When all you want to be accomplished is to watch anime characters hurl their hands about, having elemental abilities and cutting-edge weaponry are wonderful. When the characters have committed their whole lives to perfecting their physical characteristics into weapons akin to knives and firearms, it is even more remarkable.
If you’re looking for some excitement, check out this martial arts anime, which features some amazing hand-to-hand fights. For those who want the thrill of brutality, Baki has a lot of frightening conflicts to offer, such as dislocating shoulders, breaking bones, or damaging all vital organs with bare hands.
Baki has three seasons, and the fourth won’t be available for a while. While they wait for Baki’s fourth season, fans of the series can switch to other anime. So, this list comprises 10 anime that are similar in terms of action and plot to Baki.
1. Record of Ragnarok
The lead character in the anime Record of Ragnarok is a ghostly figure who is propelled by the human spirit and raucous, self-assured statements about drilling. The final conflict pits an unhuman entity known as a hive mind against a personification of how people fight valiantly only because we are driven to that type of individualism.
Every time it appears that our hero is on the verge of defeat due to this almighty godlike monster, he rallies just by pumping himself up. The sheer sight of two action figures engaging in a titanic battle while accompanied by victorious music and insane flashing lights.
Is this kind of anime the most captivating from an emotional standpoint or the best written? No, not really, but I believe we underestimate the strength of a phenomenon that is just anime. It is outrageously loud, bright, and louder than loud.
The character designs’ excessive level of detail hinders it, although it is uneven throughout. Outside of a mobile game adaption and a few Hellsing episodes, the company, Graphinica, has produced virtually little noteworthy work, and this severe lack of expertise is evident.
This causes gigantic confrontations to be burdened with slideshow-like action, killing off the hype. Although it lessens the effect of what ought to be a major attraction, it doesn’t imply that the bouts are fun. The presentation of Record of Ragnarok hasn’t been perfect, but the character design is fantastic, in case it wasn’t clear.
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2. Hajime no Ippo
Highly addictive is Hajime no Ippo, which surprised me a little bit, given how simple the show’s idea is. Ippo, the primary character, is a typical little boy who works on a fishing boat with his mother. Ippo is regularly harassed by a small group of his classmates till, one day, an indigenous boxer by the name of Takamura intervenes to provide support.
He observes that despite being bullied, Ippo appears to be well-built and has the ability to defend himself if he puts in the effort. Ippo makes the decision to join Takamura’s Kamogawa Boxing Gym in this location.
So, what precisely is it about this that is so addictive? This is mostly attributable to the show’s fantastic characters. Ippo is not very noteworthy. He is neither a predestined hero nor a cunning strategist who always wins because the story requires it. He trains for hours on end, consulting his instructor and other fighters for guidance.
And when he’s inside the ring, his rivals, who are far superior to him, typically give him quite a thrashing. His tenacity and sincere passion for the game are his greatest assets. Through the sport, he aspires to better himself, and he seeks out challenging opponents to help him develop as a fighter.
In reality, he virtually always concedes that the other person is the superior combatant. Of course, spending most of his life working on a fishing boat has given him certain skills and positive aspects that he brings into the ring.
Another outstanding aspect of the series is the supporting characters. Even though Takamura is usually a jerk, he is nevertheless endearing and one of my all-time favorite minor characters. Takamura, in contrast to Ippo, believes he is the greatest boxer to ever live and enters every match with the conviction that he will prevail since no one can match his strength.
Also Read: Hajime No Ippo Watch Order
3. Megalobox
Megalo Box had a fantastic two-episode debut at the start of the season that caught the interest of many viewers, even those like me who showed up for the series premiere nearly an entire week later than everyone else.
Megalo Box is a project that recounts a fresh version of the narrative with its own distinctive twist as part of the celebration of Ashita no Joe, a well-known sports manga, approaching its 50th anniversary. Megalo Box takes set in a metropolis that is now gripped by the fever of the eponymous sport, known as Megalo Boxing, in an ambiguously contemporaneous chronology.
The Shirato Group, an industry conglomerate, leads the promotion of technology and sporting events by hosting the one that powers the Megalonia Tournament, with its own support, a fighter Yuri rocking the company’s newest model of gear.
Skilled fighters are pitted against one another using instruments called gears to increase the power and speed of the fights. On the other end of the sporting spectrum, however, the narrative centers on the adventures of Junk Dog, an undercover boxer who teams up with former trainer Nanbu Gansaku to fight in set gambling contests for money.
