| Pickle | |
 | |
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Kana Name | ピクル |
| First Appearance | |
| Anime | Beyond the Brawn |
| Manga | The New Theory of the Mankind's History |
| Information | |
| Origin | Unknown |
| Age | About 200 million |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Height | Over 200 cm (6'7") |
| Weight | Over 130 kg (286 lbs) |
| Fighting Style | Brute Force |
| Original Dub | Takeshi Kusao (2023) |
| Relations | Unknown |
Pickle (ピクル, Pikuru) is a fictional character from the Baki the Grappler franchise. He is a primitive man found perfectly preserved in a saline rock formation (hence he is 'pickled'). This giant humanoid lived originally in the Jurassic/Cretaceous era.
Personality
Pickle's personality is best described as savage, but naïve. Since Pickle originates from the Jurassic Era, he mostly relies on his primal instincts and the things he learned when he was younger, similar to an animal. However, after being brought out of the saline rock he remained frozen in for millions of years, Pickle was forced to live in the Modern Era, where technology, intelligence, and martial arts dominate. He often reacts to the new environment with curiosity, as well as learn to adapt in various situations.
Pickle's intelligence varies from animalistic to slightly above average. Albeit slowly, Pickle was able to adapt to the present day world. Even learned to wear modern clothes and the basics of some martial arts such as Aikido. Nevertheless, there are several times that his primal instinct slipped through, such as when he raped a female reporter named Aizawa who approached him for an interview, even refusing to stop when being assaulted by various security guards. Pickle showed no guilt or regret. He saw it as just an instinctive act that was natural to do, and he did not understand that he had done something wrong. Not only that, after the whole situation, he just went to sleep.
Pickle's cognitive skills and perception may seem very primal at first, but are actually as complex as an average human's - imagination and understanding are some of Pickle's most notable traits, which confuse all of the characters in the series. Despite not speaking any modern language, he seems to be able to read facial language and understand other's intentions. Such as when he understands that General Strydum approached him with good intentions to help him explore the modern world, or when he offers Strydum a gift after his battle with Baki, thanking the general for keeping his promise. In Baki Rahen series, he begins to speak human words for the first time.
Despite his seemingly primitive behavior, Pickle has his own "code of honor" and has never wanted to eat a creature that doesn't fight with him. He is usually seen crying after fights with ones he deems worthy to fight or when he's about to eat his prey, as an act of respect for his opponents and their lives. Later on, Pickle has learned the meaning of a fight for honor rather than survival, as displayed when he gave back Katsumi Orochi his arm after tearing it off and prayed in front of him in respect to the fighting spirit of the karateka.
He was never afraid of any beast except for a single being: a wasp. When he is faced with difficult fights, his opponents may become resemblances of wasps in Pickle's eyes, causing him to either back away or run away (as seen in the fight with Musashi Miyamoto). However, it is not being stung that Pickle fears. Long before his arrival into modern age, Pickle managed to eat a wasp. As a result, his mouth begin to burn intensely from the wasp's venom. From this, Pickle began to fear them as they had the capability to harm him even after they had been defeated. This was also the same quality he saw in Jack Hanma causing Pickle to be hesitant to attack, thus saving Jack's life.
Appearance
Pickle does not resemble any form of primitive man (Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon) or even modern humans. And although he predates humanity by millions of years, his proportions, size, bone structure, and posture are similar to that of a sahelanthropus. This has led some to believe Pickle is a missing link in the evolutionary chain.
He possesses a level of muscular development equivalent to Biscuit Oliva. Pickle has dark shoulder-length hair and a youthful face, giving him an almost innocent appearance at times. This is offset by his exaggerated upper and lower canines, giving him a 'fanged' appearance, and his nails which resemble claws. Pickle has extra-thick neck vertebrae which he evolved from walking in a quadruped stance. He also seems to be able to dislocate his jaw, allowing him to open his mouth to an enormous size. Pickle's forearms, lower legs, and neck are all overdeveloped to the point where he is nearly unable to wear modern clothing. Pickle later was missing his left ear, after it was bitten off by Jack. He also bears a vertical scar in the center of his body where he was cut by Musashi.
At first, Pickle was naked but after his fight with Kaiou Retsu, he starts wearing simple underwear. In the fourth manga series, he started to wear ragged shorts.
