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Takaaki Hayashi Launches New Baki Gaiden Manga in October

The October issue of Akita Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Champion magazine revealed on Tuesday that Takaaki Hayashi is drawing a new Baki Gaiden spinoff manga titled Baki Gaiden: Gaia to Sikorsky that will launch in the magazine's next issue on October 6. The manga will have a color opening page. Hayashi posted an image of the announcement on his Twitter account.

The magazine teases the manga as being set a few days after Gaia and Sikorsky's fight in the main story, and teases a "rematch" between the two in a "battleground four-and-a-half tatami mats big," referring to the standard size of a small Japanese apartment. Hayashi teases the manga as a manga where "Gaia and Sikorsky" live together "sometimes with Nomura," referring to Gaia's alternate personality.

Keisuke Itagaki's original Baki The Grappler (Grappler Baki) martial arts manga ran in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from 1991 to 1999, and the 42 compiled book volumes from Akita Shoten have more than 63 million copies in circulation. The series received two television anime seasons and an original video anime (OVA) volume.

The simply titled Baki manga sequel is the second main installment in Itagaki's overall franchise. The manga also ran in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1999 to 2005 with 31 volumes published. The manga inspired the two previous anime series on Netflix, as well as an original anime DVD (OAD) adaptation that depicts the "Most Evil Death Row Convicts" arc. The OAD was bundled with a limited edition of Itagaki's 14th Baki-Dou manga volume in December 2016.

After the Baki sequel manga finished in 2005, Hanma Baki then ran in the same magazine from 2005 to 2012. The Baki-Dou sequel series launched in Weekly Shōnen Champion in March 2014 as the third main sequel to the original Baki The Grappler manga, and it ended in April 2018. The manga's fifth main part, the similarly titled Bakidou, launched in 2018.

TMS Entertainment's Baki Hanma anime debuted on Netflix in September 2021 with all 12 episodes. The anime is getting a second season.

Yukinao Yamauchi (Baki Gaiden - Scarface) launched Baki Gaiden: Kizuzura, a Baki The Grappler spinoff, in the inaugural issue of Bessatsu Shōnen Champion magazine in 2012. Still another spinoff, Baki Gaiden: Kenjin, debuted in Champion RED magazine in 2013.

Sources: Monthly Shōnen Champion October issue, Takaaki Hayashi's Twitter account