Kinnikuman 384

With the power of not only his God of Intelligence but all of the Five Evil Gods, Phoenix is demonstrating the full extent of his power on Suguru! Is there any way to escape from the true, full power of a warrior empowered by gods!?

Chapter 384: Scramble for the Kinniku Throne (111): Menacing Air Battle

68.
Mayumi: Ooh! That Phoenix, if I thought he would defeat Suguru’s Muscle Spark with the elasticity of the body of Mariposa among the Four Fated Princes that have already fallen defeated…
Mayumi: No…now he’s taking Suguru into Muscle Inferno, the Finishing Hold of technique-faction Zebra and is soaring aiming for the ceiling lights---!!

69.
Meat: Surely the essences of the Four Fated Princes of Mariposa, Big Body, Zebra and Soldier that had already died off have been revived with Phoenix’s body as an intermediary!!
Phoenix: Realize—Kinnikuman, you’re not the vessel for the Great King of Planet Kinniku!!
Bibimba: Kya—
Announcer: Phoenix has struck Kinnikuman’s head into the bright lights with the Muscle Inferno---!!
Phoenix: Fufufu…it’s been a long painful path of suffering for 24 years, but I can finally change places with you……!

70.
Phoenix: As I recall…you and I had everything the same: the day we were born, the time we were born, the hospital we were born, and yet our environments had you in the radiance of light and me in dark misery…
Phoenix: I first felt the difference of environment of me and you in our childhood…yes, we both were born and a few days passed…
Phoenix: It was the day both of our mothers finally left the maternity hospital—
Voice: He—y, Shizuko--!
Phoenix: The car my father brought to me with me and mother was a worn-out rear-car that appeared to be broken down.

71.
Shizuko: Phoenixman, your papa…
Phoenix: And then at that moment with an earth-shattering engine sound and the blowing of smoke
Phoenix: An extravagant car releasing light that was just dazzling drove alongside the maternity hospital.
Phoenix’s Father: Hi

72.
Phoenix: That was the meeting car that came to meet you, Kinnikuman—
Sayuri: Papa!
Mayumi: Suguru, I’ve –prepared a nursery for you!
Mayumi: Now let’s go home quickly to play with your toys!

73.
Phoenix: I remember even now the glittering shine that just dazzled of that car being ridden in by parent and child Kinnikuman from my young mind…
Phoenix: From then, I was the only son of the family of the poor Phoenix Tarou, and while we didn’t have money, I started my life together with my kind father and mother.
Phoenix: A fraction of genius Choujin who brim with intelligence like my present self appear as early as from several months after birth—I memorized the languages of every nation of the word in two days and could soon do 12-digit mental arithmetic…I was a child prodigy to the abnormality of easily doing the studies of college students when I entered kindergarten!!
Phoenix: My prodigy resounded throughout Planet Kinniku
Caption: DAILY MUSCLE
Phoenix: And the pedagogs of Planet Kinniku proposed that my intellect should be protected by the nation—

74.
Phoenix: My poor self became enrolled without any school expenses as a scholarship student at the royal kindergarten, properly with a history of only having royalty and nobles.
Phoenix: However, at that moment I saw the radiance that was just dazzling for the second time since I was born…!
Mayumi: Here we go, Suguru: you’re going to kindergarten to study starting today!!
Suguru: Papa, I’m in kindergarten, yet I’ve already memorized the times table—
Mayumi: Ooh, that’s great.
Suguru: 2 X 1 = 3. 3 X 3 = 8. 4 X 4 = 81.
Mayumi: I get it, I get it…enough already, you’re exposing you’re an idiot to everyone.

75.
Phoenix: I had finally become a scholarship student by desperately studying with my poverty and had come to be enrolled in this kindergarten…and yet, this man Kinnikuman, in spite of being an idiot and without any hardships just being the Prince of Planet Kinniku, was in the same position as me…n…no, he was in a greater position…
Phoenix: Starting at that moment, I felt jealous of Kinniku Suguru, the prince of Planet Kinniku whose environment was different as such, even though the day we were born, the time we were born and the hospital we were born were the same…
Phoenix: It’s from here…that sprouted the rivalry that’s been called “abnormal” with you…
Suguru: Kukukuku
Phoenix: Wh…what’s so funny!
Suguru: You’re building up that you’ll win through this scramble, become king and live in a more prominent life than now on Planet Kinniku…if you can think you can participate in this Scramble for the Throne with such a great intention…

