Kinnikuman 342

Captured in an unfair match with no possible idea how to win, Suguru's fight has become slightly easier now he knows where to get his Defend Suit! But now for the real problem: how does he get his pieces out!?

Chapter 342: Scramble for the Kinniku Throne (69): The Defend Suit’s Weakness

127.
Announcer: The 26 windows of the Magic-Square ring have been color-coded white and black due to the controller operation of Team Kinnikuman’s controller---!!

128.
Meat: Prince—the black-window sections of the Magic-Square ring are the places which are hidden your Defend Suit---!!
Suguru: What—really--!!
S. Teacher: Wh…what’s going on: we absolutely created this Magic-Square ring so Kinnikuman’s side wouldn’t know the whereabouts of his Defend Suit, and yet…
S. Teacher: Ge! Wh…what: it’s the way Kinnikuman’s camp are handling the controller! Aren’t they essentially operating it differently---!!
Phoenix: Damn—they’re using a glitch!!
Mammoth: A glitch?
Phoenix: For instance, with the currently popular FamiCom: If you use a controller without instructions, the internal computer malfunctions, making the game's character moving differently.
(TN: A little bit of history to explain: though the NES was brought to the US in 1985, the original Famicom first came out in Japan in 1983. By 1986, when this chapter was originally released, the Famicom had become a major video game force in Japan, while at the same time was starting to pick up notice in the US as the first major innovation to emerge after the big video game market crash of 1983, thus explaining why the Famicom/NES has so much respect at this point even to someone like Super Phoenix)

129.
Phoenix: Thus, even if you haven’t cleared the game stages one after another, you can suddenly go ahead four or five stages
Phoenix: By being able to warp there. This has a nickname that’s called “a cheat”.
S. Teacher: So then, with a different operation of the controller, those guys caused a malfunction in the computer inside the Magic-Square ring, raising up the hiding places of Kinnikuman’s Defend Suit—
Meat: Well, Prince, take your Defend Suit too!!
Suguru: I can do that if I knew the whereabouts of the Defend Suit. Satan Cross, you just won’t be able to make that huge face anymore.
S. Teacher: Uuh…
Suguru: So then, I’ll be taking these without reserve--!!
Suguru: First will be the M in MUSCLEMAN!!
(TN: Yeah, Suguru literally does say “Muscleman”, which…of course, is another way of calling himself “Kinnikuman” with “Kinniku” as “Muscle”…and is probably a hint to what Terry once called him)

130.
Announcer: Well, Kinnikuman, what suit part that will be equipped on your body did you obtain first----!?
Suguru: What’s wrong: why isn’t anything happening?
Suguru: I’ve per~~fectly gave a shock to a black section, and yet why isn’t a Defend Suit part coming out!!
S. Teacher: Ke—kekeke: Kinnikuman, the window of the Magic-Square ring won’t open in the way you present the shock!
S. Teacher: What opens the window of the Magic-Square ring is to crash into the window by throwing an opponent with a technique of 5 Million Power Class-Rank. Or, in reverse, by you taking a technique of an opponent; you can’t open it up if you don’t crash into it---!!
Suguru: Right: so then, I’ll open a black window by waging a technique on your body…I want to say that, but you too shouldn’t be able to be capture by my techniques so easily…

131.
Suguru: Capture me in a technique!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman suddenly has become the “big” character on the ring, requesting to be captured in a technique towards Satan Cross--!!
(TN: Yeah, it literally states the “big” character…or more literally, the “dai” character, which is the same one as “ookii” which is “big” in Japanese)
Suguru: Capture me in your prided technique and crash me into the ring! If you can KO me with the destructive power of your technique, then you win! If I don’t get KOed, I’ll open a window and take a Defend Suit part!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman has revealed a sink-or-swim bet--!!
S. Teacher: Ke—kekeke: Kinnikuman, I may have taken your bet if you weren’t the miraculous turnaround fighter, but………I know well that many number of veteran Choujin until now have taken your life-risking bet and have fallen to your miraculous reversal technique. Sorry but I won’t take your bet.

132.
Suguru: I’m begging you—don’t say such a think, capture me in a technique--!!
S. Teacher: Well, I can’t do that.
S. Teacher: Kekeke, here, over here!
Suguru: Yes--!!
Audience 1: What are you doing Kinnikuma—n! We didn’t come to watch an idol-chasing girl!!
Audience 2: Even so, is this the way of fighting of a Throne Succession Candidate--!!