History
Past
Pickle was shown to be born in the Jurassic era. He is shown fighting and hunting various dinosaurs for survival. While Pickle seems to have no trouble fighting against some of the most powerful animals to ever exists on the planet, Pickle at some point developed a fear for wasps after he ate one of them and being poisoned by it. While he fought a T-rex, the meteorite crashed onto earth, effectively froze Pickle inside a saline rock formation, thus begin his stasis for over 200 million years.
Hanma Baki 10.5 Gaiden: Pickle
200 million years later, Pickle (and the T-rex) was found perfectly preserved inside a saline rock. A group of American scientist then named him "Pickle" for the fact that he was "picked" when he was discovered, and then proceed to bought Pickle's body back to the United States for study and attempting to bring him back from stasis.
One day, while an effort to bring Pickle back to life seems fruitless, a scientist named Allen decided to takes a chunk of meat from the T-rex that were frozen inside the same saline rock as Pickle and cooked a steak from it. The smell of T-rex meat then awakened Pickle from millennia-long slumber. Allen panicked at the sight of Pickle and began shooting him with a pistol at point blank, but the bullet was unable to penetrate the caveman's thick skin. As Pickle broke out of his confinement, a platoon of American soldiers led by General Gerry Strydum was sent to pacify Pickle. Strydum first sent an experimental mech suit to subdue Pickle, but Pickle easily destroyed the suit with his bare hands. After witnessing that modern weaponry is no use against Pickle, Strydum decided to take the matter into his own hands by stripping all of his clothes and approaching the caveman naked to demonstrate that he isn't hostile and also promising to introduce Pickle to the contemporary world. Despite the language (and possibly intelligence) barrier, Pickle seems to understand Strydum's intentions and calmed down.
Hanma Baki
Pickle Wars Saga
After a discussion between scientists led by Dr. Albert Payne and the US government, they have decided to made the news of Pickle's discovery public, and bring Pickle onto a world tour to showcase the "miracle of science".
Some time later, Pickle along with a group of US Army personnel travelled to Japan to began their world tour trip. As Pickle was escorted from the airport terminal, a reporter named Aizawa approached Pickle in an attempt to interview the caveman. Unbeknownst to Aizawa, however, this awakened Pickle's primal instinct as he haven't seen a woman up close for over 200 million years. Pickle then took Aizawa down and raped her right where she was, much to the shock and horror of everyone who witnessed it at the site and on television. Despite being beaten by dozen of guards with batons, Pickle doesn't even flinch and continues to violate Aizawa until he is finished and went back to sleep as if nothing has happened.
While the incident sparked outrage against Pickle and the American scientist for bringing such a savage being back into the modern age, this event brought Pickle to the attention of various martial artists who desired to witness (or even fight) Pickle in person. Several fighters from the Underground Arena chose to infiltrate the US Army base in Japan to meet Pickle in the same night at the same time, including Yuujirou Hanma himself. After a small scuffle on who should be Pickle's first opponent, Yuujirou decided to showcase his strength once again by walking into a rocket-resistant bulletproof glass that separate him and the caveman, eventually breaking it with his face through sheer force. After a brief exchange, Yuujirou offers a fist bump to Pickle to test his strength. As the two titans began to connect their hand, both fighters sensed the immense amount of strength coming from each other's hand grip and is impressed by such a force. Pickle then began to apply even more force into his hand, forcing Yuujirou to do a throwing technique in order to avoid being toppled himself. While Yuujirou is more than impressed about Pickle's power, he chose not to fight him as he deemed the caveman's lack of fighting skill to be his weakness.
A while later. At a request of Dr. Payne and General Strydum, Mitsunari Tokugawa allowed the US Army to use his Underground Arena as a "hunting ground" for Pickle. Dr. Payne explained that since he was awakened from his stasis, Pickle hasn't eat anything but vitamin-infused water, and as such he needed Mitsunari's help to pit Pickle against the strongest animal of the modern era, such as a bear, a lion, or a bull, to keep him fed. However, Pickle's presence scared these animal away. As such, Dr. Payne has no choice but to ask Mitsunari to use his connection to smuggle a huge Siberian tiger for him. To force the tiger into fighting Pickle, Mitsunari starved it for five days to make it desperate enough to disregard its survival instinct. Pickle then effortlessly kill the tiger with a bear hug and eat it. Dr. Payne then explain that Pickle would only eat anything that would fight against him, and if anyone is attacking him, he would considered them as nothing but his food. In the meantime Kaiou Retsu met and discussed with Tokugawa about Pickle's food problem and how the caveman would never eat anything that doesn't attack him. Ultimately, Tokugawa allowed him to fight Pickle and potentially "feed" him.
