Kaoru Hanayama is a major character in the anime and manga series of Baki the Grappler. He is known as the strongest Yakuza in Japan and one of the strongest characters in the series. He is the second generation boss of the Hanayama group. He has scars from multiple wounds on his body and his back tattoo looks like a puzzle because of the many scars.
Before starting you can now find all our anime figures from America by clicking here :
Personality
Kaoru Hanayama is the 19-year-old leader of the Yakuza. He is a taciturn and proud fighter. His code of honor is to choose not to fall in battle even if it means his death; a family vow held in the long tradition passed down from generation to generation. Even after 3 direct hits from Katsumi Orochi, he still chose not to fall and chose to risk death. Katsumi even admitted that he lost the battle despite his official victory. Hanayama is also very quiet and stoic, ironically, a bit like Yuujirou himself, as he only listens and speaks what is necessary when he is facing someone, especially during the fight.
Hanayama loves and respects his mother very much. She was terminally ill with cancer, making her a weak shell of herself. Hanayama visited her often. He revealed to Baki that she was 35 years old, but 90 years old because of cancer, and that he was jealous that Baki's mother was still alive and well. Hanayama's attitude towards his father is not well known since Keizou's death when Kaoru was a young boy, so too many scenes were not shown in the manga, and Kaoru never talks about his father.
Hanayama is very intelligent, able to lead the Yakuza effectively despite his young age, and knows how to use his strength effectively in battle. However, he is still capable of being extremely reckless. For example, in the first series, he attacked Yuujirou when he was extremely beaten and tired after his battle with Baki.
Apparence
Kaoru is incredibly tall for his age and very muscular. He has black hair and many scars on his face. Kaoru also has a full back tattoo named "the standing man", which is given to each member of the Hanayama family in honor of the man who saved their great ancestor.
Kaoru usually wears glasses when he is not fighting and is almost always in his white suit. He also wears a blue undershirt and a purple (later white) tie. He had an infamous confrontation with the convicted Spec, who manages to place a handful of bullets in Hanayama's mouth and slam it shut, causing them to explode in his cheeks, creating two large holes in Hanayama's face and exposing part of his jaw muscles. Although Hanayama won the battle, he wears a face mask for most of the series. His appearance has hardly changed in the five-year gap.
History
Baki the grappler
Past
As a boy, Hanayama's father was the first leader of the Hanayama group (see: Baki Gaiden: Scarface ). Although not a bad man, his father was fully indoctrinated as a Yakuza leader and was fierce and strong but very honorable, earning the respect and recognition of many other Yakuza families. Kizaki, a close friend of Hanayama's father, discovered Hanayama's strength by seeing feats of strength that the boy demonstrated far beyond most trained adults.
Kaoru's father, Keizou Hanayama, discovered his son's strength before he died in a gang war. As he was leaving, Hanayama's mother begged him not to leave, but he was not deterred and slapped her. Irritated by his mother's mistreatment, young Hanayama grabbed his father's arm with great force, asking, "Is that all? His father knew that his son had exactly the same incredible physical strength as he did and encouraged him to tighten his grip. As he did so, he turned up the pressure and blew his arm out, impressing his father. He left for his fight, confident that his son would be an excellent successor to the leadership of the Hanayama group because he knew that he himself would probably die in this gang war. Until the young Hanayama was ready, Kizaki led the Hanayama Group and looked after the welfare of Kaoru and his mother. He helped educate young Hanayama in the ways of the Yakuza after his father's death.
