Kinnikuman II-Sei Part 1: Let the Generation "Get You"!

In mid-1998, following a 5-part "Legendary Prologue" from mid-1997 to the start of 1998, the mangaka duo called Yudetamago debuted Kinnikuman II-Sei (a.k.a. "Nisei/Second Generation") in the pages of Shueisha's Weekly Playboy magazine for adults. Despite becoming a notable hit for its specific age range, other companies obviously felt that there was potential for this next generation sequel to be marketable to younger audiences, much like the original Kinnikuman had been during the late 70s & the majority of the 80s. Naturally, this resulted in the anime studio behind the prior Kinnikuman anime productions, Toei Animation, getting involved to adapt this new manga, and after a mid-2001 theatrical short to help get people ready, the Kinnikuman franchise returned to Japanese TV screens in early 2002, roughly 10 years since Kinnikuman: Kinniku-sei Oui Sodatsu-hen/Scramble for the Throne finished airing back in late 1992.

However, unlike all of the prior anime productions for this beloved franchise, this new one would get an official English release...

Debuting on January 9, 2002 on TV Tokyo at 18:00 (a.k.a. 6:00 PM), the Kinnikuman II-Sei TV anime would replace s-CRY-ed (yes, that show was actually family programming in Japan!) & run for pretty much all of 2002, ending after 51 episodes on Christmas Day that same year; it would then be replaced with Shutsugeki! Machine Robo Rescue. Unlike the original Kinnikuman though, which only ever saw localization in North America by way of the Kinkeshi collectible mini-figures under the name M.U.S.C.L.E. (& a sole NES game to tie in with that), the Kinnikuman II-Sei anime did catch the interest of English localizers, specifically those at 4Kids Entertainment, then known most for its edited dubs of Pokémon & Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters that aired in North America as Saturday morning cartoons on Kids' WB. 4Kids would quickly license Kinnikuman II-Sei & debut it on September 14, 2002 (while the original Japanese version was still airing!) as part of the launch line-up for the new FoxBox block that replaced Fox Kids, alongside Fighting Foodons, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, & a dubbed version of Ultraman Tiga. Now renamed Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy, this dub would go on to be a surprise hit for 4Kids, so much so that the company even commissioned Toei to produce another 26 episodes, bringing the total up to 77, so that the story arc that the original TV series had just barely started before ending could actually be fully adapted. We'll get to those bonus 26 episodes in a later review to finish out this 20th Anniversary retrospective, and I should point out that I will NOT be covering Ultimate Muscle in any of these reviews in any real detail, because in some ways it's kind of its own show. That said, I will reference characters' UM names when I first mention them from here on out, for clarity, & there will be a minor comparison here & there, for effect.

Instead, we'll be starting with the first 26 episodes of the original Japanese version of the Kinnikuman II-Sei TV anime, which were the only episodes that actually did see release unofficially via bootleg DVD boxsets one could find in various Chinatown districts (like the one in New York City, for me). Shockingly enough, the English subtitles for these bootlegs are actually pretty good, all things considered (though they still have tons of the usual awkward translation, as expected), and the bootleg DVDs for Kinnikuman II-Sei are the only ones left that I still own & have not used to review an anime on this blog. So are you ready to "Do the Muscle"?

A couple of decades prior, the Justice Chojin/Superhumans of the Earth brought peace to humanity by defeating all of the various Evil Chojin that continually came about. It's now the year 2002 & a giant stone fist crash lands into Mt. Fuji, and with it a new cadre of Evil Chojin are unleashed on the planet. The "Legends" return to save the day... only to be soundly defeated, due to both the ravages of time & a lack of continual training, because of peace. The Legends partially conclude that another reason why they failed is because they didn't have the most powerful of them all, Suguru Kinniku/Kinnikuman (King Muscle), at their side, as he returned home to Planet Kinnku to become King & has since gone missing. Still, Suguru has a son, Mantaro Kinniku (Kid Muscle), and he can be the vanguard of a "New Generation" of Justice Chojin that the Legends will be training at the Hercules Factory. Unfortunately, Mantaro wants nothing to do with any of this, escaping his home on Planet Kinniku in a rush, only to wind up finding himself in a space ship that autopilots itself to Earth, crash landing at the old park shack that his father once called home, coincidentally enough. In there Mantaro finds Alexandria Meat, Suguru's second from back in the day who put himself into cryogenic sleep in case evil ever returned, so that he can help aide the next generation of heroes. Despite Mantaro's best efforts to stay out of things, his natural talents are undeniable, and alongside his new friends Terry the Kid (Terry Kenyon), Gazelleman (Dik Dik Van Dik), & Seiuchin (Wally Tusket) he'll be taking on all sorts of foes, whether they come from the Evil Chojin's dMp/Demon Making Plant... or even from the second class of Hercules Factory students, after Mantaro & the others graduate.

