Kinnikuman 297

As if Suguru's path to being king wasn't hard enough with the allies he's got, it's now even harder with several notables joining Soldier's team! But without their help and his team broken down, how can he get through the semi-finals!?

Chapter 297: Scramble for the Kinniku Throne (24): The Two Great Castles’ Gong of Destiny

107.
Announcer: Somehow on Team Soldier are the figures of Brocken Jr., Buffaloman, Ashuraman and The Ninja---!!

108.
Announcer: A big Magnitude 8 shock has hit Nagoya Castle!! The true forms of Soldier’s mysterious partners are veteran Choujin that have been chosen out from both the Justice and Devil Choujin worlds!!
Phoenix: You’ve chosen Choujin from each the Justice and Devil Choujin worlds; forming such a team will be your blind spot.
Soldier: Let me introduce them once again: this is Team Soldier! Their alias is fully as the Choujin Blood-Brother Brigade!!
(TN: The Japanese name for the team is the “Choujin Ketsumeigun”; “Ketsumei” is in reference to a “blood oath” or can be used for a “blood brother”, while “gun” is a kanji used for a set of troops or an army. While I know the popular translation is the "Choujin Blood Brigade", unless I find any real proof for that being their romanized English name, I'm going with a more literal section with "Blood-Brother"...but will keep the "brigade" part due to it sort of being connected to the 'gun' kanji)
Audience 1: WE’VE WAITED FOR YOU—
Audience 2: What a courageous act, all of you!!

109.
Suguru: Br…Brocken and Buffaloman became Soldier’s subordinates.
Zebra: Ha—hahaha, weren’t the Justice Choujin supposed to be an infinite bond where if one got hurt, another would lend their shoulder; and if yet another gets hurt, a new separate one lends their shoulder----! Were they supposed to lend a shoulder to all of you that got hurt in your fights with Team Mariposa? But in reverse, these infinite bonds I’ve heard about have come to be blocked by the enemy---!!
Suguru: Hey, all of you, how much did Soldier give you---!!
Terry: Hold on, Kinnikuman.
Terry: Brocken and Buffaloman aren’t guys who would betray their allies for money.

110.
Robin: Right, Brocken and the others running to Team Soldier without joining Team Kinnikuman is because they discovered something greater than you in Soldier’s way of thinking and personality.
Caption: NAGOYA CASTLE—
Audience: You’re so cool!! You’re great--!!

111.
Brocken: The thing that bonds the five of us isn’t by friendship, anger or hatred! The Choujin Blood-Brother Brigade is bonded by a flag emblem for the formation of an ideal Choujin world, transcending Justice and Devil!!
Robin: We’ve been split into friend-and-foe, but shouldn’t we wish for their activities for their new world?
Suguru: Ye…yeah.
Terry: Save your support. Leave this to us.
Suguru: Te…Terry.
Sign: THRONE SUCCESSION SURVIVAL MATCH
Caption: CLOSED-CIRCUIT PROJECTOR THEATER—

112.
Announcer: Well, we’re finally in the Scramble for the Kinniku Throne Survival Match semi-finals! Kinnikuman, Zebra, Phoenix, Soldier: from among these four, this is to decide the Great King of Planet Kinniku, who will bare the burden of the Choujin World of tomorrow, through laughs and tears.
Caption: OSAKA CASTLE—
Mayumi: Suguru: we’ll be rooting for you too!!
Sayuri: Right, Suguru!!
Announcer: Well, the four Throne Succession Candidates are approaching each others in the rings.

113.
Suguru: Hmph!!
Announcer: They’re holding the exchange of their Member Lists.
Announcer: The gong of destiny is echoing through the skies of Nagoya and Himeji---!!
Caption: NAGOYA CASTLE—

114.
Announcer: First in Nagoya Castle
Announcer: As you notice, the Advance Guard of Team Soldier is The Ninja!!
Announcer: The Advance Guard of Team Phoenix, who will face him is
Phoenix: Go, Satan!
“Satan”: Right!!

115.
Announcer: Team Phoenix had only brought out Super Phoenix and Mammothman until now, but their third warrior has finally revealed himself---!!
“Satan”: Uoo!!
Announcer: Satan Cross is holding up The Ninja for a Body Slam---!!
(TN: The name is a weird fusion of an anagram and a pun: the Japanese way of saying “centaur” is “Kentaurosu”, and it is by the movement of a few letters here or there (and the addition of an extra ‘s’ and changing the first ‘e’ to an ‘a’ and giving it an evil aspect to go along with Phoenix’s team makes it become “Satan Cross”...well that's about as close as I'm going to get to deciphering it)
Ninja: I say that their coming to bring out their third warrior is a bit of precaution for our team.

