Awesome / Baki the Grappler

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Grappler Baki (1991-1999)

• When Yujiro starts causing serious trouble during the Maximum Tournament, Tokugawa manages to incapacitate him. How? By launching a net at Yujiro, while snipers hidden in the audience rise up and shoot him full of needles with rhino tranquilizer — taking him completely by surprise. Nevertheless, by force of sheer fury, Yujiro manages to hold out against the tranquilizers for a lot longer than expected — making this an impressive moment for Tokugawa and him both.
• The Baki vs. Jack final match of the tournament. Not just the fight itself, but Jack proving he's a graceful loser. Even after losing to his little brother, Jack helps support his exhausted brother in holding the title belt high and loudly proclaims his sibling's victory.
  Jack: "My brother, the Champion!"

New Grappler Baki (1999-2005)

• Hanayama vs. Speck. First Speck uses everything he has, including Hanayama's own shoe and a barrage of strikes that almost destroyed the Statue of Liberty. Hanayama tanks all of it before giving him solid punches until Speck admits he has had enough. The moment Speck says that, however, he shoves a bunch of bullets into Hanayama's mouth and makes them explode. Hanayama's cheeks are gone but he still stands and decks Speck into a lamppost before dragging him to the authorities. And if that wasn't enough, Speck gets back on his feet before Hanayama can leave and keeps fighting him with guns and a flash grenade. It ends with Hanayama having to use his vice grip to tear Speck's forearm, thigh and throat. Even more awesome is that Hanayama is the first of the martial artists to defeat a death row inmate while Doppo and Baki lost their first fight.
• Dorian versus Doppo. Even though he ain't in the same level as Yujiro in sheer Jerkassery, given what an utterly disrespectful scumbag he is towards his opponents and his overuse of under-the-table tactics, it's satisfying to watch Doppo flat-out destroy and cripple Dorian when his methods doesn't work on him, not even hypnosis.
• Retsu finds Doyle bleeding out after protecting him all night and rushes him to get to the nearest medical facility. Problem is, Retsu runs into a large river, and he doesn't have enough time to go around it. So guess what Retsu does next. Does he jump? Does he swim? No, he runs on the water to the other side.
• Sikorsky's first kidnapping attempt on Kozue where he says if she so much as screams he is gonna kill her and her mom. Kozue knows he means it but she decides to bet on one thing she is even more certain than Sikorsky making good on his threat: That Baki will kick his face in before he gets close enough to her. She is right.
• Jack's first fight with Sikorsky ending with Jack completely flattening him, only to then reveal that he made a deal with Igari (who says the whole thing was Jack's idea) to have Sikorsky taken to the Underground Arena where Jack outclasses him again. Only this time, instead of finishing the fight, Jack tags out and subs in freaking Gaia, who completely shatters Sikorsky's body, ego, and mind. In the end, Sikorsky was completely broken and traumatized.
  • Bonus, as pointed out by the narrator, Sikorsky was defeated in the very same manner that he once looked down on in the beginning of the arc, sanctioned fights. "Mere rehearsals that should not be compared to the real thing." Indeed.
• By the end of the arc, the underground fighters proved to be superior to the five convicts.
• Granted, it didn't go well for him, but Ryu Kaioh deserves props for being not only able, but willing to fight after getting his entire face ripped off. Even Yujiro was impressed!
• Shobun Ron gets props for proving a Worthy Opponent to Oliva and having a dignified defeat, unlike most of the Kaioh, who went down basically instantly.
• During their fight in the Raitai Tournament, Kaku Kaioh actually manages to make Yujiro back down. A very, very rare moment where Yujiro is seen showing genuine fear. It's also implied that if Yujiro, normally Nigh-Invulnerable, did not dodge Kaku's punch, he'd have been dead on the spot. Later, punches from Kaku are shown blasting Yujiro from one end of the ring to the other or making him skid across the floor, even when Yujiro digs his heels in and puts up his guard.
  • Kaku's last attack deserves mention too: a barrage of punches that leaves Yujiro covered in his own blood. Yeah, he tanked it and responded in kind, but anyone who can make Yujiro spit Blood from the Mouth while his Demon Back is shown deserves a spot on this page.