When JD stumbles across Shirato’s CEO Yukiko and Yuri one night, his frustration with his boxing abilities reaches the point of breaking point, and he is inspired to confront Yuri without having no concept who he is.
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4. Kengan Ashura
“The Ashura”-named Ouma Tokita is a young fighter seeking to establish himself on the international scene. Tokita enters the Kengan Association’s fighting competition as a result of this. Corporate avarice, which spends a lot on the combatants’ lives, is what fuels the competition.
There is a tendency among many of the Netflix original series to embrace more 3D-heavy anime; this style, which was formerly more specialized but is now more common throughout the genre, nevertheless seems like it has not reached its full potential. In terms of supporting the 3D anime style, Kengan Ashura demonstrates both its shortcomings and its advancements.
The battle scenes alone are when Kengan Ashura’s animation really shines. When the action gets up and becomes fast-paced, the combatants seem really crisp, and the conflict flows naturally. Ignoring the boring and muddy backdrops, it is the fighting scenes that manage to balance the otherwise harsh visual presentation.
The ability to produce memorable bouts is a key component of the ongoing popularity of many martial anime series, and the production succeeds in doing so. The character design in “Baki the Grappler,” a freshly revived series on Netflix, starts to resemble one from a long-running, well-established series.
The character design itself will be the most apparent contrast since many of the fighters have exaggerated their physiques and may use hefty figures in very strange ways.
Also Read: 20 Anime Like Kengan Ashura
5. Air Master
In Sekirei, a group of people known as Sekirei are fated to kill one another until only one is left in order to achieve some never-totally-explained aim. It’s similar to Highlander, but opposed to immortals, there are big-breasted girls.
When Minato finds he is an Ashikabi, a person who can kiss a Sekirei to cause them to “emerge” and acquire greater power, he is drawn into the Sekirei Plan.
As the match begins, Minato begins to assemble Sekirei and get ready for the next combat. It goes without saying that nobody will join Sekirei in the plot. That fails to alter the fact, though, that the series is a vast exercise in futility.
It’s hard to fully criticize the storyline for being conceived or performed because doing so would necessitate the existence of a plot. There are twelve shows of setup with no payoff, and nothing is ever cleared up. They discuss the Sekirei Plan, in which all Sekirei begin killing one another in order to achieve an ill-defined objective.
But nothing is truly ever done with it. The city is placed under lockdown, and the plan is initiated, but nothing really occurs. They make a great deal toward how this signals that the battle will finally commence and things will start to become serious. It never does, though.
They simply play about for more episodes, engage in a few more Sekirei battles, and then call it a night. There is already an additional edition of the program, but given that it took two years to produce the second season, they should have at least made an effort.
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6. Hinomaru Sumo
There has been a big increase in sports anime over the past several years, with everyone from baseball to volleyball to swimming. Hinomaru Sumo, an anime adaptation of one of the most famous and adored Japanese sports of all time, is therefore not surprising. I’m referring to sumo wrestling, in case the series’ name wasn’t obvious.
The only image that comes to mind when we envision it in the West is two overweight men pushing one other, which is something that happens frequently at many other athletic events. Like other anime, Hinomaru Sumo contains a hero who faces overwhelming odds from the get-go.
With his 5’2″ height, Hinomaru Ushio (Ricco Fajardo) has little to no chance of achieving his aim of being a well-known sumo wrestler. That won’t dissuade him from pursuing his passion; he’s resolved to do so now that he’s in high school.
The 24-episode series by directors Yasutaka Yamamoto and Knosuke Uda was animated by Gonzo. The movie’s animation isn’t really striking in its entirety.
However, I thought it was intriguing how much importance the show placed on strength and how it made sure to make the majority of the characters extraordinarily strong torsos.
Personally, I haven’t delved into the sports anime sub-genre enough to really understand how Hinomaru Sumo compares to the others. It was fairly decent in terms of combat tournament anime. It provides an adequate amount of sumo without getting boring with 24 episodes.
However, I couldn’t help but think that it started out a little hastily in order to get to the character-proving final event.
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7. Katanagatari
Katanagatari has many fascinating aspects; its great character designs and distinctive style are perhaps the most obvious and apparent ones. Shichika, Togame, a Deviant Blade user, or a Maniwa ninja—all of these characters stood out from one another and from other characters in the genre due to their striking differences in appearance.
