Baki: Is Yuuichirou Hanma Dead or Alive? Here’s What Happened to Him

The greatest fight between a father and a son happened in ‘Baki’ as Baki Hanma finally confronted Yuujirou Hanma in a personal battle between the two strongest human beings on the planet. However, one interesting event happened during that fight because something supernatural occurred when Yuuichirou Hanma, the father of Yuujirou and the grandfather of Baki, appeared and shocked the father-and-son duo. So, is Yuuichirou Hanma dead, and what happened to him?

Yuuichirou Hanma is obviously dead because his soul appeared in the fight between Baki and his father. He participated in the defense of a lonely island in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II and was able to defeat the US. However, no one knows how he died or what happened to him.

The thing about Yuuichirou is that it is almost impossible to imagine that someone would be able to kill him, given that he was strong enough to shock his own son when he appeared out of nowhere and even made Pickle tremble. In that regard, he is at least at the level of Yuujirou, making it hard to imagine someone being able to kill him. That said, let’s look at what happened to Yuuichirou Hanma.

Yuuichirou’s soul appeared in Baki’s fight

The second part of the second season of the ‘Baki Hanma’ anime focuses on the inevitable fight between Baki Hanma and his father, Yuujirou Hanma. Baki had already proven himself as arguably the second-strongest being on the entire planet. Of course, his father is still the planet’s strongest creature. Yuujirou has been itching to have this fight because all that he wanted was to see his son growing up to give him the tough fight that he had yearned for his entire life.

Of course, while Baki initially struggled against his father, he eventually caught up to him in the middle of the fight and reached Yuujirou’s level. That was when things became interesting because every single fighter watching the fight saw just how far Baki had reached as a fighter. And while Baki was performing well against his father, he still doubted whether he could beat him.

That was when the soul of Yuuichirou Hanma appeared out of nowhere to shock Yuujirou, who is almost never shocked at anything because he has always been too strong to be shocked. Yuuichirou appeared to give Baki the pep talk that he needed, as this was the first time Baki met his grandfather.

In that regard, it was clear that Yuuichirou Hanma was already long dead because his soul wouldn’t appear if he were still alive. Moreover, Baki never met him before his soul appeared out of nowhere, implying that Yuuichirou may have died before Baki was born.

And because Yuujirou was known as the strongest being on the planet for decades, it goes without saying that Yuuichirou may have already been dead long before his son started terrorizing the world as the most powerful individual there is.

What happened to Yuuichirou?

The thing about Yuuichirou is that much about his past is still shrouded in mystery. But Elder Tokugawa did tell the story of how one man defeated the Americans long before Yuujirou made the US military bow down before his might. And he was talking about none other than Yuuichirou Hanma himself.

Back in World War II, the US was invading Japan in retaliation to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Americans were attacking Okinawa. However, one single island became the battleground for one of the toughest fights in the history of the US, as the Americans had to throw a lot of explosives on that island because of one man they couldn’t kill.

No matter what the US did, they couldn’t kill the huge man named Yuuichirou Hanma, who was defending that island all on his own. Because he was too strong for the US battleship called Iowa to handle, Major General James, the commanding officer of Iowa, even asked General McArthur permission to throw an atomic bomb at Yuuichirou because nothing they did worked against him.

But before the US could nuke Yuuichirou out of existence, the Japanese had already surrendered to the Americans due to the two atom bombs that devastated Japan. In that regard, Major General James didn’t get permission to throw a third atomic bomb on Yuuichirou. Before the Iowa could do anything else, Yuuichirou killed Major General James and forced an entire crew to abandon the ship when he used his secret technique, “dress” to horrify everyone on the Iowa.

Because of what happened back then, Yuuichirou became the first person strong enough to defeat the Americans alone. Of course, Yuujirou became the second one to defeat the US. This means that Yuuichirou, who possessed the Hanma Demon Back before Yuujirou, was just as strong as his son. It is also often said that Yuuichirou was the only other person that Yuujirou could not defeat, as this implies that they either never fought or that Yuuichirou was too strong for Yuujirou to beat decisively.

In that regard, it is still a mystery how Yuuichirou died. The only thing that we know is that he died long before Baki was even born. But Yuuichirou went on to live more years after defeating the US because he ended up meeting Doppo Orochi, who is currently 56 in the ‘Baki’ storyline, at one point in the past. This implies that Yuuichirou went on to live life as an old man.

Nevertheless, Yuuichirou’s life remains ambiguous at best, as Keisuke Itagaki may have left his past open on purpose so that he could easily write stories about him in any of his future manga. And that means that we are yet to find out what or who killed Yuuichirou Hanma, who was powerful enough to shock the strongest being on the planet.