Kinnikuman Retrospective: 20th Chojin Olympics Arc: Part 2

56k Beware and Spoilers Ahead

Continued from Part 1...

Terryman's still being violent and abusive even after Kinnikuman and Natsuko try to stop him. But later we're at the Chojin Olympic Encouragement Party. Harabote announces Kinnikuman and Robin Mask  as the 2 finalists. People start interviewing Robin about stuff like...

Uhhhhhh.... A little early to ask that, don't you think?

Kinnikuman rages at the reporters for asking miscellaneous stuff, and meat yells at him for being stupid. Terryman flashes a light at Suguru, Suguru get's mad at Terry and Kinnikuman's catches a reporter's eye. It's revealed to be Torishima, and he's out of film to take pictures of Kinnikuman. The Chairman announces the final match will be a one round deathmatch where the loser will be knocked out or gives up. It'll happen at April 4th at 4 PM. There's some things I need to address...

1. 4 has the same word as death in Japan and China, so it's generally considered bad luck there as much as 13 is considered such in The US and several other countries. Still it only works as a joke since...
2. It was established that The Chojin Olympics started in late 1979, so why is it April already? There's no way that they past few chapters count as a third of a year. Even if there was a lull in between either of the rounds, how could the Chojin Olympics last half a year  when the real world Olympics last only around a month? Just to set up a joke? yeah, Bulls**t. 

Robin asks a question to Harabote about Kinnikuman because he doesn't have a finishing move. he instead adds a 3 count pin. Kinnikuman suggests the loser has to treat the winner to gyudon, only appealing to him. He also suggests having the Loser leave his home country forever. Raising some stakes to this match. Kinkotsuman has Iwao go to the zoo grow the animals. He demonstrates it on an Onigiri Rice Ball, or as the Pokemon anime called them, jelly donuts. The animals grow and escape. The animals head to the party, and the get ready to attack. The chojin start to counterattack. Terryman can't do anything since his leg was injured, and Kinnikuman gets squashed by Mac Bear, the mascot for Weekly Young Jump at the time a magazine aimed at older audiences than Shonen Jump. So It's up to Robin to use his shrink beam technique to shrink the animals. The animals shrunk without being hurt. Kinkotsuman escapes and everyone cheers on Robin Mask... Later Reporters appear at Robin Mask's training ground. They rush to get their questions while he's training, but Robin's Trainer Gagne Mask has to address any questions related to Robin. Robin's training beacuse he thinks Kinnikuman's got a few tricks up his sleeve, considering he's got any sleeves. Kinnikuman's revealed to be training at the mountains. The Kinniku gang is too cold to train so they go back home. Newspapers are already reporting Robin Mask won for the second year in a row. Mayumi's searching for Kinnikuman's new home in case he loses. Kinnikuman heads for the stadium. He gets into taxi that's actually a trap by Kinkotsuman and Iwao. Weigh-in's are about to start and Suguru's nowhere to be found, upsetting Mayumi, causing him to get into a fight with Harabote. Iwao is driving Suguru and Meat around the city but it's all interrupted when singer Momoko Momoi chases after them. Iwao heads for Momoki's concert and it was a trick by Meat to head to National Stadium. Terryman announces Kinnikuman's at the Olympics. Kinkotsuman and Iwao are all tied up now.

The time of the Chojin Olympics has arrived, and Dorlo Flears of the World Chojin Society is watching. Kinkotsuman and Iwao got arrested by the space police and they're trying to get away. They get caught by Ramenman. The 2 announcers get into a fight over who's better Kinnikuman or Robin Mask. Reporters go and get interviews with Robin and Kinnikuman.

Kinnikuman seems to be getting festive right now...

Ramenman enters the ring angry, and starts attacking Terryman Brutally. The 2 Chojin enter a chained Deathmatch where Ramenman's Killing Terryman.Terry tries to fight back, and Ramenman Loses due to Foul Play. Ramenman is crying because he felt like the lost in the semifinals to a poser since Kinnikuman is really arrogant of his victory. Here comes the classic moment of the arc that'll define most of the rest of the series other than that Ramenman tearing Brockenman in half panel...

