended on April 5, 2018. The manga's fifth main part, the similarly titled Bakidou, launched in 2018.

TMS Entertainment announced last September that it is producing Baki Hanma, the third Baki series on Netflix.

Source: Weekly Shōnen Champion issue 9