Kinnikuman 3

He thought he was a hero born of Earth...but from the sky comes a mysterious messenger who will turn all he knows upside-down...at least for a few seconds.

Chapter 3: Messenger from Planet Kinniku

35.
Central Sign: Open Year-Round / Gyudon – Udon / Open 24 Hours
Left Side: Coffee Lounge
Right Side: Surfboard

36.
Suguru: So, we shall for today too perform the sacred actions of the Gyudon Lover’s Club.
Men: Ye—s
SFX: Clap clap clap
BG: Large: 400 Yen / Regular: 300 Yen
Suguru: Here we go!
SFX: Munch munch munch munch
Suguru: Thanks for the meal!
SFX: CLUNK / BOOM
Suguru: After we’ve finished eating, we clean up around our mouths.
SFX: Wipe wipe
Suguru: And after that
Suguru: After that is
SFX: GUGU…
Suguru: A tag match!!
Outside Man: Ta…tag me!
Inside Man: UWA~~
Owner: Ho…hold on, customers, this is a problem. Please take this outside!

37.
People: WA—DOWA—
SFX: PI—PI—PI—
SFX: PI—PI—
SFX: PI—PI—PI—
Man: HI—
Suguru: GIHIHI
“Voice”: Ooh…prince…wh…what is this vulgar action…
SFX: BA—M
Suguru: Wa……that’s cool.
SFX: PI—
Suguru: Ah!

38.
Meat: Prince!
Forehead: Niku (Meat)
(TN: Not sure when he reveals his name but since his forehead shows the Japanese word for “Meat”, we’ll call him that for the moment)
Suguru: Eeh!? Who? Who? Who? Who?
Meat: Um…it’s you.
Suguru: What?
Suguru: Wahahahahaha, I’m no---t a prince, I’m the president of the Gyudon-Lover’s Club!!
Ribbon: President
SFX: WAHAHAHAHA
VP: And I’m the Vice-President!
SFX: Niko
Half: And I’m a half-member!
Suguru: (singing) GYUDON MAKES YOUR SINEW
Drum: Gyudon Brothers
Suguru: (singing) FOR EIGHTY YEARS
Meat: Ooh…
SFX: Hide

39.
Suguru & Half: KYAHAHA
Meat: Uuh……Wh…what are you doing? Really.
Meat: Is that good? You are the Prince of Planet Kinniku in the Great Kinniku Galaxy!!
(TN: “Sei” can either be used for “planet” or “star”, so in this case “sei” is “planet”, making it “Planet Kinniku”)
Suguru: What are you saying?
Suguru: I am Kinnikuman, born and raised on Earth!!
SFX: KIRI
Meat: Wrong. That is wrong.
SFX: Wave wave
Suguru: EH?
Meat: Let me explain. It happened twenty years ago…
Meat: It was when the Great King Kinniku went on a two-day, one-night trip to Earth with his wife and their only-born prince.
Wife: Kya, dear, there’s a pig on the baby.
King: Oh! I was unaware.
Pig: Buibui

40.
King: He—y, go away, pig!!
Sign: Hotel
Wife: It’s alright now, my sweet baby!
Pig: Buibui
Wife: Gyo…
Wife: Dear--!!
SFX: BAM BOOM BAM BOOM BAM
King: Hi--! This isn’t my fault. It’s cause our son is the splitting image of the pig. How regrettable!
Meat: And after that, our prince swooped down to Earth and the reason you’re here now.
Meat: Please observe this drawing!
Half: Wa…
Meat: This drawing shows the power of the Kinniku Family. As you look, you’ll understand that the Kinniku Family far surpass every other hero out there. In short, within the heroes, the Kinniku Family are Super Heroes!
Chart:
Kinniku Family
!
Ultra Family
!
Iron King-Spectreman-Mirrorman-Thunder Mask-Kamen Rider Family-Robot Family (Majinzer Z, others) !
Kika—Lio—Gorangers—Inazumaman—Baromu 1—America Family (Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Fantastic Four)
(TN: This chart is mostly a chart regarding many of the heroes that existed in Japan and beyond, primarily during this writing in the 70s. You probably know of some of these such as the Ultra Family (as I explained before) and the American Heroes, now a quick note on the others:
-Iron King is an early-70s Tokusatsu involving a duo who fight giant monsters, but unusual in that the comic-relief character is the tokusatsu hero and the serious cowboy-like partner assists him)
-Spectreman is an early-70s tokusatsu alien cyborg who, like Ultraman, comes from another planet and disguises as a human to assist
-Mirrorman was an early-70s hero created by the same company as Ultraman involving a boy who can transform into a tokusatsu hero by flashing a mirror pendant
-Thunder Mask is another live-action tokusatsu involving a sealed hero awakening to fight a demonic invasion
-Kika is a reference towards “Kikaider”, the classic tokusatsu involving an android boy using his powers both to fight evil and to gain humanity
-Lio is “Kaiketsu Lion-Maru”, another early-70s tokusatsu with a beast theme
-GoRangers is the first true tokusatsu sentai, eventually leading towards what we know in the US as “Power Rangers”
-Inazuma Man is a misprint of “Inazuman”, a mutant tokusatsu hero who has a moth motif
-Barom 1 (or Barom One) is a manga-based hero who became a tokusatsu involving two boys who can become a monster hero by holding their hands together)