The iconic Manly Tears scene. 3-4 years before Fist of the North Star did it...

Kinnikuman Starts Training 30 minutes before the Match. Mayumi and Harabote fight with negative Reception from the audience. This goes on for pages of people demanding the Dragon Rocket, Yelling, and it ends with a tie. Kinnikuman wears the Kinniku Clan's battle armour for the first time and Terryman becomes his second. Ramenman will be announcing for this match while eating Ramen. Robin Mask enters the ring with hang gliders. Kinnikuman enters like an stoic emotionless badass. Robin Mask has England's national anthem. Kinnikuman sings Japan's national anthem after that, badly, causing everyone to faint... The announcer introduces both fighters like a normal wrestling match. Kinnikuman takes off his battle armour, and Terryman tries to help Kinnikuman, but the match starts with Robin landing a drop kick. After that he uses a brain buster, but Kinnikuman escapes and uses a backdrop. Robin Mask's laying on the mat, but Kinnikuman's too excited to pin him. He eventually obliges, but Robin escapes. Kinnikuman gets a snack at the snack stand, and Robin Mask heads towards him when he returns with a Human Rocket... Mayumi tries to help Suguru, but Suguru will be disqualified if he gets any help. He gets up with a bad neck. However the officials won't let him back in the ring.  When Kinnikuman enters the ring, He gets trapped in a Bulldog Headlock by Robin. That seems to cure Kinnikuman's bad neck. Kinnikuman puts Robin Mask into a side suplex. The audience cheers from both sides, Then snow comes in (I knew the snow in spring conspiracy was real, it's in comics!!!), and the audience starts throwing garbage at the 2 fighters. Kinnikuman's Mother Sayuri wants Kinnikuman to keep the match going ratherthan staying still. Kinkotsuman appears and suggests the 2 to break up the grapple since they're frozen right now, which the officials do... Their 2 coaches thaw each other out but Kinnikuman goes flying back to the Snack Shop. Kinnikuman returns to the Stadium, but he doesn't want to fight anymore, despite getting pep talks from his friends. Eventually he gets confidence, And the 2 fighters tell what they should do to beat their opponents. Robin removes his Chest Armor making him more powerful. Terryman Tells Kinnikuman to find a Psychological weakness since Robin Mask doesn't have a Physical Weakness. Robin puts Suguru into a side suplex. The Referee gets thrown out of the ring, and Kinnikuman gets Pinned. Right when the 3 count was going to end, Kinnikuman gets out of the pin. This pisses of Robin Mask's fans. Robin keeps pinning but nothing avails. this is planned all along to take away Kinnikuman's stamina. Suguru takes off Robin's mask. Everyone exploits it and Kinnikuman gives back the mask. Robin uses another Human Rocket, and Kinnikuman avoids it.

Robin's Mask is now cracked.

I just had to show you that panel just to show how much Yudetamago's art style has improved over the year this has been published in Weekly Shonen Jump. Gagne Mask warns Kinnikuman of Robin Mask's Intentions. Robin Attacks Gagne, Suguru gets all cheery of his victory, but he gets afraid a page later. Robin uses a Pendulum Backbreaker. After that, he uses a Head First Dive into Kinnikuman. Robin's stabbing Suguru with his horn repeatedly causing him to bleed. Kinnikuman's allies are shocked at the bloody and Violent display this has become. Kinnikuman's back on his feet and has new found confidence. Robin uses his Trademark Technique the Tower Bridge. Just Look...

Gak! Might be my new favorite sound effect, is it the same sound as Nickelodeon Gak?

