My boy Pickle is on everyone's mind right now for 2 main reasons. The first one is the Pickle arc being animated and the second is Pickle's sudden appearance right at the end of the Baki Dou manga, foreshadowing a future rematch fight with Jack.
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| Source: Keisuke Itagaki, TMS Entertainment, Netflix |
Let's talk about the anime first. Ngl dude... I have mixed feelings on this season. The anime adaptation of Baki was never the best but I let it slide in the past because the artwork in the manga itself was still evolving. That being said, the Pickle arc was where Itagaki really knocked it out of the park in terms of art, which has been consistently fantastic since then. It wasn't a horrible adaptation or anything, but since Baki is basically the poster child for Netflix anime, I expected better.
Episodes 1 and 2 were great and the Pickle vs Katsumi fight was adapted pretty well. That being said, I thought the Pickle vs Retsu, Jack and Baki fights left a lot to be desired, which isn't a great look considering Pickle vs Jack is my favorite fight in the series. There's a ridiculous amount of detail in the manga so making these monstrosities move smoothly was always gonna be a tall task, but inconsistent animation wasn't the only issue. Compared to how the manga flows so well, I thought there were a decent amount of moments which I can simply describe as "missed timings" where a scene either took too long (the infamous narrations mid-battle), too short (Jack's final scream of defeat) or just missed the correct cue. It's a difficult concept to describe but I'm sure manga readers know exactly what I mean.
Another weird thing I noticed is the lack of background music. Maybe I'm tripping but this season felt severely lacking in the sound department. You know that fantastic OST called Confrontation that basically defined the most evil death row convicts saga? I recall hearing that once or twice and both times were very brief. There was so little battle music, it made the fights feel kind of uncanny even compared to the previous seasons. One final point I wanna touch on is that one particular animator at the end of the Pickle vs Baki fight. Unfortunately I don't know their name, but they got a very distinctive style. It's the same guy who animated the final brawl of Baki vs Oliva and the one who did Guevaru uppercuting Mouth. It's undoubtedly an interesting looking style of sakuga, but in all honesty I don't think it fits the overall style of Baki. In summary, Netflix is playing instead of paying.
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| Source: Keisuke Itagaki, TMS Entertainment, Netflix |
I know I've been kinda shitting on the anime, but like I said before it wasn't terrible and I still enjoyed it. As the manga improved over time, I also expected the same of the anime, which it did in some aspects such as more detailed overall art and no further use of that horrible cgi. It's just that the Pickle arc is my favorite arc in the manga and I wanted it to be absolutely stellar in all aspects.
On the other hand, the manga's looking up rn. Pickle finally reappeared after his sewer encounter with Musashi a few years ago. He's looking EXTRA THICC just like the other thiccified characters, which I think looks pretty cool even though I still prefer his initial appearance. I'm kinda wondering how he was able to pack so much lean muscle mass considering the amount of protein he would have eaten from those huge dinosaurs back in his era was probably way more than the random animals he keeps hunting in the parks around Tokyo. I guess they're a much easier prey that doesn't require as much effort so he's able to go on a massive bulk.
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| Source: Keisuke Itagaki, Weekly Shonen Champion |
If the Pickle vs Jack rematch that's been teased does happen in the next manga, I think Jack would probably win (high dif) due to his current push, but you know ya boi's gonna be rooting for Pickle. In conclusion, hopefully Netflix does the Yujiro vs Baki fight justice and hopefully Itagaki gives us a fantastic 6th Baki manga!
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| Source: Keisuke Itagaki, Weekly Shonen Champion |
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