Kinnikuman 320

Zebra had thought that with Robin out of the way, taking down Suguru would be a breeze! But now, with Suguru's resilience and Robin ruining Parthenon in more ways than one, the truth of the Fated Prince can finally be told...

Chapter 320: Scramble for the Kinniku Throne (47): The Handshake of Friendship!

47.
Announcer: Robin Mask, who was imprisoned in one of Parthenon’s six pillars, has escaped from there.

48.
Announcer: And is waging a reversing Tower Bridge for Parthenon---!!
Parthenon: Ho…how: how could you escape from my pillars, which should be absolutely impossible to escape from?
Robin: Parthenon, the inside of your pillar was filled up with methane gas that broke out from the rotting corpses of humans and reptiles and I was severely tormented with it as well.

49.
Robin: However, at the moment it was filled with a large quantity, I thought of an escape method using this methane gas.
Robin: It was the Anoalo Staff which is stretching from my forehead.
Parthenon: The Anoalo Staff…!?
Robin: As you know, the Anoalo Staff is a magic staff that can freely manipulate flames which has been bequeathed for generations of my Robin family…if this staff could ignite the inside of the pillar that was filled with methane gas, what do you think would happen…?
Parthenon: …………
Robin: Anoalo Fire--!!

50.
Robin: Finally, you should understand how I could escape from that pillar.
Suguru: As expected to be done by the most intellectual Choujin of the Justice Choujin---!!
Robin: Parthenon, you should not have participated in this fight; you should have remained at your post: enshrining your God in Greece---!!
(TN: I know it wasn’t supposed to be personal, but considering how much Parthenon spoke of being the shrine of Athena Parthenos, I decided to make it so)
Announcer: Parthenon’s six pillars, which are his life, have all been broken by Robin Mask’s Tower Bridge---!!

51.
Zebra: Aah…
Announcer: Well, Robin Mask, who has killed off Parthenon, is slowly descending into the ring.
Zebra: Parthenon, I should have given you a great price of three billion Choujin Dollars in the contract for the defeat of Team Kinnikuman and promised the position of Cabinet Minister when I take the throne---!! And even with that, your defeat to Robin Mask is absolutely unforgivable to me!!
Parthenon: The…money…Ca…binet Minister…
Parthenon: Gyogyogyo---!!
Suguru: Ro…Robin!!

52.
Robin: Kuorya!!
Robin: Robin Special!!
Announcer: Its Robin Mask’s reviving-from-the-dead Robin Special---!!
(TN: It was hard figuring how to make “kishikaisei”, which is “recovering from a hopeless situation” or “reviving from the dead” work in this situation since it wasn’t like Parthenon was winning after Zebra yelled that…but I tried to make it work)

53.
Parthenon: Geho!!
Audience: Uwa—it’s money--!!
Zebra: No one touch that—that’s the money I gave to Parthenon--!!

54.
Robin: With…with that, my duty is over…
Suguru: Ro…Robin, hold on!!
Robin: Fufu…somehow I’ve been defeated by the gas due…due to being in the pillar a long time…
Robin: With…that, there won’t be any nuisances. Ki…Kinnikuman, from here, you will defeat Zebra by your own skill and advance our piece to…the finals of the Scramble for the Throne…
Suguru: No way—you’re saying I have to somehow defeat that monster by myself? Robin, wake up.
Ramen: What are you doing being timid, Kinnikuman! You’ve the Choujin who will become the King of Planet Kinniku. How could you not possess the strong spirit to get through things alone, regardless of your situation---!
Suguru: Th…though you’re saying that…

55.
Ramen: Leave Robin to me, you have to concentrate your full power on the fight with Zebra.
Suguru: Aah~~don’t leave me alone in here~~
Zebra: Kukuku: Kinnikuman, finally it’s just the two of us. I’ve been waiting eagerly for this moment. (Fu…)
Announcer: Well, with the defeat of Robin Mask and Parthenon, the balance of stars in the fight of Team Kinnikuman and Team Zebra is 50/50! Finally, the final conclusion has become entrusted to a match of the generals of both teams: Kinnikuman vs. Zebra!!
Zebra: Kukuku…
Announcer: Which team will truly move their piece to the finals at Osaka Castle!?
Suguru: Mumu…on top of coming to this, I can’t just run away. If I can’t take this sink-or-swim match…

56.
Suguru: I still have two or three techniques I could use on this monster!!
Announcer: Well, the one waging attack first is Kinnikuman--!!
Ramen: Is that Kinnikuman planning on going with a Kinniku Driver!!
Zebra: You have good guts to use on me that Kinniku Driver that was defeated by Mixer Taitei of Team Mariposa.
Suguru: That Kinniku Driver-Destroyer was because Mixer Taitei was collaborating with that Mister VTR…
Suguru: There aren’t any nuisances, so I can still use the Kinniku Driver!!
Announcer: There it is—the Kinniku Driver---!!