76.
Suguru: Then it’s for nothing: your reasoning is just for clearing away a jealous heart that had become sodden like a woman that has gone bad towards me that goes across 23 years…
Suguru: Actually I may have been very ordinary without any hardships as prince of Planet Kinniku until I was 5…!
Suguru: But in the middle of a trip through space held by my papa and mama in celebration of my entrance to kindergarten
Suguru: I was mistaken by a pig that had snuck into the spaceship
Suguru: And abandoned on Earth…

77.
Suguru: Suddenly I had gone from being Prince of Planet Kinniku to an Earth orphan and I started my hardships as a no-good Choujin. There was no one I knew and no one to rely on and was stuck being talked about as a “no-good Choujin”, “no-good Choujin” from the humans; I lived for 18 years continued to be ostracized…Phoenix, that pain and misery is greater than your life of poverty!!
Meat: Right—Phoenix, it wasn’t just you who lived burdened by hardships—
Audience 1: That’s right—we get why you want this high seak now, but he had troubles long ago!!
Audience 2: I’m now unemployed now, but I’m encouraged watching Kinnikuman’s matches---!!

78.
Terry: How Phoenix is making the impossible possible is not that he’s a major-power Choujin; shouldn’t it be that he’s once again resurrected the four powers of Mariposa, Big Body, Zebra and Soldier that have already died off and is carrying them!!
Ramen: I thought it was strange since a long time ago, but Phoenix really did have mighty power that’s backing him up from behind…
Wolf: OK, so then, we’ll expose their true identity by our hands--!!
“Cloak”: Suppose…I want to ask this but…can this be the road th…that goes to Osaka Castle…?
Terry: Yes: this road reaches to Osaka Castle if you walk straight ahead…
Terry: Ah, madame!!

79.
Audience: Kinnikuman! Kinnikuman! Kinnikuman! Kinnikuman! Kinnikuman! Kinnikuman!
Announcer: Well, the entire audience in the castle has become one in encouraging Kinnikuman---!!
Suguru: Phoenix, I’m tearing down your ridiculous conceit!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman has forcibly descended from the ceiling lights Phoenix had caught him in and has dropped together with him---!!

80.
Announcer: Kinnikuman is falling putting Phoenix into a Flying Body Scissors Drop---!!
Phoenix: Kukuku…you think that your own hardships and my hardships are equal things but…however you think, you’ve had a life in blessed lukewarm water!!
Phoenix: Well, just regarding hardships, I far and away know more methods to escape from crisis than you do…!
Phoenix: For example, this Flying Body Scissors Attack…

81.
Announcer: Phoenix has turned over Kinnikuman easily with a thought of grabbing his ankles!!
Phoenix: Big Body technique!!
Announcer: And in inverting, Phoenix has taken him to a Pile Driver---!!
Phoenix: Well, understand! This is the difference in hardships; the difference in hunger!
Suguru: You s**t—I won’t lose to you in hardships and hunger!!
Announcer: But Kinnikuman unweilding has raised his upper body with tough abdominal power, strattling on the top of Phoenix’s shoulders---!!

82.
Announcer: And Kinnikuman has locked Phoenix in a submission we haven’t seen---!!
Suguru: One of the Kamehame 52 Submissions: Archery Stretch!!
Phoenix: What is—that sort of technique…!
Announcer: But Phoenix has escaped from that easily as well and conversely taken Kinnikuman into a Bull-Docking Head Lock---!!

83.
Announcer: This surely is a back and forth of the heroic techniques of Kinnikuman and Phoenix in the skies of Osaka Castle Panorama Ring!! This performance of crossing swords in the sky is unfolding out!!
Mayumi: The controller of this back-and-forth technique battle really will be a wiser man who knows plenty about how to overcome from all of the difficulties that piled up with their experience of many hardships since from they were born!
Mayumi: And the one who controls this back-and-forth technique battle, perhaps, will control this Scramble for the Kinniku Throne Survival Match!!
Bibimba: So…so then, which will it be…
Suguru: Phoenix, I’m sorry but this back-and-forth technique battle will be taken……
Suguru: By Kinniku Suguru---!!

84.
Announcer: Kinnikuman has nimbly returned the Flying Bull-Dock Headlock with an Armpit-Lock---!! And he’s falling towards the canvas which he’ll near soon---!!
Bibimba: Aah: the controller of this back-and-forth battle is Suguru-sama---!!
Phoenix: There.
Phoenix: Father, mother! With this blow, I’ll say goodbye from my life in poverty--!!

85.
Announcer: An unbelievable major turnaround! Phoenix has counterattacked Kinnikuman’s Armpit-Lock with a Pendulum Back Breaker---!!
(TN: I am not sure if this is the right term but the Japanese word for the first part of the back-breaker move is “benjuramu”, which I really couldn’t find a legitimate translation and only had images of various pendants and pendulums…so I translated it as such for the moment)
Terry: Madame…
Shizuko: M…my beloved son…Phoenixman…you are not the legitimate prince of Planet Kinniku…you’re being deceived by the Five Evil Gods--!

