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Baki Manga Gets Serialized Novel by Kurozuka's Baku Yumemakura

This year's combined 22nd and 23rd issue of Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine revealed on Thursday that Baku Yumemakura will launch a serialized novel based on Keisuke Itagaki's Baki manga franchise in the magazine's 25th issue on May 17. The novel is titled Yūenchi: Baki Gaiden (Amusement Park: Baki Side Story)

Yumemakura is a prolific writer, whose works have been adapted into manga, anime, and live-action. These works include The Summit of the Gods, Garōden, Kurozuka, Onmyōji, Amon Saga, Psycho Diver: Soul Siren, and Majyugari, among others. Mamoru Oshii is directing an anime film adaptation of Yumemakura's Chimera novels.

Itagaki's original Baki The Grappler martial arts manga ran for 42 volumes in Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from 1991 to 1999. The manga has more than 63 million copies in circulation. The series has received two television anime adaptations and an original animation video.

Baki is the second installment in Itagaki's overall series. The manga ran for 31 volumes in Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1999 to 2005. The manga recently inspired an original anime DVD (OAD) adaptation that depicts the "Most Evil Death Row Convicts" arc in December 2016. A new anime adaptation that depicts the same arc premiere this summer in Japan via Netflix. Netflix will also premiere the anime outside Japan this fall.

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 sequel to the original Baki The Grappler manga, and it ended on April 5. The manga's fifth part is in the works.