Pickle is then seen sleeping on the middle of the Underground Arena, seemingly unconcerned about anything. He is then awakened after sensing a "sign of danger" emanated from Retsu, who approached him to begin the fight. This forced Pickle into using his fighting stance for the first time in his life. Despite Retsu delivering several hits that would otherwise being lethal to a normal human, Pickle gets up seemingly unharmed and began to bite Retsu. Tearing his flesh and devouring it, much to the terror of Mitsunari, Dr. Payne, and General Strydum who spectated the fight. Retsu, after witnessing that his 4,000 years of Chinese kenpo techniques were useless against Pickle, suffered a mental breakdown and started to randomly threw his punches at the caveman, as he swear to not use any "useless" Kenpo again. Suddenly, Retsu's body started to move on their own and countered Pickle with kenpo. It is then revealed that his subconscious "martial art spirit" of Retsu manifests itself to protect him. The spirit then convinces Retsu to never abandon his ways and fight with everything he got. Retsu then proceed to deliver an elbow strike with all his might right into Pickle's back side of his neck. While this move would have broken the vertebrae and caused death to any normal human, Dr. Payne then revealed that Pickle's crevical vertebrae is heavily reinforced due to him being used to walk on all fours, and as such he is able to resist the damage on his neck. Pickle then proceed to took a Leaning Forward Stance and charged at full force at Retsu. Retsu managed to hit Pickle in the face but only caused the caveman to bleed a little from his nose, while he was knocked back all the way into the end of the Arena's entrance. Mitsunari, who realized the gravity of the situation, decided to stop Pickle from devouring Retsu himself. Pickle, who seemingly understands what Mitsunari is saying, knocked him unconscious. As he was tearing off Retsu's right leg and eating it, Dr. Payne then injects tranquilizer and put him to sleep.
Pickle is then being locked inside the same confinement that was used to held Yuujirou after his rampage during the Maximum Tournament. Though after he awakens, the caveman escaped to the outside world by destroying the reinforced metal door in a similar manner with the Ogre. The news of Retsu's defeat and subsequent mutilation quickly spread across the martial arts world. After learned about what happened to Retsu and Pickle's subsequent escape, Katsumi Orochi ordered members of the Shinshinkai Dojo around Japan to search for the caveman so that he could exact the revenge on him. Meanwhile, Mitsunari asked the yakuza boss Kaoru Hanayama to help bring Pickle back to the Underground Arena. Hanayama in turn told his friend Baki Hanma about his mission so that he could have met the caveman in person
Pickle, meanwhile, has begin to adapt to the life inside Tokyo and modern world. Being aware that he could not walk around naked anymore, Pickle assaulted a man named Takeshi Kenmochi and steal his clothes. As Pickle walked around the street and admiring his new environment, he was struck by a truck while he is crossing the road and is sent flying over 20 meters. Despite the impact is enough to dent the truck's cab into the silhouette of Pickle, Pickle gets up unharmed and then proceed to destroy the truck and ate all of the meat inside the truck's freezer, as he believe it was his "prey" who assaulted him. Later, Pickle encounter a hustler working for Hanayama who, believing that Pickle is just a normal "foreigner", attempted to convince Pickle to use the brothel's service (while being unaware that his boss is searching for him). The hustler is then confronted by hundreds Shinshinkai Dojo members led by Terada, who coerced him to let go of his "friend". Suddenly, Hanayama and his right-hand man Kizaki appeared and confronts Terada and Pickle. After a brief squabble between Terada and Kizaki, who is pointing a knife at him, Kizaki's knife is then sent flying and later grabbed by both Pickle and Hanayama, leading to a brief contest of strength between two huge men. Pickle then temporarily knocks out Hanayama, which makes Kizaki attack him in retaliation for his boss, but Pickle crushes his hand in an instant. Then Terada steps in. He attacks the caveman with various karate techniques, but they prove useless and after a short fight, Pickle knocks him out with an open hand.