Baki: Son of Ogre (2005-2012)

• Pickle not only rivals Yujiro in terms of pure strength but overpowered him even to the point where Yujiro needed to use Aiki to force Pickle off of him.
  • Bonus points in that Yujiro has gone on record in previous arcs to say he Hates using techniques.
• Hanayama managing to stop Pickle in his tracks, with the caveman comparing him to the mighty triceratops in terms of strength. This makes him the first human that Pickle sees as an opponent instead of food.
• Baki inventing dinosaur-style martial arts. Even Pickle is caught off guard! In his eyes Baki is a wizard throwing him off his feet. Soon enough Baki transforms into a fusion of the most powerful creatures the caveman has ever faced.
• As of issue #278 in Son of Ogre, Baki actually countering and putting Yujiro (yes, THAT Yujiro) in an armlock. Though the fight itself is far from over, to see the villain (who has up until now been nigh-impossible to even stagger, let alone defeat, and who has routinely gotten away with smacking around Baki and his loved ones throughout the entire manga) get brought face-down to the pavement with his arm caught in a vice is rather nice for a change.
  • How did Yujiro escape from this armlock? He used his other arm to punch right through the pavement and around to his other side to knock off Baki. In Oliva's thoughts, it was as if the floor was just jello to Yujiro.
• The ending with Yujiro and Baki's epic handshake, Baki finally earning his father's respect after a fruitless long battle, and managing to be given the title The World's Strongest Creature by Yujiro.
• Baki fails to defeat his father in their all-out fight. However, Yujiro admits that Baki 'did' make him take the fight seriously and acknowledges his son is worthy of his name.

Baki-Dou (2014-2018)

• Gouki Shibukawa overwhelming Musashi with aiki and punching him in the face.
• Miyamoto Musashi has managed to make Yujiro visibly bleed! Yujiro has shrugged off armies, beasts, and giant animals without any difficulties and now is bleeding. And this is After Yujiro already awakened his Demon Back early on into the fight.
• Musashi once again shows his strength is no joke by matching physical might with Pickle in their initial meeting. Then, in their next fight, Musashi becomes the first person to hand Pickle his first clean loss in the series, by beating and cutting him so bad Pickle fled in fear.
• Hanayama manages to stun Musashi with his pureness, allowing him to land the first blow. When Musashi stabs his hand, he grabs ahold of it and uses his impressive grip strength to keep Musashi from pulling it out, using said sword to throw Musashi. Hanayama further earns his respect after Musashi fails to cut through his arm, declaring his flesh iron.
• Despite his best efforts, Hanayama proves incapable of defeating Musashi, and he sits on the ground awaiting his coup-de-grace. But right before Musashi can draw his sword and deal the final blow:
  Baki: (appearing out of nowhere) Hey. Draw that sword… and I’ll fucking murder you.
  

Bakidou (2018-)

• Nomi remaining standing after being knocked out by Yujiro. Yujiro compliments him for this and seeks to have a rematch down the road.
  • Nomi at one point, manages to send Yujiro flying with a single kick. While not as impressive as making him bleed like Kaku and Musashi did, it's still far more impressive than what most Yujiro's opponent can say.

Other media

• Example from the Playstation 2 Game (Fighting Fury): Okay, so the fighting game may not be all that great compared to other fighters on the same system, but the best and most satisfying thing to do in this game is being able to beat the everlasting crap of (and ultimately defeat) Yujiro, who is Not So Invincible After All in this game! Giving the bastard what is finally coming to him is a huge case of Catharsis Factor!
• Two of Hanayama's most awesome moments were actually where he didn't need to throw a single strike:
  • The first was when he was confronted by an incredibly abusive teacher who loved to give students bloody bruises simply because he was allowed to during a time when a new law had been passed. The teacher, wanting to punish Hanayama and make an example out of him for simply wearing a uniform that was larger than the standard sizes (which would be impossible for Hanayama to fit into due to how massive he is) decided to punch him as hard as he could in the gut. Obviously, the result was a complete No-Sell that made the teacher fear for his life, even if Hanayama had no intentions of hurting the teacher in return. This in turn led to the teacher giving up his job, having tons of parents coming out about how abusive the new law was and having the law be removed from the books shortly after, all without Hanayama trying to do anything but having a normal day in school.
  • An insane student decided to attempt breaking Hanayama through many different means, such as filling his lockers with dead rats, putting up traps for him to get caught by and finally approach him with a crossbow, threatening to kill him if he didn't go down on his knees and beg for his life. Hanayama's answer? Ignore the threat, open up his school uniform and reveal and entire armory's worth of weapons far deadlier than a mere crossbow, including axes, cleavers, shotguns, katanas etc. Hanayama then dared the other student to pick any of the weapons to deliver a first blow, but with the warning that he would go all out on the other student once the blow was delivered. The once proud maniac would seconds later find himself weeping his eyes out for mercy, which Hanayama gave on the condition that he helped him hide the weapons before any teachers saw them.
• Hanayama once punched a man so ungodly hard that it made the man's crippling gout stop hurting. Forever, without killing the guy in the process.

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