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. :)

If Dragon Ball, Fist of the Northstar and Saint Seiya are considered the Grandfather of Fighting Shonen, Kinnikuman can be considered the Grandgrandfather of those as not only did it come before them but also set up a lot of standards needed for a good action packed show. In fact, it inspired many popular shonen such as One Piece.

Kinnikuman at first started off as a gag manga parodying Ultraman at the time, but over the course of the series, the Ultraman elements will be dropped such as the techniques that are parody versions of the main characters, the ability to turn into a giant and ... even the Kaijus stopping appearing. In exchange it becomes a wrestling based fighting shonen where Chojin (basically Supermen) fight each other for glory or for the sake of the universe.
There are a huge selection of Chojin types each with their own believe system like the Justice Chojin fighting for the safety of those without powers and the Devil Chojin to rule over everybody and aren't afraid to fight dirty.
Like in One Piece, there is a huge variety of characters actually send by fan who read Shonen Jump at the time. Some of the designs get merged into a more fitting character but the authors (it is worked by the duo Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada, known as Yudetamago) do credit the kids or adults who send them the designs. Some of these characters become protagonists or even major antagonists for example Robin Mask one of the fan favorites.

What makes it so great is that the character designs are not just for show but actually affect the fighting style of each Chojin. Each using their bodyshape and size to full effect coming with unique strength and weakness. An example is Prisman, a Chojin made out of glass, who uses his sharp edges to cut. His opponents can hurt themselves when they attack him with karate chops. And he can absorb sunlight releasing a dangerous beam of light.
Another example would be Planetman who is made out of all the planets in our Solar System and has the ring of Saturn as a sauzer to cut things or freeze opponents with his legs which are representing the planets furthest away from the sun.

Kinnikuman is also one of few shonen that grew up with its audience as after the main run concluded, but its sequel Kinnikuman Nisei and its 2011 continuation were released on a mature oriented magazine where they aren't restricted from showing things inappropriate for a younger audience.

There is also the theme of friendship in the show with the use of friendship power which is usually associated with "random power out of nowhere" or "deus ex machina", basically bullshit powers. However, Kinnikuman is one of few shows that uses friendship power appropriately as it has conditions, weaknesses and can be even harvest by the enemy.

The 2011 continuation of Kinnikuman also came with improvements addressing many issues of the original run as well. Examples as such improving the art quality, showing a few of the improvements and changes that will appear in the sequel, adding advancements made by Shonen that came after like visually highlighting a power up called the Burning Inner Strength, giving more screentime to characters that didn't get to do a lot as well as getting even more out of the designs of older characters and expanding more on the lore of the world such as the good gods who only appeared as faces instead as characters unlike the evil gods.
Meaning unlike many other shonen who continued longer than needed, Kinnikuman's 2011 continuation doesn't devalue what came before it nor does it feel like a cashgrab as one can see the love and care previously put on the series in it.

As for the characters, Kinnikuman also known as Prince Suguru Kinniku is one of few corruptible main characters. He doesn't have an evil demon or anything but he is a selfish adult. At first he appears to be very unbearable and unreliable, but from time to time he shows some signs of humanity in them needed for a shonen protagonist you look up to. Over the course of the series, while he is scared and doesn't want to participate in certain events like fighting major villains, he makes up his mind and fights for those he loves developing courage and discovering the hidden power Burning Inner Strength. He would cast his old techniques for ones taught by the former Hawaian Champion Prince Kameha and eventually developing his own ones. Over time gaining the respect of all the people who hated him which is... pretty much every living soul but his parents.

Meat is Kinnikuman's side kick or rather servant. He will be his closest friend. While not the most powerful fighter and rarely even participates in combat, he is often involved in some shape or form in Kinnikuman's business.

Terryman is a chojin from America Texas who thanks to Kinnikuman changed his world of view and saw the greater things in live over the things he felt he needs to do. Often he is the person Suguru can rely on the most.

Robin Mask was the Chojin Champion of the start of the story and one of the most respected character and a real rolemodel. Over the course of the series he would go through major character arcs and is one of the most well developed ones in the show.

There are many other characters but listing them all and explaining something about them would take forever.

A criticism can be seen as the shift from parody to a completely different product. So if you don't like both of those and the shift isn't something you like, it can be a turn off. But the tonal shift happens gradually enough to feel natural.
Another thing is that this manga is victim of some changes in the way things are viewed now. What used to be for kids back in the day is even intolerable for some adults as there are some very random insanely brutal scenes or a character based on the history of something said country doesn't want to be reminded off.
Continuing Kinnikuman despite having a concluded sequel can be off putting for some people who know that the characters say saw around a decade ago in the latest story are fine. But 2011 continuation fills a few plotholes and creates a set up to better transition to the new generation.
Death can appear as meaningless since like in Dragon Ball characters can come back to life. 2011 version fixes that issue too by expanding on the story of the Chojin Graveyard and its mechanics as well as a way to remove it. Meaning after that and in the new Generation continuation, death will be permanent. But even before that, there were very strict conditions that made it impossible for any character to come back at any point. It wasn't as easy as in more modern shonen.
And the character designs especially the main character can be off putting.
The manga is also ongoing meaning the show may not end great like the original run which ended during the Scramble for the Throne arc.

In conclusion, Kinnikuman is a great shonen and a must read for Shonen fans especially who love wrestling.

Kinnikuman manga review: Kinnikuman is the most outrageous shonen series I ever seen , it’s so over the top , and it’s still going to this day , the series is the early example of a gag manga turn action manga series , the plot makes no sense , there retcons all over the place , but the series is so manly you don’t care at all , this series may have flaws , but it’s sillyness what makes it work so very well , the series is still going strong , it’s wild we will be getting a anime next year ... , the many characters are so wacky , it’s crazy this was before One Piece was a thing , that my review of Kinnikuman , the art is bad at first but it’s better over the many chapters, the characters are what makes this series so damn good