Kinnikuman 373

Though initially having difficulties due to their past problems, Suguru and Neptuneman have finally joined together in a common goal: defeating Omegaman and winning the Throne tournament! But how long can their plan last quietly!?

Chapter 373: Scramble for the Kinniku Throne (100): Footsteps of Friendship!!

27.
KINNIKUMAN FAMOUS MATCHES SERIES (3)
KINNIKUMAN VS. PRINCE KAMEHAME

X KINNIKUMAN (0M 7S – BACKFLIP) PRINCE KAMEHAME O

MATCH DATA
’80 SPACE CHOUJIN TITLE DEFENSE TRIP 1ST MATCH (NON-TITLE)
LOCATION: HAWAII MOUNTAIN AUDITORIUM
SPECTATORS: 4,900

This is the match where Kinnikuman met Prince Kamehame, his eternal wrestling teacher; among Kinnikuman’s Single Match battles which have reached 21, this is the only one he was judged a complete defeat. Afterwards, Kinnikuman studied under Prince Kamahame and instructed on the 48 Killer Techniques.

28.
Neptune: Kinnikuman, I’m joining in too for exterminating Omegaman!!

29.
Everyone: WAAA
Suguru & Neptune: GANRYUU ISLAND DROP---!!
Announcer: Somehow while facing Kinnikuman, who has locked his arms behind his back, Neptuneman has added a technique where he’s locked Omegaman’s legs from the opposite side!!

30.
Phoenix: It…can’t be: those two who were like cats and dogs, to the point of having the names of Kinnikuman Musashi and Neptuneman Kojirou have…have formed into a team!?
Phoenix: No: at this point, Omegaman will be given a K.O. defeat!!
Phoenix: In Chinese Kenpou, there is said to be an assassination fist that can pull out the ribs and hipbones from within an opponent’s body, without making one wound with just one thrust of the fist to an opponent’s body.

31.
Meat: That Phoenix: his teammate Omegaman is on the verge of K.O. now, so is he planning something by going to beneath the ring?
Phoenix: Gotai Haikotsushu!!
(TN: I treated the technique like one from Otokojuku due to the “Chinese Kenpou” bit: BTW: “Gotai Haikotsushu” = “Full-Body Bone-Expelling Hand”)
Meat: Aah!!
Phoenix: Within the ring used for Choujin wrestling, there is buried over 500 powerful springs like this that are for lightening even a bit of the damage that are gained to the body when Choujin are in a violent grapple…

32.-33.
Phoenix: Well, Omegaman: if you use a powerful spring and your body transformation function, you should be able to protect from Kinnikuman and Neptuneman’s Ganryuu Island Drop!!
Meat: Phoenix plans to protect Omegaman’s body from the shock of Prince and Neptuneman’s Ganryuu Island Drop by having him transform with the spring----!!
Omega: Thank you very much, Phoenix-sama. Metamorphoses No. 6!!
Announcer: Omegaman is a step late! He’s taken Kinnikuman and Neptuneman’s Ganryuu Island Drop before transforming---!!
Announcer: Perhaps he won’t be standing up from this!!
Neptune: Kinnikuman.
Suguru: Neptuneman.
Suguru: It…can’t be…

34.
Omega: The limits of my transformation function to me are unrivaled---! Spring Omega---!!
Announcer: Omegaman, who we thought had been knocked out by Kinnikuman and Omegaman’s Ganryuu Island Drop, has transformed the giant fingers on his back into springs and miraculously revived---!!
Omega: Fuo—fuofuo: the springs came to replace the cushion and suppressed the damage to minimum---!!
Neptune: Ununu~~~he’s a tenacious guy to the end…
Omega: Well, Neptuneman, no matter how you handle me, it’ll be the same. How about if you rightly hand over Kinnikuman to Phoenix-sama and you return to Choujin Enma?

35.
Omega: If you return right now, then Choujin Enma-sama should lighten your crime of refusing entrance to the Choujin Graveyard at this time.
Neptune: Phoenix and Choujin Enma…if you didn’t always have a giant backer, then you wouldn’t strike even with your annoying mouth, Omegaman!!
Omega: What!?
Neptune: That guy is the most hateful to we Perfect Choujin!!
Audience: AAH

36.
Suguru: It’s the same for the Justice Choujin---!!
Announcer: The Ganryuu Island Combo of Kinnikuman and Neptuneman are each lifting their left arms and fluttering in the air between with Omegaman between them!!
Announcer: The Magnetism of Friendship is flying out to Kinnikuman and Neptuneman’s right arms---!!
Mayumi: Those Suguru and Neptuneman, they’re planning to aim at a Cross Bomber once again---!!

