When we look at Baki Hanma’s life in the ‘Baki’ storyline in the manga and anime, one thing that has always been clear was that he needed and had to get stronger. The most glaring reason he wanted to get stronger was to defeat his father, Yuujirou Hanma, the strongest man on the planet. Of course, Baki was raised to become strong by his mother, who ultimately died at the hands of Yuujirou himself. So, why did Yuujirou kill Baki’s mother?
Yuujirou killed Emi Akezawa because she forfeited her own life when she tried to challenge him after Yuujirou defeated Baki and started pummeling him. An angry Yuujirou, disappointed by how “weak” Baki was, killed Emi as punishment for her failure and in an attempt to make Baki stronger.
Essentially, everything that happened to Baki ended up making him stronger. His father only wanted to produce a son with his strength, so he thought that Emi failed when she couldn’t make Baki nearly as strong as he would have wanted him to be. And so, the death of Baki’s mother was one of the things that Yuujirou used to make his son stronger.
Who is Baki’s mother?
The entire storyline of the ‘Baki’ manga and anime has always revolved around Baki Hanma’s need to get stronger. When he was just 13 years old, his mother was already training him to become stronger than grown adults as he was pitted against some of the world’s best martial artists. Of course, it all boiled down to his mother wanting to impress Baki’s father, Yuujirou Hanma.
Even though the storyline of Baki almost always focused more on Yuujirou as the standard that Baki needed to reach, his mother was a big part of his early life because she was the one who turned him into a fighting machine. And this goes all the way back to when Baki’s mother first met Yuujirou.
Seemingly a prostitute, Baki’s mom was a woman named Emi, who ended up marrying a rich businessman and Yakuza head named Eiichi Akezawa. They married for money, but Emi was never really infatuated with him as he was seemingly just a means to an end for her because she was never rich.
While attending a party held in her honor, Emi became fixated with Yuujirou, who was also attending that party.
Eiichi noticed that Emi was lusting for Yuujirou, and he became violent toward her. However, Yuujirou arrived and killed Eiichi. He even told Emi that the only reason he was infatuated with him was that deep inside, she was a sadistic woman with a love for bloodlust.
Eventually, the two had a sexual relationship that allowed Yuujirou to impregnate her with his seed, as he always thought that a woman with bloodlust in her heart would produce a fighter that could become as strong as him.
Emi ended up running Eiichi’s business but remained infatuated with Yuujirou, who never seemingly returned Emi’s feelings. For him, Emi was just a tool that he wanted to use to produce a strong child.
As such, Emi decided to raise Baki to be strong in the hopes that she could please Yuujirou and convince him to return and give back the same love that she had for him.
What happened to Baki’s mom?
Eventually, Yuujirou showed up when Baki was around 13 years old and became a child prodigy that could defeat grown men in a fight. However, Yuujirou wasn’t nearly impressed with Baki’s progress and wanted to test him out himself to see whether or not Emi did a good job raising him to be strong.
Of course, Emi only got more excited about the fact that Yuujirou was just as sadistic as he ever was. She wanted to please Yuujirou by proving that their son was as strong as he wanted him to be.
And when the time came for Baki to fight his father, Emi was by Yuujirou’s side because she was still obsessed with him even though Yuujirou previously told her that she was useless to him if Baki was “weak.”
During the fight between father and son, Baki didn’t stand a chance because Yuujirou was simply a monster that was leagues beyond Baki’s reach. Yuujirou started pummeling Baki even though Emi was urging her son to fight so that he could make his father happy. However, Yuujirou was happily beating up his own son, who was defenseless in that fight.
Even though Emi was always so infatuated with Yuujirou, her motherly instincts kicked in at the moment that she saw her son getting beaten to a bloody pulp. That was when Emi realized that she loved Baki even though she rarely showed it due to her obsession with making him strong just to please a monster like Yuujirou.
Emi even had flashbacks of nursing Baki in her arms when he was still just a child.
For the first time in her life, Emi became disgusted with what Yuujirou was doing. She punched him and broke her wrist in the process of doing so. She spat at him before Yuujirou grabbed and bearhugged her, crushing her back and spine.
Emi was still alive but was slowly dying. She cradled an unconscious Baki while singing a lullaby before she succumbed to her injuries. As such, Baki wasn’t even awake to see his mother’s final moments.
Yuujirou killed Emi because he was furious at her failure as she produced a “weak” son. While Emi was never a strong fighter, Yuujirou chose her to bear his son because he thought her bloodlust would produce a strong child.
But while Baki was strong, he was a kind boy that didn’t fight or hurt people for no reason. And that was the weakness that Yuujirou saw in him.
Yuujirou thought that Emi failed to produce a strong child, so she became expendable to him. On top of that, she forfeited her own life when she attacked Yuujirou out of anger. And because Yuujirou no longer needed her, he chose to get rid of her.
Of course, Yuujirou also wanted to make Emi’s death a reason for Baki to hate him even more. He thought Baki would become stronger if he had a reason to hate him. And now that he killed Emi, Baki would be naturally inclined to try to become stronger than him so that he could avenge his mother.