116.
Ninja: Loyalty-and-Betrayl at Will Jutsu---!!
Announcer: The Ninja has easily switched places with him---!!
Caption: HIMEJI CASTLE—
Announcer: Here in the ring at Himeji Castle, we’re already having the match of Alexandria Meat, the Advance Guard of Team Kinnikuman, and The Manriki, the Advance Guard of Team Zebra. Somehow Meat-kun is being attacked one-sidedly!!
(TN: “Manriki” is Japanese for a “vise”, a mechanical screw apparatus usually found on a work benches to hold an object down when someone is working on it)

117.
Manriki: Guhehehe…in spite of being a kid, you’ve come to end up like this for poking your head into the world of adults.
Meat: Uge!!
Suguru: I said that I was going to be Advance Guard because Meat has yet to completely recover from the damage he took in the first round, and yet…!!
Terry: Hold on!!
Terry: Kinnikuman, you’re the team’s final trump card. With you as Throne Successor Candidate, Meat-kun volunteered to be Advance Guard so you could recover your damage from the first-round and be in perfect condition to go into the ring.
Terry: Understand Meat-kun’s feelings.

118.
Meat: ………
Meat: Gate-Closing Crash!!
Announcer: Meat-kun has escaped from Manriki’s Canadian Back Breaker with a Gate-Closing Crash!!
Manriki: Guwa!!
Announcer: In a flash, Meat-kun has spun around to Manriki’s back in the stance of a Back Drop, surely the deadly course that sent Mixer Taitei to hell---!!
Mayumi: Great, Meat---!!

119.
Announcer: The Manriki has prevented the Back Drop of Meat, who is hooked to his leg, and conversely is hurling him down with his own weight---!!
Meat: ……………..
Meat: Do…don’t worry about me, Prince…
Manriki: Guhehe…boy, now we’ll have some fun.
Suguru: Meat~~~!!
Narrator: Surely this has raised the curtain of the blood-spurting Survival Match semi-finals…And these patterns of fierce fighting were reaching even to the Choujin Graveyard far away.

120.
Caption: CHOUJIN GRAVEYARD—
Announcer: Alexandria Meat can’t do anything against The Manriki’s attack—
Oni 1: Guhihi…we’re going to get a lot of dead again with these Survival Match semi-finals.
Oni 2: If that happens, this Choujin Graveyard will be really prospering again---!!

121.
Wars: Meat, be patient a bit longer…because now I’m going to save you!!
“Shadowy Figure”: It seems you’re on a plain where you can attack the gate-watching Oni and escape, but are you really good enough to get there?
Wars: Wh…who’s that!?
Wars: Do…Doctor Bombe…!!
(TN: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Wars: I’ve heard that you were the doctor who forced himself with his serious illness to conduct a major surgery on Kinnikuman’s left arm, which was injured in the Choujin Tag Tournament and then ran out of strength and died after the surgery, but……you’re in the Choujin Graveyard too!!

122.
Bombe: Beings known as “people” are easy to mistake their thoughts when they put themselves in a situation where their put to their utmost limits. At those times, they calm down and show that they’ve put on an appearance of cool. Somewhere, they’ve surely should have found a Plan B……
Wars: Doctor, where exactly do you plan to take me?
Bombe: Look, that’s your Plan B!!
Wars: Wh…what—this is the Choujin Graveyard, which should have come to be quarantined from all light of the physical world and where not one plant grows, but why are there flowers blooming on that rock!?

123.
Bombe: It’s light. There’s only a little bit, but the rocks in this section are hit by lights that leak out from the world of the living; over the long months and years, this light that leaks from the living world have bathed this rock. Before long, sprouts spurt from the rock and flowers bloom. What is alive in this Choujin Graveyard of only corpses is just these rock.
Wars: So…truly, the corpses who are in this Choujin Graveyard become frantic in merely slipping out of here somehow, forgetting about the existence of this rock…
Wars: Doctor, make this stone of life into an artificial heart and bury it into my body. With you, it can be done!!
Bombe: Only the dead are sent thoroughly to this Choujin Graveyard. If I can revive your body, then the guardians of this dead world won’t be able to lay a hand on you.
Bombe: Hohoho, I lead you here thinking you would say as such.
Bombe: In truth, I already perfected an artificial heart from a stone of life for this occasion.

124.
Announcer: Meat has fallen into The Manriki’s vise section---!!
Meat: Uwa---!!
Suguru: Meat----!!

125.
Bombe: BEGIN THE ARTIFICIAL HEART TRANSPLANT SURGERY!!

126.
(SCRAMBLE FOR THE KINNIKU THRONE ARC)
SPECIAL VTR XIX
ALEXANDRIA MEAT VS. THE MANRIKI

TN: Please...it can't be him. Don't tell me that he had come back...he already ruined the Tag arc, we don't need him to ruin this arc with his bizarro plot-device powers! I don't want to speak about this chapter, can't we just...

(The dialogue is stop dead silent for several seconds as a "Please Stand By" card goes up and the "Intermission" music from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" plays...)

