At long last, anime fans have gotten to experience the absurdity of Baki Hanma and the Pickle Wars Saga. Now the big question is when will Baki Hanma Season 3 come out?
Fans of the Baki franchise had an absolutely brutal wait when it came to Baki Hanma season 2. While Netflix tweeted that the season was set to land in 2021, it wasn’t until 2022 when the Baki team officially confirmed that the season was in development. Things went completely silent from there and when Netflix started axing shows throughout the year, many feared that the series would wind up in the same kind of limbo that saw the long-running Baki manga never gain traction in Western Markets.
While it took more than two years, fans finally got Baki Hanma Season 2. That’s great news for fans, but even better news is that Baki Hanma Season 3 is actually coming very soon.
When does Baki Hanma Season 3 come out?
Baki Hanma Season 3 is set to be released on August 24, 2023. This marks a surprisingly quick turnaround and will let fans finally see the fight they’ve been anticipating for years.
Japanese Baki fans had to wait 13 years for New Grappler Baki to be adapted into an anime and 17 years for a successor to the original Baki the Grappler anime. The manga wrapped in 2005, but it wasn’t until 2018 when Baki launched on Netflix and the manga received an official English translation by the Media Do Group.
Things didn’t move nearly as slowly when it came to Baki Hanma, with the first season dropping just a year after the conclusion of Baki. While there was some cause for concern when the release of season two dragged out, the series is set to be closed out in fairly short order.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead
When does Baki fight Yujiro?
Baki will have his long-awaited fight with Yujiro at the end of Baki Hanma Season 3.
The Baki Hanma manga series closely follows the events of the Hanma Baki: Son of Ogre manga, which wrapped up in 2012. Baki Hanma closes with the epic father-son fight, which stands as the longest single fight in the totality of the Baki franchise at 63 chapters. The fight itself is as exciting and absurd as fans would expect, with over-the-top techniques from both men and an expansion of Yujiro’s backstory.
It’s possible that season three may tap into the Baki Gaiden spin-offs for inspiration for an extra episode or two. The previous Baki series ended with an adaptation of the five-chapter Baki Gaiden: Revenge Tokyo spin-off manga starring the escaped death row inmates. While that episode fits neatly into that spot, the spin-off was actually released 13 years after the Baki manga concluded.
Another Baki spin-off manga could get a similar treatment. Either way, fans can look forward to Baki having a long, brutal fight with Yujiro in Baki Hanma Season 3.
Does Baki beat Yujiro?
Baki technically wins his fight against Yujiro despite the fact that he is rendered unconscious. There is a somewhat bogus explanation regarding why Yujiro declares Baki as the victor.
The actual conclusion to the fight is that Yujiro grabs Baki and bearhugs him until he is unconscious, a callback to how Yujiro killed Baki’s mother near the start of the series. As Yujiro is walking away, Baki is effectively able to project his fighting spirit at Yujiro and strike him while unconscious. Yujiro returns to Baki and the two partly reconcile over an imaginary meal.
After, Yujiro declares that he no longer holds the “world’s strongest creature” title out of respect for his son’s power and to give himself a new goal to chase. Baki rejects this and says that because he was rendered unconscious, Yujiro was the real winner. In reality, Yujiro defeated Baki but the implication is that they are now equals.
