KINNIKUMAN


Kinnikuman logo nicked from this Japanese Kinnikuman site!



Kinnikuman himself!


Great News! - Kinnikuman comic translated into English, download it from Toriyamaworld, wow!

...Kinnikuman old news to you?
Then here's some stuff about the new
Kinnikuman Second Generations manga!...

Who is dis Kinnikuman bloke then??

For many years it was a complete mystery to me (and no doubt most other fans) who on earth was responsible for M.U.S.C.L.E, and where they came from. Unlike many toys they had no assocciated cartoon, no names, no clue as to their origin or purpose. Now I am enlightened to the fact that the creatures we called M.U.S.C.L.E. were in fact characters from a Japanese manga and anime series entitled "Kinnikuman". The main character, Kinnikuman, was the figure named Muscleman on the M.U.S.C.L.E packaging. The comics were the work of Manga artist duo YudeTamago (Japanese for 'Boiled Egg'!). There's no official English translation of any of the Kinnikuman Manga, but you can now download fan-translations from Toriyamaworld. The TV series has been shown on French TV at some stage, and is due to hit English-speaking screens soon, see news below! I'm vaguely trying (not trying very hard at the moment) to get hold of Kinnikuman stuff and find out more about it, but not much has been forthcoming. No-one seems to be know a lot about it, even in Anime fan circles, but presented here is some stuff I have discovered.

M.U.S.C.L.E. are only one of many types of different toys of Kinnikuman, there are also action figures and a whole range of other stuff. In Japan they were known an 'Kinkeshi', a word which has been enthusiastically exclaimed by several Japanese friends upon first witnessing my collection! Bandai seem to have made similar M.U.S.C.L.E. sized figures of many anime: there are for instance similar figures of characters from Dragonball Z (of which I have a couple of recent ones) and Fist of the North Star (I'd love some of these! Fist is soooo entertainingly terrible!).

Until recently (see below!), no new Kinnikuman anime or manga has been produced for some time. So, if you are after copies, they will probably be second hand. I recently found a small volume of the manga (pics here) in a nice Japanese bookshop in Collindale, London, near the wonderous 'Oriental City' mall!
Second hand Kinnikuman comics can be mail ordered from Big Fish J-shop, from whom I nicked the above picture of a cover. Hank Liao in the USA can get you some too; email him for info.

Various Kinnikuman Bits I've gathered:

Random Kinnikuman News and Info, most recent toppermost:

Kinnikuman comic translations avaliable online!

Many issues of the Kinnikuman comic have been translated into English for you to download for free! Go to Toriyamaworld now + take a look. There's also various other manga translations too, great site. Thanks to the fine people of Toriyamaworld we can finally find out what M.U.S.C.L.E. are really all about!
(Remember to read the panels from right to left.)

KINNIKUMAN TO APPEAR ON WESTERN TV in 2002!

Full story on this great news here!

More news about the new Kinnikuman series 'Kinnikuman 2nd generation':

Thanks to Taka Kurosaka, who has been most helpful, and sent me some of the new Manga!!

This is what I found out over the weekend about the new 'Kinnikuman 2nd Generation' series. From what I was told, it's Kinnikuman's son in the new series with new friends and old characters like Niku. Anyway, beside the comic in the Japanese men's magazine, Kinnikuman 2nd Generation comicbook itself has already come out. They are on #5 already. The manga of it should be coming out sometime later, don't know exactly when. I'm sure toys of it would be coming out also. That's something I would like to see. From the looks of it, it is the old creators that are doing the new series(YudeTamago).

....plus, a little bit of original series character info:

Terry Man was based on the real Pro Wrestler, Terry Funk. The similarities are there when Funk was in his early years of wrestling when he had blond hair.

