Kinnikuman 386

After a long journey and their last-minute addition of Phoenix's mother, the Justice Choujin Corp has finally arrived at Osaka Castle to stop the Evil Gods and help Suguru win the tournament...but will it be too little too late!?

Chapter 386: Scramble for the Kinniku Throne (113): Resurrect It! Burning Inner Strength

107.
Announcer: Four fireballs are flying out from Phoenix’s body, thrusting towards this mysterious madam who has suddenly appeared---!!
Terry: We can’t let this madam die, even if for Kinnikuman’s Throne succession!!
Wolf: We’ll help her even in exchanged of our lives!!

108.
(Title page…it’s been a long road, hasn’t it?)

109.
Suguru: Te…Terryman, Ramenman, Wolfman…Jessie Malvia……!
Wolf: Uooo—we must protect this madam!!
Techniques: Intrusion by Idol Choujin is unforgivable!!
(TN: Yeah, even though they look like the Fated Princes, it’s essentially the gods now so I just will refer to them by their “God name”)
Announcer: Somehow the four fireballs have transformed into the four Fated Princes who were defeated---!!

110.
Wolf: Uo, we’ll never hand you this ma—dam!!
Wolf: Igaeri Throw, dosuko—i!!
(TN: Wolfman’s technique is rather difficult to translate into English: “Igaeri” has a literal translation of “To exist and return”, with “Nage” easily translating to “throw”; so I kept the first word in Japanese and the second in English)
Ramen: Flying Leg Lariat!!
Terry: Bull Docking Head Lock---!!

111.
Announcer: The Idol Choujin has shown a rendezvous with wonderful special techniques to the Fated Princes---!!
Ramen: All of you loaning your power to Phoenix is unforgivable to the Idol Choujin and to the Justice Choujin Corp that exceeds 100!
Terry: This final of the Scramble for the Throne to determine the Great King of Planet Kinniku must be severely impartial!
Meat: Aah…

112.-113.
Meat: A…amazing! Aside from Terryman and Ramenman, Choujin from throughout the universe that unfolded in famous matches with Prince in the Choujin Olympics, the Big Fight, the America campaign and the Choujin Tag Tournament in the past have gathered in Osaka Castle---!!
Suguru: Oh…ooh…I…don’t believe this: I thought I wouldn’t see them again with being massacred…in Phoenix’s Cow-Cleaving Sentence…meeting once again with my comrades-in-arms…
Pentagon: Don’t give up, Kinnikuman!
Special: If you can become champion of the Survival Match, you’ll take the seat of the Throne and won’t be fighting in the Choujin Olympics once again………!!
Suguru: E…everyone…!

114.
Terry: Ooh, the 4 Fated Princes are returning to their original forms!!
Terry: It’s the Evil Choujin Gods, whose substance is finally being shown……!!
Terry: See, Kinnikuman: these are the ringleaders who planned this blood-stenched Scramble for the Throne Survival Match!!
Suguru: It…can’t be
Mayumi: Ooh, those are…
Mayumi: Those are the Evil Choujin Gods who opposed Suguru’s Great King succession among the 105 Choujin Gods during the Planet Kinniku Great King Coronation.

115.
Suguru: This…can’t be… gods who are at the position of watching Choujin from the heavens and admonish the bad behaviors of we Choujin have…planned this…blood-stenched battle……
Evil God: Th…there are Gods of Justice among the Gods, but there are Evil Gods like us as well.
Evil God: There was a threat to us…Kinnikuman, you havee a 950,000 Choujin Strength at most, but you’ve increased your basic 950,000 Power steadily through defeating opponents mightier than yourself like Warsman, Buffaloman, Akuma Shogun and Neptuneman, enlarging it to 70 Million Power in the end…
Evil God: Since the power of we Gods is about 100 Million Power, it was a matter of time for the power of we gods to be surpassed by Kinnikuman…an ordinary Choujin surpassing the power of gods…would come to be undignified to we gods…

116.
Terry: So then you concocted the incident of children being taken by mistake at Planet Kinnikui 8th Maternity Hospital 24 years ago and all of you Evil Gods possessed each of these five Fated Princes and had to overthrow Kinnikuman with this evil power…
Voice: THAT’S A LIE---!!
Phoenix: The incident of Five Fated Princes being taken by mistake that occurred in Planet Kinniku 8th Maternity Hospital 24 years ago wasn’t concocted! In spite of me being born between the Great King and Queen Kinniku legitimately, they mistakenly took Kinniku Suguru, the child of a poor household---!!
Shizuko: You’re incorrect, Phoenixman.
Shizuko: You genuinely are the only son born between Phoenix Tarou and Phoenix Shizuko.
Phoenix: Mo…mother!