When he finally felt ready to take over the leadership of the group, Hanayama was welcomed with open arms by all members. Kizaki being the closest to him and, always respectful of Hanayama's father, began to call him "second" because he was the second generation successor of the Hanayama group. As tradition dictates at this point, Kaoru is given the same tattoo on his back that all male heirs in his family received from "the standing man". The story of "The Standing Man", is about a lonely traveler who was offered shelter by a noble family in feudal Japan. The same night, a group of assassins is sent to kill all the members of the family in a bloody coup. The traveler tries to flee carrying a large bell on his back, but is cornered by the bandits. They attack him, stab him, cut him, beat him and scold him, but the man is unmoved and looks at them aggressively. Many moments pass until the leader of the bandits realizes that he is long dead. Yet, he still stood there with the heavy bell on his back giving them the same menacing look, taking it as a sign that the man has incredible strength of mind that the bandits let their bloody deeds be done. The next morning, the man's body is found by the remaining servants of the deceased family still frozen in the same pose. It is then revealed that under the large bell he was wearing, he had hidden taking it as a sign that the man has incredible strength of mind, the bandits let their bloody deeds be done. The next morning, the body of the man is found by the remaining servants of the deceased family still frozen in the same pose. It is then revealed that under the large bell he was wearing, he had hidden taking it as a sign that the man has incredible strength of mind, the bandits let their bloody deeds be done. The next morning, the body of the man is found by the remaining servants of the deceased family still frozen in the same pose. It is then revealed that under the large bell he was wearing, he had hidden Yakichi Hanayama, the youngest heir of the Hanayama clan. As a tribute to this courageous act that spared their family, it is traditional for each male heir to bear the tattoo of the intrepid man who saved them and is a symbol of kindness, hope and great spiritual strength for them all. It is a symbolic example for them to live even in the dangerous world of the Yakuza.
At the age of 15, when Kaoru Hanayama received a tattoo from a traditional tattoo artist named Horitatsu, however, he was not satisfied. While his subordinates try to calm down the tattoo artist who is furious with the criticism, Hanayama leaves without their knowledge. Kizaki panics and asks all available members to search for him, finding where he is in the territory occupied by the Yakuza group that had killed his father. Fearing for Hanayama's life, they rushed to rescue him, only to discover the badly beaten and bloodied bodies of the rival Yakuza group upon their arrival. Finally, they entered the boss's office to find Hanayama having beaten the boss but now covered from head to toe with scars; those on his body caused by blades and those on his face by human hands as he strangled the rival gang's boss. Back at the tattoo shop, he reveals his tattoo as the real "Standing Man", showing that he needed scars to show his strength. In admiration of such an incredible act and revelation of the truth, the artist bows down and acknowledges that Hanayama was right and possessed incredible strength.
Saga of childhood
Hanayama represents his own group in the fight against Tommy Carbine who represents the Yajima group . Hanayama allows Tommy to throw a series of intense boxing punches at him that have no effect, and after a while, the gangster lands a devastating blow against an American fighter. Tommy is easily defeated by Hanayama with and Hitoshi Kuriyagawa then asks Hanayama if he will fight Baki Hanma . Hanayama is not interested at first, until he hears that Baki is of course the son of Yuujirou Hanma , then he accepts the request.
Hanayama represents his own group in the fight against Tommy Carbine who represents the Yajima group. Hanayama allows Tommy to give him a series of intense boxing punches that have no effect, and after a while, the gangster lands a devastating blow against an American fighter. Tommy is easily defeated by Hanayama with and Hitoshi Kuriyagawa then asks Hanayama if he will fight Baki Hanma . Hanayama is not interested at first, until he hears that Baki is of course the son of Yuujirou Hanma , then he accepts the request.
When Baki returns from training in the mountains, Hanayama injures Yuri Chakovsky, a professional boxer and Baki's friendly training partner, on the way to his fight in the ring. Kizaki and other gangsters come with Hanayama to hold Yuri's seconds, so that the young gangster can beat the boxer in peace. During their fight, Yuri bombards Hanayama with his best punches, but the gangster says that surviving these attacks is not too difficult for him. Hanayama attacks Yuri and beats him brutally, first destroying his hand with the famous Vice Grip, then violently hitting his head against the wall, and the boxer loses consciousness after doing his best. This prompts Baki to come to Hanayama's Yakuza office where Baki kicks his desk out of the window, then proceeds to make a powerful attack on Hanayama. This sends Hanayama into a fit of rage as he has never been brought to his knees before and he destroys his own car with his bare hands to vent his anger.
