[Meeting…] Baoh (Ikuro Hashizawa)

At the beginning of last year I was lucky enough to be able to read Baoh by Hirohiko Araki, a work that shows us some glimpses of what would be Araki's next work and his greatest success: Jojo's Bizarre Adventures.

The character to talk about today is popularly known as Baoh (despite the fact that his real name is Ikuro Hashizawa) and the reason for this is quite obvious, because on the one hand he is the protagonist of the work of the same name and on the other, Ikuro has a Baoh inside him, which makes him technically Baoh as well.

What is a Baoh?

Baoh is a type of parasite that once introduced into the body of a person (or animal) It grants him supernatural strength and resistance as well as some abilities that border on the fantastic.. Every time the host is in danger, the Baoh activates and takes full control of its body to end the threat. In exchange, the Baoh takes over the body little by little, consuming it more and more.

The Baoh were created by the Judas organization (also known as Doress) to create the ultimate weapon, this being one of the many experiments carried out by its scientists thanks to the investments of influential people and millionaires, whose objective is to find a way to impose itself on other countries in case of need or desire.

Experiments need guinea pigs to be tested and that is why the evil organization does not hesitate to kidnap children or adults that can be easily made to disappear without raising suspicion. That was the case of Ikuro Hashizawa, who after suffering a spectacular car accident with his family, ended up in the Judas laboratories.

Ikuro's life would have been summed up to carrying a Baoh inside, being exhibited, analyzed and surely eliminated after seeing how the parasite reacts in a human, but the boy was lucky to have outside help to escape from captivity.

The person who freed Ikuro was Sumire, a girl with premonition abilities (she is able to guess keys and see upcoming events), which is why she was also held inside the train that transported Ikuro.

Due to their joint escape and because Sumire's and Ikuro's abilities combined were the best insurance to stay safe from the Judas organization, the two develop a special friendship while They try to start a life somewhere else.

Baoh the visitor

Because the Judas organization is not going to allow two of its experiments to escape just like that, there will be several assassins and soldiers who will begin a search and capture.

After a first confrontation, Ikuro will discover his abilities, because When something is going to happen to him, his mind is in a trance and his body is possessed by the parasite., who little by little increases his strength and uses strange abilities such as secreting acid from his hands, making scythes appear from his arms or regenerating wounds.

What Ikuro doesn't know is that the Baoh within is in its initial phase and little by little it will possess it until it shows its absolute potential as a definitive weapon. The members of the Judas organization know perfectly well that Ikuro is in his first phase of the Baoh's evolution, which forces them to act quickly before it becomes too dangerous.

The decision to flee the organization and live in peace shows that Ikuro has no idea of ​​​​becoming a hero or using his powers to capture villains. The poor boy hardly knows what is happening to his body or what really happened after his accident. Although life as a fugitive always has its drawbacks, like endangering the people who help you) and the Judas organization is especially cruel when it comes to righting their mistakes, so after seeing how Ikuro has defeated several of his men (which in turn accelerates the evolution of the Baoh) they decide to go the easy way and kidnap Sumire, using her as bait to get Ikuro to go to Judas' laboratory. Even knowing that it is a trap, the goodness of this character comes to light when he decides that he cannot abandon his only companion in this new life that he has been given, even though this would be the easiest thing for him, so he decides to go to the laboratory even knowing that certain death may await him.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Baoh (or rather, Ikuro) He is an unwitting hero created by an experiment and what makes it interesting is the duality that this causes in the character. Ikuro is a normal boy, totally disoriented by the direction his life has taken and acts as such in most situations, while the Baoh is in charge of everything that could be called heroic, even though it is in a lethal and bloody way and only for the preservation of the host. The duality between Baoh and Ikuro is interesting and quite notable, as if it were a Henry Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and that is the charm of the character. Maybe that's why what I like least about this character is that in the final stage there seems to be a collaboration between Ikuro and the Baoh, something inevitable due to the length of time the parasite has been inside the boy and because that was surely what many of the readers wanted to see.

Las recomendaciones son bastante escasas con este personaje, pues solo existe el manga original llamado simplemente Baoh (que extrañamente también se publicó en Estados Unidos y en España) y un OVA que cuenta la misma historia con algunos cambios sutiles y muchas escenas recortadas o borradas debido a su escasa duración (menos de una hora) que se publicó en DVD años más tarde. Otra aparición de Baoh es como cameo en el anime de Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, concretamente en una escena donde Joseph Joestar aparece leyendo el manga.

Si el personaje os ha parecido interesante, podéis jugar con él en Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure All Stars Battle de PlayStation 3, siempre y cuando lo paguéis, pues es un DLC.