133.
Audience 1: Do the match properly--!!
Audience 2: You idiot--!!
Audience 3: Don’t joke around---!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman’s passive fighting style has detonated the anger of an audience that has lost its temper---!!
Meat: --Really that Prince~~~it’s just useless doing that and yet~~~~!!
Geronimo: …No, I think that Kinnikuman’s act is being done for some aim.
Geronimo: My proof is even though he’s acting stupid
Geronimo: Just his eyes are serious…

134.
S. Teacher: Why does Kinnikuman have those eyes to me on behalf of a passive fight…
Suguru: A chance! I’ve got an opening in Satan Cross!!
Suguru: Here we go: Kinniku Driver---!!
Announcer: Well, Kinnikuman, together with Satan Cross, is falling aiming for the ring in the stance of a Kinniku Driver---!!
S. Teacher: Kinnikuman, your Kinniku Driver is a relic of the past that’s already been defeated by two Choujin: Mister VTR and Kinnikuman Zebra.

135.
S. Teacher: However in spite of even this, why is it that you’re waging a Kinniku Driver on me...I measure it’s so the technique will be defeated by me and the shock will be presented to a black window of the ring, giving you a Defend Suit part, but that won’t be done to me.
Suguru: Even if I don’t get this technique returned by you, your Defend Suit is trapped to defeat this technique.
S. Teacher: What---!?
S. Teacher: Ho…hold on, I shouldn’t defeat the Kinniku Driver---!!
Announcer: A manipulating hand from Satan Cross’ chest plate has flown out and is entwined into Kinnikuman’s trunk, hardening into a Kinniku Driver Destroyer---!!

136.
S. Teacher: H…how---!!
Announcer: The manipulating hand that stretched from the Defend Suit has reversed the stances of Kinnikuman and Satan Cross, defeating the Kinniku Driver---!!
Suguru: The Defend Suit was made only to protect the person who is wearing it from the techniques of the competition opponent. Therefore, no matter how much you don’t want to defeat the Kinniku Driver, the Defend Suit is trapped to defeat the technique reflexively to protect you.
S. Teacher: Damn it: the Defend Suit has this weakness!!
Announcer: Satan Cross has performed a Pile Driver on Kinnikuman, dropping onto the F black window of Kinnikuman’s side---!!
Meat: He’s done it—Prince has finally lit a window on the Magic-Square ring---!!

137.
Announcer: Now it’s bouncing again with the left-over force---!!
Announcer: And it’s continuing by presenting a shock on the D black window---!!
Announcer: And it’s bouncing again---!!
Suguru: One more while we’re at it---!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman has now seized Satan Cross in a Body Slam, striking the B black window---!!

138.
Meat: Ama—zing: he took three straight black windows of F, D and B--!!
Announcer: The D and F windows have opened and now, for the first time, two Defend Suit parts of the chest plate and shoulder guards have been equipped onto Kinnikuman’s body---!!
Announcer: Well, and from inside the B, the third, last one---…!?

139.
Announcer: What the—a giant square board-like thing has flown out from the B-window---!!
Suguru: What—how do I equip this board on my body!!
S. Teacher: Kekeke—the Defend Suit parts sleeping in the 26 windows in the Magic-Square ring aren’t just things to equip to your body.
Announcer: Satan Cross has opened a white window with the shock of the body slam and three bounces he took from Kinnikuman earlier, obtaining a 4th equipping item---!!
S. Teacher: Inside this ring is changing weapons, a few that could become powerful weapons by the hidden way they are used, but that can’t be handled easily by you, an idiot.
Suguru: Don’t knock me down!!
Suguru: N? What: there are characters written…What is this…The Muscle Square…should be used like origami…

140.
Suguru: What: isn’t that simple; al—right!
Suguru: What, that’s strange: it’s stiff…and unperturbed.
S. Teacher: Ke—keke: give that up; you’re slowing becoming the prey to my killer ninja techniques.
Announcer: Satan Cross has taken out an enormous sheet from within his chest plate of his Defend Suit and has fully spread it over the Magic-Square ring---!! Somehow the entire ring has become a dusky bog---!!