After a while, Hanayama gets up from the ground and both strongmen continue their fight. Hanayama endures the powerful charge from Pickle, who likened his strength to that of a triceratops. The yakuza held back Pickle long enough for Baki to finally arrives and meet the caveman in person. After admiring the "beauty" of Pickle's body that was fully built for hunting, Pickle offered Baki a hand bump similar to the one his father Yuujirou has offered to him at the military base. Baki accepted, but he is suddenly being thrown off balance by Pickle's sheer strength, amusing the caveman. In return, Baki instinctively kicked Pickle in the face, but Pickle seems to not mind about it and even smiles back at him. Baki immediately understands the the caveman wanted him to go back to the Underground Arena with him, and as such he and Hanayama chose to do so.
Back at the Underground Arena, Baki realized that Pickle wanted him to go there so that he could have a fight with him. As Baki recalled his fight with Yasha-Zaru five years ago and how "selfish" he was to force such an "innocent" creature like Pickle to fight with him, Pickle suddenly delivered a kick into Baki's abdomen, sending him flying into the spectator's area, instantly knocking him out. Pickle then begins to dance to celebrate his victory. As Hanayama and Mitsunari is surprised by such a display of power and intelligence, Mitsunari ordered his men to brought Baki out of the arena so that he would not end up as the caveman's next meal.
Later, Dr. Payne, General Strydum, along with a group of US soldiers went to the Underground Arena to "pacify" Pickle by filling the fighting ring of the arena with chloroform gas to put the caveman to sleep. After observing Pickle inside his arena for some time, Mitsunari then points out that such measures was unnecessary, as Pickle chose to stay here inside his arena on his own volition, as he believes that the caveman viewed the place like an "oasis" where his "toys" and "food" won't stop coming towards him. Some time later, Katsumi met with Mitsunari and offered himself to be the next "prey" for Pickle.
In the day of the scheduled fight with Katsumi, Pickle emerges from the entrance and is welcomed with barrages of punches and kicks from Katsumi as soon as he stepped onto the arena. This only excites Pickle, however, and he proceed to delivered a strong kick towards Katsumi. Despite his best effort to block it, the karateka is sent flying back several meters away. Katsumi then unleashes his newly crafted Countless Joints (new version of Mach Punch) technique against Pickle, a punch so fast that it breaks the sound barrier. This punch is sufficient to sent Pickle collapsing into the ground, and led him to compare its power to that of a tail strike of a T-rex. However, Katsumi has maimed his hand from using the punch, and his arm took a damage each time he breaks the sound barrier, while Pickle got back onto his feet after he recovered, seemingly unharmed. After witnessing that Pickle is able to shrug off his powerful but costly punch, Katsumi then delivered several punches and kicks at the caveman. Sending Pickle into the ground as his hands and feet injuries worsened. As Katsumi bent on his knees due to injuries and fatigue, Pickle then took the Leaning Forward Stance, intended to finish the karateka off. Katsumi gathered all of his remaining strength and delivered his last punch named Hitless Blow onto a charging Pickle, sending him back several meters away and seemingly knocking him out for good. This final punch caused Katsumi's right arm to be horribly mutilated and reduced to a bone and a bit of flesh as a result, much to the horror of everyone inside the Tokyo Dome. After reeling from such a gruesome sight, Katsumi raised his maimed right arm into the air, prompting the crowd of Shinshinkai Dojo disciples to cheer for his "victory". The celebration was short-lived, however, as Katsumi and the crowd found out that Pickle is merely sleeping to recover. And, as Dr. Payne put it, simply waiting for his "prey" to die from such a grave injuries. Pickle then wakes up and found Katsumi, bleeding profusely and unable to move an inch, offered himself as a "food" as a spoil for the victor. Pickle then proceed to ripped off Katsumi's maimed right arm with his teeth, causing Katsumi to pass out as a result of blood loss. Mitsunari, unable to witness the carnage any longer, ordered the same group of snipers that once managed to put Yuujirou to sleep before to prepare to shoot tranquilizers at Pickle to save Katsumi from being devoured by the caveman. Suddenly, Doppo Orochi, Katsumi's foster father, confronted Mitsunari and threatens to kill him if he did not honor his son's wish to be eaten by Pickle. Unexpectedly, instead of eating him, Pickle placed Katsumi's right arm next to his body and began to pray to honor Katsumi's fighting spirit. Pickle then walks out of the arena with an empty stomach, but with a sense of satisfaction in his mind.
