| Emi Akezawa | |
 | |
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Kanji Name | 朱沢江珠 |
| Kana Name | あけざわ えみ |
| First Appearance | |
| Anime | Moving Towards Destiny |
| Manga | The Bad Little Boy's Magnificent Life |
| Information | |
| Origin | Japan |
| Age | About 30 (before death) |
| Hair Color | Dark Amber |
| Height | About 165 cm (5'5") |
| Fighting Style | None |
| Original Dub | Yurika Hino (2001) Megumi Hayashibara (2023) |
| English Dub | Wendy Powell (2001) |
| Relations | Yuujirou Hanma (Lover) Baki Hanma (Son) Yuujirou's Mother (Mother-in-law) Jack Hanma (Stepson) Yuuichiro Hanma (Father-in-law) Eiichi Akezawa (Ex-Husband) |
| “ | Because you're weak! It's because you're so weak! It's your fault! Why did I have such a weak child?! | ” |
– Emi to Baki Hanma. | ||
Emi Akezawa (朱沢 江珠, Akezawa Emi) is a fictional character from anime and manga series Baki the Grappler. She was the lover of Yuujirou Hanma and the mother of Baki Hanma. Emi was the wealthy leader of the Akezawa Group, and former wife of Eiichi Akezawa. She was obsessed with gaining Yuujirou's affection, which led her to emotionally neglect her son, Baki.
Personality
At first, Emi appeared to be a supportive mother trying to help her son become the powerful fighter he aspired to be; however, it was revealed that she had an ulterior motive for investing so heavily in Baki's training: so that he could become strong enough to impress Yuujirou Hanma - the only person Emi showed any love towards and the only person who mattered to her. Over time, this love became her singular obsession to the point that she no longer acted lovingly toward her son. During a conversation with Hitoshi Kuriyagawa, she readily admitted that the maternal bond meant nothing to her and that the only important thing in her life was Yuujirou.
In the beginning, when she met her ex-husband, Eiichi Akezawa, she was a shy girl with a demure nature clearly overwhelmed by the underworld that Eiichi showed her. But at the same time, during this period of time Yuujirou discovered that Emi had a dark side of her personality. Meeting him showed that she tends to obsessively admire brutality and enjoys the sight of someone else's suffering. Yuujirou chose her as the mother of his child exactly because he liked the bloodlust in Emi's eyes. Later, he even told her that he didn't consider her a boring woman just because of her murderous stare. Many years later, as Baki's mature mother and leader of the Akezawa group, Emi was usually a calm person with a confident smile on her face most of the time. She was portrayed as an eloquent and competent woman that was capable of leading her own organization. She was really only carried away with her emotions in situations involving Yuujirou, who caused her to experience a feeling of constant excitement combined with deep frustration.
She is shown to be a selfish and abusive mother towards Baki as when Yuujirou stated that he was displeased with his progress, she became distraught and blamed her son for not being strong enough, hitting and even biting him when he hugged her, pleading for her love. She was also completely indifferent towards her own son's emotional pain as he tried to comfort her. At the time, she also didn't care that she was acting cruel and crazy in front of a whole lot of onlookers who were watching the scene. However, during Baki and Yuujirou's brutal battle, Emi pushed aside her sadistic tendencies and realized she did deeply care for her son, and her maternal instincts kicked in and compelled her to defend her son, even at the cost of her life - she even decided to attack Yuujirou, standing up for her son. Before her death, she realized how cruelly she treated her son and expressed remorse for her previous acts of cruelty and apathy towards his feelings and well-being.
Appearance
Emi Akezawa was a gorgeous woman whose looks were praised by many within the Baki franchise. Her outfits were often glamorous and revealing, possibly as a consequence of her previous life, as she was hinted to be a prostitute prior to marrying Eiichi. Her typical attire was emblematic of the sexy businesswoman, leaving her more revealing dresses for important events.
History
Baki the Grappler
Past
It is implied that Emi was a prostitute before meeting her future husband Eiichi Akezawa - a rich business owner as well as head of a big organization. Shortly after their wedding, she attended a party held in her honor that was filled with Eiichi's business associates. There, her new husband explains that the upper class world he lived in was completely different from her lower middle class upbringing, and that a new life would be opened up to her. One of these new experiences is a private match between two very different styles of fighter, George Harman - a boxer - and Lorion Grassy - a martial artist. Emi is at first confused by the pairing of fighters, as the two disciplines seemed to have nothing in common.
After the fight was over, she spots Yuujirou Hanma for the first time and immediately becomes fixated on him. She is unable to move or avert her gaze and starts shaking uncontrollably in awe of his presence. A jealous Eiichi notices her staring at Yuujirou and slaps her, angry that his new wife is fawning over another man. Emi then watches as Eiichi spills champagne on Yuujirou's suit. In response, Yuujirou grabs Emi and kisses her in front of Eiichi, who tries to retaliate but is stopped by Lorion Grassy.
Later on, Emi is sitting down and Eiichi smashes a glass on the ground because she hasn't said anything to him since the event; he states that he knows who she is thinking about, that person being Yuujirou and claims that she is lusting for him to which she denies. Yuujirou shows up and ends up snapping Eiichi's neck and claims that he knows who Emi really is: a sadistic woman who enjoys seeing brutal violence and watching people die. Then, Yuujirou hugs her, and Emi responds with a creepy lustful smile returning the hug back.
When the police come to investigate the murder of her husband, Emi cannot get Yuujirou out of her mind and ends up lying to them about who killed Eiichi. She returns to Eiichi's estate where her late husband's staff notifies her they heard about what happened to him, and she vows to carry on his legacy for the child she is carrying, which is actually Yuujirou's. She eventually took over the Eiichi's business.
