Is Kengan Ashura a rip-off of Baki? Explained

Two of the most popular Netflix Original anime series in recent years have been Baki and Kengan Ashura. The former is an adaptation of author and illustrator Keisuke Itagaki’s manga series Baki, while the latter is an adaptation of author Yabako Sandrovich and illustrator Daromeon’s manga Kengan Ashura.

Both Baki and Kengan Ashura focus heavily on combat sports, showcasing various real-life and fake in-world styles throughout their events. The former’s anime premiered on Netflix in June 2018, while the latter premiered on the site in July 2019. Considering that they were adapted at roughly the same time, many are calling the latter series a rip-off of the former.

While Baki and Kengan Ashura are very similar at their core, the same can be said for any hand-to-hand battle shonen anime or manga series. The two also have some key differences in setting and plot which differentiate them, despite the obvious and apparent similarities which they undoubtedly share.

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Baki, Kengan Ashura same at their core with key differences beyond, but neither a rip-off of the other

Differences and similarities, explained

Before diving into the similarities and differences that Baki and Kengan Ashura share, it’s worth noting exactly when each series was first released as a manga. For the former, the series first premiered in October 1991, and is still serialized to this day in the Weekly Shonen Champion magazine. Meanwhile, the latter was serialized from April 2012 to August 2018, with a still-serialized sequel beginning in January 2019.

At their core, the two series are very similar. Both are martial-arts-focused battle shonen, and both feature young, strong, and talented Japanese fighters who each have a specific goal in mind. The former’s protagonist is the titular character, while the latter’s is Ohma Tokita. Furthermore, their goals are fairly similar at their core, with only some nuanced differences between the two which relate to plot choices and character relationships.

Both Kengan Ashura and Baki also use fighting as a means of narrative progression, showcasing the growth of their protagonists via the fights they partake in. While this is done for different effects or for varying purposes in each series, both nevertheless partake in this literary practice.

This also forms the basis of a major plot difference between the two series, which comes from their respective protagonist’s motivations for their ultimate goals of defeating their father figures. The aforementioned eponymous fighter of Itagaki’s series wants to defeat his father Yujiro Hanma for murdering his mother, Yujiro’s wife. Ohma Tokita, meanwhile, is looking to avenge the death of his adoptive father at the hands of Genzen Taiza and Kiryu Setsuna.

Another key difference between Baki and Kengan Ashura is the context in which the fights unfold. While the former series features tournament or competition-style fights, the majority of the fights are done without rules or any sort of officiation. The latter series, meanwhile, is almost exclusively made up of fights in rule-bound and officiated contexts.

One final similarity between the two series is that both have sequels. While the former has multiple sequels which have come out since the overall series’ initial 1991 premiere, the latter series only has the singular aforementioned sequel. All things considered, it's clear that Kengan Ashura isn't a rip-off of Baki, but is rather a series which is heavily inspired by the one which came before it.

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