After the Tokyo Dome battle. Jack Hanma, who have heard of the rumors about "the hungry caveman", unceremoniously barged into the Underground Arena to meet Pickle in person. Pickle is excited to see someone with an equal height to him and started the fight immediately. After a brief exchange of blows, Jack challenged Pickle to a biting contest to see who has the strongest teeth. Both giants then charged at each other and started trying to bite each other's lips off. Pickle ended up winning as he lifts Jack's huge body using only his mouth, and then threw him away at such a great speed that he rips Jack's lower facial skin off of his face. Enraged, Jack launched barrages of punches at Pickle, but only managed to excite the caveman enough to use his Leaning Forward Stance. Pickle then charged at Jack at full speed, but the fighter managed to parry the blow, sending Pickle flying into the spectator's area. Jack then grabs Pickle and threw him back into the ring and bite the caveman's left ear off. After became aware that he has lost a body part, Pickle became furious and started bouncing off the fence, dodging all of Jack's attacks. Pickle then proceed to brutally beats Jack down, breaking his jaws and almost all of his teeth, and knocked him out. As Pickle is about to devour Jack, Pickle suddenly saw an image of a giant wasp - the only animal that he feared - above Jack, and then retreated back to his corner. This is because Pickle believed that Jack was dead, but he still sense the danger coming from him. This ended up to be true, as when Mitsunari approached Jack's unconscious body, he was almost struck by Jack's middle fingers that moved on its own. Had Pickle chose to finish Jack off, Jack's fingers would be able to pierce Pickle's skull and kill him.
Despite his injuries, Jack escaped from the hospital and returned to the Underground Arena for a rematch. Pickle initially ran away from Jack and went to the outside of the Tokyo Dome, as he believed that Jack has somehow managed to come back from his "death" a few days prior. Pickle then confronts Jack, as he wanted to defend his pride as a fighter, and quickly defeats Jack for a second time. He then hanged Jack's unconscious body by his feet on top of a skyscraper so that he could "eat" him later. After Jack was rescued and returned to the hospital, he immediately attempted to return to the arena for a third round, but is stopped by his half brother Baki, who warned that if he wanted to do it again, he would be eaten by Pickle for real.
After the whole ordeal with Jack, Pickle returned to Underground Arena and refuse to eat anything for several days, as there's no other "prey" who approached him. Baki then went into the arena and wait until the caveman is hungry enough to attack him so that he can fight against him again. A while later, Dr. Payne sent 40 kg of T-rex meat from the saline rock that Pickle was trapped to the caveman, so that he could finally eat the prey he has killed a long time ago. Pickle then offered to share the T-rex meat with Baki, who did not aware of its source but accepted it regardless. After the two has finished the meal, Baki decided to provoke Pickle into fighting him by gently touching his cheek, enraging the caveman due to him viewed this as a sign of humiliation. Pickle then charged towards Baki, who has managed to stop him this time. Baki then thanked Pickle for understands him, and ask him for a fight not for survival, but for his pride as a fighter.
Baki's rematch began with him delivered several strong kicks towards Pickle and knocked him into the ground. Baki then put Pickle onto a Rear Naked Choke, to which Pickle countered by climbing onto the arena's roof and then dropped himself and Baki from 30 meters height, intended to crush Baki with a combination of the impact and his own weight. This move proved effective, as Baki was stunned from damages to his internal organs and began coughing blood. Pickle then falls to his knees and began to beg for Baki's forgiveness, as the caveman believes he has went too far and harmed his "friend". Baki took this as a sign of humiliation and punched Pickle in the face, urging Pickle to treat him seriously. In response, Pickle delivered harmless "punches" at Baki to show that he is willing to hold back and "play" with him instead. Unable to endure mockery any further, Baki proceed to drop himself from the arena's roof, this time seemingly without taking damage, to show that he really wanted an all-out fight with the caveman. Baki delivered three "grazing" strikes onto Pickle's chin and stunned him. He then landed several Whip Strikes onto Pickle's back, causing him to feel immense amount of pain he has never received before. Pickle then took his Leaning Forward Stance, to which Baki then unveiled his Triceratops Fist stance for the first time in return.
