Kinnikuman 341

The first stage for the Throne finals has been revealed...and it's a doozie, involving a spellboard canvas and strange defensive armor! But while Satan Cross has an early lead, will Suguru follow suit with this protective suit?

Chapter 341: Scramble for the Kinniku Throne (68): Advice for Victory!!

108.-109.
Caption: OSAKA CASTLE HALL—
Announcer: This is a Magic-Square Ring Equipping Death Match which is occurring in this interval of Kinnikuman vs. Satan Cross; starting off, the first to equip their Defend Suit is Satan Cross of Team Phoenix---!!
S. Teacher: Hehehe…
Suguru: …………
Announcer: Boards traced with the entire bodies of Kinnikuman and Satan Cross are descending from the ceiling---!!
Voice: Aah: the breast plate that Satan Cross is wearing is being equipped onto Satan Cross’ board!!
Announcer: It seems whenever Kinnikuman and Satan Cross, who are fighting in the ring, equip the Defend Suit, these two boards will come to show the number of suit parts they’re wearing and their position!!

110.
Announcer: Well as expected, there are 13 pieces of the Defend Suit that are hidden within the Magic-Square ring; will the one who perfectly equips it first be Kinnikuman, or will it be Satan Cross!?
Suguru: What is this Defend Suit~~even if I don’t rely on such things
Suguru: I will defeat a Choujin that does like you---!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman is again testing his Drop Kick, which Satan Cross had repelled by his chest plate a while ago---!!
Ramen: You’re reckless, Kinnikuman!!

111.
S. Teacher: Ha—haha, you’re throwing the same technique once again…it will be repelled again---!!
Suguru: Ge! I’m not stupid to use again…
Suguru: A technique that was once defeated!!
S. Teacher: ……………
Suguru: This is a Pretend Drop Kick!!
Announcer: How skilled! Pretending to do a Drop Kick, he switched his technique to a Flying Head Scissors!!
Robin: That won’t work, Kinnikuman: that nonsense technique will come to help Satan Cross’ equip his Defend Suit!!
S. Teacher: Kekeke…I’m thankful for this: it should present an exactly fine falling impact to open a window on the Magic-Square ring.

112.
Announcer: Satan Cross has taken advantage of the power that he was thrown by in the Flying Head Scissors by Kinnikuman presenting a shock to the L section of the Magic-Square ring---!!
Phoenix: Now it’s the L of the alphabet---!!
Announcer: Two Defend Suit parts have been equipped to Satan Cross’ shoulders--!!
Suguru: D…damn!!

113.
S. Teacher: Kinnikuman, thanks for your cooperation.
Mammoth: Kinnikuman, you can’t crawl on such stubbornness; how about if you gain the help of the Defend Suit as well? (Ke ke ke)
Suguru: My 48 Killer Techniques have demolished the bodies of Akuma Shogun and Neptuneman, who possessed toughness that isn’t inferior to this Defend Suit!!
Suguru: As long as I have these 48 Killer Techniques, I don’t need this Defend Suit!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman has seized Satan Cross’ body and is soaring into the air---!!
Robin: Ooh! That stance!!

114.
Suguru: One of the 48 Killer Techniques: the Kinniku Buster!!
Announcer: Well as is, if Kinnikuman can place Satan Cross’ body on his shoulders, he’ll complete his certain-kill Kinniku Buster---!!
S. Teacher: Kekeke, did you know, Kinnikuman: these two Defend Suit parts are things for Kinniku Buster defense.
Suguru: What!?
Suguru: Owa!!

115.
Announcer: Just before reaching completion of his stance for the Kinniku Buster, Kinnikuman’s head has been caught by manipulating hands that have appeared from both of Satan Cross’ shoulder guards, preventing it---!!
(TN: I sort of had to go between the literal and actual meanings regarding “manipulating hands”: the Japanese term is “magic hands”, but the literal term it translates into is “manipulators”; since neither really worked, I decided to fuse the two together)
Announcer: With Satan Cross curbing Kinnikuman by manipulating hands that have stretched from his shoulder guards, he’s rapidly rising by rotating his body---!!
S. Teacher: I’ve defeated the Kinniku Buster---!!
Announcer: Once again, Kinnikuman’s prided techniques have been defeated by the Defend Suit--!!

116.
Robin: That Defend Suit that Satan Cross has equipped has researched everything possible for defending Kinnikuman’s 48 Killer Techniques perfectly; no matter how many techniques he sends out, Kinnikuman has been cut off from all of them.
Geronimo: This isn’t the moment for Kinnikuman to crawl with stubbornness; if he doesn’t oppose Satan Cross by equipping the Defend Suit himself...
Meat: That matter would go in one ear and out the other for us to say it to that stubborn Prince.
Meat: But…
Geronimo: But!?
Meat: …But if that person were in this world, I’m certain he should be able to persuade Prince…If it were Soldier…Kinniku Ataru…
S. Teacher: Well, Kinnikuman, has the power of the Defend Suit sunken in?
Suguru: Ho…how so: I’ve experienced greater things in my battles many times until now.