117.
Meat: You’re son to this mother……!?
Bibimba: So then, this madam is Phoenix’s mother and Phoenix is this madam’s son.
Phoenix: What are you saying! You may be the mother who actually raised me, but you’re a complete stranger without a blood relation…Didn’t you say that a year ago!!
Shizuko: Goho goho…in the fire at Planet Kinniku 8th Hospital 24 years ago…I perhaps may had mistaken my own child and saved the Prince of Planet Kinniku…
Shizuko: But if you hadn’t been, then there’s a reason a genius like you would be born from between stupid me and your father…
Shizuko: Th…that is for not being able to buy satisfactory studying items just being poor for you, who was born possessing a genius intellect…I was unable to do that…If you were born as the child of the Kinniku Royal Family, then you would have been surrounded with many texts and study books, allowing you to study to your hearts’ content…I meant that to comfort you against better judgment, inviting out my desires…

118.
Phoenix: That’s…a lie—you said that due to thinking I was the legitimate Prince of Planet KInniku.
Phoenix: So…so then, if you’re saying I’m the Fake Prince, then why can I do…
Phoenix: The Face Flash, the proof of the Kinniku Royal Family---!?
Announcer: He’s exposing the Face Flash, the proof of the legitimate Prince of Planet Kinniku, to the lights on the ceilings---!!
Announcer: One of the four chains that supports the ceiling lights has been severed---!!

119.
Shizuko: You have a reason for being able to expose the Face Flash.
Phoenix: What!?
Shizuko: It’s because of the divine protection of Muscle Falls…!
Mayumi: Ooh.
Mayumi: Muscle Falls is a place said to be the graveyard of the Kinniku Royal Family, which is within the mountains in the site of Kinniku Palace…
Mayumi: As we Great Kings of Planet Kinniku draw close to our time of death, we ascend the mountains behind the Palace, as if we’re being guided by something…it is there that all of them have a place where they decide to meet death just the same as every one of them…

120.
Mayumi: This mountain of the corpses of generations of Planet Kinniku Great Kings, which is packed in a heap in that decided place, is known as Muscle Falls, from resembling exactly the upper half of a person’s body. And from Muscle Falls, a large volume of spring water gushes out. This water is called “The Water of Wisdom”, which is endowed with the great power of generations of Throne Successors; it is prohibited for ordinary people to drink it, just those of the Kinniku Royal Family are approved to drink it…
Shizuko: However, I, to at least to endow my son Phoenixman, who was born to a poor household, with just the great power of generations of successors of the Kinniku Royal Family, crept to Muscle Falls with the just born Phoenixman every night and rubbed this Water of Wisdom to Phoenixman’s face…
Shizuko: And thus, by continuing this for two years, little by little a mysterious light seems to become released from Phoenixman’s face.

121.
Phoenix: He—y, stop it—any further of that random speech---!!
Shizuko: ……………Phoenixman…!!
Phoenix: For 24 years, I’ve had to give up my chance to be Prince of Planet Kinniku from a step away, becoming a victim of you and my dead father. However, now I will defeat Kinniku Suguru and become King of Planet Kinniku, even if I have to ignore you!!
Phoenix: However it was in the Prophecy, someone has an inborn focus in their heart and will come to die in this battle!!
Phoenix: I’m sending it out now: if I can take the life of Kinnikuman with this Knee Drop blow to his heart, he’ll be decided as the Fake Prince…!
Bibimba: Stop it—it’s fine if Suguru-sama is the Fake Prince… the Throne can go to you…stop this--!!

