'Baki: The Great Raitai Tournament Saga' Ending Explained: How the series sets the next season up for a grand fight
Spoilers for 'Baki: The Great Raitai Tournament'
'Baki: The Great Raitai Tournament' splits itself into three important narratives, of which the tournament itself is only the first part. It's essentially got three endings, and they all deserve a closer look at — especially given that two of them set up the next season in a major way.
The Tournament Itself
Ostensibly meant to determine the strongest man in the world, the last winner of the Chinese Great Raitai Tournament, Sea Emperor Kaku believes that the non-Chinese contestants are corrupting what it means to be a Sea King. Kaku brings his own son and his son's friend into the tournament to form a five-person all-Chinese team, who pit themselves against Baki Hamna, Yujiro Hamna and three others, in order to show China's superiority in martial arts. Unfortunately, each member of the Chinese team is handily beaten, one by one.
In the final match, however, the ultra competetive Yujiro declares the previous three matches null and void — and says that the tournament would be decided by the battle between him and Kaku. Despite his advanced age, Kaku holds his own, using more than a century's worth of martial arts training to hold his own against the Ogre. It starts to look like brute strength is about to win over martial arts training — until Kaku uses his techniques to stop his heartbeat, and get himself declared legally dead on the battlefield. Don't worry, he pops back to life as soon as Yujiro is off the field.
This apparently counts as a draw. Since Kaku used martial arts techniques to kill himself, he technically brought the match to a draw. As he argues, death in the middle of ANY tournament means that there are no winners, or losers. Kaku successfully kept his title — even if he had to 'die' to do it — and it's going to be another hundred years before someone can try to take it from him again.
The Fall of Muhammad Alai Jr.
The son of the show's fictionalized Muhammad Ali wants nothing but to defeat Baki in battle, and take Kozue Matsumoto as his wife. To do this, however, he believes he must be the best fighter the world has ever seen. However, despite battling through severe injury, and even fighting his own father, Muhammad Alai Jr. faces Baki in the ring and comes up short. The fight takes moments, and Baki is victorious, despite facing Muhammad at his best. Muhammad is broken by the shame of his defeat, and is consoled by Kozue.
It is at that point that Baki feels it's time to finally face his father in combat — and Yujiro agrees. Seeing Baki's prowess in the Great Raitai Tournament, and how handily Baki defeated Muhammed, Yujiro believes Baki is finally worthy of fighting. This sends ripples through the fighting world, as we see a montage of people reacting to news of the fight. We've learned that Baki no longer cares about being the strongest person in the world — he just wants to prove himself stronger than his father. The fight has been a long time coming, and is going to be a highly anticipated moment for fans of the show when the series returns.
The Death Row Inmates Upgrade
That might not be the only fight that Baki has on his hands, however. The Death Row Inmates — featured in the 'Baki: Most Evil Death Row Convicts Special Anime' special — are all shown to be undergoing extreme training. Each of them have been enchancing their abilities in gruesome and deadly ways. The detective who is investigating the case notes that it seems like they're preparing for something — the question is, what?
That question is something that's going to have to wait, for now, as that is the question that the season ends on. With the deadly powers of the Death Row Inmates significantly increased, even Baki's newfound strength might not be enough to face them on his own. More notably, though, if they're preparing themselves for something, then there might just be an even more deadly enemy about to make their appearance when 'Baki' returns.
All episodes of 'Baki: The Great Raitai Tournament' are now available to be streamed.