41.
Meat: You are that prince of Planet Kinniku!
Suguru: !
SFX: Sweat~~
Suguru: Cough
Suguru: Can…can you explain once more how the Kinniku Family are super heroes within heroes…
SFX: Clutch
Meat: Fine!
Meat: This is our mark.
Suguru: Wa……that’s just like the JIS Mark.
(TN: The “JIS Mark” is a special mark imprinted by the “Japanese Industrial Standards” committee for products proven to show the standards for them to the people)
SFX: Shake shake
Meat: You’re wrong, it’s not the JIS Mark.
Meat: This mark is called the KIN Mark, a proof mark for a superhero. This mark should be attached to the prince as well!

42.
Suguru: Eeh?!? Where, where where where, where where, where where
Half: Wa….it’s there!
Suguru: Ah…really.
SFX: Flip
Meat: I’ve come to Earth in order to take the prince back to Planet Kinniku.
Suguru: Eh? You’re going to take me back?
Meat: In spite of you being the prince of Planet Kinniku, you’ve only had pitiful results like these.
Pages:
4th Champion Carnival Results Page
Participant: Kinnikuman
Opponent:
-Ragon: X
-Woo: X
-Goro: X
-M-Number: X

5th Champion Carnival
Participant: Kinnikuman
Opponent:
-Takashi: X
-Zetton: X
-Yoshinori: X
-Gojira: X
(TN: Ragon, Woo & Zetton are all Ultraman kaijuu…and of course Gojira is what we know of as “Godzilla”)
Meat: I want you to come back so the Great King Kinniku can correctly train you.
Meat: The reason is just not that. Recently, the abominable pig we brought back is living under the name of the prince and is running amuck in Kinniku Town! We have to remove him, my prince!
Meat: Cause of these, I want the prince to return to Planet Kinniku without fail!
Suguru: W…wait!
Suguru: I still have important work to resume…
Meat: Eh…important work?

43.
Suguru: Eh~~~we’re cheap, we’re cheap.
Held up Sign: Cabaret Baba
Right Top: Bar Dusty Rhodes
Bottom Right: Tsuruta
Suguru’s Sign: All You Can Drink / Cheap / Cabaret Baba
Top Left: Terry
Middle Left: Shiek
(TN: We’ve got more wrestling references here. We went over Sheik in chp. 1, so here’s a few of the others:
-Baba: Shohei Baba is considered the defining wrestler of a generation of Japanese, making his name in the 60s and becoming the founder and manager of All Japan Pro Wrestling in the 70s
-Tsuruta: Jumbo Tsuruta, also known as Tomomi Tsuruta, is an All Japan Pro Wrestler notable in the 70s
-Dusty Rhodes: Born Virgil Riley Runnels Jr., he was one of the major American wrestling stars in the 1970s.
-Terry: Terry Funk is a definitive Texas-based hardcore wrestler who made a name for himself both in the US and particularly in Japan in the 1970s…and who will be further homaged later in this volume with “his” arrival
-Dorry: Dorrance Funk Jr., also known as Dory, is Terry Funk’s older brother and a major early force in the NWA.)
Meat: That’s important business--!!
Meat: Well, we’re going back to planet Kinniku!
Suguru: No way--!
Meat: Prince
Suguru: No way~~!
Meat: Please wait!
SFX: CLUNK
SFX: Boom
Meat: Ahahaha, even if the prince recovered, it’s foolish. Ha ha ha
SFX: SUKU
Meat: U…

44.
Suguru: What was that, you dummy----¡!
Sign: SHUEISHA
(TN: Of course, Shueisha is the parent company behind WSJ)
SFX: GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO
Meat: WA—
SFX: WHA~~M
SFX: GOTO GOTO

45.
Yudetamago: That was noisy!
(TN: Later, you see this is an early caricature of Yudetamago, even before they revealed themselves as a duo)
SFX: GORO
Yudetamago: I’m near the deadline.
SFX: GOTO
Yudetamago: I said I’m busy, really.
Meat: If…if you say that you don’t know matter what, then I’ve got no choice.
SFX: YORO
Suguru: N?
SFX: Click
SFX: GAGAGAGAGA
SFX: GAGAGAGA
SFX: KACHI—NG
Suguru: !
Men: Wa! That’s a wire-deathmatch-style ring!!

