If I - or any other surgeon - were practicing in the Baki
universe we would definitely have our hands full.
Did he actually just rip a guys face off? Today I’m going to be analyzing 1 of the most
ludacris fight scenes from the anime series Baki: a show where the world’s most deadly fighters
clash in no rules hand-to-hand combat. Each fighter has their own unique fighting style, and
when they go toe to toe, you never know what to expect. This show is not for the faint of heart…
Today’s patients are: Kaoru Hanayama who is known to be the strongest Yakuza boss in Japan
(and one of the more powerful fighters in the series) - he’s the one with that
tattoo on his back - and Spec who is a brutal serial killer with a psychotic sense of humor
and a love for weapons. The guy swinging an iron-frame park bench like a baseball bat.
Yes… for the duration of the video, you’ll have to suspend disbelief. These fighters are many
times stronger than your average human being, and as you will see-- more durable as well.
Now aside from the fact that you would not be able to have the bullets go off in the manner shown,
we have to consider the sheer incredulity of this attack. Here, spec shoves a handful
of bullets into Hanayama’s mouth and slams his mouth shut to set these bullets off.
The bullets go off in his mouth all at the same time. Now normally, you would expect
this not only to injure Hanayama as the bullets were discharged, but likely also spec as well,
since the bullets were shoved in Hanayama’s mouth in a random fashion. But at any rate,
here only hanayama was injured. Magically, none of the bullets seemed to travel in the direction
of the throat or pharynx. Had they done so, we would expect to see penetration of the pharynx
and potentially the esophagus behind it. Either one of these injuries would be quite serious and
potentially fatal. Either could cause significant hemorrhage into the pharynx or esophagus,
and would likely result in death if not treated with exploratory surgery and repair
in a timely manner. If not immediately lethal, Hanayama would suffer from terrible infection,
both localized and widespread, and would likely result in a tracheoesophageal fistula,
or a connection between these two structures. But all of that aside, we can see that while
Hanayama survives this crazy attack, both of his cheeks have been utterly destroyed
by the discharge of the bullets. The tissue of both cheeks has been utterly obliterated leaving
the entirety of the inside of Hanayama’s mouth exposed to the outside environment. Interestingly,
though the cheek tissue has been blown, or burnt away, none of Hanayama’s teeth has been damaged or
blown out by the blast. Talk about superhuman. In addition to the injuries already listed, we could
expect severe burns to the inside of Hanayama’s mouth. With the immense pressure associated with
the discharge of the bullets, we might even expect to see high pressure injuries of the oral cavity,
the trachea and esophagus, the lungs, and even the ears. Suffice it to say
that this particular attack would be very, very problematic, if not outright fatal.
And yet, Hanayama is still able to stand and continues to fight.
Even Spec is caught off guard, letting out a surprised cry as he sustains a crushing blow
to the bridge of the nose that launches him into a nearby streetlamp, some 10ft off the ground.
Hanayama punches spec in the face with such force, that spec’s face literally
crumples as it caves in. This would cause fractures of the jaw (mandible), the face
(maxilla), and likely the nasal bridge. If struck with the force that was demonstrated here,
we might even expect the bones of the face to penetrate the frontal sinuses and the brain
case. For a normal person, this would certainly be a devastating injury that would result in
extensive facial trauma. But this isn’t even the end of it. As if to add insult to injury,
spec is literally electrocuted by the street lamp into which hanayama launched him. Depending
on the point of contact and the path that the electrical current traveled within his body,
we could expect that spec would have serious 2nd and 3rd degree burns at one or more locations, and
he might have significant contracture of muscles that were along the path of the current. And then
of course, there is the fall from a height of approximately ten feet while unconscious. A
reduced level of consciousness while falling to the ground, would leave spec unable to protect
his head or neck once he struck the ground. To be honest, spec would be all kinds of
jacked up. He would be in no shape to do much of anything after this. All of these injuries would
make a direct trip to the hospital an absolute necessity. But Hanayama is having none of it.
Spec seems incapacitated when Hanayama delivers him to a nearby police station.
But as I said before, these fighters are many times more durable than your average human being.
Yes, that is Spec deadlifting Hanayama’s vehicle.
He was able to escape the police station and chase down the car with enough strength left
over to lift and flip it with relative ease. In a normal situation, this would require
phenomenal grip strength, great lat strength,
and very powerful legs. The heaviest deadlift on record was achieved by Hawthorne Bjornsson,
the mountain, at slightly more than 1000 lbs. This is only half that weight of even a small car,
so this makes spec super humanly strong…after he has had his face smashed and he has been
electrocuted. This feat would be amazing in a normal situation, but after his injuries, it is
even more astounding. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this is on another level.