The first 26 episodes of the Kinnikuman II-Sei anime adapt through nearly the end of Volume 6 of the manga (i.e. the entire 5-part prologue & the first 55 weekly chapters) & cover three story arcs: The Hercules Factory Arc (Episodes 1-4), where Mantaro (by capture) trains at the titular school alongside his fellow New Generation, before having to face his own father to graduate; the dMp Arc (Eps 5-17), where Mantaro & his friends take on Evil Chojin for the very first time, climaxing with a pair trained by Sunshine, one of Kinnikuman's most legendary foes; & all but the last two fights of the Generation Ex Arc (Eps 17-26), where the Top 4 of the Hercules Factory's second graduating class take on Mantaro, Terry, Seiuchin, & Gazelleman, as they've all looked to become complacent after fending off the dMp, even avoiding being a part of the monthly team training sessions. What's most interesting is that this anime is an adaptation of the original Weekly Playboy manga, which understandably results in a lot of needed alterations & censorship in order to be turned into a TV anime meant to be watched by families on prime time. Specifically, all of the female nudity & boner jokes seen in the original manga have been excised, usually replaced with either silly puns or simply more fart jokes, and the violence is toned down a ton, though the latter was also true of the original Kinnikuman anime, to some extent; Yudetamago are not shy about having characters literally torn into pieces in their manga, after all. Amusingly enough, 4Kids' Ultimate Muscle is arguably more risqué than the original Japanese anime, due to the inclusion of various innuendo & jokes that are obviously meant more for teenagers & adults, and would fly over little kids' heads.

Meanwhile, we also see some minor differences in terms of storytelling, specifically in regards to when certain characters debut. Meat, for example, didn't appear in the manga until the actual weekly serialization, a.k.a. the start of the dMp Arc. The anime, then, changes up the very beginning of the story so that Mantaro lands on Earth first & discovers Meat, which now means that Meat appears in the Hercules Factory Arc. Personally, I actually prefer this, as I find that initial short-run of the manga kind of dry & bland, and while Meat being there doesn't change much, it at least feels more "natural", if you will. The other early debut for the anime is Rinko Nikaido (Roxanne Rock), the adopted daughter of Suguru's ex-girlfriend Mari Nikaido, & her friends Keiko (Kiki) & Tamaki (Trixie), who Mantaro crushes on hard at first sight & eventually the two become close friends. In the manga, Rinko & her friends don't debut until after the Generation Ex Arc (i.e. they wouldn't even appear in these episodes if the anime was 100% manga accurate), but the anime has them debut in Episode 5 & they attend Mantaro's matches from the start; Episode 17 adapts a bit from Volume 8 to start Rinko & Mantaro's friendship earlier, too. Again, in the grand scheme of things these changes don't amount to too much, but it helps give the story a little bit more of an overall cohesiveness, as the major supporting cast are now all established early on.