57.
Zebra: Really, with that?
Zebra: Let me show you that the Kinniku Driver is a thing of the past.
Suguru: Uwa, what are you doing!!
Announcer: Zebra is suddenly grabbing both of Kinnikuman’s legs, raising the upper half of his body---!!
Zebra: Good-Bye Kinniku Driver
Announcer: The back of Kinnikuman’s head has made a crushing blow to the iron post! The Kinniku Driver is defeated---!!

58.
Suguru: It’s…been defeated, the Kinniku Driver…
Suguru: It was perfect now…
Announcer: That’s severe bleeding: he won’t be getting up from that!!
Ramen: Kinnikuma—n!!
Zebra: Fua—hahaha: I’ve done it. With just a bit more effort, I will have defeated with my own hands the current Prince of Planet Kinniku and I can win my way into the finals of the Scramble for the Throne---!!
Zebra: …As I remember, it’s been a long and painful 24 years……

59.
Zebra: The home I was raised in was a home I hated since I was young; since it was a farm family with many poor children…as I became older, I thought the only way to escape my home was to become a great Choujin…I had to have money to become great! Thinking that way, I recklessly went to work without turning my eyes aside.
Zebra: I volunteered to take on even work that people hated.
Zebra: From there on, with just a hoe and the cooperation of Zebra Kid, I had amassed nine billion Choujin dollars many years later.
Zebra: To become a great Choujin, I had to first become a member of the Justice Choujin Association. I had heard the existence of a man who could let me have backdoor admission into the Choujin Association if I had nine billion Choujin Dollars and I had immediately gone to where he was.
“Administer”: What, you only have nine billion Choujin Dollars? You’re a billion Choujin Dollars short: you can’t have backdoor admission without ten billion Choujin Dollars since this year.
Powerful: Huh, that’s!
(TN: Remember: Kinnikuman Zebra = Powerfulman [his original identity])
“Administer”: If you don’t have the money, then go home immediately.

60.
“Administer”: Ooh, he’s of nice breeding. I think I want him as the rug for the reception room of my home.
“Administer”: How’s this: if you give me the pelt of that zebra, I’ll be fine in doing the procedures for the backdoor admission with nine billion Choujin Dollars.
Powerful: No: this Kid is my bosom buddy. I’ll never relinquish him!
“Administer”: You do want to be a great Choujin. Thus, there’s no talking to you if you can’t become a member of the Choujin Association.
Powerful: …………
Powerful: Forgive me, Kid!!

61.
Powerful: Muscle Inferno---!!
Zebra: At that moment, I lost my beloved Kid and gained a soul of iron which would betray even the people I loved and my closest friends if it were for money…
Zebra: Many years after that…I changed my name to Kinnikuman Zebra and spoke of the “power of money”; I hired the Choujin called The Manriki, Motorman, Bikeman and Parthenon with three billion Choujin Dollars each, creating the strongest army in history so I could contend in the Scramble for the Kinniku Throne Survival Match…

62.
Zebra: And now today…is the wish that hasn’t come true since I was young: now truly I will stand at the top of the Choujin World!
Suguru: I…can’t win: he killed even his beloved steed, which was his playmate since he was young so he could achieve his ambitions…he possesses a soul of iron…
Zebra: How’s this: Ramenman and Robin Mask, shouldn’t you abandon your unreliable team leader so you could become members of Team Zebra and stand in the ring of the finals? If you will, how about I give you five billion Choujin Dollars each?
Ramen: Sorry, but we can’t change to another team, since we already possess a thing from Kinnikuman that is greater than five billion Choujin Dollars!!
Robin: So do I!!

63.
Zebra: How much did you receive from Kinnikuman: ten billion? Twenty?
Ramen: It’s this!
Zebra: What—there’s nothing! Isn’t what you have merely just hands rugged with just calluses!!
Ramen: That’s right: these can’t be exchanged with how many billions or tens of billions of money.
Ramen: This is the assets of our Team Kinnikuman: The Calluses of Friendship!!
Zebra: Calluses of Friendship—
Robin: We Justice Choujin have many times shaken each other’s mutual hands.

64.
Robin: When in a contest of strength in a wrestling match; when we shake hands to give praise for a good fight; when we shake hands to save our allies…
Robin: Whenever we shake hands, we correctly ascertain the mutual hearts of a rival and heart of friendship, growing our trust as wrestlers.
Ramen: We engrave this proof of our growth on our palms and what is created are these Calluses of Friendship.
Ramen: Becoming strong and great as a Choujin has nothing to do with the power of money at all.
Suguru: Ra…Ramenman, Ro…Robin…
Zebra: Hey, how could you spit that out so simply!!