122.
Mayumi: Bibimba, understand this: this is the only way for them. This is the only way to decide the true Throne Successor of Planet Kinniku—
Announcer: Well, the beating of Kinnikuman’s heart is resounding in the castle…contradicting it, Phoenix is in the stance of his Knee Drop---!!
Terry: This blow will decide it…
Terry: Whether Kinnikuman…or Phoenix…is the true Throne Successor…!!

123.
Evil God 1: Fuhahahaha…Kinnikuman doesn’t have remaining the power to return Phoenix’s Knee Drop…with his Burning Inner Strength, which is the source of his mighty power, in the Great Evil Temple in the heavens…
Evil God 2: It’s impossible for a living Choujin to go to Heaven…they’re not things such as spirits who don’t possess substance such like gods…
Narrator: Thus, at that moment, a disaster occurred in the Osaka Castle Panorama Ring—
Voice: Wh…what---!?
Announcer: The canvas has been destroyed and four flashes are soaring high into the sky---!!
Audience: The light sashes are being sucked into the clouds!!

124.
Geronimo: Look, that’s the Great Evil Temple.
Ataru: Alright, with us having our existence erased and not possessing substance, we can go into the Great Evil Temple and take back Kinnikuman’s Burning Inner Strength!!
Phoenix: Die—Kinnikuman!!
Announcer: Aah, Phoenix is attacking, aiming for Kinnikuman, with a hellish Knee Drop that will clear away 24 years of misgivings----!!
Suguru: N…no…I don’t have left anymore the power to return Phoenix’s Knee Drop…

125.
Suguru: ……!!
Announcer: The pulse of Kinnikuman’s heart has stopped---!!

126.
(SCRAMBLE FOR THE KINNIKU THRONE ARC)
SPECIAL VTR C (XXXXXXXXXX)
THE FRAY OF FATED PRINCES AND IDOL CHOUJIN OUTSIDE THE RING

TN: Well, the time has finally come for possibly the last time. Last chapter, I abandoned my pessimistic, cynical side for a moment and looked at the good moments in Kinnikuman history as we neared the end of the road. But this time around...the other, disgusting, disturbing and all in all wrong moments must be touched upon before we put this series behind us! Yes, I do realize Kinnikuman was still writing the books of how to make a shonen manga and that these things really shouldn't matter...but if I don't air them now, I may as well go crazy and it will pour into my very, very last word on Kinnikuman as a whole next time! And so, without further ado, may I present:

(flash of lightning crashes down, making a massive boom of thunder)

THE TWELVE WORST THINGS ABOUT KINNIKUMAN!!!!!

These are the things, at least one per arc (except maybe the comedy arc again) that just utterly can make a person bang their heads on a wall and think to themselves: WHAT THE HECK AM I READING ANYWAY!? WHY CAN'T I JUST GO BACK TO MY ONE PIECE OR NARUTO OR DRAGONBALL, WHY AM I READING THIS PIECE OF CRAP MANGA ANYWAY!?!?!?! It won't be a list from "semi-bad" to "worst", it's just one per arc (at least) with a whole bunch of other disgusting moments at the end to just vomit out of our systems before we can finally breathe again. So, let's just get this over with before we go insane:

1. Kintaman showboats at the finish line: The first Choujin Olympics to me is mostly just a ton of fun with some hints of the serious moments to come and while you really shouldn't take a lot of the nonsense that happens here too seriously, this one just can't be overlooked. Let's remind ourselves, shall we: the final preliminary of the first Choujin Olympics is a race to the moon and back, where the 8 best finishers enter the actual tournament. Seven Choujin pass the finish line without any problems...until Kintaman, the Choujin from Africa and the eighth to arrive on Earth, decides to act like a doofus and showboat at the finish line. Meanwhile in space, Suguru take an explosive from Kinkotsuman that sends him plummeting back towards Earth...while at the same time hitting several other Choujin in the process, including Kintaman, and causing a photo finish that was too close to call! Now OK, I get the whole intention: they needed Suguru to get into the finals tournament but at the same time make it funny. But think of it like this: if Kintaman just went past the finish line before his showboating, then Suguru wouldn't have made the finals (outside a miracle...which for him is rather easy) and the series could have gone in a completely different direction! I get Yude wanted to make it funny and keep it exciting...but it just came off as dumb in the long run.