86.
(SCRAMBLE FOR THE KINNIKU THRONE ARC)
SPECIAL VTR XCVIII (XXXXXXXXXVIII)
THE JUST BORN KINNIKUMAN AND KINNIKUMAN’S PAPA AND MAMA

TN: Alright, as I start this, what could be my final actual rant (we got three chapters left and I sort of want to use my final scripts to sort of wrap up all of my feelings regarding this Jump epic...well sort of), I sort of want to go way back to chp. 3 of the series...which I translated before the cease-and-desist regarding series chapters done by Toriyama World. Way back then, Meat (who just arrived on Earth) explained the full story regarding Suguru, stating that essentially 20 years ago (which would have made Suguru a baby then) was the incident when he was abandoned on Earth for a pig. We specifically saw Suguru as a baby with pacifier and everything, appearing as such when he was abandoned. It was a proper story, making that part of him the Superman parody that he was.

Now we skip ahead to this version...and suddenly it's all changed. Yes, Suguru "looked like a baby" when he went on vacation around Earth, yes he was still left behind when confused by Mayumi as a pig. But...everything else has changed. The "baby" according to this version is now around 4-5 years old (and yet he still looks like a baby), the "vacation" was now specifically "in celebration of Suguru entering kindergarten" (even though we know it was Mayumi and Sayuri just going on vacation in the original) and the change in age makes it feel less like the "Superman parody" it was supposed to be then! And why was it all done, you may ask? Simple: to accommodate the second encounter between Phoenixman and Suguru, nothing more, nothing less. It is weird though: I like the scene due to how stupid Suguru was then (the times-tables joke was brilliant, maybe he and Tazawa from Otokojuku should exchange notes)...but that one joke was entirely based on a retcon to past-establsihed story just so Suguru and Phoenix could have one encounter that would screw with Phoenix for the rest of his life leading to...this monstrosity. I really should just accept the facts now: that Kinnikuman is forever an American-style comic and that retcons that readjust the past for an author to tell their own tale is an established trademark of an American book. But the fact remains: this is a Japanese manga, the authors are still Yudetamago and they just ruined/changed the history of their own lead character just to establish a rivalry at this late stage in the game. And all that just...feels so dirty.

And meanwhile...while we're still on the subject of Phoenixman's story, I do sort of have to say this once again: somehow the Kinniku Clan and the Kinniku people really need to figure out how to prevent things like this from happening even if it reduces conflict. Though it is really ridiculous how much of a child-genius Phoenixman was considering his background (they don't even say what "world languages" he mastered considering how we probably assume Planet Kinniku has one language for all it's citizens based on how little we know about their own evolution outside the capital), somehow the way that they could have prevented him from going off the deep end was simple enough: give him a scholarship...but to a high school or college, not the royal kindergarten. First of all, if Phoenix is so smart that he can do college-level stuff by kindergarten, he wouldn't need to go to a kindergarten, regardless of how it is for the high-classes of the planet such as royals, nobles and Suguru. Secondly is the most obvious: while Phoenix probably could have faced contempt by the locals who thought that he was just a pipsqueak or squirt who got in due to his brains due to his youth (like he's Doogie Howser, Choujin Wrestler...which means by now he'd have a blog like he's a musical supervillain...well OK, he got the villain part right by now), there is one advantage of starting at a way higher school level: no exposure to Suguru. Without any exposure to the royals at that point, Phoenixman would probably have ended up with the skills to support his family, get out of poverty and...not be influenced by an Evil God along the way to try and take the throne. Once again this really seems to highlight the disadvantages of the Kinniku system, considering that Phoenixman, like George and Powerfulman, are just kids who fell through the cracks, ended up in an environment that screwed them, and thus became manipulated by Evil Gods that screwed them even further. (it's strange: Strongman is probably the most normal and happy of them all, he was just chosen because "he was there at that moment of birth"...and Soldierman...well he was shot at all the time being a soldier) This really highlights what really needs to change in order to secure peace and prosperity for the planet and prevent this from happening again. (well that and...remember when Suguru was left on Earth instead of just making it up as you go along for plot purposes)

BTW: somehow the scene where the audience keeps going on about how Suguru inspired them reminds me a bit of some stuff that happens in Nisei about how the Choujin wrestlers spend their time when they're not fighting...yeah it's weird to be thinking of something like Seiuchin/Clioneman about now but it just happened with how it built up...and the random Kinnikuman cheering was more like Mantaro than Suguru.