Later, Baki is stalked by Hanayama in a nightclub where the two fight. They land several heavy blows on each other and Hanayama performs his Vice Grip move on Baki's arm. However, in the end, Hanayama declares Baki the winner due to the fact that Baki hid glass in his cheek to shock him after being knocked out and Hanayama can't fight anymore because he has no energy and can barely stand, leading to Hanayama respecting Baki. Then, Yuujirou Hanma ends up falling in the nightclub by helicopter and mocks Baki and Hanayama by saying that their fight seems to be just beginning. Hanayama then gets up and desperately tries to fight Yuujirou, but is severely beaten, ending up with several broken bones. Baki later visits Hanayama in the hospital after receiving a note that Hanayama wrote with his mouth. The note tells Baki that he wishes to see him become even stronger than his father Yuujirou, and Baki promises that he will make it his goal.
After Baki's desperate pleas for love to his mother, Emi Akezawa, he is quickly rejected because she only has room in her heart for Yuujirou. We see Baki walking down the street distraught until he walks directly into ordinary street thugs, they start beating him and he doesn't fight back. Hanayama seems to grab Maa, one of the thugs, by the head and rejects him, he then kneels down and puts his hand on Baki's shoulder, comforting him without even saying a word. Later that night, they sit together in Baki's house, and Hanayama asks who bit Baki, to which Baki tells him about his strained relationship with his mother. Hanayama states that he is jealous of Baki, explaining to him that his own mother had cancer and passed away, mentioning that even though she was 35, she looked 90. He makes a joke about how thin she has become, squeezing her face to be thinner in an attempt to cheer Baki up, and says that even if he wished she could bite him, her teeth would have fallen out. He tells Baki that he must win the fight between him and his father Yuujirou, declaring that he still has a chance.
When the big day of the battle arrives, Yuri and Hanayama come to help Baki warm up before the fight. Despite their previous fight, the two fighters do not hate each other. At first, Hanayama seems to be slightly disrespectful to Yuri, who wants to have a fight with Baki, but the boxer tells him that he has fought seriously many times in his life, and the gangster even apologizes for his manners after a while. As for Hanayama's fight with Baki, it turns out that Yuri and Hanayama have no chance with a young martial artist. At one point, they even start to fight him at the same time, but Baki still overtakes them. Hanayama then witnesses the great fight between Baki and Yuujirou, as well as the tragic death of Emi Akezawa at the hands of the Ogre.
Saga of the underground arena
Hanayama appears for a while in the saga Underground Arena. He comes to visit the tombstone of Emi Akezawa and pours it with alcohol as a sign of respect. Later, he is shown sitting in a car driven by Kizaki, who tells his boss that Baki Hanma has probably returned to Japan. These scenes are only shown in the anime. In the manga, Hanayama never appeared in this saga.
Maximum tournament saga
Hanayama appears at the Maximum Tournament, which is organized in the Underground Arena by Mitsunari Tokugawa. His first opponent in the tournament is Bunnoshin Inagi, a master of traditional martial art called Nihon Kempo. Before the beginning of the match, Baki meets Hanayama and wishes him good luck. However, the young Yakuza responds with a militant attitude, saying that he sees the tournament as a war between his brawling style and the martial artists.
Hanayama's battle with Bunnoshin begins with a show of strength between the two competitors. Bunnoshin tries to give the yakuza a head protector for the fight, but Kaoru takes it and crushes it in his hands. The yakuza, on the other hand, wants to give a blade to his opponent for the fight, but Bunnoshin takes it and breaks it in two by hitting it with his fist. Hanayama starts the fight with a powerful blow, but Bunnoshin counters with a quick punch to the face. When the gangster tries to land an uppercut, Bunnoshin blocks it with his leg, but after a while, it turns out that Hanayama's strength was too much and Bunnoshin ends up with a broken leg. The Nihon Kempo master blocks another blow with his guard, but the power is so destructive that it severely damages the spine of the traditional fighter, who wants to grab Hanayama's hand with an arm lock technique. But after a while, his spine completely bursts as he tries to straighten his body and tighten the arm lock. The Nihon Kempo master does his best in the match, but is overwhelmed by Kaoru Hanayama's brutal strength and ends up dying with a broken spine. When the fight is over, Hanayama is arrested in the arena by the master of Bunnoshin . He challenges the yakuza to a duel and calls him a brute, who has no right to be stronger than traditional martial arts. Hanayama explains him his specific and simple way of fighting. The master of Bunnoshin gives up, the yakuza says goodbye to his dead opponent as a sign of respect, then leaves the arena.