117.
S. Teacher: You’ve let that out---!!
Suguru: Guoo!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman will suffocate to death like this!!
Neptune: That Kinnikuman: perhaps he won’t start using the Defend Suit, even if he died as is. However…like Meat said, if that Kinniku Ataru truly could persuade Kinnikuman to equip the Defend Suit…
Neptune: Of course, Kinniku Ataru disappeared from this world in the battle with Team Phoenix…
Neptune: However, what’s in my hand now is the ash of the Muscle Prophecy page that is conversely left of his existence…

118.
Neptune: Maybe this ash can help out Kinnikuman.
Announcer: Now Kinnikuman’s life is in a precarious state!!
“Ataru”: SUGURU! SUGURU!
“Ataru”: IT’S ME!!
Suguru: Big…big bro Ataru…

119.
“Ataru”: SUGURU, THERE IS A SAYING: “WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE ROMANS DO”; CERTAINLY IT MAY BE EVIL TO FIGHT WHILE WEARING PROTECTORS. BUT BY EXPERIENCING ALL METHODS OF COMPETITION AND GOING ON TO OVERCOMING THEM, YOU MAY BE ON THE ROAD TO BEING A TRUE CHOUJIN.
“Ataru”: REALIZE THIS, SUGURU!
Suguru: Bu…but, big bro…
Suguru: I’ve realized big bro: I’ll throw away my personal stubbornness. Like I’ve become No. 1 in all battles until now, I’ll become No. 1
Suguru: Even in this Defend Death Match---!!
S. Teacher: Gya!!

120.
Announcer: Kinnikuman has bent his body in the “ku” character, kicking Satan Cross’ face with his legs and escaping from his manipulating hand hell---!!
(TN: This is in reference to the hiragana for “ku”, which seems like a slightly arched line moving from right to left to a central point, then back from left to right, akin to a “less than” sign)
Robin: Oh, he’s done it!!
Suguru: So then, shall I be taking the Defend Suit as well---!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman has had such a change in his mental state; he’s actively taking up the Defend Suit of the Magic-Square ring--!!
Suguru: Alright, first I’ve got a good omen for E, the E of the alphabet!!
Robin: Kinnikuman, I don’t know how you had such a change in his mental state, but I’m happy at any rate!!
Meat: Understood: the E of the alphabet.

121.
Announcer: Well, what part of the body will Kinnikuman’s first Suit part equip to!?
Suguru: Ooh, first are hand-guards? I’ll have those---!!
Suguru: Ge!!
Announcer: The Defend Suit part that Kinnikuman released has slipped through Kinnikuman’s hands and is soaring into the sky!!
S. Teacher: Kekeke—sorry but those hand-guards are my Defend Suit part.
S. Teacher: There---!!

122.
Suguru: Guhe!!
Suguru: Guwa!!
Suguru: Wh…what exactly is going on…!?
S. Teacher: It can be deduced that within this Magic-Square ring are hidden 13 pieces each, 26 pieces total, of Defend Suits parts for each of us, me and you, but regretfully we don’t know where our own Defend Suit parts are since we don’t have a sign for them…by randomly opening a window, just like now, will come to result in releasing an opponent’s Defend Suit part…

123.
Suguru: Wh…where is it: my Defend Suit…
S. Teacher: Oh well, kekeke!
Ramen: It’s a trap: this death match was requested by our opposition from the start. Satan Cross is already aware where his own suit is!!
Ramen: Isn’t there some way? A method that can identify just the 13 places where sleeps Kinnikuman’s Defend Suit parts from within the 26 places…
Meat: There is: we’ll use a glitch.
(TN: Meat uses “urawaza”, which is Japanese for “underhanded trick” but we’ll just use “glitch” here…which will be apparent soon enough why)
Robin: What, a glitch?
Meat: A Defend Suit part that exactly flies out from the Magic-Square ring functions in that its precise computer within the controller doesn’t go out of order…however, even as this computer functions perfectly, it’s about operating the controller correctly…if we operate the controller different from until now, I’m sure we should cause an malfunction to the Magic-Square ring.
Captions: CORRECT WAY OF OPERATION / DIFFERENT WAY OF OPERATION (GLITCH)

124.-125.
Geronimo: Understood: we’ll poke at a computer’s weakness! Will that be our glitch!!
Meat: That it is: please press once the buttons other than the D-pad.
(TN: Meat actually says “juuji key”, or “cross key”, but we know it as a “directional pad” or a “D-pad” in the olden days of the NES/Famicom)
Robin: Did it work…
Meat: Now!
S. Teacher: Ge! What, it’s out of order!!
Meat: Magic-Square Lining Signal!!
Announcer: Somehow the 26 windows of the Magic-Square ring are color-coded into white and black---!!
Meat: Prince! The sections that are black of the windows are the places which are hidden your Defend Suit!!

