Itagaki’s original Baki The Grappler martial arts manga ran for 42 volumes in Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from 1991 to 1999.
The satellite television station WOWOW announced on Friday that it is producing a live-action series based Grappler Baki BL de wa Nai ka to 1-Nichi 30-Jikan 30-Nichi Kangaeta Otome no Kiroku, sociologist Junko Kaneda’s essay book about Keisuke Itagaki’s martial arts manga Baki The Grappler.
After Baki, Itagaki published the 37-volume Hanma Baki manga in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 2005 to 2012.
Kaneda wrote the essay when she first read Baki The Grappler and thought that the manga “smacked of BL (boys’ love)” and read it with that lens.