Due to power of Baki's imagination, everyone inside the Underground Arena including Pickle saw an image of a triceratops in front of them. Baki then manifests a "chimera" made out of Pickle's strongest adversaries in the past; a triceratops, a pteranodon, and a T-rex, and proceed to attack a shell-shocked Pickle. In return, Pickle unleashes his Horizontal Start technique and launched himself head-on against Baki. However, Baki easily parried the charge and sent Pickle flying into the spectator's area. While Pickle struggled to recover, Baki proceed to pee on every corners of the fighting ring to "claim" Pickle's territory as his own. This angered Pickle and causing him to unleashes barrages of punches and kicks at Baki, but the grappler is able to dodge all of his attacks. Baki then punched right into Pickle's groin, causing Pickle immense pain and sends him struggling on the ground. This sends Pickle into a boiling point, forcing the caveman to unleashes his "final" form by flexing his muscles forcefully, revealing a scar of T-rex teeth across his torso. Pickle then attempt to deliver a strike again, but they were all either blocked and parried by Baki. In return, Baki began his own offensive and struck Pickle with several powerful hits that forced the caveman to use the same wall bouncing technique as in the first fight with Jack. However, Baki easily catches up with Pickle continues his assault. Baki then finishes the attack with a strong kick into Pickle' face that sends him onto the ground. As victory seemed certain for Baki, he began to feel remorse for using various technique against opponent who knew nothing about martial arts, and offered Pickle to fight only with all their strength. The two fighters then began to unleashes several hits with all their might. Without martial arts as a leverage, Baki is quickly overwhelmed by Pickle's sheer strength. However, as a sign of respect of Baki's might, Pickle decided for a throwing technique to slam Baki into the ground as his final attack, knocked the grappler out in an instant, securing the victory for the caveman. The use of modern martial art skill by Pickle surprised Retsu, Hanayama, and Mitsunari who have watched the whole fight.
In the immediate aftermath of the fight, Pickle sat on the ground and is seemingly in deep though. Mitsunari, Retsu, and Hanayama began to discuss about the outcome of the fight. Retsu said that Pickle does not care about how he would achieve the victory of a "fight to the death" so long as he stands as the victor. Hanayama disagrees, and points out that Pickle was overwhelmed by Baki until the very end of the fight because he was born with such an immensely strong body that he doesn't need to learn anything to become stronger than anyone, compared to Baki who wasn't born strong, but has to learn everything about fighting so that he will be able to defeat his father. Though in the end, Pickle realized that using his immense strength alone are not always going to guaranteed a victory anymore, and as such he was forced to learn martial arts so that he could win. Pickle then gets up and walked out of the arena. Mitsunari chose not to interfere as he considered that Pickle "isn't some kind of animal" and would need some time to recover his mind. Pickle is later seen on top of a skyscraper, watching the cityscape at night. Baki then walked up to meet him and watched the skyline with him, while imagining what could have been to live in the Jurassic era like Pickle.
After some time, the United Nations organized a referendum from countries around the world to decided whether Pickle should be allowed to live in the modern age, or he should be sealed back inside the saline rock so that he would not causing any problems again. The vote for Pickle to be returned to his confinement won by a little margin, much to the disappointment of General Strydum and Dr. Payne. As the two men walked around the street of Tokyo while talking about the result of the referendum, Pickle escaped from the laboratory in the US along with the head of the saline rock T-rex and reappeared in front of them. Pickle expresses his gratitude to General Strydum for honoring his promise to show the new world for him, and offered the T-rex head as a token of gratitude. Pickle then decided to settle in a park in Tokyo in defiance of the vote casted by people around the world and considers it as his new "home", living off of its inhabitants like foxes and squirrels.
Strongest Father and Child Quarrel Saga
Pickle reappears during Baki's fight against his father Yuujirou after witnessing Baki using the Triceratops Fist stance. After "saying" hello to Baki and Yuujirou, Pickle got punched in the face by Baki for interrupting the fight, causing the caveman to lose one of his fangs. While Pickle became angry at Baki, he got intimidated by an angry Baki and decided to sit on the ground and spectated the whole fight without interrupting the father and son.