In the second round, Hanayama fights against Katsumi Orochi, a young prodigy of Shinshinkai Karate. The gangster starts the fight in a surprising way for everyone as he uses a Roll Kick in the air. At the beginning, Katsumi ignores the young yakuza and allows himself to take a few hits from Kaoru. Later, he uses some special karate moves against Hanayama, but at some point, he starts to lose with Kaoru's great strength. Katsumi begins to feel respect for Hanayama and stops being as condescending and arrogant as before. However, finally, the gangster is defeated by Katsumi's Mach Punch. At the end of the match, Hanayama started to take several Mach Punches, but he did not fall to his knees. He took his last blow with his back to Katsumi, who hit him right on the "standing man" tattoo, making the karateka realize that honor does not allow Kaoru to fall to the ground and that he is as fearless as the man of legend. Hanayama lost consciousness standing on two legs. When the fight is over, Kizaki looks at Hanayama unconscious and calls his boss a "wonderful" fearless man. After a while, the gangster wakes up in the locker room and meets Chiharu Shiba, who asks Hanayama to watch his fight.
Chiharu Shiba, a young gangster and admirer of Hanayama asks his idol to watch his fight in the tournament. Chiharu wins his match, but he barely gets away with it. After the fight, Hanayama approaches him in the hallway and kisses him as a sign of pride and respect. Some time later, Hanayama notices Alexander Gallen beating an injured Chiharu in the locker room. The yakuza challenges Gallen to a short match, but after a while, Kaoru is knocked out with a suplex that crushes him to the ground.
Baki
The saga of the most diabolical death row inmates
Hanayama was present when Doppo, Retsu, Baki and Mitsunari met the convicts Spec , Dorian , Doyle , Yanagi and Sikorsky in the underground arena. Later, he saved Baki from Spec when the former was walking with his girlfriend Kozue in the middle of the night. He fights the convict through immense pain, even when the latter crushed him with a park bench and made him bite several handgun bullets, making his cheeks explode. Despite this, he continues to wade through his opponent until he throws Spec into some power lines, shocking him and knocking out the convict.
Hanayama goes to the police station to drop Spec off and was about to be driven home when the convict suddenly recovers, kills several policemen and steals several of their weapons. Kaoru suffers numerous attacks, including the Tameshi Wari, a common tactic used by karate practitioners to break pieces of wood and rock, which places said objects a few inches above the ground and strikes them with deadly force. Spec then pulls out a gun and fires several bullets into Kaoru's body, but despite this, the Yakuza boss persists. He manages to avoid getting his head blown off by twisting his head at the last second when Spec puts the gun in his mouth. Kaoru then enters Spec in such a way that the only witness to see him, the policeman who was to take him home, Sergeant Tsuneo Katahira , said that it triggered his fighting spirit. Suddenly, Spec managed to cover his eyes before pulling out a stun grenade, surprising Hanayama, but not really stunning him. Spec then gets him into a prefectRear Naked Choke , but that only makes Kaoru pull out his trump card, the Vice Grip. He uses his powerful hands to break Spec's left arm in half but without breaking it completely, and while the convict was recovering, he rips a piece of muscle from Spec's calf, causing the convict to scream in agony. Hanayama then uses his Vice Grip on Spec's throat, although the condemned man shoved his entire middle finger directly into his left ear. Eventually, Hanayama is the one who gets up even though both knees were shot before, and Spec is no longer able to get up and almost dies.