37.
Neptune: Kinnikuman, aim for Omegaman’s head---!!
Suguru: Got it!! Cross Bomber--!!
Announcer: Well, like they’re being drawn towards each other with the Magnetism of Friendship, Kinnikuman Musashi and Neptuneman Kojirou are soaring to behead Omegaman’s head---!!
Omega: What is this Ganryuu Island Combo? The blood is rushing to your head and you can’t think of the consequences. Isn’t this merely a mish-mash---!!
Neptune: What!?
Omega: I’ll teach you the true way a smart Choujin fights---!!

38.
Neptune: ………!?
Suguru: Gege—the springs are!!
Announcer: The strong springs from Omegaman’s back have changed and somehow the high-voltage wire towers of a power plant have appeared---!!

39.
Announcer: What—the Ganryuu Island Combo have released the Cross Bomber, mistaking it with the electric wires of the high-voltage towers that have appeared from Omegaman’s shoulders---!!
Omega: Power on!!
Announcer: The Ganryuu Island Combo are getting shocked---!!

40.
Omega: Fuo—fuofuofuo: how’s that: it’s far and away more numbing than even some Friendship Power! You two will remain in that beautiful friendship form and be shocked to death while in that Cross Bomber stance!!
Sayuri: It’s…over…all of the fight until now is…due to us foolishly running amuck…
Mayumi: What’s with the timidness! Don’t give up---!!
Suguru: I’m…not timid or anything…with these consecutive death-matches to now, this…high-voltage current really is poison to…my weakened…heart…
Neptune: Fufufu: I…I’m sorry but, Kinnikuman, this bad feeling of having my arm intertwined with a fellow man and dying…
Neptune: Will be dismissed---!!
Announcer: Neptuneman has rejected double suicide with Kinnikuman and threw a kick to him with both legs----!!

41.
Suguru: Owa!!
Suguru: He…hey, I don’t want to die dirtily like you!!
Suguru: Huh…Neptuneman’s blow now unawaringly was to have me escape from Omegaman’s high-tension current!! That Neptuneman, was that purposely for saving just me!?
Neptune: Now, Omegaman: with this I can conclude this with you one-on-one!!
Announcer: Neptuneman is straining his desperate effort while bathing in high-voltage current in his whole body to bend the tower on Omegaman’s shoulders---!!
Suguru: Neptuneman, why did you choose the painful road of thorns to here!? If you could, you might as well apologize to Choujin Enma and maybe happily have gone to slept peacefully in the Choujin Graveyard!!

42.
Neptune: I…I too do…don’t really know why I’m fighting up to having these painful feelings…bu…but, thinking of the children who will support the future Choujin world, at…any cost, Kinnikuman, I want you to take the seat of Great King and make the Choujin world much more peaceful, not Phoenix…Du…due to this, we who are living to the present can’t become sacrificial stones and…ha…have to move our bodies willfully…
Suguru: Neptuneman…
Suguru: But it is so: even we doing as such, who are living in the present as representatives of Justice Choujin, it is due to our Choujin ancestors crossing over many years and assisted in protecting the Choujin world from all external enemies by becoming sacrificial stones for we of the future!!

43.
Neptune: Now it’s our turn to become sacrificial stones for the Choujin of the future---!!
Narrator: Neptuneman’s life-or-death Neptune Message, which was presented emotionally to the spectators of Osaka Castle Panorama Stadium from the beginning…
Narrator: Combined the hearts of the Justice Choujin scattered through the world into one—

44.
Caption: NARA CHOUJIN HOSPITAL—
Terry: Perfect Choujin Neptuneman is fighting for Justice Choujin over there, and yet, I’m sleeping in this place here---!!
Caption: KYOTO CHOUJIN HOSPITAL—
(TN: Um…Warsman…what’s with the return of your mask?)
Caption: OSAKA CASTLE CHOUJIN HOSPITAL—
Nurse: Ra…Ramenman-san……where did he go…
Wolf: I was planning to return from my long Hawaii tour and relax in Japan; but it seems I still must have a job to do.
Malvia: I’ll be fun for me to meet with Kinnikuman after a long time.

45.
Announcer: Neptuneman has twisted the high-voltage tower on Omegaman’s shoulders with just the power of his arms, bundling it up---!!
Neptune: Kinnikuman, I can hear it---! It’s the footsteps of friendship of the Justice Choujin scattered throughout the world!!
Neptune: They’ve truly taken the Neptune Message!!