If you are interested in a little 'bio' on Jr. and his father....
Brokkenman was killed by Ramenman in the ring. Brokken Jr., seeing this made him want revenge. For a year Jr. trained hard. Went undefeated for that year until finally he had his chance at Ramenman. Jr. entered the 2nd Chojin Olympic tournament(The first one was where Brokkenman was killed). Hoping to get the chance to face him. He had his wish in the second round. Unfortunately he lost to Ramenman in what was a cement-ring death match. In the match itself, both men took a beating from one another. But it was Ramenman that, of course, won, to move on in the tournament. Ramenman told Jr. after the match, to forget about his father and train for himself, and he would become a much better wrestler. After that, Ramenman collapsed and was taken to the hospital with Jr., and put in the same room. Since Ramenman still had to fight another match, he kept training and not resting. That is where Brokken Jr. became concerned and ended up helping Ramenman for his next match in the tournament against Wars Man. Finishing Moves: The Claw, Karate Chop.

New series of Kinnikuman Manga!!

I recently recieved this exciting piece of news!

Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 01:56:53 EDT
From:UltramanA@aol.com
To: t.r.drage@newport.ac.uk
Subject: KinnikuMan : Second Generation

Hi,

I had been to your page a while back , and thought it to be the best of the M.U.S.C.L.E. / KinNikuMan sites . I have some info that may interest you .

In Japan KinnikuMan is back ! There is now a weekly ongoing manga series titled " KinnikuMan : Second Generation " . It is cool , some characters are very memorable ( KinNikuMan , Niku and Terryman ) and then there's a bunch of new fighters .

Each installment is 12 to 22 pages in length and in B&W .

Now the sad news in all of this..the manga is featured in a mens magazine ( meaning a magazine featuring news , comics and umm...nude woman ) . The reason this is sad is cause it may not get the same exposure that it would in a kids book , and it may not lead to the toys being made again in Japan , but one can never tell .

I'm not sure when it started exactly , I don't buy the book much ( but I'll pick it up every week now for sure ) .

Hope this is somewhat exciting for you ,

Dave Barry

New! News of some of the real names of various M.U.S.C.L.E, courtesy of Doug Cranston.

First of all, Kinnikuman means something along the lines of "Muscleman" or "The Golden Muscle Man." Secondly, here are some TRUE names of characters.

Robin Mask--The knight with the helmet and the breastplate with a coat of arms that is shaped like an open book.

Ramenman--He's the guy with the pill-shaped head, squinty eyes, and pony tail. He looks like a chinese guy stereotype. BTW, Ramenman starred in his own manga before (I think) he entered Kinnikuman. He's a super martial artist along the lines of Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star (lots of special attacks).

Niku--little kid with big head. Looks like an SD version of Kinnikuman. Not sure, but I think he's his little brother.

Terryman--guy that looks like a blond surfer guy with droopy eyes.

Here is some other Kinnikuman info someone emailed me:

Kinnikuman

manga of Udetamago in Shonen Jump.
It began as a gag comic.
Figure of Kinnikuman is a parody of Ultraman.
Kinnikuman likes gyuudon (rice avec beef(gyuuniku) cooked like a sukiyaki) and is able to be fort with garlic(ninniku).
The name of his servant is Mi-to(meat)
Kinnikuman's name is SUGURU, after Egawa Suguru who was a very popular baseball player.

Anime of Kinnikuman (by Touei Animation)
first series 1983-1986 (137 episodes)
seconde series 1991-92 (I don't know how many episode there are, I think 39 or 42 or 46)

there are 7 film (by Touei)

In France, Kinnikuman is one of the big causes of japanimation passing, and is forbidden to diffuse.
That is because of Brokken Jr.
This character appeared as a heel or heal (uuuu, I can't remember English terms) inspired from NAZI. First Brokken was killed by LamenMan when he fought in the Chojin(superman) Olimpic. And his son (Brokken Jr) took part in the next Olimpic to kill LamenMan.

In the story of kinnikuman, all the heals changes their positions(their mind) and become heros who help Kinnikuman at the next combat.

A heel inspired from NAZI changed into a Hero, and acts as a hero. The problem is here.

M.A.

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