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Baki Hanma Anime Confirms Returning Lead Actor, Posts Art by Creator

Netflix revealed art on Monday for TMS Entertainment's Baki Hanma anime by Keisuke Itagaki, creator of the original Hanma Baki - Son of Ogre manga. The company also confirmed that Nobunaga Shimazaki is returning to play lead character Baki Hanma.

Baki Hanma will be the third Baki series on Netflix, and a sequel to the recent Baki: Dai Raitaisai-hen series.

Netflix describes the anime:

The story finally unfolds into a full-blooded clash between Baki Hanma and his father, Yujiro Hanma, who is known as the "strongest creature on earth." The climax of the Baki universe, which depicted the "strongest parent-child brawl in history of the world" in the original manga, has been adapted into the long-awaited anime!

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.

Sources: Press release, email correspondence