Well since I have no choice in the manner...yeah, Dr. Bombe is back and he's just as annoying and convenient and stupid as ever. As if we hadn't had enough of him and his "oh, we have to kill Buffaloman for Suguru's arm, he wants to die cause 'It's friendship'...and by the way, I'm dying too" bit in the last arc (oh and Doc: Buffaloman is alive and without his horns so...YOU FAILED! IN YOUR FACE, BABOON-MASKED LOSER!!! BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHA), let's consider the whole situation we have with him in this ludicrous chapter (I really don't want to but...)

1. As we saw earlier in this arc as stated by Warsman, only Choujin who died in the ring seem to end up in this "Choujin Graveyard". As we saw, Doctor Bombe didn't die in a fight, he actually died of natural causes after a long (pain-causing) life. Shouldn't someone who died after a long and successful (or not) life be going to some other graveyard...or is this graveyard for all dead Choujin? And what about the balls: what if someone like him who died naturally ended up with them and returned to the living world? Would Bombe still have his disease...could he just go up, still have his disease and just die again?

2. How in the world does Warsman even know of Doctor Bombe!? Considering that most of the Choujin who were involved in that nightmare scenario with that quack didn't seem to be down there at any time (Ramenman is still M.I.A., Buffaloman obviously didn't die and most of the Choujin in said scenario were alive both before and after this "surgery") and that Warsman specifically said "he saved Kinnikuman" so it wasn't like he was using his (non-existent, infamous) reputation, why does he know of it? Heck, even when Suguru was down there, we didn't see Bombe or any mention of him by Warsman! The only excuse I have left is somehow Warsman must have heard the oni talking about it while watching their magic TV that can watch all that's going on in the surface if it has to do with Choujin wrestling...that's all I can think of cause the announcer did mention "Buffaloman's sacrifice" over and over for the most part.

3. And now let's get to the most ludicrous of ludicrous in this chapter, as if putting up with Bombe alone made things bad enough! As we have been seeing for a while now, the passage to the Choujin Graveyard is a long and bizarre process. It appears that the body of a Choujin goes down there in power when they "die" through a path that is extremely long with no chance or means of any light from the world of the living. Everyone declares it a "world of corpses" and that nothing can ever live. So then...in a world that is super-dark with no known exit except one door and no means of reaching light...how does that cave with the "Life Rocks" exist? I mean if this was tied to a passageway to the surface other than the actual door to the Choujin Graveyard that we saw last time akin to the passage to the underworld by crossing the river Styx, maybe I could understand the potential of that "life light". But instead...it was just extremely random that there was a cave, completely unknown to everyone (except that quack) where lifelight comes down and rocks have seeds in them that can germinate and grow when exposed to them. Shouldn't even the oni, who control this section of the world know about the existence of the cave and, I dunno, seal it off or block the cracks? (they're too enthralled by wrestling I guess) And let's take it a step further and involve the nutcase: HOW IN THE WORLD WOULD DOCTOR BOMBE PERFECTLY GET DOWN THERE, FIND SAID ROCKS AND KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM, FORGE ONE INTO AN ARTIFICIAL HEART, THEN MANIPULATE WARSMAN, WHO WE KNOW WAS TRYING TO GET OUT (and who seemed more to have had the door fall on top of him last time as if he did actually get out) TO ASK FOR SAID HEART FOR SOME RIDICULOUS PLAN THINKING "IF THEY'RE ALIVE THEN THE ONI CAN'T TOUCH THEM"???? Why would Doctor Bombe pull this nonsense just out of his buttcrack again after all that crap he pulled with Buffaloman in conveniently being there when the plot dictated him to be!? WHY!?!?!??!?! (throws down Legocs in steamroller form randomly) WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

(The dialogue is stop dead silent for several seconds as a "Please Stand By" card goes up and the "Intermission" music from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" plays...again)

Look, I have nothing against the return of Warsman: he's a classic Choujin and a personal favorite, but this is just ridiculous to the max! And the sooner we get through this, the sooner Bombe will disappear and nothing will ever be mentioned of it ever again...I hope.

Considering I probably feel really bummed talking about anything else after my anti-Bombe rant, I guess I'll just list the rest of the chapter off rather quickly on my thoughts:
-I know the whole situation regarding the "Choujin Blood Brigade" name...I was going to personally call them the "Choujin Blood-Brother Corp", but I sort of came to a nice compromise. I don't feel right just calling them the "blood brigade" without the context of them being blood brothers.
-Is it just me or does the start of Suguru vs. Zebra not have much with it. With all the build-up of Super Phoenix and Soldier's teams respectively, I think that seeing Meat getting tossed aside by Manriki was just an afterthought aside from...yeah, no more on that.
-You probably noticed that I adjusted my Ninja attack to the one in the scanslation...it probably was better anyway.

Now if you excuse me...I have to batten down for the Frankenstein bit next time. (prepares the shackles and chains to bind him so he won't go through any more Bombe rage next time)