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There are several iconic moments in the Baki The Grappler series, but few have reached the same viral status as the image of Retsu lying on the hospital bed in Hanma Baki: Son of Ogre Chapter 101. Soon after the chapter was published, fans had photoshopped it in creative and hilarious ways. According to editor Yuki Yokoi, this memeified part of Baki history only came about because of some last-minute changes Keisuke Itagaki made to the chapter.

The image of Retsu Kaioh lying in the hospital bed with his leg missing following his fight with Pickle is one of the more emotional reveals in the series. So, of course, fans quickly found the humor in it by photoshopping it so that Retsu’s whole body was cut off and he was just a head lying there. There were also some, shall we say, less family-friendly versions of the meme, because of course there are. 

Yuki Yokoi is the assistant general manager of the business IP department at Akita Shoten, the publisher of Baki the Grappler. During a recent interview, he explained how this now-iconic scene came to be – and how it almost didn’t.

“Every chapter during the Baki: Son of Ogre era was a race against the deadline, but because Itagaki-sensei never turned in anything that wasn’t entertaining, there was always a sense of reassurance even when the schedule was tight. However, the chapter in which Pickle eats Retsu Kaioh’s leg was different: the issue wasn’t the entertainment value but the question of how to handle the visual depiction. I ended up having to ask sensei, right at the deadline, to add extra pages and extend the ending all the way through Retsu Kaioh lying in the hospital bed. It was a real crisis right at the wire. In the end, that became the birth of the internet-meme-worthy ‘For him to live among us…’ scene, which fans loved – but the truth is, there was a moment where the chapter might not have made it into the magazine at all.”

Without someone like Yokoi pushing him, it is possible that Itagaki might never have created one of the most popular panels in Baki’s long history, which would have robbed the Internet of some truly bizarre images.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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