The first part of Baki Hanma’s second season sees various fighters, including Baki, facing Pickle, a prehistoric man. The first part of season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
At a nuclear waste isolation plant in Colorado, a man from the Jurassic era is found preserved in a salt slab. This discovery drastically changes the current way of thinking about the history of humankind.
A Nobel laureate, Professor Payne, is made in charge of the prehistoric man. He believes that when the giant meteor that wiped out dinosaurs collided with Earth millions of years ago, the temperature on the planet dropped and every living thing was turned to ice.
The prehistoric man, who is named Pickle, was in the middle of battling a T. rex at that moment and was frozen mid-action. The stable salt-rock stratum preserved Pickle’s body. Pickle can be revived, but not his opponent.
Pickle gains consciousness when he smells the flesh of its prey, the T. rex. A scared scientist tries to shoot at him, but bullets do not do any harm to Pickle’s body. The US army then uses its new and powerful technology to subdue Pickle, but even that does not stand a chance.
Finally, Captain Strydum approaches Pickle without his clothes. Although they do not speak the same language, he gets Pickle to go with him to Japan, a country where Captain Strydum believes that Pickle will meet men like himself.
When people hear the news of Pickle’s arrival in Japan, nine fighters, including Retsu, Katsumi Orochi, and even Yujiro Hanma, Baki’s father, sneak in to see him, as they all wish to fight a man as strong as Pickle.
Baki is not among the fighters who visit Pickle, but he meets Retsu later and asks him to teach him kung fu. However, the kung fu master declines his request, as he is currently only interested in fighting Pickle.
Meanwhile, Pickle refuses to eat anything that he has not hunted himself. Professor Payne brings wild animals to the place where Pickle is living to get him to hunt them and eat, but Pickle, who used to hunt dinosaurs, does not consider them worthy. On top of that, the wild animals are too scared of him to fight him.
Finally, Retsu decides to offer himself as prey in order to fight Pickle. If Pickle defeats the kung fu master, he will get to eat him. Retsu uses his kung fu moves that have been perfected and passed on for 4000 years in his fight with Pickle.
However, Pickle was once quadruped, so the martial arts that target bipeds do not work on him. While Retsu gets Pickle to use the attack that he uses against his strongest opponents, Pickle still defeats him. Apart from a part of Retsu’s shoulder that Pickle had eaten during the fight, he also eats one of Retsu’s legs.
Retsu loses a leg but survives, as Professor Payne sedates Pickle before he could eat any other body part. The news of Pickle eating Retsu’s leg reaches the other fighters, and Katsumi Orochi orders the Shinshinkai karate fighters to avenge Retsu.
At the same time, Pickle escapes. On the streets, he meets Baki as well as Kaoru Hanayama, a legendary fighter, whose strength is no less than that of dinosaurs that Pickle used to fight. Pickle challenges Baki to fight, but when Baki thinks that he is taking advantage of Pickle, he is hit by Pickle and is unable to get back up.
Retsu and Katsumi Orochi decide to work together and use the strength of kung fu and karate to defeat Pickle. With the advice of Kaiou Kaku, the world’s reigning master of kung fu and Retsu’s master, Katsumi manages to master a killer move that allows him to use supersonic speed.
He then challenges Pickle to a fight. The fight takes place at a baseball stadium, where thousands of Shinshinkai members assemble to encourage their leader. Katsumi was adopted by Doppo Orochi and his wife after his father died.
Doppo recognized the talent of the five-year-old child prodigy at the circus and decided to raise him. However, Katsumi never did anything to win the respect of his peers. Now, Katsumi changes as a person before his fight with Pickle.
Katsumi’s new move impresses everyone in the crowd. He ends up sacrificing his fists and left foot to execute the move against Pickle, but it does little harm to the prehistoric man, who then starts seeing Katsumi as food and takes one of Katsumi’s destroyed arms.
Katsumi is ready to honor the bargain and let Pickle eat him, but Pickle considers Katsumi a worthy opponent as well as a friend, so he prays for him and does not eat him. Katsumi fails to defeat Pickle but gains everyone’s respect.
Baki is also getting ready to fight Pickle, and he prepares himself. He wants to fight him immediately, but his brother, Jack, gets there first. Pickle eats some of Jack’s face, but Jack also puts up a tough fight. He beats Pickle up and even rips his ear off.
However, Pickle’s incredible speed works in his favor, and he defeats Jack. A sense of danger prevents Pickle from eating Jack, who is taken to the hospital. As soon as Jack gains consciousness, he returns to fight Pickle again and is defeated once again.
Baki decides that he will be the next one to fight Pickle. The prehistoric man no longer needs to fight men, as he is being fed the T. rex that he hunted himself when he was frozen millions of years ago, but Baki still manages to get him to fight him.
Even though Baki takes a major fall during his fight with Pickle, he refuses to back down. Pickle soon realizes that Baki is not like the other opponents he has fought before, as he has moves that are beyond Pickle’s comprehension.
Baki even scares Pickle by emulating various animals until he creates a deadly beast. He gets Pickle to continue fighting him, despite his fear, by hurting his pride. None of Pickle’s advantages work against Baki, whose speed and martial arts skills are extraordinary.
Baki Hanma season 2 part 1 ending explained in detail:
Does Baki defeat Pickle?
Baki nearly defeats Pickle, even though Pickle transforms into his most powerful form and gives it his all. However, instead of snatching an easy victory, he gives Pickle an opportunity to decide the winner solely on the basis of stamina. Pickle overpowers him in this aspect.
On top of that, sensing his own fear of losing to a modern man, Pickle executes a martial arts move. Due to this, Baki is unable to move and get up again. His reckless action prevents him from securing the victory that was his a few minutes ago.
Who is the winner in Baki and Pickle’s fight?
As Baki lies prone on the ground and is given medical assistance, Mitsunari Tokugawa asks Retsu and Kaoru Hanayama for their opinion on the winner; the three of them had been observing the battle.
While Retsu thinks that Pickle won, as he had the opportunity to kill Baki, Kaoru Hanayama thinks that the victory should be Baki’s. Mitsunari Tokugawa believes that both men are right.
What happens to Pickle?
After his fight with Baki, Pickle walks away from the place where he had been living for the past few days. Baki and Pickle meet on a rooftop and observe the city together. Meanwhile, the US President signs a Formal Treaty of Friendship with Yujiro Hanma.
Now, the question arises of what should be done with Pickle. A worldwide referendum is conducted, and by a little more than a thousand votes, it is decided that Pickle should be put back in the state he was found in.
Before that could be done, Pickle gives Captain Strydum a token of his appreciation for bringing him to Japan, where he could fight many strong men. He then vanishes in Tokyo.
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