Karate Baka Ichidai

is a Japanese manga drawn by Jiro Tsunoda and Jōya Kagemaru, with the story written by Ikki Kajiwara. The story was inspired by the life of the real-life martial artist Mas Oyama. The manga was published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine between 1971 and 1977, and accumulated in 29 tankōbon volumes. The anime adaptation was produced by Tokyo Movie from October 3, 1973 to September 25, 1974 for 47 episodes.

The manga was first adapted into a live-action film by Toei on 14 May 1977 (the English release titled Karate for Life). The two-part film, Shin Karate Baka Ichidai: Kakutōsha, which was directed by Takeshi Miyasaka and released in 2003 and 2004 to commemorate the seventeenth anniversary of Kajiwara's death, is often treated as an adaptation of the manga, but its direct source is a book by Hisao Maki, Kajiwara's younger brother.

Plot
Failed kamikaze pilot Ken Asuka becomes a rough, tough hooligan who settles all of his problems with karate, until he learns about the legendary swordsman Musashi Miyamoto in the novels of Eiji Yoshikawa. Resolving to live his life like Musashi, he begins to take karate more seriously.