Morio Sonoda is a fictional character from the anime and manga series Baki. He serves as a Japanese police inspector and is also a master of judo. His primary role in the story is overseeing the deployment and evaluating the effectiveness of the special forces assigned to deal with a group of escaped death row convicts who pose a severe threat to public safety. When the special forces fail to contain the situation, Sonoda takes the initiative to hire the American martial arts expert Biscuit Oliva to handle the convicts directly.

Sonoda’s motivation is rooted in his sense of duty as a law enforcement officer. He is determined to restore order and protect the public from the dangerous criminals. His personality is that of a disciplined, professional inspector who relies on procedure and his own martial arts background. However, his confidence is shaken when he personally confronts the convict known as Spec. Despite his judo skills, Sonoda is humiliated in the encounter, which underscores the immense physical gap between ordinary law enforcement and the superhuman fighters of the Baki world.

His key relationships include his antagonistic interaction with Spec, which serves to highlight the convicts' threat level, and his professional arrangement with Biscuit Oliva, whom he brings in as a contractor to do what the police cannot. Sonoda does not undergo significant personal development in the series; his role is largely functional, acting as a bridge between the police force and the underground fighting world. His notable ability is his mastery of judo, but this is portrayed as insufficient against the series' more powerful characters, emphasizing the limits of conventional martial arts in this setting. He appears in the Baki and Baki: Dai Raitaisai-hen story arcs.