Kinnikuman

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The early feel of the manga has a Rocky kind of story a loser who proves himself to the world, although the later chapters did drag on alot. Not to mention plotholes mania.

Kinnikuman at it's early chapters seems like a kid's comedy but later when the tournament arc starts it's like the story got another creator, two words; Blood Baths. Although this is where the art peaks, and the story starts hitting speed,and we get some good fight scenes.

Not for everybody but a good manga if you wana see good fight scenes and colorful characters check it out.

Kinnikuman is possibly the most outrageous shonen series you'll ever come across with its wacky character designs and ludicrous battles but contains a burning inner strength of heroism whose characters can overshadow its shaky writing.

For starters, Kinnikuman is a very long series which is often compared to Dragon Ball due to multiple similarities such as tournaments and having a diverse selection of ethical characters of both heroes and villains. Much of the highlight of Kinnikuman are the characters but the series is a bit notorious for being very over-the-top which might prevent people from truly enjoying the series.

Initially, Kinnikuman was a super hero gag ... manga following the misadventures of Kinnikuman; a pathetic super hero representing Japan. Much of the beginning is centered on comedy with the occasional giant monster of the week. Not to say that it's a bad start, but certainly doesn't represent what Kinnikuman truly is. As the chapters go on, the series eventually heads into its more iconic super hero wrestling , thus Kinnikuman gets to prove himself as a worthy hero of justice. Most of these wrestling matches are centered on tournaments where our villains will occasionally battle our heroes.

What surprised me about Kinnikuman (well I'm sure it surprised everyone) that a bunch of the characters were submitted by readers of the manga and these characters would often result in very unbelievable creations such as Urinalman; a wrestler who is walking urinal. Everyone must be prepared for some very outrageous concepts for characters as the series can take itself seriously when it needs to, but often pokes fun at itself as a bunch of characters are quite humorous such as Teapackman who is killed getting his tea drank by an opposing wrestler. The list goes even with their names alone such as Ramenman, Buffaloman, Snegator, Sunshine, Planetman, Bikeman, Motor Man, Junk Man and so on and so on. The point of this little ramble is to express why someone would either hate or love the series because a good fun factor of Kinnikuman are its unbelievable characters and their bizarre fighting styles. I adore the creativity of this series for it can rival any over-the-top series today, despite its old age.

Putting the quirky character designs aside, a bunch of the main characters are honestly very cool and incredibly likeable. Heroes such as Robin Mask, Terry Man, Ramenman and such are all worthy of being the main lead of the series but the manga instead offers equal screen time to each hero. This often leads for fans to have their own personal favorite wrestler ranging from the main hero Kinnikuman to the more minor roles such as Warsman and Brocken Jr. and others. Despite using the "minor role" description, I do not mean to disrespect any of the justice chojin as each one of them have their scenes of valor, sacrifice and manly tears. You may find yourself liking almost every single character of the cast as they are that likeable.

As said earlier, Kinnikuman shares many things with Dragon Ball with one good example are the villains as they are surprisingly violent and evil. With a series with people like Urinalman its quite shocking how genuinely threatening the main villains can be as characters such as Ashuraman and Sunshine who are basically devils or better referred to as Devil Chojin/Devil Supermen. Much of the wrestling matches are filled with very gruesome violence often depicting dead characters and an odd satanic undertone. As the series heads deeper into its longer story arcs, you'll notice most of the villains may range from animals, cyborgs, and such but all serve demonic entities to the point where it's clearly addressed that Satan is their leader. The series can get grim at times with the Dream Tag arc being the best representative of its more "serious" moments. In other words, the villains are very threatening but some may be more shallow than others in terms of characterization and overall goals.

While I have praised Kinnikuman there are some very obvious problems in its writing and any Kinnikuman fan knows what I'm talking about. Again comparing it to Dragon Ball, Kinnikuman does have this habit of reviving characters which are often solved by Deus Ex Machina. Other problems are various inconsistencies in continuity which is noticeable in its final arc as multiple characters receive back story retcons during the middle of the story which leads to some very odd and puzzling experiences. The point is Kinnikuman can throw logic out the window as there are times where it views itself as a cartoon rather than a somewhat realistic setting such as people popping out of tvs. In a way this makes part of the fun that is Kinnikuman as this is the only series that can almost get away with anything ridiculous.

Getting back on character deaths, while most heroes do get revived their death scenes are still worthy of a couple of manly tears as the series strong suit are its themes mainly being friendship. This is going to sound a bit stupid but Kinnikuman heavily relies on the concept of "Friendship Power" which also encourages world peace among its multi-ethnic cast of characters. Part of the reason for this sort of mindset comes from two things being its time period of the 1980's and the collaboration of the author and artist as they have been friends since childhood and still are today.

Kinnikuman isn't perfect in writing structure but its emotional scenes really impacted me as a reader into turning me into a great fan of the series. Personally, I really appreciate is simple theme of friendship as while it does seem as laughable and silly I'm certain the authors really take this concept to heart. I feel their intention in Kinnikuman is to express world peace as people of different countries unite together to overcome their struggles. Much of the series enforces that friendship can achieve miraculous feats as the biggest proof of this is are the artist and writer Yudetamago as they've been friends since childhood and through their love of wrestling and team work have managed to keep this series running for over 30 years and it is still being published with new material. Kinnikuman even managed to have its own holiday being every Friday 29 celebrating Kinnikuman Day. Kinnikuman is a legendary battle shonen which helped paved the way for almost every battle shonen as even today series such as One Piece and Toriko do contain some Kinnikuman influence. Hopefully in the future Kinnikuman can get the respect it deserves.

Kinnikuman is my favourite manga and Suguru is my favourite protogonist off all time. Because Suguru's character development is very good and well written.

The series is awesome. Fights, story, variety of characters, the universe itself is so big and amazing. Kinnikuman started as a gag and parody (ultraman) manga. But after chapter 28 it changes. So don't dropped the manga early. Atleast read like 50 chapter and i am sure you'll like it.

And lastly every Kinnikuman lover can send me a friend request. I love to talk about kinnikuman. I hope you guys like the series just like me. :)