Karate Baka Ichidai

Karate Baka Ichidai is a Japanese animated television series of 47 episodes produced by the studio Tokyo Movie. It was broadcast by the station NET, today's TV Asahi, from October 1973 to September 1974 in a Wednesday evening slot. It is based on a manga of the same name: the story was written by Ikki Kajiwara, it was drawn by Jiro Tsunoda and Joya Kagemaru, and in 1971–1977 it ran in the weekly Weekly Shonen Magazine from the publisher Kodansha. The series drew on the life of the karateka Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin, and karate is its central theme. We have not been able to document in the sources the specific techniques or training methods the work shows. The source manga presented itself to readers as a true story. Later statements, however, seriously call into question how much of it was real and describe most of the plot as invented. The manga and the anime are often described as the cause of the wave of interest in karate that swept Japan in the early seventies. According to Japanese sources, under the influence of the work a number of new enthusiasts joined the Kyokushinkaikan.

Martial arts in this work

Fact and fiction

The manga from which the series comes was published as a true story from the life of Masutatsu Oyama. According to the Japanese Wikipedia, however, Hisao Maki stated that more than ninety percent of the content was invented by Ikki Kajiwara. According to the same source, Akiyoshi Matsui says that of the real karate practitioners, only Teruaki Yamazaki matched the fighting style the work shows. These are statements by the named persons, not a documented comparison of individual episodes with reality. We did not find in the sources which specific incidents are invented and which really happened.

Influence

According to the English Wikipedia, the manga and the anime are often called the cause of the wave of interest in karate in Japan in the early seventies; this is an assessment, not a measurement. The Japanese Wikipedia states that, influenced by the work, Akiyoshi Matsui, Akira Masuda and Hiroki Kurosaki, among others, joined the Kyokushinkaikan, Masutatsu Oyama's organization. We have not been able to document how much the work contributed to Kyokushin's growth.

People and martial arts

• Masutatsu Oyamathe real person the work is about· Kyokushin (real practitioner)
• Ikki KajiwaraAuthor

Details

Status

Completed

Episodes

47

First published / aired

NET