The first season of the Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin Arc (Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin Hen, or literally Kinnikuman Perfect Chо̄jin/Superhuman Origin Arc) anime came to an end on Sunday with the announcement that Season 2 will premiere in January. The season will air on CBC, TBS, and 26 affiliate channels across Japan, as well as on BS11 and Animax.
Image via kin29man-anime.com
© Yudetamago/Shueisha, Kinnikuman Production Committee
Image courtesy of Pony Canyon
© Yudetamago/Shueisha, Kinnikuman Production Committee
The Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin Hen anime premiered on July 7 on CBC, TBS, and 26 affiliates with episode 0, which recaps older episodes with new animation. The first season runs as part of the new “Agaru Anime” programming block, which airs every Sunday at 11:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EDT) with the theme of introducing anime from Nagoya to the rest of Japan and the world. Pony Canyon describes it as a “12-part” series. Netflix began streaming the series on July 7 (or July 8, depending on the region).
This arc is named after the 2011 manga revival arc of the same name. Pony Canyon describes the story:
Prince Kinnikuman came to Earth from Kinnikusei, a planet at the end of the universe, and was always ridiculed by humans as a useless Chojin. However, by chance, he was granted the right to participate in the Chojin World Cup, a tournament to determine the best Chojin in the world, and by some miracle, he won the championship. The following year, he even won it again!
Since then, he has become the central character in Seigi Chojin, the protector of peace in the universe. He has defeated the rampaging forces of his enemies, including Akuma Chojin, who plans to rule the world, and Perfect Chojin, who aims to wipe out the weak Chojin on Earth, with the power of friendship with his friends, including Terryman and Robin Mask.
In recognition of his achievements, Kinnikuman won the “Kinnikusei Throne Survival Battle”, the final test of his career, and was crowned the 58th Great King of Kinnikusei! He returned to his home planet from Earth, got married, and bid farewell to his 8 years of fighting. About a year and a half later, the entire universe was said to be at peace…
Akira Satō (Release the Spyce) is directing the anime at Production I.G. Makoto Fukami (Psycho-Pass, 2016's Berserk) is in charge of the series scripts. Hirotaka Marufuji (Lupin the Third Part 6) is designing the characters. Yasuharu Takanashi (Naruto Shippūden) is composing the music.
The new anime celebrates the 40th anniversary of the original television anime series, which premiered in April 1983.
The manga duo Yudetamago resumed their original Kinnikuman wrestling manga as a free manga website in 2011. The creators revisited their original Kinnikuman storyline from 1979 and picked up where they last left off in 1987. The original manga has inspired various anime films and television series. Yudetamago previously published the Kinnikuman one-shot manga in Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine in 2015, then published the one-shot in Weekly Shonen Jump for the first time in 11 years in June 2019. The manga's 86th compiled book volume will be released in Japan on October 4.
Toy figures of Kinnikuman were imported into the United States under the label “MUSCLE” in the 1980s. Viz Media later released a sequel to Takashi Shimada and Yoshinori Nakai's Kinnikuman Nisei-Second Generations manga in North America as Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy, and 4Kids Entertainment aired an anime adaptation on television.
Source: Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin anime Arc website, Natalie Comics
