Baki fans, this one is properly unhinged in the best way: Baki Gaiden: Retsu Kaioh wa Isekai Tensei Shitemo Ikkō ni Kamawan is getting a TV anime adaptation.
TMS Anime announced that the spinoff manga, whose title roughly means Baki Side Story - Kaioh Retsu Doesn't Mind At All If He Gets Reincarnated in Another World, is officially being turned into a TV anime. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like: Retsu Kaioh from the Baki universe gets reincarnated into another world.
That premise alone is already very Baki. Most isekai heroes get cheat skills, fantasy swords, or overpowered magic. Retsu? Bro is bringing Chinese kenpo energy into a new world. No cap, the concept sounds like someone looked at modern isekai trends and said, “What if we threw a Baki character into that chaos?”
The manga began serialization in Akita Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Champion in 2020. Eiji Mutsui handles the artwork, while original Baki creator Keisuke Itagaki is credited for the original concept. Sai Ihara, also known as Daisuke Ihara, is credited for the story.
The series has been running for a while already. Its first compiled volume came out in May 2021, and volume 16 was released on March 6. Volume 17 is scheduled to ship on September 8. According to the source, the manga has also crossed 2 million copies in circulation, including both print and digital.
Before this TV anime announcement, the Retsu isekai spinoff had already lined up a stage version. Staff for Baki The Grappler STAGE revealed in July that a stage play titled Baki The Grappler STAGE Gaiden -Retsu Kaioh wa Isekai Tensei Shitemo Ikkō ni Kamawan will run from March 19-22, 2027 at Owl Spot, also known as the Toshima Ward Performing Arts Exchange Center, in Tokyo.
For anyone who only knows Baki from Netflix, the franchise history is deep. Itagaki’s original Baki The Grappler manga ran in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1991 to 1999 and finished at 42 volumes. Kodama Tales began publishing it worldwide in English in October 2025.
The follow-up Baki manga ran from 1999 to 2005 across 31 volumes, with Media Do releasing it in English. After that came Hanma Baki, which ran from 2005 to 2012 and reached 37 volumes. The first Baki-Dou manga launched in 2014 and ended in 2018 with 22 volumes, followed by another Baki-Dou series from 2018 to 2023. The current manga entry, Baki Rahen, began in August 2023.
On the anime side, Baki has had a major streaming-era push. The newer Baki anime first launched on Netflix in Japan in June 2018, with international releases following from December 2018. Baki: Dai Raitaisai-hen arrived worldwide on Netflix in June 2020, while Baki Hanma debuted globally in September 2021. Its second season rolled out in 2023, covering the Pickle material and the Father VS Son Saga. More recently, BAKI-DOU: The Invincible Samurai premiered worldwide on Netflix, with its first 13 episodes arriving on February 26 and its second part following on June 18.
Analysis / inference for Malaysia and SEA readers: This matters because Baki has already been easy to follow internationally through its Netflix anime releases, even if this new Retsu spinoff has not yet announced streaming details in the source. For SEA anime fans who enjoy both ridiculous martial arts power-scaling and isekai setups, this adaptation could be a fun crossover of two very different flavours: brutal Baki combat and fantasy-world nonsense.
No broadcast date, cast list, or streaming platform for the Retsu Kaioh TV anime was included in the source material, so for now, the big takeaway is simple: the Baki isekai joke is real, it has manga momentum behind it, and it is officially heading to TV.