Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura

Is an exhilarating, high-octane experience that brings together two of the most iconic fighters in the anime world. The film presents a clash of titans-each representing their unique universe-delivering an action-packed story with intense combat sequences and an undercurrent of rivalry that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The animation is striking, bringing the fierce battles to life with detailed, fluid movements that capture the raw power and precision of each fighter. Every moment feels impactful, with the choreography perfectly capturing the essence of both series-brutal yet calculated, showcasing the unique fighting styles of the characters. The pacing is relentless, keeping the energy high throughout the movie without ever losing momentum.

Cons: Just fan service but not even good one. It's a one hour movie not a limited series. Plenty of empty talking and flashbacks to avoid actually animating fights. The fights are very lame and badly animated ; for something that both series are about martial arts, there's barely any martial arts, it's just a slug fest between all characters. The ending was very cliche and predictable and the power scaling at the end makes no sense with Baki after fighting Pickle and his father. Between this and Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf that Netflix has recently released, it's really disappointing the state of martial arts anime that feel empty,devoid, and lack any substance with their stories or with the martial arts techniques, to them a martial arts anime is just punching with occasionally a kick without superpowers. It would be nice if they got people who actually knew something about martial arts involved in these projects and not just people who watch some stuff online and think this would "be cool , let's just add that in there".

It was a cliche ending that you could see happening before the film dropped, it had the potential to be so much better than it was but it just leaves you feeling empty, it was absolutely average, entertaining enough to watch but felt rushed as though they didn't have enough run time to make something as epic as they could have. We can only hope for a part two that makes this one seem better. There were some epic moments that could have been developed into something amazing but it just feels like the ball was dropped even though there was so much hype and anticipation around the show. As mentioned a part 2 to tie the two together would be its only saving grace in my opinion.

As much as I love both series this felt like a huge let down. There's only so much you can get out of an almost hour and a half special and to no one's surprise we didn't get much. On paper this could've been cool as hell but it just ended up being predictable and I see I'm not alone on this. I started off excited for this then halfway through I was bored to point where I was basically forcing myself to finish it out of obligation.

It's cool to see these characters interact with each other but honestly it's the equivalent of a kid picking up their favorite action figures, smashing them together, and pretending that they're fighting. This really should've been a season crossover so the characters have more time to interact/play off one another.

There was an opportunity here for one of the best crossovers in all of anime but instead they decided to take the safest route possible. Which, when you think about it is probably the worst crime of them all. Especially with a show like Baki where they are know for pushing the boundaries and shocking readers and watchers at every turn.

At the end of the day this is just a fan service crossover. I will admit it was cool to see characters from each series interact with one another. But besides that. The fight had no suspense and were predictable, the animation was subpar, and what was the deal with the voice acting?