141.
Suguru: Is…isn’t that Ninpou: Demon World Swamp, which you took out in your showdown with Ashruaman in your first match, Satan Cross---!!
S. Teacher: Ke—keke: of course. You remember it well: Ashuraman was brought down by this technique and damaged by it, but you’re going to sink into this bottomless swamp!!
S. Teacher: The Defend Suit isn’t just for equipping your body; it has this method of usage too.
Announcer: Satan Cross is removing from his body the 4 Defend Suit parts equipped to his body and throwing them towards the ceiling---!!
Announcer: So…somehow Satan Cross’ four Defend Suit parts have combined, becoming a steel hawk---!!

142.
S. Teacher: Ninpou: Docking Suit #1: Defend Hawk!!
Announcer: Riding on the steel hawk, Satan Cross has swooped down aiming for Kinnikuman, who was dangling in a tree--!!
Robin: Look: a light from the Magic Square is being fired aiming for the Demon World Swamp!!

143.
Announcer: Two arm guards have flown out from the Demon World Swamp---!!
Announcer: And has equipped to the arms of the verge-of-falling Kinnikuman--!!
Geronimo: The Magic Square fired an impacting light that is the equivalent of 5 Million Power at a location of Kinnikuman’s Defend Suit part that had been covered beneath the sheet of the Demon World Swamp!!
Suguru: Wh…what’s this: just as I was equipping these arm guards, an unbelievably strong power swelled in my arms…
Suguru: Right, I’ve got it.
Suguru: The Magic Square can carry out it’s transformation from just a square board into a powerful weapon by these arm guards being equipped to my hands and being folded---!!

144.-145.
Announcer: Kinnikuman is folding the Magic Square, which had really been unperturbed until earlier, into the form of an airplane in a twinkle-----!!
Audience: AAH
Suguru: I’ve done it---!! Satan Cross, this will oppose your Defend Hawk.
Suguru: A Square Air Plane---!!
Announcer: The Magic Square which has been breathed life by the arm guards that have appeared from the swamp, has become a giant airplane and is now taking off with Kinnikuman riding it---!!

146.
(SCRAMBLE FOR THE KINNIKU THRONE ARC)
SPECIAL VTR LXI (XXXXXXI)
(TN: Don’t ask me why it jumped ahead from “58” to “61”)
SATAN CROSS VS. KINNIKUMAN

TN: This chapter is probably the one that has the most "extremes" that I've ever felt translating this series. And when I mean "extremes", I mean a scene that is just so good that it feels like something epic...but then is followed by a scene so bone-headed and WTF that you just wonder why they did it.

-The "good extreme" turned out to be Suguru figuring out how to get his Defend Suit pieces out by manipulating Samson Teacher and, likewise, his Defend Suit. The way that the entire scenario plays out, from fooling with the centaur duo to performing the Kinniku Driver to finally activating the three windows of his suit that he needed was just something so natural and so much like Suguru's strategy that you wish that he...or that most of these characters, would use it more. (it feels like forever in some ways since Suguru had such a strategy...but actually it's only been since the Mister VTR fight, though by this point that had been so long ago it would have felt like another lifetime...unless you include "kicking a Zebra whose obsessed with punching") These types of scenes where Suguru takes an enemy's advantage and turns it into a disadvantage are such memorable moments that you wished he used them more often...instead of bashing us over and over with Friendship Power whenever he doesn't really have strategy.

-Of course just when I felt that high from such an awesome set of pages...we get the Muscle Square scenario. The concept of the Muscle Square I'm fine with...heck I love the idea of Suguru having a folding piece of origami that he can mold into whatever weapon he wants. (though I had seen origami as weapon in all sorts of series by now, seeing a character have an actual piece he can fold and refold is just different and very cool in my head) My main problem that I can't stand...is how the Muscle Square needed the arm guards before he could use them. And that lead to probably the stupidest part of the chapter, where the Magic Square literally summons the gauntlets to be placed on Suguru's hands so he could fold it! And how could it do it? One word: magic! (well OK, maybe it was a laser zapping the exact square that has the exact force needed to open it in some weird Choujin way...BUT WHEN I SAY MAGIC, I MEAN MAGIC!) I guess in some ways you could think this is sort of a temporary boost not just for the Magic Square folding but also to give Suguru some of the strength he would have had if he still had his Burning Inner Strength...but that just felt so out of nowhere that it had to be magic, just had to be!

So when you've got one epic scene (the Kinniku Driver set-up) and one bonehead moment (the "magic" Magic Square), what we're left with it...um...equal. (unless you want me to go into more stuff about Saint Seiya...and I think I said enough last time without going into the weird fusing bird...or is that more a foreshadowing of Kurumada's Bt'x?)