126.
(SCRAMBLE FOR THE KINNIKU THRONE ARC)
SPECIAL VTR LVIII (XXXXXVIII)
SATAN CROSS VS. KINNIKUMAN

TN: Well, I did hint at it at the end of the last chapter...and now I can finally get into the insanity of...the Defend Suit. It almost feels like you want to go along with Suguru when you see it for the first time: it has really nothing to do with Choujin wrestling, so why use it in the first place? It's obvious that they always seem to have gimmicks and strange scenarios to make each match different and more special than others, but you just keep thinking to yourself over and over: what the heck does this mechanical armor have to do with wrestling at all? When you think at first about it, the answer is...nothing really: yeah there have been protective gear sometimes used in wrestling but this has to be one of the strangest or most absurd gimmicks this series has ever done. But I think in my head that the main reason behind why the Defend Suit is even used in the first place can be summed up in two words and only two: Saint Seiya. Yes, by this point in 1986, Seiya and the Bronze Knights were part of the Jump lineup...and while they really weren't super-massive like they would become by the time of the Gold Saint arc in the manga and the Toei-made anime (heck, last chapter, where the Defend Suit fight began, had Saint Seiya at the very, very bottom of the Jump rankings in the magazine while Kinnikuman was 2nd only to Hokuto no Ken...compared to the same time a year later when Kinnikuman was finally ending and Saint Seiya was almost always at the top or in the top 5 week after week...then again that anime started October, '86, nine months after the manga...and replacing Kinnikuman's anime) Somehow while it feels weird to say that it's a tribute/ripoff of another Jump series running in the same magazine, I just somehow have two images as to why exactly Yude would pull it right here and now.

1. It's sort of a nod to Masami Kurumada and his importance to the magazine...and probably to the Yudetamago duo. Remember, Kurumada's "Ring ni Kakero" was running at the same time Kinnikuman had started, so he was one of the more experienced mangaka in the magazine compared to these two newbies...and one of the few still in there from their starting period at the time. (well him, Akimoto and Buronson...can't really add in Miyashita or Toriyama cause both started at around the same time as Yude)
2. I think somehow Yude got the idea of using a Saint Seiya-like setup for this match considering the main story at this point in Kurumada's manga: the fight for the Gold Cloth of Sagittarius. Now as you know, Sagittarius is depicted as a centaur...and with Satan Cross (well, Samson Teacher and the parasite), it just felt natural to use it.

One more minor factor about the Defend Suits (er...Choujin Cloth...Muscle Cloth...I dunno) I did find neat: the shoulder ones seem to have the exact same arms as the pads that The Ninja set up from Ashuraman...maybe in some ways Satan Cross remembered and made an extension with setting the match up with that.

Aside from shonen tributes between one Jump mangaka and another, this chapter also has another bizarre moment in the series history that has to be brought up: the whole means by which the Defend Suit is controlled by the Choujin on the sidelines. On paper, it sounded like a nice idea: the fighters in the ring can access the Defend Suit, but first must activate a letter that must be followed up by a member of the team by pressing a button. But the usage of the Famicom controller...well, at this point it finally shows itself: it was all setup for the cliffhanger regarding the cheat code. The only reason why they had multiple buttons was so Suguru's side could screw with the system running this ridiculous Defend Suit match and force the computer to reveal where his pieces were. Yeah I get that Samson Teacher wasn't going to tell them that he knew where his were and not tell Suguru likewise the key regarding finding the Defend Suit pieces...but somehow it just feels wrong no matter how you look at it, whether it's Phoenix's team knowing what they didn't on purpose or Meat playing with the Konami code. (well maybe not the Konami code but you get the picture) I didn't mind when the "slight cheating on both sides" occurred back in the Terry/100 Ton fight since it felt justified: if Mariposa was playing with cards and hiding them for his partner to use, then Suguru was just as right to use the Face Flash to bend his scale. But this time...yeah, video game logic and Choujin wrestling don't mix.

A final note: is it just me or does Ataru do a lot for a guy who has been eliminated from history. Heck, even his ashes talk...yeah, that was insane. (the only way you can make it work in your head: think of it as Neptuneman speaking as Ataru using the ash...but Yude probably wants you to think "it's Ataru, obey me")