But enough of the changes for both intended audience & character introductions; let's take a look at our cast. At first glance, Mantaro Kinniku is an absolutely horrid main character, as he generally has no real interest or intention to be a hero of the people, shows no shame in literally peeing himself when scared, & would prefer to simply eat his favorite food, karubi don (often localized as "beef bowls"); he even sings a catchy little song anytime he gets the chance to eat. However, a lot of this can also apply to his father from back in the day, and much like his father Mantaro has innate fighting skills in the ring, and when truly pushed is capable of miraculous comebacks, especially when he's cheered on by his friends & the crowd; it's literal "Friendship Power". Just as he was with Kinnikuman back in the day, Meat is Mantaro's second & absolute confidant, always there to give Mantaro advice during matches & help explain situations, especially when it comes to the Legends; to his own dismay, though, Meat is only so helpful when it comes to making Mantaro reliable outside of the ring. Terry the Kid is the son of Terryman, Kinnikuman's best friend & tag partner, though unlike his father, who has always been willing to be considered second best if it meant helping his friends, Terry wants nothing more than to be #1 among the New Generation, at least at first; in Japan his shorthand is simply "Kid", but since "Kid" is Mantaro's shorthand in UM, I'll just call him Terry. Seiuchin is a walrus Chojin who is rather simpleminded & polite outside of the ring (& even looks up to Mantaro; he's such an innocent child), but in the ring is much smarter & more technically minded than you think; even when faced with an obvious loss, he'll sacrifice himself if means revealing a foe's weakness for someone else. Finally, for our heroes, there's Gazelleman... who, despite being top of his Chojin class & a very proper person, is notorious for pretty much coming off as rather useless & unable to really win fights.

As for our villains, they come in two primary forms in these episodes. First there's the dMp, formed by a union of the three Evil Chojin groups from the past (the Devil Chojin, the Brutal Chojin, & the Perfect Chojin), though for the most part we only really see five members, plus one Legend. The first group we see starts with Tel Tel Boy (Dial Bolic), a cellphone Chojin whose special ability is Trauma Call, which allows him to call up his foe's greatest fears, creating an illusion where said fear has absolute domination over his foe. Then there's MAXman (Pumpinator), who can transform into a modern day athletic sneaker & is the grandson of Devil Chojin Sneagator (Shocadile), another transforming Chojin who Kinnikuman was only barely able to kill back in the day. Finally, the first group also features Kevin Mask, the rebellious son of the legendary Robin Mask who ran off from home due to his father's harsh training giving him little chance to grow up like a normal child. However, despite his bad boy exterior, Kevin still holds on to the same sense of fair play that the old generation followed (both Justice & Evil Chojin), putting him at odds with his dMp allies, who care little for those old rules. The second group from the dMp that appear afterwards, The Nightmares, are lead by Sunshine, one of Kinnikuman's greatest Devil Chojin rivals, who wants nothing more than vengeance; however, all these decades have made Sunshine as mentally crafty as he was once physically strong. The Nightmares are comprised of Rex King (Tyrannoclaw), a dinosaur Chojin who can turn his right "Jurassic Hand" into the head of a T-Rex, & Check Mate (Checkmate), a seemingly regal warrior who can transform into three Chess-themed forms: the humanoid King, the centaur-like Knight, & the impenetrable Rook. There is also one more dMp member seen, a crawfish Chojin called The Rigani (Cranky Doodle Craw Daddy), but he only appears in Episode 17, the aforementioned story regarding Rinko & Mantaro, & plays no real importance beyond that.

After that there's Generation Ex (for short "Excellent"), who Chojin Committee chairman Harabote Muscle (Vance McMadd) sends down to Japan in attempt to weed out Mantaro & his friends, due to a seeming lack of effort to continue protecting their assigned regions. They start with Dead Signal (Road Rage), a traffic sign Chojin who has the ability to control and/or hallucinate his foes into following the rules of the road his body contains the signs for. Then there's Clioneman (Hydrozoa), a humanoid version of a "sea angel" clione who has a seawater-filled body, can also turn the ice around his wrist into a sword or shield, & can even turn his body into a giant lens & use the Sun to ignite things, like the ring mat; amusingly enough, the UM name is close but no cigar. After him there's Jade (Jaeger), a German warrior who's been trained by Brocken Jr., one of the few Legends who didn't accept the offer to help train the New Generation at the Hercules Factory, due to him already training Jade. Despite being more violent in battle, like his Generation Ex compatriots, he also has enough honor in him to set him apart from his teammates, & learns as much from his upperclassmen foes as he does from Brocken Jr.. Finally there's Scarface (Eskara), the most ruthless member of Generation Ex who shows no remorse in his actions, and even takes glee in co-opting his foes nicknames after besting them. However, there also looks to be more to Scarface than meets the eye, quite literally even, as he reminds Kevin Mask of an old ally of his named "Mars"...