Abilities
Pickle is one of the most blatantly superhuman characters in the entire series. Pickle's muscles are so developed and strong that he was able to withstand the force of a meteor that sent him into a stasis, with his body remaining perfectly functional after 200 million years devoid of any air, food, water etc. He is also capable of taking three 9 mm shots to the abdomen at point-blank range, as well as being struck by a truck at full speed. In either case, he shrugged it off like nothing happened, and in the latter's case he's even proceeded to destroy the truck, believing it was his "prey".
Pickle has enormous raw endurance and primitive durability which is above everyone except Yuujirou, whose strongest body part is his neck. Because he used to walk on four legs, Pickle's neck has developed to be incredibly strong in both bone and muscle, which makes it extremely hard for him to have a concussion in his brain. Kaiou Retsu attacked the back of his head with all of his strength and it didn't even faze him, and later when mindlessly assaulting him, Pickle took all his blows without so much as dodging or even trying to protect himself and remained completely unharmed. Jack Hanma punched his chin with all his power, and while it was strong enough to send Pickle, who weighs over 130 kg, flying through the air, it still didn't damage him. He also endured Katsumi Orochi's attacks, including the Hitless Blow, without even bleeding. Pickle even withstood multiple slashes from Musashi Miyamoto with just a few light cuts as a result. Even on spots such as the knees and elbows (which are some of the weakest parts of the human body), he didn't take any serious injury. However, Pickle still lost after he ran away when he imagined Musashi as a wasp. One of the only times he was legitimately hurt was due to a direct hit to the crotch by Baki, and even then he regained composure almost immediately.
His herculean strength has also been shown in various occasions. He killed and ate T-rexes without the use of weapons in his prehistoric life. His canines are strong enough to eat dinosaurs and tear their flesh. Pickle makes any animal run away in fear after seeing him (except for a Siberian tiger, although it was starved for several days and considered anything food at that point). He's also being capable of withstanding a strength test with Yuujirou Hanma himself, resisting a charge from Kaoru Hanayama, sending Baki Hanma flying through the Underground arena with a single kick, chopping a leg from Kaiou Retsu after beating him, defeating Jack Hanma two times with only a few punches and breaking all of his teeth including his jaw too, jumping from wall to wall at inperceivable speeds in the same fight, and pulling a giant crocodile the size of a small dinosaur through a sewer tunnel (despite it supposedly not being big enough to contain said crocodile), which would've required the strength of a bulldozer.
Despite being a primitive man and the complete lack of martial arts knowledge, Pickle can sometimes be seen using tactics like using rocks and trees to make jumping for himself easier so as to dodge Jack's attack, or using a Jujitsu technique to defeat Baki (although, in the past, he did use chokeholds and grappling techniques to defeat dinosaurs). During his fight with Baki, Kaoru Hanayama noticed that Pickle is able to master the power of imagination and realization.
While he is capable of learning, Pickle is still mostly primitive. Due to living the most of his life in a wild era filled with nothing but creatures who used only their brute force and monstrous size to win battles, Pickle's biggest weakness is his sheer lack of technical skill. Experienced martial artists (even those who're physically inferior to him in all most every regard) have still managed to give Pickle quite a hard time due to this flaw. However, his sheer strength and durability practically nullified this weak point.
In his rematch with Jack, Pickle demonstrated that he is capable of using both his claws and his feet as weapons in combat, causing deep, lacerating cuts in Jack's abdomen that caused him to bleed profusely.
Techniques
- Bite – used against Kaiou Retsu for the first time.
- Leaning Forward Stance – used against Kaiou Retsu for the first time.
- Tackle – used to hit a truck for the first time and also in his fight with Kaoru Hanayama.
- Slap – used once against Terada.
- Stomp – used once against Baki Hanma.
- Horizontal Start – used against Baki Hanma.
- Rear Naked Choke – used against many dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period and against a giant crocodile in the modern era.
Gallery
Trivia
- Pickle is not only the oldest character in the entire Baki franchise, but also one of the tallest and one of the strongest of all fighters from the series.
- Pickle has used the same stance Yuujirou uses, hinting that he may be part of the Hanma bloodline. This theory is supported by his similar blatantly inhuman characteristics, such as height, agility, and muscular development.
- Interestingly, the scars that appear in Pickle's "Final Form" seemingly appear and vanish out of nowhere, as they weren't visible before or after Pickle used said "Final Form".