Ultimate Muscle
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Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy, known in Japan as Kinnikuman II Sei (キン肉マンII世), is a manga and anime series made by Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada under the pen name Yudetamago (ゆでたまご).
Ultimate Muscle is about Mantaro Muscle a.k.a. Kid Muscle entering every wrestling matches to win the finals, including the Chojin Crown.
The Kinnikuman II Sei was first published in the Japanese version of Playboy, and the anime was first broadcast on a Japanese channel named TV Tokyo. The anime was later broadcast in September 15, 2002 through 4 Kids Entertainment on the Fox Box (now known as 4Kids TV) and ended after two seasons. The manga is published in English by Viz Communications. The Viz manga uses the English anime names and is edited for a 16 and up audience in North America. In other words, Viz gets rid of the comical nudity by placing underwear on the characters.
Kinnikuman II Sei is the sequel to Kinnikuman, the first series made by Yudetamago. The toy line of Kinnikuman was released in North America as M.U.S.C.L.E.
Mantaro Muscle (Mantaro Kinniku in the original Japanese), also known as Kid Muscle, comes from Muscle Planet. His family history dedicates them to wrestling. Mantaro's father, Suguru Muscle (Suguru Kinniku) a.k.a. King Muscle, had entered almost every tournament to become a champion. But the Muscle Leauge's old time rivals, the dMp group were reformed and crashed landed at Mount Fuji (the dMp are a parody of wrestling faction nWo).
Later, the king ordered him to leave for the tournament and Mantaro refused to leave Muscle Planet, the entire army were sent to capture Mantaro, but it took a dirty trick to deported him to Earth. He arrived later somewhere in the Tokyo area (Kanto region) where he meet his first opponent Addversarius at a residential park. Ultimate Muscle blacked out Addversarius completedly, with no additions, but he was subtracted from the rest of the tournament.
He begins to practice tough on the constellation Hercules, his only way of entering the competition. His wackiness, muscle and strength had entered the competition. Kid Muscle had took hard steps that he hated it so much. Kid Muscle lost his fame on one match against the DMP, but increases in popularity later in other wrestling matches.
Two last matches were held in Spring break in Maui, and the final where Mantaro Muscle and Scar Face (Eskara) teamed up for the trophy.
Later, came the Chojin crown to see kid Muscle to get his hands on the trophy if he wins. The competition was really hard for him. He won some practices being almost last. When he made it to the tournaments, first he jumped his was to the pinball, despite his dislike, he was banging and hitting himself everywhere, especially in his back when the pinball prevented Kid Muscle from winning. At last, kid muscle broke a pinball and another one headed for him, but he managed to brake the last one and he finally made it to the Chojin Crown, the chief was nervous that Kid Muscle has entered the Chojin Crown tournament.
There are a total of 76 episodes of Ultimate Muscle.
The second season of Ultimate Muscle, titled Kinnikuman Second Generations ULTIMATE MUSCLE began on April 7, 2004 on TV Tokyo, but only 13 episodes were shown.
Contents |
Characters
Main Cast
- Mantaro Kinniku (キン肉万太郎 Kinniku Mantarō) / Mantaro Muscle (Kid Muscle) - Mantaro, nicknamed Kid Muscle, was named after Ultraman (Ultraman + Taro). Kid Muscle's favorite wrestling move is his father's signature move, the Butt Buster (known as the Kinniku Buster a.k.a. the Mexican Stretch Buster in the original Japanese) which he won in much of his wrestling matches until he gains his own signature move, Muscle Millennium. It powers when he gets the strength of Ultimate Muscle. Kid Muscle's favorite girlfriend is Roxanne (Rinko Nikaido in the Japanese version). Roxanne hates being kissed by Kid Muscle which lead into some troubles. His favorite food is rice and beef, along with his motto "If you rice with some cow, cow, cow, tell me how, how, how, it's my kind of favorite form of chow, chow, chow, OH WOW!, eat now." Of course, Kid would rather be lazy then actually fight.
- Alexander Meat - Suguru Muscle's old friend, who taught the man all he knew. He entered suspended animation until Mantaro came to Earth. Meat became the Muscle's trainer.
- Terry the Kid / Terry The Grand Kenyon - A native Texan, loves being a wrestler, the son of Terry Kanyon, a old friend of Suguru's. He won almost half of the tournament, before he was severely hurt. Terry survives an operation after he is defeated by Scar Face (Eskara). In Chojin Crown qualifying round, he abandons the race to save a drowning boy, but he shows up later in the tournament as Sly-Scraper's coach.
- Gazelleman / Dik-Dik Van-Dik
- Sieuchin / Wally Tusket - An Irish native
- Kevin Mask - The son of Robin Mask, he hated his lineage and became a member of the dMp. While there, he was saved Scar Face (Eskara) on the condition he would never reveal the wrestler's real name. Though he broke that vow during the villian's match with Kid Muscle. He later became a finalist in the Chojin Crown. The name Kevin Mask is a play on a major wrestling star of the nWo faction called Kevin Nash.
- Checkmate - A wrestler trained by the legendary Sunshine of the old-gerneration DMP. At first he is a sadist, but after being bested by Kid Muscle, he turns over a new leaf and became a member of the Muscle League. His attacks are modelled after chess pieces.