As you can tell, with characters like these who have all sorts of wild abilities, it's best to not expect traditional "wrestling" in this series. While there are tons of actual wrestling moves & holds utilized (arm bars, power bombs, Frankensteiners, the La Quebrada, etc.), these are more like superpowered fights that just happen to occur within a wrestling ring; there are also no referees to be seen, outside of Terry vs. Rex King, which features Mantaro as special ref. However, this is also true for the original Kinnikuman, with the main appeal being in seeing each Chojin's respective abilities, everyone's reactions to them, and the occasional wrestling move being used for spice. That being said, though, the wrestling moves are treated like legit dangerous moves, & the submission holds are (to use wrestling lingo) "sold" like death, and the idea of slowly sustaining bodily damage is even used as a major plot point during Mantaro vs. Check Mate. Another interesting aspect of Kinnikuman II-Sei, though, is in how some of the new Chojin don't care much for stuff like "fair play" in a fight or respecting your foes for their abilities & strength, as that was a heavy focus in Kinnikuman. MAXman initially doesn't want to honor the 1-hour break between fights if it involves the same Chojin, for example, while Check Mate finds flaws with Sunshine having compassion for his fallen Devil Chojin allies of old & his insistence in honoring Kinnikuman for being such a powerful opponent back in the day. This isn't solely found with the Evil Chojin, either, as Terry's initial ambition to be the best has him willing to do so at the expense of others, Scarface cares not for following the rules when fighting (since he expects Evil Chojin to not, either), & Clioneman feels that the great power that Chojin have should be used exclusively for grand scale problems & not for the general public's smaller, more personal problems.

As for the storytelling itself, there is one major aspect regarding Kinnikuman II-Sei, & this does apply to both the manga & the anime: It really hinges on how you feel about Mantaro. While there are his fellow New Generation Chojin, in particular his three main friends, all of them are shown to be rather ineffective in the long haul when it comes to combat, as it always winds up being up to Mantaro to save the day. In particular, in these first 26 episodes, the only person that is actually shown winning a fight is Terry the Kid, and I'm not even counting the final test at the Hercules Factory, where they have to beat a Legend in order to graduate & head to Japan in the first place (though Terry is visibly shown to win his fight against Buffaloman). The end result of this is that your enjoyment of the series is heavily reliant on whether or not Mantaro's various gags, puns & jokes (which includes both fart & poop humor), his penchant for peeing himself in front of his foes before battle, & his sometimes obsessive love for Rinko make you laugh. In a lot of ways, he really is like father, but at the same time there is a difference in eras (the 70s/80s & 00s/now), and while the idea of a generally hapless & scared character who nonetheless manages to prove his worth when in battle is one that works, it can be tough for some people to readily accept him as the main character, and especially when he's pretty much always pushed as the one who has to win it all, because his friends are taken out by strong foes. And this becomes even more prevalent later on, but we'll get to that next time...

Then there's the pacing, which is worth bringing up, as it does depend on the story arc. For example, the first 16 episodes of the anime, which cover the first two story arcs, do sometimes feel like things are going by a bit slowly. The fight between Mantaro & Check Mate is a perfect showcase, as it takes six chapters in the manga to fully tell (as in the actual fight itself, none of the set up), yet takes three episodes of the anime to fully adapt, whereas all the prior fights took only two. Granted, Check Mate is the final fight of the dMp Arc, so there should be some sense of a greater threat, but at the same time it does feel a little slow at points; not bad, as there's always something happening, but still slow. In comparison, though, the Generation Ex Arc goes by at a notably faster pace, with fights only taking no more than one or two episodes, at least by the stopping point of this review, but with it comes a faster, sometimes more frantic pace to things, especially the fights. The end result is that the Kinnikuman II-Sei anime has a bit of a slower-paced start to it, but luckily it does start to pick up just before it feels like a bit of a grind to get through. Considering where in the manga this 2002 TV series stops at after 51 episodes, I can already guarantee that the pacing is going to speed up a fair bit for the second half, though whether that will affect the overall storytelling will just have to wait, once again, until next time...