2. God Phon Eric: There probably are some more heart-tugging moments in the America arc I really could have chosen, but my former scanslating partner brought him up...and the more I think about it, the more I realized how stupid he was. God Phon Eric is the "Don" of the American Choujin world, a man who somehow stands about all of the associations that at that point were fighting between one another for national Choujin representation. Now up to this point the arc was fun...but it's because of him that the chaos and actual storytelling that had been going up to that point...becomes a stupid tag tournament. And oh yeah, let's not forget this: he's the one who also allowed Kinkotsuman and Iwao, who we thought were Kaijuu before, into the tag tournament as "Choujin"...thank goodness Kinnikuman Lady finally gave a better impression about what those two were.

3. The Horse Race: For the most part the second Choujin Olympics was pretty good like the first one...but this was probably the most head-scratching moment of the entire arc: for no apparent reason after the first battles of the Big Fight brackets, we get...some sort of horse race. Is it to determine seeding, bracketing or anything important? No...it's just a horse race. It's less bad and more just...confusing.

4. The Blood-Bind Curse: The Seven Devils did start going away from a lot of the craziness of the previous arc...and started to enter in new weird things that became utter nonsense. While not as horrible as what came later (wait until I get into the next couple arcs), the Blood-Bind Curse was a prelude of the nightmares of battle manipulations to come...in this case, the ghosts of the defeated Seven Devils suddenly clinging onto Suguru so he would have a way harder time with Atlantis. And the only way to eliminate them: a magic door kept by Mongolman/Ramenman that allowed for living Choujin to go in and clean out the ghosts keeping their partner at bay. In a weird way this was sort of upgraded by the Tag arc into Ashuraman's Hell Canvas, but that was handled more interestingly on both sides (both in the Muscle Brothers crushing the spirits and literally watching Mountain smack around Brocken Jr in the spirit world)

5. Earthquakes inside Warsman: The battles of the Gold Mask arc are for the most part strong even with the strange moments...but probably this has to be one of the strangest and stupidest: during Terry's fight with Ashuraman, the two of them end up knocking out Warsman's back-up systems....which for some bizarre and stupid reason, is a giant bit of flesh that resembles a heart. You'd expect that it really wouldn't be too much of a big deal...except in Kinnikuman, that thing ends up causing random earthquakes that nearly kill Warsman! It's bad enough that Warsman is in this predicament (that's another story in itself), but the whole mess of having Terry and Ashuraman fighting while everyone is trying to restore Warsman and stop "earthquakes" is just wrong...especially since it gets to the point of the headless corpse of Buffaloman coming back to life and randomly sacrificing his arms to Terry (who had lost his) ends up screwing everything about the fight. The only one who sort of gets away with this is Buffaloman since...well, he's Buffaloman, but the rest of them really should smack themselves.

6. The Riddle of the Sphinx (Choujin Version): Some others really should call this minor or utter stupid of me to bring up, but personally this has to be here: in order to confirm the true Gold Mask, Suguru and Terry end up asking it a "question" that is exactly the same "riddle of the Sphinx" that is used in the tale of Oedipus. Only in this version, the answer isn't "man" but "Choujin"...which is just nonsense. By changing the answer to one of the most noted riddles in myth just gets to the point of saying and showing the "superiority" of these Choujin over normal humans even in something so simple. The only up-side to this: it helps them finally find the real Gold Mask...mere moments before he mutates into Akuma Shogun.

7. The Friendship Voodoo Dolls: There have been utterly ridiculous, stupid and horrendous moments in Kinnikuman, but the Tag arc takes everything we knew...and throws it into all-time lows. And it all starts from the beginning of the arc, when Ashuraman and Sunshine take magic "dolls" that are made of the Justice Choujin...and 'steals their friendship' through them. As sad as it feels that the entire arc just feels like something taken from the Care Bears, merely seconds later everyone hates each other...just as Harabote and Mayumi call that ridiculous excuse of a tournament...change that, a tag tournament. And the longer the arc goes on, the worse it gets, even to the point of Neptuneman and Big the Budo using them in the finals! Of course, while the dolls in themselves are ridiculous, its through them that the "friendship" angle which had been prelevent but sort of "just there" for most of the series up to that point, becomes this ultimate, unwavering, uber mantra that just sickens me and drives me to insanity for the rest of the whole entire series, both in the Tag and Throne arcs! Yeah, it had been building but it just became horrible from then on...and we have dolls to thank for this.

