How To Read Baki Manga? A Complete Read Order Guide

Baki is a wild adolescent martial arts prodigy who can’t seem to get enough violence and fights in order to dominate the world’s strongest creature, his father.

This martial arts manga can ignite the flames of fighting, which is so primordial yet an indisputable truth in our DNA.

Written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki, this manga is written solely for the sake of fighting and the art that goes with it, not for the characters who enjoy fighting. 

There are four main manga series already serialized and the current installment in the franchise is still ongoing.

The amassing of brawly characters and crazy fights in each chapter will only make you read more about Baki and his wild journey into the world of strongest fighters.  

Many spin-offs or side stories run simultaneously with the main manga series, and readers venturing into it for the first time may become confused. So, the question of a correct order is inevitable in anybody’s mind. 

If you are new and want to start getting into this franchise, let me help you with a simple guide on how to read it. 

1. The Release Order

I. Main Series 

• Grappler Baki (Gurappura Baki) (1991 – 1999)
• Baki (New Grappler Baki: In search of our Strongest Hero) (1999 – 2005)
• Baki Hanma (Baki: Son of Ogre) (2005 – 2012)
• Baki-Dou (Baki’s Style) (2014 – 2018)
• Baki Dou (Here, Baki is written in Katakana instead of Kanji) (2018 – ongoing )

II. Gaiden/Side-Stories

• Grappler Baki Gaiden: Antonio Igaro vs. Mount Toba (1999)
• Baki Tokubetsu-hen: Saga (2002)
• Baki Gaiden: Kizumen – Scarface (2005)
• Hanma Baki 10.5 Gaiden: Pickle (2008)
• Baki Gaiden: Kizuzura (2012)
• Baki Gaiden: Kenjin (2013)
• Yuuenchi – Baki Gaiden (2018)

III. Extras

• Baki Gaiden: Gaia (2009)

(One-shot chapter)

• Baki: Revenge Tokyo (2018)

(Five one-shot chapters)

• Grappler Baki Remake (2019)

(Remake of Grappler Baki’s chapter 1)

IV. Other/Supplements

• Grappler Baki Fighting (2001)
• Baki Ultimate Book: Grappler Side (2004)

(A compendium of events and characters in Grappler Baki) 

• Baki Ultimate Book: Fighting Side (2004)

(A compendium of every battle fought and its results in Grappler Baki)  

• Baki Domoe (2010)

(A parody manga of the Baki series)

• Baki Gaiden: Retsu Kaiou wa Isekai Tensei Shitemo Ikkou ni Kamawan (2020)

(An isekai series where Kaiou Retsu reincarnated in another world)

2. The Chronological Order

• Grappler Baki (Gurappura Baki)
• Baki (New Grappler Baki: In search of our Strongest Hero) 
• Baki Hanma (Baki: Son of Ogre) 
• Baki-Dou (Baki’s Style) 
• Baki Dou

Reading the above five manga is enough to be well versed in Baki’s world.

The gaidens and the extras do not add anything additional to the main storyline. However, it is only natural to be wanting a more detailed chronological order consisting of the gaidens.

I. Here is the detailed chronological order – 

• Grappler Baki
• Grappler Baki Gaiden: Antonio Igaro vs. Mount Toba
• Baki (New Grappler Baki: In search of our Strongest Hero)
• Baki Tokubetsu-hen: Saga
• Baki Gaiden: Kizuzura
• Baki Gaiden: Kenjin
• Baki Hanma (Baki: Son of Ogre)
• Baki Gaiden: Kizumen – Scarface
• Baki-Dou
• Baki Dou

3. Where to read Baki Online?

There is no official way to read Baki online except buying digital copies for Amazon Kindle and others.

I urge you to respect the creator and his work and recommend you purchase the volumes instead of using any pirated websites.

4. Conclusion

Reading all the five main manga series in the release order or in chronological order is all that you will need to get into the madness of Baki’s world. 

However, one can also dive into the detailed chronological order as shown, if they want to read more about the gaidens and the extras.

The storyline is linear, and there is nothing much to talk about it, and rightfully so, this is not what the manga is mainly focused on. Instead, it is the fight’s raw and gritty element, as well as the carnage that ensues, which makes it one of the best shonen martial art manga, and the illustrations don’t lie.

When two fighters who have devoted half of their lives to mastering their martial art collide, the drama it creates is what makes this manga so good, yet so silly!

There is no doubt that this is a manga written only for the fight fanatics and martial art geeks.

5. Where to Watch Baki

6. About Baki

Grappler Baki known as Baki the Grappler in North America, is a manga series written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion, and collected into 42 tankōbon volumes by Akita Shoten.

The story follows teenager Baki Hanma as he trains and tests his fighting skills against a variety of different opponents in deadly, no rules hand-to-hand combat.

He spends every waking moment training and fighting so that he may someday surpass the fighting abilities of the strongest being on Earth – his father Yuujiro Hanma, a cruel man who lives only to fight and hurt people.