Interestingly enough, there is no one credited for "Series Composition" for this anime, but we do have a trio of writers for this entire 2002 run. Leading everyone with the most episodes written is Hiro Masaki (Sonic X, Shining Tears X Wind) at 20 episodes, followed by Akatsuki Yamatoya (Soul Eater, Zatch Bell) at 17, & Hiroyuki Kawasaki (Gundam X, Blade of the Immortal [2008]) at 14, and for this half they're split up with 11, 7, & 9 episodes, respectively. As mentioned before, the Kinnikuman II-Sei anime is an interesting example of an adaptation because it's taking a manga aimed explicitly at adults & turning it into something that kids can watch, while still being accurate to the manga's plot. Because of that, we have dick jokes replaced with childish puns & semi-non-sequiturs and a ton of the violence toned down to effectively nothing (there isn't even really any blood at all!), resulting in a very sanitized version of the same story as what Yudetamago told in the pages of Weekly Playboy; if you thought 4Kids might have censored all of the harsh violence for UM, you'd be kind of wrong. That being said, though, I do think that Masaki, Yamatoya, & Kawasaki still managed to adapt things very well. There are some moments where the toning down of stuff results in some oddness, like Terry pointing out the damage he took from Rex King when it just looks like scratches, but there are also some clever changes that do work, like Mantaro drawing road signs against Dead Signal using a paint bucket now, instead of with his own blood. It'll be interesting to see how they continue handling things in the second half of this initial 2002 run, as I've also been re-reading the manga lately & I've noticed some especially "adult" moments here & there. It's also worth noting that the anime features tons of cuts to the commentators for each fight, Yoshigai (Mac Metaphor) on play-by-play & Kazuo Nakano (Doc Nakano) on color, to help with stuff like explaining moments, as well as add more silly humor bits; they're both shown early on in the manga, but otherwise are only seen on ultra-rare occasion. Nakano is a "Legend" in his own right, having first debuted in the original Kinnikuman, while it's unclear if Yoshigai is the same one from the original series, or if II-Sei's announcer might just be another member of the Yoshigai family, like the son.

Our hero, Ladies & Gentlemen:
He'll literally pee inside your body!

We'll get to director Toshiaki Komura in more detail next time, but I will bring up the character designer this time around. Here we have Masaki Sato (Record of Ragnarok, Slam Dunk) returning from the 2001 anime movie, & he honestly just nails Yudetamago's style for characters extremely well for animation. In fact, one could argue that his takes on the II-Sei cast, both New Generation & Legends, might honestly be just a little bit better, but that's really going to come down to personal preference. Similar to the director, we'll get to music composer Cher Watanabe in detail next time, but we do have a couple of theme songs to get to, both of which are just excellent. The OP theme is "Hustle Muscle" by Yogoh Kohno, keyboardist for the band Make-Up (of Saint Seiya OP fame) during the 80s, and someone who very rarely sings lead, instead usually singing back up during choruses. Apparently, this Cher Watanabe composed & arranged song wasn't even intended to be the final OP & was just created as a placeholder, hence why Kohno was the singer, but wound up being so beloved by the staff that it became the actual theme song... and that is because this song kicks all sorts of ass! An absolutely stellar hard rock song about moving forward without a map, instead relying only on those who came before you showing the way & knowing that love & friendship will carry you through, "Hustle Muscle" is legitimately one of the absolute greatest OP themes in the history of anime, and fits not just Kinnikuman II-Sei but the entire Kinnikuman franchise as a whole; there's no way one can avoid getting hyped simply by listening to it. Meanwhile, the ED theme is "Ai no Muscle" by The Permanents, a fun & silly rock song all about trying your hardest to impress people, particularly a woman you like, with your well toned muscles, with the footage being all about Mantaro trying to impress Rinko (& failing constantly, to the point where she beats him up a couple of times) being a perfect fit.