8. Iron Sweat: Friendship voodoo dolls are bad enough in the horror that is the Tag arc, but who would have thought it would have become...even worse. During the 20 Million Powers/Hell Missionaries battle, we are suddenly and randomly introduced into perhaps one of the worst conveniences we've ever seen in this series: sweat that pours from the body of those "without friendship", coating them in immovable iron until they acknowledge the friendship concept once again. It's ridiculous that the friendship insanity that ruins the later part of the series has to drag down Mongolman and Buffaloman as such, but...let's not forget: we had also just been introduced to "Magnet Power", the secret weapon of the Perfect Choujin...and guess what is easily magnetized!? It was all just a stupid excuse to give crisis to those two after the failure of the wire-screen to intimidate them and just screws the fight even more than it needed to be.

9. Dr. Bombe: Or as I would like to call him: the "most evil, horrible, destructive, hateful and worst plot device in the entire Kinniku universe"...or Rafiki, take your pick. Now I have nothing against the existence of Choujin doctors, since they would know more about a Choujin physiology than anyone and can help them. But to have this plot-device "miracle man" who seems to know the answers to all your questions and can fix anything at a horrific and stupid cost while manipulating your feelings and your dignity to his own crooked gains...not even a combination of Satan, Neptune King and the God of Intelligence are as evil as this monkey-man! And let's not forget: anything he touched got utterly screwed and was fixed in a random fashion later! Ramenman needed a way to use the miracle mist that was healing him and fight in the outside world: he'll just make him a mask of one of the trees...which ends up being removed regardless by the Hell Missionaries and forces Ramenman to just make a patch with the mist that works way better! Suguru needs a new arm for his final battle: Bombe will just remove Buffaloman's Long Horns, killing him (yeah, he really claimed he was killing him, the tears Buffaloman had weren't tears of friendship, they were tears of fearing of what that mad doctor was going to pull) and making a new arm...except that later Suguru would go back home to get his arms fixed and Buffaloman would still live for the Throne tournament. Warsman needs a way to revive to fight in the Throne tournament: Bombe finds these random "life stones" (that I'll get to in a bit) to revive him...only without his memory which had to be jogged in what turned out to be his only fight in the tournament! All in all, he's the man that Prince Kamehame and Dr. Kevorkian has on speed-dial...and luckily is now so dead that he'll never bother the Choujin universe ever again (I hope).

10. Great Earth Reversal: I was sort of hoping I would only have three entries for the Tag arc and three for the Throne...but this was just so insane that it had to make the list: the random, sick and utterly pathetic and stupid power by the Perfect Choujin to use their Apollon Power to literally and randomly "reverse time" by reversing all the clocks in the world by manipulating the Earth's rotation, though time in itself continues to move forwards and it is not really noticed by Suguru and Terry on Tournament Mountain. In other words: Superman's "time-reversing" nonsense from the first "Superman" movie as done by Choujin. Everything about Apollon Power was ludicrous but this possibly is not just the height of it's ludicrousness...but perhaps the most ridiculous and pathetically stupid power in the entire series.

11. Concepts in the Choujin Graveyard: Alright, I'm not saying entirely that this was a complete waste: a place for Choujin to go to when they die in battle is appropriate for a universe like this. But how it was just done...I can't even think straight without hitting my head: collecting balls for revival but being hunted down by oni for escaping whether or not you have enough? Choujin randomly floating in space for no reason whatsoever while others worked on the ground!? Those...Life Stones...that Choujin Enma didn't have any idea about even though he should be master of his own domain of death!? The only really great thing we got out of this Choujin Graveyard nonsense is it's connection to Omegaman...other than that, let's just wish they rested in peace instead of...floating around or collecting Dragonballs.