46.
Man: Fu fu fu…
Suguru: WA—
Meat: If the prince can defeat Gooriki, then I’ll do what you say. However, at the moment you can’t, we’ll quietly return to Planet Kinniku.
Suguru: WH…WHAT!?
Gooriki: NUOOO
SFX: BARI BARI BARI BARI
Suguru: Wa…amazing
Suguru: If it’s about muscles, I never lose! NUOOOOOO
SFX: SLIP
Suguru: WA…

47.
Gooriki: Guwa—hahahaha
Suguru: HI…
Suguru: E—I, Kinniku Beam
SFX: DODGE DODGE
Suguru: Wa…he avoided all of them!
Suguru: Kinniku Flash!
SFX: BA—
Gooriki: Fu fu fu fu
Suguru: Wawa…my deadly technique has……
Meat: U---m, according to the data, those are all of prince’s deadly techniques…
SFX: Flip

48.
Gooriki: Fufufu…
Suguru: Oa…
SFX: GUGU…CRACK CRACK / GAKI
Suguru: OA~~
Meat: Gooriki’s deadly technique was chosen as the Bear Hug. With that, the prince will come to be returned to his home planet…
Suguru: OA~~GUGU…
Gooriki: Gehhehehe
SFX: SPUTTER SPUTTER BUHO
Gooriki: N?
Suguru: HE
Suguru: LP
Suguru: ME
Suguru: EE~~

49.
Gooriki: GYAHAHAHAHA HEE—HEEHEE—
SFX: BAM BOOM
Meat: GO……GOORIKI!
Gooriki: EE—HEEHEEHEEHEE
SFX: Crack crack
Gooriki: Oa~~
Gooriki: Nuoo~~I twisted my abdomen.
SFX: BO—OM
Suguru: YA—Y, I DID IT! I DID IT!
Meat: Awawa…wha…what is this……
VP: U—m, I really can’t believe this. That’s an idiotic victory…
Half: Ooh! Kinnikuman’s face is stronger than the Specium Beam.
(TN: The Spacium Beam, also known as “Spacium Ray” or “Spacium Kousen” is the original Ultraman’s trademark attack)

TN: And now we enter the meat of the story...well technically, Meat enters the story! While the first two chapters really could go in any direction on what exactly this series was going to have, Yudetamago really start to reveal a lot of the key essentials of the Kinnikuman lore with this one crucial chapter. (so crucial that it's the first episode of the original Kinnikuman series instead of the first two chapters we already read) The origin of his arrival on Earth in a way is somewhat a warped version of the Superman origin: an alien baby left on Earth who becomes a hero...of course, in this version, Superman wasn't mistaken as a pig by his parents and said pig didn't start causing a ruckus on his homeworld. (of course Superman didn't have a homeworld for pigs to run amuck on...but I doubt Krypton would want them either) We'll be meeting Suguru's parents more in the next chapter...but for the moment the main focus is on the introduction of Meat, who pretty much is by his side for the rest of the series. If Suguru is the brawn of the duo, Meat is the brains...sure he's a tad pushy this time around and complains that Suguru isn't keeping to his training, but when you've been away from home for so long you sort of get that way. One thing in particular I didn't realize about Meat until now was that he wears glasses! While you really can't notice them by the point his design is more finalized, you should look closely at the appearance of a lower bridge around the bottom of his eyes, showing that it sort of remains part of his design throughout all of his apearances. It's as if Meat's eyes have fused with his glasses! This chapter also continues to seem to easily blend together both the aspects of the heroes and the wrestling as many parts early on did. On one hand, Suguru is still trying to be some warped Ultraman parody with his "Kinniku Beam" and "Kinniku Flash", while we get charts pretty much equating the Kinniku family to gods compared to a bunch of Tokusatsu heroes and American super heroes. On the other, many things seemed to be resolved by wrestling, whether its just friends hanging out or Meat trying to drag Suguru home! (and that's not getting into the whole "wrestling icon red-light district") Yudetamago can still go either way with this at this point...of course we'll see where they go as the series progresses. Oh BTW: the part where Suguru uproots Shueisha's HQ...I wonder if there are any caricatures amidst them? (well outside the psudo-image of the author)