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Baki Anime's Teaser Video Reveals Main Cast, Staff

This year's 16th issue of Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Magazine revealed the main cast and staff of the upcoming anime adaptation of Keisuke Itagaki's Baki (New Grappler Baki: In Search of Our Strongest Hero) manga on Thursday. The same information debuted in a teaser promotional video along with a new visual on the anime's official website on the same day:

Nobunaga Shimazaki voices the protagonist Baki Hanma. Masami Kikuchi voiced the character in previous Baki anime.

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.

Netflix will premiere the anime in summer 2018 inside Japan, and in fall 2018 outside of Japan. The series will have 26 episodes, and will also air 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 will feature 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.

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.

Yukinao Yamauchi (Baki Gaiden - Scarface) launched Baki Gaiden: Kizuzura, a Baki The Grappler spinoff, in the inaugural issue of Bessatsu Shōnen Champion magazine in 2012. Still another spinoff, Baki Gaiden: Kenjin, debuted in Champion RED magazine in 2013.