Kinnikuman's getting beat up, and everyone wants the fight to stop, but the audience is still cheering Kinnikuman on. After one last Tower Bridge, The Prince of Planet Kinniku is presumed dead... even Robin Mask looks ashamed. But he let his guard down long enough for Kinnikuman to do a Mexican Rolling Clutch Hold. The 3 count starts, ends and Kinniku Suguru Wins. Robin Mask is not Happy at all, Kinnikuman reveals he can survive any of Robin Mask's Techniques. Everyone cheers Kinniku Suguru as the 20th Chojin Olympics Victor. Ramenman feels like the reason he won was due to his Burning Inner Strength. At the awards ceremony, the words "VICTORY KINNIKUMAN" appear. The 3 winning Chojin get their medals from the Prime Minister of Japan. Kinnikuman get's overly excited of his victory, injuring the Prime minister. When Robin Mask gets his medal, he get's jeered out of the stadium. Terryman tries to stop the trash throwing, but it's up to the officials to do so. Robin's wife Alisa appears. They're both getting jeered now, even Kinnikuman is mad at him. Kinnikuman Tells the crowd to shut up, he even tells Harabote to change the rules, but it fails. So he tries to give up his title, however, Dorlo Flears of the World Superman Association Appears. He begins expositioning about the life of a chojin. Kinnikuman takes the plan to go all over the world to defend his title while leaving Robin and Alisa to stay at his shack. At the airport, Terry's back in america, while meat's not with Kinnikuman, at least until the next page. Kinnikuman is upset that he doesn't have a beautiful companion with him, so he doesn't want to go. The chojin go their seperate ways ending the arc...











I find the 20th Chojin Olympics arc to be better than the Kaiju Extermination Days Arc, but it's not without it's problems... First off the early fights aren't that good. They just go by so quickly, they're there and gone just like that. A perfect example is Robin Mask VS Canadianman. What happens there? I mean really... Canadianman grows big, lifts the stadium, Robin Mask grows big, They grapple a bit, then Robin sends Canadianman back to the stadium. The other big problem is Kinnikuman still wins by deus ex machina's. This won't go away until maybe the next arc, but really it's a problem that gets better as the series goes on. Now onto the good. The fights are rather realistic, everyone uses moves you'd expect Real Life Professional Wrestlers to use. I'm not a big fan of the racist stereotypes of the Chojin's either, but everyone's who you'd expect to be in a certain country. It's really grounded in reality in this arc, some people like the more absurd wrestling of future arcs (myself included), but some people think it's hard to go on with how weird the series eventually become. The other big strength this arc has is something we never really see in future arcs to, Though this is more short lived, it's the fact that the villains are more noble than future arcs, They're not absolute world conquerors or sociopaths like they'll become. The 2 big examples are Ramenman and Robin Mask. Ramenman saw potential in Kinnikuman, he may be violent but he's actually a nice guy outside of the ring. That manly tears moment before Kinnikuman's fight in the finals showed he wanted Kinnikuman to put up a good fight in the finals, rather than be arrogant and lose or not put up a good fight with Robin Mask. Speaking of Robin Mask, He also sees potential in Kinnikuman, other than the last few chapters of the fight with Kinnikuman where he wanted to kill Kinnikuman. So overall the villains aren't your typical villains you see in a bunch of other tournament arcs, This should get a few points for pretty much inventing the Shonen Battle Manga tourament arc, with Dragon Ball perfecting it a few years later (Before you give me crap for it, Yes I'm well aware Dr. Slump had a few tournament arcs, but it's not the same thing. It's not quite as innovative as say Kinnikuman or Dragon Ball in that department)...



I'm not ranking the arcs just yet, I'm not ranking the arcs just yet (I just need more to work with), but rest assured  that this is a major improvement compared to the Kaiju Fighting Days Arc of the series.








Next time Kinnikuman heads to America, but not in the way you'd probably like, with American Tour Arc, So get ready as the series gets more serious...

DISCLAIMER:
I don't know if I'll get the American Tour Arc done right after this get's posted (I've got a busy July Ahead), but if I can't, I'll try to let you know...