Childhood Saga
As Baki grows older and to the age of 13, Emi hires the best trainers around and keeps a close watch on her son, knowing that Yuujirou wouldn't be happy unless Baki grew to be as strong as him. When Baki is defeated by 100 street thugs, Emi orders Hitoshi Kuriyagawa, her loyal assistant, to organize for Baki a fight with Kaoru Hanayama, the strongest yakuza in the country. In the meantime Baki loses to Yuri Chakovsky and chooses to toss aside the trainers Emi hired and instead follow his own path to becoming stronger. Later she comes to meet Baki and shows support to him, happy that his attitude is starting to mimic Yuujirou's. Emi kisses her son and wishes him good luck on his new way, and after a brief meeting, drives away in a tasteful car.
When Baki returns from the mountains after fighting Yasha-Zaru, he meets with Emi and Kuriyagawa. It turns out that Emi knew about her son's whereabouts and is pleased with his progress. Baki is a bit surprised and finds that Emi is quickly gathering information. Later, they watch Yuri Chakovsky's new boxing match together.
When Yuujirou shows up after Baki fights Kaoru Hanayama, she becomes incredibly excited. After the battle, Baki meets with Emi and tells his mother about how his way of fighting is different from Yuujirou's, as Baki prefers to make bonds through new battles instead of simply destroying his opponents. Emi hands Baki the letter Hanayama sent to him from the hospital. Yuujirou later visits her and expresses that she hasn't done enough to make Baki strong; she gets mad and lashes out at him. She even tries to attack him with a knife, but unsuccessfully, and Yuujirou only gets excited. As he turns around, he states that he will nibble at the Baki she has created.
When it is revealed some time later that Yuujirou broke into the Prime Minister's mansion, defeated all of his bodyguards, and nearly killed him, Emi is amused to tears. She states that Yuujirou simply responded in his own way to Baki's accomplishment of defeating the powerful soldier named Gaia a short time earlier.
When she next goes to see Yuujirou just before Baki and his match, Emi tries to get nearer to her beloved, whom she constantly watches with eyes full of admiration, but she once more gets turned down by him telling her that if Baki isn't strong enough, she will be utterly nothing to him. Then Yuujirou tells her to leave. Baki shows up at the hotel where she was seeing Yuujirou and Emi begins to despair in Baki's arms due to the fact that she is always insufficient for her beloved. After a while she even lashes out at him, punching Baki and blaming him for being not strong enough. Baki ends up hugging Emi and expresses to her that all he wants is a little bit of all the love that she has for Yuujirou, but she bites him and runs away.
When the time comes for Baki to fight his father, and the battle commences, Emi arrives by Yuujirou's side, showing that she supports her beloved in this fight. During their battle, Yuujirou tells Emi that he didn't expect Baki to give him so much fun. A happy mother shouts to her son to make his father happy. Later, she witnesses her son getting defeated by the monster that Yuujirou is and becomes excited by how happy Yuujirou is at pummeling his own son, but then, once she sees Baki and the state that he is in, her motherly instincts kick in and she realizes that after all this time she does love him, even having flashbacks to nursing him within her arms. She thus charges at Yuujirou to protect Baki, breaking both her wrists by punching him, and even spitting in his face as if she wants show that his brutality did not impress her. She ends up getting bear hugged by Yuujirou which breaks her back and spine. Still alive but agonizing, she later cradles Baki singing a lullaby to him and comforting his unconscious self while she slowly dies.
After the fight, Baki carries her dead body through the street, imagining that she is still alive and that they are talking to each other. At one point, the police try to stop the boy and tell him to let the dead woman, but he starts beating them and runs away with tears, still carrying his mother. In the anime this scene was censored and Baki is shown walking through the street, only carrying her wedding ring and crying. Later, it is shown that Baki places his mother down within a meadow of flowers and she has just passed on. The boy later promises that he will defeat his father.
Baki Dou
There's a mention about the fact that Emi Akezawa was also a friend of Hinary (an equivalent of Hilary Clinton in the Baki world).
Abilities
At first it seems that Emi presumably has no fighting abilities. Later on, however, it turns out that she is able to make a technical roundhouse jump kick and perform a few punching attacks. This is shown in the scene when Yuujirou Hanma comes into her room and Emi "greets" him in this way. Emi may have learned this to curry favor with Yuujirou in some way, or just practiced some martial arts for self-defense, but this matter has never been clarified. Of course, her attacks do not do any damage to Yuujirou at all. Emi tries to attack Yuujirou also during his fight with Baki, but the effect is the same. Against Baki, too, her blows turn out to be completely useless when Emi desperately starts bombarding her son with a series of punches after her unsuccessful meeting with Yuujirou. The only technique that seems to make any reaction to Baki is a bite to his arm.
It is also worth mentioning that despite her lack of physical strength, Emi is a very influential woman as the head of the Akezawa family. Her power is based on reputation, social position and wealth. Emi is able to pay huge amounts of money to various fighters to persuade them to fight Baki, and her position makes that she doesn't even have to do it personally.
Techniques
- Bite – used once against Baki Hanma.
Gallery
Trivia
- Strangely, despite hiring the best trainers for Baki, she possibly never thought of hiring top martial artists in Japan like Doppo Orochi, Gouki Shibukawa or Izou Motobe to train Baki. It can be assumed that she is not that knowledgeable in the martial art world to be aware of them. On the other hand, it is possible that Emi only wanted private teachers for Baki, thinking that this would be the best way, and such masters as Doppo or Shibukawa did not provide such services.
- In truth, it is really unknown if she left any inheritances to Baki.