12. The Muscle Prophecy: And what list of utter fail would be complete without this ridiculous bit of storyline: a magic prophecy actually written millions of years ago by some old finhead that perfectly and exactly tells the tale of every Choujin and every event throughout all of the existence and history of Choujin. Now let's go over how stupid it was: first, the means by which they literally have and can see everything is just ridiculous. Second, if it is all of Choujin history with every Choujin ever, then how can they fit it into one small book? Let alone this: considering that every Prophecy is tied to a Choujin and is written in some cryptic code, who would be able to instantly decipher the code and use it for, say, burning in a stupid final battle that ends up being irrelevant near the end anyway! And even when it's burned, there are still problems such as the ash being used to "exist" Choujin that have no longer "made existent" or, as lampshaded by Robin "confirm that a Choujin doesn't exist when millions who have seen what they have done know who they were, what they did and can confirm without a stupid old book that they existed even if they no longer exist to the book?" I seriously hope, for the sake of Choujin future, that they just bury the book and never speak of it's existence again...then that's one thing that no longer "exists" people won't miss.

Other ludicrous, dumb and pathetic things that could have made the list:
-The slow irrelevance of all female characters (aside Sayuri in the final arc)
-Wheelchair boy
-Kinkotsuman defeating Kinnikuman on a quiz show during his "depression"
-Utterly forgetting Crystalman (yeah, I liked him)
-Terry's massive collection of Kinnikuman masks that are conveniently used
-Nearly everything to do with Planetman, from his horrible geography skills killing Amazonman to his tenth planet and his property claiming to the face-boils
-Justice...being exactly Ramenman/Mongolman
-Pentagon regaining relevance in the Tag arc...and stopping time
-Big the Budo/Neptune King randomly living in the Thames River
-The ludicrousness of Kamehame climbing Tournament Mountain during New Machineguns/Stray Devils
-Kamehame dying...only to suddenly hold up his training equipment like nothing as a ghost and his body becoming a "meat projector"
-Sunshine becoming a baby
-The utter randomness of Magnet Power killing Buffaloman...because he tells it to
-Kinnikuman and all Choujin forgetting they can fly and coming up with ludicrous means to "fly" (like using Robin's armor in a magnetic storm)
-Terry being "demasked" as Kinnikuman Great with "the oldest trick in the book"
-Neptune King's "plan for what to do with all the masks"
-Every and all "random audiences" that just randomly show up at a tournament even without knowing one is starting (in particular at the start of the Throne)
-The "random Soldier who helps Mixer Taitei" seal away Suguru's Burning Inner Strength (I'll get to that in a moment, it still isn't quite solved)
-All that running...and running...and running...
-Robin falling for Mariposa's pity factor
-The Anoalo Staff...well, two-thirds of the time
-Ataru's magical painting powers
-Tears reviving Ramenman in the Bikeman fight
-Parthenon...anything and everything to do with Parthenon
-The retcon of Muscle Inferno suddenly appearing as one of the Three Great Secrets of Planet Kinniku...and how easy it was to defeat once you think about it
-Brocken being a member of the Hitler Youth and Buffaloman...not telling us he had a hot cow mom somewhere that he isn't showing us
-True Friendship Power...need I say more?
-The fact that the "Three Knowledges" of being King...are just Suguru's way as a superhero way back
-Ramenman using super-Pyramid Power...and yet Mister Khamen ignoring the same power in his own arena
-Geronimo being...some Indian, we're not even sure what anymore
-Bibimba returning just to be a love interest and to have a case of the uglies to be cured by the Face Flash...oh, and to complain a lot
-Robin making a glass bell...in the palms of his hands
-The Neptune Message...yeah
-Omegaman's pathetic way out

Yeah some of it is nitpicking and there are probably way, way more I'm not mentioning, but I think I got all of them. For such an important series, there was sure a lot of crap we have to get through...though...I'll say more next time when I do the wrap-up.

------

Now...as for this chapter...just in time for my "fail list", we have a whole bunch of crap happening in chapter that is just as fail...and luckily since now I'm in a bad mood from the previous, I can start going over it:

-First of all, I think it's time we start going over the whole "purpose" and "intent" of the Evil Gods one last time now that their masks have been taken off. As we remember at the start of the arc, the Evil Gods are Choujin Gods around 100 Million Power who manipulated these events to prevent Suguru from ascending to the Throne, thinking that Justice Choujin will be ruling the world forever at the rate they're going. They appeared to be these intimidating beings who actually could have given a threat on their own but chose to possess the Fated Princes so they could have one of them take over with their influence. So how is it that these Gods, these super-powerful beings that have been bothering the entire series for this whole arc...are suddenly being defeated by the likes of Wolfman and Jessie Malvia? OK, I get it is "Big Body" and "Soldier" they defeated and there probably is a major difference between a Choujin with a "body" and a "God who makes up a body to attack here", but it just feels awkward. These villains they've been fighting and that were supposed to be these major threats are suddenly fodder...why? Well...I'll get to that either in this chapter or next but basically it isn't a good ending to see someone as hyped by them being defeated...by Wolfman and Jessie Malvia.