The original Katanagatari artist has a very distinctive style that I would describe as both simple and extremely complicated. I want to discuss how Katanagatari became the visual masterwork it is today thanks to his original design philosophy and the reasons why the fictional characters are so amazing.
To start, I’d want to comment on how simple the characters in Katanagatari are. I believe this quality is extremely evident when examining any cast member. Vibrant colors that frequently clash with one another but still maintain visual coherence are used to highlight each of their designs.
These colors are incredibly distinct and seldom ever blend or share gradients; instead, they flow into adjacent ones suddenly and on purpose, forming large swathes of the character’s design. Another illustration of how simple each character’s design is their hair.
Although their real hairstyles are as bizarre and varied as they come, they lack texture, having no indivisible strands instead of solid, continuous designs that frequently highlight their individual personalities in the same manner that their clothing does.
In the figures’ eyes, which serve as the ultimate illustration of simplicity, we may start to observe the emergence of a more complicated thing.
The cast of Katanagatari’s weird eyes is already very unusual in that they use strange forms and colors to mimic the pupil and iris. Even if the forms are fairly simple, these previously mentioned colors help them to produce very distinctive patterns and designs.
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8. Samurai Champloo
The voyage of Fuu, a young woman in search of “the samurai who smelled of sunflower,” and her two hired companions, Mugen, a roaming bandit, and Jin, a peaceful and well-behaved ronin, are followed in Samurai Champloo.
Each episode focused on a different experience the party had while traveling, yet to provide a feeling of continuity, fresh information regarding the location and identity of the enigmatic samurai as well as the backgrounds of each character, was slowly and gradually disclosed.
Samurai Champloo is set in the Edo era of Japan and features a distinctive blend of current flair, most notably rap and hip-hop music. The combination of old and modern aesthetics elevates the anime’s basic plot into something amazing.
This method was previously employed in Cowboy Bebop, a Watanabe film that is now regarded as a classic animation. The visual effect is of the greatest grade, and the action-packed passages are brilliantly planned. I truly get a chill when watching some action sequences.
Despite all these positive aspects, I still find a few episodes to be rather difficult and occasionally even unpleasant or stupid. I think it’s because I don’t comprehend the historical or cultural allusion or humor being used, or perhaps both.
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9. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple
Kenichi Shirahama had been the target of bullying ever since he could remember. However, despite the fact that everything has gone wrong for him, Kanichi is very determined to defend the truth.
When Kenichi attempts to learn self-defense from a school club operated by bullies, he finds himself putting his club membership and perhaps even his life in danger in a fight with their largest and meanest member! Out of desperation, Kanichi seeks training at a mystery institution.
Due to the combat theme of this program, there is a lot of violence in almost every episode. The immediate aftermath of the fighting is, however, rarely depicted in any detail. Blood may be present, although it usually only serves to indicate that a particular individual has been hurt (characters are typically just scraped up).
Additionally, there is a ton of punching, kicking, and brutal beating of characters because hand-to-hand fighting takes into consideration the majority of the violence. It might not be explicit, but it’s still horrible.
Although there was some fanservice, I really liked this series. Particularly incredible were the battle sequences. It’s a high bar to meet because the last time I experienced such tension while watching character battles was in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The characters, especially Kenichi, are highly entertaining despite the unremarkable graphics and soundtrack.
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10. The God of High School
The God Game’s narrative is both intricate and straightforward. The Vindicators, a group of five high school seniors, spend their spare moment’s coding and occasionally pulling practical jokes when a member of the group named Peter exposes the others to a game called “The God Game,” which is controlled by an AI that was taught on all of the universe’s religious literature and really perceives it to be God.
The concept of a semi-sentient AI is not novel; similar tales have existed for decades. Despite the fact that the story is set in 2015, all of the technologies it features are ones that already exist in our world. For example, smart car systems and security cameras in every classroom.
Augmented reality glasses encourage augmented reality, artificial intelligence that learns coming from interactions and can communicate similarly to humans, and so forth. The rich, well-rounded ensemble of people served to further bring to life this interesting and timely idea.
The connections between the five Vindicators are continually changing in a way that is compatible with the behavior of average high school students. Each of the five Vindicators is fully developed, with their own aspirations, anxieties, and convoluted backgrounds.
The protagonist of the tale is Charlie, a once-glorious child with aspirations of attending Harvard whose academic performance and social life have suffered after his mother’s passing a year ago.
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