This year’s 47th issue of Akita Shoten‘s Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine revealed on Thursday that Baki manga creator Keisuke Itagaki is writing an epilogue story for the character Kanji Igari as a memorial for real-life wrestler Antonio Inoki, which Kanji’s character was based on. Antonio Inoki died due to an illness on October 1.
The memorial epilogue will launch in Weekly Shōnen Champion‘s 48th issue on October 27.
Akita Shoten‘s Manga Cross website published for free on October 6 as an initial memorial for Inoki, the complete nine chapters of Baki The Grappler Gaiden (Outside Story) manga, which features the fight between Kanji Igari and Mount Shōhei Toba. The Outside Story series was first published in 1999.
The magazine also announced on its website that it will publish the next chapter of Yuria Fujita’s Yūenchi: Baki Gaiden (Amusement Park: Baki Side Story) manga on the magazine’s 52nd issue this year.
The manga is the adaptation of Baku Yumemakura‘s Yūenchi: Baki Gaiden (Amusement Park: Baki Side Story) light novel series based on Keisuke Itagaki‘s Baki manga franchise. Yumemakura launched the light novel series in Weekly Shōnen Champion in May 2018, and Fujita provides the art for the novels.
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.
Image from Manga Cross website
Sources: Weekly Shōnen Champion issue 47, Comic Natalie, Akita Shoten website