Spec then proceeds to attack Hanayama savagely with a police baton. He does this before shooting
him in each of his major joints, and then stomping on his head with it some mere inches between his
target and the ground because, well he’s a psychopath. There’s a lot to unpack here:
As if to return the favour, spec strikes Hanayama several times in the side of the head with the
baton. We could expect severe facial trauma with fractures of the maxilla and mandible. However,
with the blows striking from the side, we might also expect fracture of the zygomatic
complex near the temple, and of the skull itself. Of course, with any injury to the
skull we might also expect a closed head injury such as a concussion, if mild,
or an intra-cranial bleed if more severe. But then spec elevates his attack to the next level when
he uses a small caliber hand gun to shot Hanayama at close range in each of his four major extremity
joints, the knees and elbows. Ballistic injuries to the joints would cause open fractures of
the affected joints, with severe damage to the articular joint surfaces. These injuries would
be pre-disposed to infection, delayed healing, and arthritis assuming that they could even be fixed.
If not, they could lead to permanent pain and disfigurement, and if problematic enough, even
amputation of the affected extremities. In the normal person were they to survive such an attack,
it would be highly unlikely that Hanayama would be fortunate enough to retain normal function of
any one of the involved extremities, let alone all four. And for his coup de grace, spec
curb stomps Hanayama’s head on the ground, while he is holding it suspended above the pavement.
Not only would you get the actual impact to the head from spec’s foot, but you would also get the
impact of hanayama’s head on the pavement. With the coup and contra coup injuries,
this is like getting four blows for the price of one. Utterly savage and truly debilitating
for the average person. Worsening of the skull fractures started with the baton attack earlier,
and possibly even a cervical spine injury from the suspended stomp would be the likely
injuries here. If the skull fracture were severe enough you might also expect to see
exposed brain matter. If all that wasn’t enough?
If hanayama was not already close to death after this attack, he bloody well should be
because his injuries were brutal. But just when you thought it couldn’t get worse,
spec then puts the barrel of the pistol in Hanayama’s mouth and
pulls the trigger. Yet another gun shot injury to the oral cavity at point blank Range. Absolutely
ridiculous, even with my disbelief fully suspended in low earth orbit, and utterly over
the top. At this point, spec is just running out of ideas for ways to humiliate hanayama.
Fortunately, hanayama was able to turn his head at the last moment so that the barrel was pointed
outside of his mouth through the hole created by the previous intra-oral explosions. He would still
suffer quite bad burns from the muzzle blast, but at least this would possibly be survivable.
But as the narrator said: “this is Kaoru Hanayama we’re talking about”.
The tides of battle turn again in Hanayama’s favor until Spec pulls a
flashbang grenade out of thin air, and wrestles his stunned opponent into a rear naked choke.
Naturally, Hanayama rips Spec’s arm apart.
Now I am not entirely sure about the level of grip strength that is required to rip open a
person's arm and literally peel the muscle tissue off the bone, but whatever it is, it’s a lot.
I would venture to guess that it was in the range of a few hundred pounds per square inch.
To be honest, I am not even sure that the world’s strongest deadlifters could even pull off this
feat and with them lifting over 1000 lbs, their grip strength is otherworldly.
But not out of the fight yet, Spec retaliates with a special move of his own.
Here, Spec jams his middle finger into hanayama’s ear. He literally buries the
finger almost three inches, to the level of the proximal interphalangeal joint. Both the width and
the length of the finger inserted into hanayama’s ear would ensure that his auditory canal would
suffer extensive damage and lacerations. The organs of his inner ear would also be in the
path of digital destruction so it is likely that hanayama would become deaf on this side.
In addition, the brain tissue is less than 2 inches away from the outer ear at this level,
so this type of probing would definitely result in the finger penetrating brain
tissue. At this level, the structures of the brainstem and cerebellum would be affected
so normally we would expect hanayama’s most basic brain functions (breathing,
heart rate, sleeping, eating, and motor movement) to be disrupted by this injury,
and in all likelihood, for the average human, this would likely result in death.
But as we’ve already seen, Hanayama’s grip strength is not to be trifled with.
Due to the placement of his hand on Spec’s body, and the fact that Spec is defeated afterwards,
we can assume that Hanayama did not suffer a significant brain injury from this technique
as he is able to remain standing while he simultaneously crushes Spec’s trachea with
a single massive hand. While spec had already survived a number of attacks from hanayama,
this attack on his trachea would severely affect his ability to breathe. And without
adequate ventilation, his level of consciousness would decrease. In other words, spec would be
going night night, possibly even permanently. Fortunately for spec, he is attended to by medical
personnel quick enough that he “survives” long enough to be placed on life support.
Now initially, I had intended to do a Baki compilation,
but after watching a few episodes I realized just how much ground there is to cover. So
if you’ve seen the series, what injuries would you like to see me analyze next?
Thanks for watching, I will see you for rounds next week. And as always,
that’s been a word from Dr. Chris, not your everyday ortho.