Afterwards, he is treated for his injuries and covers his face with a mask for a while. Hanayama appears at a meeting of the five main fighters at the Tokugawa. When the old man started to criticize Baki for losing the fight against Ryuukou Yanagi, Hanayama got angry and grabbed Tokugawa, telling him to shut up. Tokugawa hit Hanayama's face with his small fist and started to cry, making everyone understand that he can't accept Baki's defeat because of his obsessive faith in underground fighters. Then Dorian, one of the five prisoners, suddenly appears and makes a fuss in the Tokugawa house. Hanayama and the others are attacked by Dorian, who ends up blowing up the place with a grenade.
Hanayama later confronts Baki about him having a "real woman", which Kozue calls him on.
He later shows up at the end of Baki's fight with Sikorsky and Yanagi and comments on Baki's growth as a fighter. He declares that he will not fight them and leaves.
Great saga of the Chinese challenge
He is briefly mentioned by Retsu during his fight with Kaiou Son. Retsu says that breaking ten rings is just a trick for Hanayama's grip strength and that Son is no match for him.
Baki-Dou
He summons Yuujirou to fight him and overcome his boredom. After hitting Yuujirou hard enough to make his nose bleed, he is thrown into a convenience store.
He was recruited by the Japanese government to fight Musashi Miyamoto. After Miyamoto stabbed his hand, he held it and hit him three times in the face. Despite his best efforts, he was finally defeated after Musashi cut him about 10 times, including his left eye.
Baki Dou
He is recruited by Tokugawa to fight against sumo. He is matched against Shachihoko. He stuns his opponent with a single blow. Not wanting the fight to end so soon, he let Shachihoko get up.
Capabilities
Hanayama is an extremely powerful gangster who relies mainly on his raw physical power and grip. His grip is so strong that if he grabs an opponent's arm, he can usually make it explode by constricting the blood flow as he did with Yuri Chakovsky . As a child, Hanayama could break a bottle, tear a thick magazine, change the shape of the doorknob and put a bottle cap on with his hand. When he grew up, Hanayama learned to effortlessly tear a piece of a deck of cards with his fingers.
He is also a fearless street fighter with many scars all over his body as proof. He was born already strong and almost broke his grandfather's finger within hours of his birth. Despite this, he trains hard to become even stronger but has not trained his whole life like others. He always takes attacks "head on" and proves to be incredibly tough in that when a group of thugs shot at him with guns, they left him with no lasting damage and simply bounced back. He has a very high pain tolerance as he was able to take punches from the convicted Spec who had previously caused significant damage to the Statue of Liberty simply by using his fists. He was also shown to be able to catch a Musashi Miyamotolame between his knuckles and his back muscles are strong and durable enough to withstand many of his sword attacks. Later in the series, he was also able to give Yuujirou a bloody nose, although the damage was almost insignificant to the latter.
In a strength test with Pickle, Hanayama's strength was compared to that of a Triceratops, a dinosaur that can weigh between 6 and 12 tons. Hanayama also fought a great white shark with his bare hands underwater, and he managed to kill the animal by crushing its brain. His physical strength is great enough that he was the first human that Pickle recognized as a rival, instead of food.
However, Hanayama's greatest weakness is his slow speed. While he is able to move relatively quickly when necessary, he relies more on his tenacity, brutal punches and grip than on his speed, as most of his moves are powerful but slow. Speed oriented fighters who rely on speed like Katsumi , Baki and Musashi were able to win against him, the latter almost killing him. Also, despite his tenacity, he is more vulnerable to his stomach as it was the only place where Musashi was able to cut off the ten blows he landed on him.
Our store offers all types of figurines and derivative products of Anime, all our products are faithfully adapted from manga / anime in question.
You will find figures, LED lights, iPhone and Airpods cases as well as clothes and goodies featuring your favorite characters.
The characters present on our online store are from your most popular Anime and Manga such as: One Piece, Naruto, Demon Slayer, Dragon Ball Z, Jujutsu Kaisen...
The anime products we offer are not necessarily products to be offered as gifts. You can use them as a personal item, to decorate your room or to fill your collection cupboard like a real Otaku!
So don't hesitate to come and visit our online store by clicking here !