46.
(SCRAMBLE FOR THE KINNIKU THRONE ARC)
SPECIAL VTR LXXXVIII (XXXXXXXXVIII)
KINNIKUMAN, NEPTUNEMAN VS. OMEGAMAN

TN: Alright a bit of an explanation first of all: I actually wasn't planning on doing Kinnikuman today: I was actually planning on doing a full day with Otokojuku scripts. But a bit of problems downloading where I translate forced a change of plans making me do the first two of my next five scripts today. Then again, you could say this chapter actually has a weird moment that makes it feel like an Otokojuku chapter...but not. Alright: let me get this out of the way first: both the Yudetamago duo and Akira Miyashita (the Otokojuku mangaka) both started in Jump around the same time. The week before Kinnikuman's first chapter appeared in Jump, Miyashita premiered with his first Jump series: "Shiritsu Kiwamemichi Kōkō", which actually lasted a year in Jump before a controversial joke forced it pulled with the characters and stories brought back a while later in Miyashita's next (sequel? not sure) series: "Geki! Kyoku Toraichika". So it may or may not be that Yude knew Miyashita and it may or may not be that Phoenix was referring to some of the advanced (and increasingly strange) Chinese Kenpou that the Otokojuku characters use...but it just felt so similar that I had to take note of it.

Aside from the Otokojuku similarities I felt, this chapter finally explained why Neptuneman actually decided to come back to life (aside from being done so by Perfect Choujin like himself) and cause all this grief to this Throne tournament...and boy is it dumb. You know that old cliche: "this is not something we are given by our parents; this is what was loaned to us by our children", usually used for stuff like the environmental movement? (nothing against them, this is our planet you know) So then let me ask this: wouldn't Choujin already have a good idea regarding protecting the world for the future's sake!? Isn't that the whole purpose of Choujin, as we saw in the early arcs and even as it was sort of reiterated out by Ataru with "The Three Knowledges" a while back? Yeah I get Phoenix is a jerk and really is nothing like anything a typical Choujin stands for, but why in the world do we need this re-iterated over and over? We get it: we have to protect Earth and the Choujin on it in honor of ancestor Choujin (who screwed us over with stupid prophecies that are utter bull). And for whom: but for the children Choujin and the Choujin not yet born who will protect Earth and everything around it in the future! (including ones that look like clones of famous Choujin like Pentagon...what really?)

And if you want a funnier, even stupider perspective regarding this, then think of it this way: do you know what exactly Neptuneman wants to protect by "protecting the future children Choujin?" Well I'll spell it out anyway: HE WANTS TO PROTECT THE FUTURE DEPICTED IN KINNIKUMAN NISEI! Yes, that's what I'm saying: all Neptuneman wants to bring about is a future where we get Suguru's idiot son become a complete dummy, hang around with a guy in a gazelle costume and a walrus (let alone Terry's son), fight with some cool and some stupid concepts and all around acts like an utter jerk. And lets throw in Neptuneman in the equation...or maybe...no: if you want to know what happened to Neptuneman thanks to this "future" he created, then read the Tag arc of Nisei...and watch in utter horror as you realize the nightmare he is taking part in creating while preaching this "protect the future" nonsense in the past! Yeah, I feel stupid for turning this into a Nisei rant (there are good parts...Barrierfreeman for one), but it just feels weird that Neptuneman is in 1987 saying all this...yet by 2007 is...well, the less said here the better.

Oh, and I'm not even done talking about the insanity of this chapter...we haven't gotten to the effect of the Neptune Message yet! (yeah...the Neptune Message...did Oyuki and Michiru read it, they really should have) As if Yude needed to practice designs of a ton of old Choujin they haven't done in years for the big finish, a whole squadron of them suddenly get out of beds or doing whatever just to suddenly start running (yeah...they're running...OK, I get the ones we saw in Japan but...with most of them coming from all over the world, I doubt they all would just instantly run teleporting to Osaka) just felt...weird. There were two moments in particular that really stood out: first, why the heck does Warsman suddenly have a mask again? (you know...the mask that was utterly destroyed by spinning drill tusks...and that is suddenly gone again next chapter...) And second...why hasn't anyone revoked Wolfman's Idol Choujin license yet? Alright, you can give a pass to Jessie Malvia: he only appeared in one arc before this part and he is a visitor in Japan. But the fact that Wolfman decided to go on vacation, then suddenly return just in time to receive the Neptune Message...yeah, there is something wrong here. Now don't say it's because "Wolfman is weak"...well he is but listen out: of the Idol Choujin, there had been several we had seen fight before that mostly lost (Brocken Jr.), had a losing record for a while (Robin Mask, Warsman) or even just finally had the chance to redeem themselves regardless of how they performed (Ashuraman, The Ninja) that took part in the Throne tournament, so thus taking part would essentially be a win. But Wolfman...just decided to ignore it and go on vacation the whole time!? Yeah...it's no wonder hardly anyone likes him...and if even he could have been redeemed taking on the likes of Mammothman or Big Gay Par.