This is a single OVA episode with no real narrative setup, it just drops you into a tournament match and trusts the animation to do all the talking. The fight choreography from 1994 holds up because every movement has weight, every technique looks like it actually breaks bones, and the character's fighting style is so visually distinctive you understand who Baki is without a single line of exposition. You're watching pure martial arts cinema that knows exactly what it is and refuses to apologize for having nothing else to offer.

Baki Hanma is a teenage fighter whom no one knows anything about, with an unusual style and a record of dropping opponents with a single blow. Barely ranked, he storms through a karate tournament as a warm-up. His real challenge waits in a secret underground arena where fighters from every discipline meet and only weapons are banned. There he faces Koushou Shinogi, a feared karate master whose technique tears out an opponent's nerves and can blind or paralyze with one finger. Baki is confident, but a loss here could cost him his life. The story is a single action and sports OVA.