As for the voice cast, it should be noted right away that the large majority of any "legacy" roles (i.e. the Legends) are NOT reprised by their respective seiyuu from the original Kinnikuman anime (80s and/or 90s), with the only ones that actually returned being Hideyuki Tanaka (Terryman), Miki Inoue (Mari Nikaido in Scramble for the Throne), Masaharu Sato (Sunshine, but not Buffaloman), & the late Daisuke Gouri (Robin Mask); in particular, Suguru Kinnku himself is now voiced by the legendary Toshio Furukawa. With that out of the way, let's move on to the main cast, which is all completely anchored by an excellent performance by Masaya Onosaka (Don Patch in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Takeshi Sendo in Hajime no Ippo) as Mantaro. Onosaka is a master of both serious & comical characters, depending on the situation & anime, which means that he's the perfect fit for Mantaro, who is mostly comical when not fighting, but completely believable when in a do-or-die situation during a tough fight; he's also not a bad singer for "Hustle Muscle", himself. Up next would be Konami Yoshida (Dorothy in Gundam 0080, Maria in Matchless Raijin-Oh) as Meat, replacing the late Minori Matsushita (who passed away earlier this year), and she does a great job as Mantaro's second, both when things are looking up & when Meat's just mentally done with all of the madness around him; just don't go expecting a parody of Mickey from Rocky, as in UM. After him would be the trio of Toshiyuki Morikawa, Yasunori Masutani, & Takumi Yamazaki as Terry the Kid, Gazelleman, & Seiuchin, respectively, who all are also good for their roles. Yamazaki, in particular, is notable in that he's a replacement for Ginzo Matsuo, who played Seiuchin in the 2001 II-Sei movie but died shortly after it debuted in theaters, and while Yamazaki initially tried to imitate Matsuo, by the end of this first half he simply transitioned into a variant of his own voice. Not just that, but Yamazaki is literally all over this anime as various background characters & supporting cast, and since he has his own iconic cadence it's impossible to not notice him in just about every episode, even if Seiuchin isn't the episode itself.

Finally, to just highlight characters who have a major focus in only these episodes, we also have the pair of Kenji Nojima & Kenji Nomura (no way to confuse those two, right?) as Jade & Scarface/Mars, respectively, and they both do really well, especially Nomura as Scarface; Nomura also replaces Masaharu Sato as Buffaloman. The rest of the cast seen in these episodes are rounded out by the likes of Kenichi Ono (Ramenman), Norio Wakamoto (Blood Killer/Adversarious, Mantaro's first foe), Sanae Takagai (Queen Binbinba/Belinda, Mantaro's mother), Shinichiro Ota (Rex King), Takuro Takasaki (Clioneman), Tetsu Inada (MAXman & Dead Signal), Tomohiro Nishimura (Tel Tel Boy), & Yasuhiko Kawazu (Brocken Jr.), among too many others to count; some will even reappear next time in other, more important, roles!

The first half of the TV anime adaptation of Kinnikuman II-Sei does admittedly have a bit of a slow start to it, but recovers well with the last 10 episodes covered here, at least in terms of pacing. It can be argued that this anime tones down the violence maybe a bit too much, especially when compared to the original series' anime adaptations, but I imagine that's due to a mix of changing standards for Japanese TV (remember, you could show bare female breasts in anime back in the 80s), as well as 4Kids actually having licensed this anime a literal whole year before it even debuted in Japan, so Toei likely toned it down even more than needed in Japan to make it somewhat easier to air abroad; even then, 4Kids still had to censor at times, because Standards & Practices can be dumb. Despite those factors, though, these first 26 episodes are overall still a lot of fun if you're down with Mantaro being the kind of lead character he is; otherwise, your enjoyment of this entire series will understandably go down. While the animation isn't anything amazing, which I'll bring up in more detail next time, the voice work & music definitely more than make up for things so far, but there's still another 25 episodes left to watch for this original 2002 run, and we'll come back to those next month on the 29th (i.e. "Niku/Meat Day") & see if things change in any major way.

Sorry, but we missed "Kinniku Day/Muscle Day", which is when the 29th is on a Friday (& celebrated specifically for Kinnikuman) this past July, & the next one won't be until September 29, 2023. I blame Mantaro, & so should you.

Anime © 2002 Yudetamago・Toei Animation