If any of you readers saw the 2018 season, then you know that Baki’s life is now in grave danger due to getting poisoned in the concluding fight. In order to get the cure he needs, he has to win the Raitai, an underground martial arts tournament in China that makes the Kumite in Bloodsport look like a schoolyard brawl. This means that the next arc is adapting the Great Chinese Challenge Saga as Baki teams up with his fellow Japanese fighters, along with America’s greatest, as they face China’s mightiest warriors. Due to Baki’s condition, the stakes are higher as he must compete with much of his strength depleted. Once that’s over, audiences who are already familiar with the manga are going to be treated to one of the franchise’s greatest fights in anime form!

Upon the final act of the first season, Ali, Jr., the son of boxing legend Muhammad Ali in the world of Baki, is finally introduced, and like real-life Ali Junior, he floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. As for fans whose exposure to Baki is exclusively through the anime, they can come to the conclusion that Baki and Junior are bound to throw down at some point. When the next anime series begins, they’ll start off as allies as they fight against the Chinese and once that’s over, they can finally get down to business (aka the Godlike Clash of the Kids Saga). The good news is that Ali, Jr. is going to have some considerable screen time to hype him up so audiences have plenty of chances to see how cool he is in action.

Through the first season of the Netflix series, audiences learn that Kaioh, or meaning “sea king,” is a title given to marital artists by an elite group of Chinese masters regardless of their backgrounds. As Baki’s journey into becoming the world’s strongest fighter brings him to China, he and his allies have the chance to face opponents who have obtained that rank. Like many in Baki’s cast, each Kaioh has a unique gimmick to make them stand out and add something exciting to the series. Some are a repeat of gimmicks that have been done before but are given a fresh twist to knock audiences out of their socks!

What makes Baki appealing is its explosive action. It was Mixed Martial Arts long before the sport even existed! The original manga debuted around October of 1991, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship held its first event two years later! While MMA has been rapidly progressing these past 25 years (to the point that the sport has a women’s division, which took professional boxing and basketball decades to achieve!), Baki is still in-tune with old school MMA. While today’s athletes need to know how to combine striking, wrestling, and submissions, Baki is still about one style versus another, just like the original UFC fights.

How does Karate measure up against Judo? Who wins between an Aikido black belt and a Yokozuna, a Grand Champion of Sumo? Or what happens when the respective heavyweight champions of boxing and pro-wrestling collide (The 1976 fight between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki doesn’t count)? As we already saw in the old UFC fights, those questions were finally answered. However, Baki still stays true to its roots and can deliver high-octane action! As the series begins to show the insanity of the bouts in the Raitai (and after), some would wonder if the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency should test this anime or the original manga for performance-enhancing drugs!