65.
Zebra: You can buy your way to the throne if you only had money---!!
Announcer: Zebra has pushingly thrown Kinnikuman out of the ring---!!
Ramen & Robin: THE HANDSHAKE OF FRIENDSHIP!!

66.
(SCRAMBLE FOR THE KINNIKU THRONE)
SPECIAL VTR XLIX (XXXIX)
(TN: Yeah, somehow I rather use the proper roman numbers instead of just obsessively throwing on more and more Xs)
ROBIN MASK VS. PARTHENON

TN: First of all, happy holidays to all those reading this. I actually have had this done since Wednesday, but the last few days have been rather chaotic and my mind sort of wasn't into it with the holiday and such. Some of what I may say could end up sounding rusty but I will try to get the intent across.

And the intent is...well, the entire chapter was just a set-up for what felt like a "Ren & Stimpy-style close-up gross-out gag". Yeah...I know what they were trying to say about the whole "money isn't everything and friendship is more important" stuff this series always does, but to display it as if it was an early rendition of a joke by John Kricfalusi in showing off a close-up of callused hands we'd never seen before was a bit...distracting. Mind you at least it did seem to obscure the fact that it was another "FRIENDSHIP POWER FOREVER!!!!!" chapter, but I guess it's just another case of trying a tad too hard to get the point across.

Meanwhile, there actually was something that I found similarly interesting yet distracting which is only going to get worse in the next chapter: the full revelation of Zebra's past. Mind you, the strange thing about it is that it really didn't feel that bad looking it over and seemed like another case of "a poor kid who just ended up on the wrong end of things, screwing him and turning him all evil". The representative of the Choujin Association that Powerfulman tried to make the deal with was by no means a legitimate person and obviously screwed with his mind making him think that money was the only means by which anything can be won over, therefore leading to the death of Zebra Kid and forcing his actions when Powerfulman finally became Zebra. One thing that I did like about the scenario is that the Choujin Association isn't perfect and has a darker, twisted side that really isn't represented as the face of this so-called organization that seems to be obsessed in putting on a good face (when not screwing with Suguru like earlier in the series) and has an obsession with being literally the only representation of Choujin fighters in the universe (as we've seen in the America arc). Powerfulman just happened to be living in the wrong part of the universe where the crooked side existed, thereby leading to how screwed up it, and ultimately he, became due to it.

Unfortunately there still are a few complaints that I do sort of have regardless: first, considering that Powerfulman was essentially trying to get into the Choujin Association through the back door, then what's the front door like!? How exactly do regular Choujin wrestlers become certified and begin to fight as such? (the series never gets into it, considering for the most part the simple entrance to joining is "you have to be a Choujin" for the most part with how some are just in without doing any special tests or anything...and Suguru had automatic entry being Planet Kinniku royalty) Secondly...and here's where it gets screwy...how the heck does Powerfulman, a Choujin from the poorer part of the universe who just so happened to be born in the same hospital as the other Fated Princes and had all these problems and troubles just becoming a certified Choujin, just randomly know one of the three most powerful techniques of the Kinniku Clan!? I mean, you could have before made the excuse that "the Evil Gods taught them these techniques" when we saw what happened with Muscle Revenger (even if for some reason Mariposa learned it incorrectly)...but as we saw in the flashback, Powerfulman knew Muscle Inferno way before he was used by the Evil Gods as a means to kill Kid! The only real explanation I sort of have is...well, maybe he just knew it and this is why he was particularly chosen by the God of Techniques...but on the other hand, I somehow also sort of think there was a major change somewhere along the line that Yude never exactly went into. Remember: Muscle Inferno just magically appeared on the Finishing Hold Fresco a few chapters back, so not even we knew it was one of the Three Specials until recently. Then again there were other weird signs that there was another plan (or they were making it up as they went along). such as the whole confusing bit where "Zebra's brutality was sealed away...even though Zebra didn't exist until Powerfulman joined with the God of Techniques"...or the mere fact that Powerfulman was with a zebra when he became Kinnikuman Zebra, yet now the zebra is dead...unless he just decided to get another zebra in memory of Kid. (yeesh, this is so confusing) It's so confusing that I think I better quit while I'm ahead.

One last thing: while at least seeing how Parthenon finally was defeated made a bit of sense (even if it was random that Robin would put the Anoalo Staff on just before being trapped in a methane pillar), I sort of had a hard time figuring out his make-up as he died. If he essentially is made of stone pillars, why the heck are they suddenly hollow inside...and filled with money? (I KNEW IT: HE WASN'T A BIG GAY TEMPLE: HE WAS A BIG GAY BANK BUILT IN NEO-CLASSICAL STYLE) I think Zebra better do a better background check on his team-mates before bribing them.