The combat series Baki Hanma has never been shy about embracing themes of masculinity. Baki is mostly about extremely sculpted and muscular men engaging in a blood sport while often half-naked (or completely naked on some occasions). One of the main premises of the series is that every man has the dream of becoming the strongest person alive. The male characters that the story focuses on are trying to make that dream a reality. Baki, Yujiro and countless others are all trying to reaffirm their masculinity through physical combat and displays of monstrous strength.
In this maelstrom of testosterone-filled violence, it's easy to forget that women exist in the world of Baki. While the men of the series are given very in-depth characterization and backstories, the women such as Baki's girlfriend and mother are usually present just to advance the plot of other men. The women exist to spur men to action or show how evil a character is through the violence done against them. It genuinely seems that women are only involved in the story to undercut the clear homoerotic subtext that's present in the series.
The storylines that female characters do receive are often short-lived and do little to rise above the cliché stereotypes of women in media. They feel more like outlines or impressions than full-fledged characters. The women in Baki never become more than just the girlfriend, the mother, the temptress or the nagging wife. The series constantly reinforces the notation that fighting is solely the domain of men and that women have no place there.
Kozue Matsumoto
Baki's girlfriend Kozue Matsumoto is one of the more prominent female characters in the series, but even her evolvement is limited. Kozue is Baki's love interest and the daughter of his landlady. She is a sweet and caring girl who worries about Baki's safety during his underground fights. Multiple times, she attempts to get Baki to give up fighting because she doesn't want him to get hurt.
The series portrays her concern as a failure to understand Baki's masculine need to prove his strength. Because she is a woman, she couldn't possibly understand his drive to fight. Kozue sadly aligns with the trope that plagues many fighting stories; the overly worried wife/girlfriend attempts to stop her man from reaching his full greatness before eventually accepting that this is just the way men are.
Once Kozue does accept Baki's life as a fighter, she turns into a plot vehicle used to advance Baki's character. Baki rushes in and saves Kozue any time she is in danger or threatened. When she and Baki have sex for the first time, this process turns Baki into a "full man" and makes him stronger. Her tears even seemed to help him recover from being poisoned. Kozue has almost no identity outside of being Baki's girlfriend. She exists solely to make Baki stronger and create conflicts for him to overcome.
Emi Akezawa
Emi Akezawa is Baki's mother and the reason he got into fighting in the first place. While Emi was married to her first husband, she met Yujiro and became immediately obsessed with him. She was attracted to the extreme violence and power he displayed. Yujiro kills Emi's husband, impregnates her and then leaves. After this, Emi dedicates her life to raising a child that can match Yujiro in strength. During this time, she shows little motherly affection toward Baki. Every bit of time, effort and money she spends is just so she can impress Yujiro.
All of Emi's characterization and motives lead back to pleasing a man who doesn't care about her at all. When Yujiro tells her that Baki isn't strong enough, she blames her son for failing to impress him. Later, when Baki begs his mother to show him even a small amount of the affection she has for Yujiro, she lashes out at him. Baki attempts to hug Emi, but she bites her own son instead. The mother and son could have had an interesting relationship, but because Emi's only motivation is to make Yujiro happy, it all feels hollow.
In a bizarre twist, all of Emi's characterization is thrown away at the last moment in an attempt at redemption. When Yujiro is pummeling Baki, Emi's "motherly instincts" kick in and override her entire personality. The sadistic woman is gone as she rushes to defend Baki. Emi realizes that she always loved Baki and transforms into a caring mother as Yujiro kills her. This strange shift proves that Emi's character or personality was never important. She was simply whatever the plot needed her to be in that moment.
A Troubling Trend
Although Kozue and Emi are the two most prominent female characters in the series, the other female characters aren't treated any better. Another character named Diane Neil was a highly-skilled assassin tasked with killing Yujiro. He figured out her plan and raped her as punishment. This character and the gruesome events she experienced only served to show how evil Yujiro is and so that Diane could get pregnant and give Baki a half-brother. Once this is done, Diane rarely appears in the series.
Baki has a disturbing trend of using sexual assault against women as a means of displaying how evil a bad guy is and to give characters a motive to seek revenge. Diane's son Jack wants revenge against Yujiro. Jack's feelings about his mother's assault are given far more importance than the actual victim's feelings. Another antagonist named Pickle also rapes a female reporter just to show his lack of morals. Both the women in Baki and the audience as a whole deserve a higher standard of representation from the series.