- Jade / Jaeger - A German wrestler. His wrestling moves and skills is "The Red Rain of Pain". He is defeated by Scar Face (Eskara) in Maui, Hawaii, and fails to enter the finals. He later partipates in the Chojin Crown.
dMp
- Blood Killer / Addversarious - Kid Muscle's first wrestler on Earth, after the villian destoryed a pot of rice & beef Mantaro's mom made for him.
- Max Man / Pumpinator - Kid Muscle's first official opponent, he was kicked and thumped several times, but the power of the ultimate muscle turned to the opposite by taking his shoes out, and making him not to enter the next tournament. He's the son of Sneakingator, a old-generation dMp.
- TelTel Boy / Dial Bolic - Dial Bolic is a talking cell phone. When he was up against Kid Muscle, rain devastated himself and his phone lines cut off from the tournament which resulted a lead to Kid Muscle's victory.
- Rex King / Tyrannoclaw - One of Sunshine's two students. He faced Terry, who he defeated with some cuts and bruises from the dinosaur claw. He tried several times with bitemarks given to Terry Kenyon, unfortunately this dino never made it to the next match after he was defeated.
- Scar Face / Eskara (anime only) / Mars - In the finals, Kid Muscle lost his help, then Jeager revived Muscle's power to defeat Scar Face, but failed. In the later Ultimate Muscle, he failed in some points but defeated Scar Face.
Poison Six-pack
- The Cyborg / Jagg-ed - A rhinocerous cyborg with spiky armour. In his tag team match against Kevin Mask, he and Kevin Mask were counted out.
Chojin Crown finalists
- Matenrou / Sly-scraper - Made from a stretchable 110-story high hotel, he can deliver deadly power bombs.
- Ricardo - A Brazilian wrestler specialized in submission moves. When he cracks up, his DMP root is revealed and turns into a merciless fighting machine.
- Hollywood Bowl - A wrestler modeled after toilet seat. After his father, Mr. P, had been defeated by King Muscle, Hollywood Bowl faced Kid Muscle in the first round. Hollywood Bowl was defeated by Kid Muscle.
- Photo-Pat - A wrestler with unknown gender. When Photo-Pat takes a snapshot, everyone in its path turns into photograph.
- D-struction - A wrestler with 3 horns on his head. The horns can be used as radar.
- Blocks - A wrestler made of toy bricks that can transform into different shapes. However, a black brick among the blicks is the weak point.
- Barrier Freeman & Chicoman- A young wrestler who cares for the eldery, Barrier Freeman has an old man on the right arm. The oldman, Chicoman, was named an wrestler in his youth who has mastered many submission moves, but he was cast out of the wrestling ring for his cheating ways and sealed in a tree. He tricked Barrier Freeman into letting him become a part of him, giving the native wrestler his fighting style. Barrier Freeman's special abilties is alter his body so Chicoman can fight.
- Comrade Turbinski - A Russian wrestler that can transform into various forms of aircraft.
Muscle League, the previous generation
The heroes from the previous Kinnakuman series.
- Suguru Kinniku (キン肉スグル Kinniku Suguru) / Suguru Muscle (King Muscle) - Kid Muscle's Father. He taught his moves to his son.
- Terryman - Terry Kenyon's father.
- Robin Mask - Kevin Mask's father.
- Buffaloman - A former old-gerneration DMP who joined the Muscle League.
- Ramenman - A wrestler from China who trained wrestlers in Hercules Factory.
- Brocken Jr. - A nazi german wrestler that had raised Jaeger.
Trivia: Ultimate Muscle was banned in france because of this guy. He was portrayed as a "Good Nazi", which was a contradiction in terms.
- Warsman - A cyborg Russian wrestler, he posed as Lord Flash to train Kevin Mask during the Chojin Crown Tournament.
Others
- Sunshine - The leader of the old-generation DMP before it disbanded. He wants to join up with the new DMP, and tries to with his two star pupils CheckMate & TyrannoClaw. After Checkmate is defeated, Sunshine retires from the wrestling business and hasn't been seen since.
- Croe / Lord Flash - First appeared in 3-legged race as Kevin Mask's partner. In Chojin Crown tournament, Lord Flash served as Kevin Mask's trainer. At the end of the tournament, Lord Flash's mask broke and revealed his true identity was Warsman, who was fulfilling a promise he made to Robin Mask long ago.
- Former Emperor Mayumi Kinniku (キン肉真弓 Kinniku Mayumi) / Former Emperor Mayumi Muscle - Suguru's father.
- Bibinba (ビビンバ) / Belinda - Wife of King Suguru Muscle
- Rinko Nikaido (二階堂凛子 Nikaidō Rinko) / Roxanne - Kid Muscle falls in love with her when he first meets her. In the anime, he falls in love with her when he first visits Earth. Roxanne's best friends are Kiki (Keiko (恵子)) and Trixie (Tamaki (たまき)).
Tournaments
External links
- FoxBox Ultimate Muscle site from 2004 (http://web.archive.org/web/20040204022300/http://www.foxbox.tv/ultimatemuscle/main.html)
- Kinnikuman: Nisei Toei homepage (http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/niku2_um/) (in Japanese)
- Kinnikuman: Nisei Toei homepage (http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/niku/) (in Japanese, 2002)ja:キン肉マンII世