-This further bring us back to something that happened way back: with the confirmation that the Evil Gods can actually turn into "bodied" versions of the Choujin they were helping along, we possibly finally have an explanation regarding how "Kinnikuman Soldier" (who we know was Ataru...sort of) at the time assisted in the Mixer Taitei incident with the whole power separation of Suguru from his Burning Inner Strength. But at the same time, while it should be an answer, it still gives me questions in the end. Presumably, it should have been the Five Evil Gods who left the bodies of their respected Prince and entered into Mixer Taitei, thus it would have been the God of Brutality...and not Ataru or Soldierman. But here's where it gets stupid: we literally saw Mariposa (not just the God of Flight but Mariposa himself) enter into Mixer Taitei to separate Suguru from his power! So then...if that was Mariposa...then that meant that "Kinnikuman Soldier" should have been there to assist. But at that point, we now know that Ataru had defeated Soldier, taken his mask and he was laying unconscious (or barely alive) from a Napalm Stretch. And for all we know, the God of Brutality is probably the only thing keeping Soldierman alive and wouldn't just randomly give him a new Soldier mask, leave the hospital, do the Power Separator, then just go back to "dying" stage. I guess I only have one way to sort this out ultimately: the God of Brutality just left Soldierman for a moment, did the Power Separator, then went back...and meanwhile Ataru took a picture of a slumped/nowhere-to-be-found Phoenix and Big Body on his Sony camcorder unknowing of the chaos happening to his brother. That's my story and, for the moment, I have to stick to it.

-Meanwhile...I think the Neptune Message screwed up somewhere along the way. Neptuneman himself claimed "he sent it out and heard 500 Choujin from around Earth coming to Suguru's aid". But instead...500 turned out to be 100...and they're mostly those who encountered Suguru throughout the series' run instead of just 500 random Choujin of Earth, many of whom Suguru knows. And while I get that it would finally allow for Kinkotsuman and Iwao to return (luckily leading to a major plot point that would happen between the end of the series and a crucial pre-Nisei event), I have no idea how Beansman got there. Beansman isn't even of Earth...how the heck did he get the Neptune Message!?

-There is something that probably should be seen as poignant at this point considering we finally find out what happens to the Great Kings when they die...but just turns out gross: the whole Muscle Falls story. I mean think about it: it is interesting that there is a place all Kinniku kings go when they die (which means Mayumi and Suguru will be there too eventually) and it seems rather graphic and sad compared to the paradise many think of for someone so heroic. But...that's pretty much the only good I can think of it since somehow I just have this image of Muscle Falls being this rotten-tasting water filled with decaying flesh and maggots crawling all over the place. Yeah, that probably isn't it and it's probably more rosy, but just the image of these rotting corpses around water just gives me a more gruesome image than the one Shizuko put her son in to clean his face.

-And then...the whole chaos and confusing about existence comes up one last, horrible time in conjunction to saving Suguru's Burning Inner Strength, where those who were annihilated by the burning of their Muscle Prophecy...are the ones who just what is needed to infiltrate the Great Evil Temple in order to save Suguru! And...they were under the canvas all this time, including Ataru who wasn't even eliminated there!? And...what about Mammothman and Omegaman, why can't they join in considering they "understand" now?

Heh...that probably covers it all...this is essentially the climax of the series, which means...the denouement is next time. It's been a long, hard journey to get to this point...but it's almost time to breathe a sigh of relief. Next time, the journey will finally reach end...and I can finally give my final impressions on everything and anything Choujin wrestling, the good, the bad and the ugly....though it isn't all as stupid as I make it out to be sometimes.