The first sneak peek of Kinnikuman Perfect Superhuman Ancestor Edition’s anime just dropped! the release date is set for 2024. The production team spilled the beans that it’ll adapt the Perfect Origin Arc, and they even shared a cool new visual of the main character.
Kinnikuman Pv and Visual
This anime is a big deal—it’s celebrating the 40th anniversary of the franchise. And here’s the cool part: it’s not a remake or reboot but a continuation after the 2011 manga revival. The story focuses on an invasion by a powerful army, sparking an epic three-way battle between the good superhumans and the bad ones.
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Kinnikuman Manga
Kinnikuman is an awesome Japanese manga brought to life by Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada, also known as Yudetamago. The story centers around Suguru Kinniku, a superhero who has to win a wrestling tournament to keep his title as the prince of Planet Kinniku. Nakai and Takashi came up with the concept while they were in high school, initially as a parody of Ultraman.
The manga originally graced the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1979 to 1987, and then Toei Animation turned it into a 137-episode anime series broadcasted on Nippon Television from 1983 to 1986. Fast forward to 2011, it made a comeback in Shueisha’s web magazine Shū Play News. And guess what? It didn’t stop there—it spawned spin-off manga, anime series, video games, anime films, and loads of Kinnikuman-related stuff.
There’s a sequel titled Kinnikuman: The 2nd Generation (also known as Ultimate Muscle outside Japan). This sequel manga graced the pages of Weekly Playboy from 1998 to 2004. It even got published in North America by Viz Media under the title of Ultimate Muscle. They made it into three different TV series, all of which aired on TV Tokyo in Japan and were released in North America by 4Kids Entertainment.
Fun fact: Kinnikuman is a manga superstar in Japan, having sold over a whopping 77 million copies by 2021. The anime series was a hit too, and let’s not forget the cool merchandise like Kinkeshi, a line of action figures known as M.U.S.C.L.E. in North America. It was so good it even bagged the Shogakukan Manga Award for children’s manga in 1984.
Kinnikuman Anime
The first animated show based on “Kinnikuman” was brought to life by Toei Animation, directed by Yasuo Yamayoshi, Takenori Kawada, and Tetsuo Imazawa. This epic 137-episode series first aired in Japan on Nippon TV starting April 3, 1983, and kept us entertained till October 1, 1986.
But the excitement didn’t end there. Next up was “Kinnikuman: Scramble for the Throne,” with Takeshi Shirato and Atsutoshi Umezawa at the helm. It packed 46 thrilling episodes and aired from October 6, 1991, to September 27, 1992, giving us a good dose of action.
Fans were thrilled when the first series came out on 12 DVDs, making it possible to re-watch the awesomeness. These DVDs hit the shelves from December 6, 2002, to November 21, 2003. And let’s not forget the second series, which made its way to four DVDs from December 5, 2003, to March 21, 2004, letting fans relive the adventure.
Fast forward to January 9, 2002, and “Kinnikuman: Second Generation” hit the screens with a 51-episode series that kept us hooked until December 25 of that year. It then graced the DVD world from September 21, 2002, to August 8, 2003, across 12 DVDs.
The excitement crossed borders when 4Kids Entertainment licensed it asUltimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy,” making its way to screens in the United States. An announcement in 2003 led to a 13-episode sequel tailored for non-Japanese audiences, airing on FoxBox in North America and in Japan from April 7 to June 30, 2004.
The legacy continued with “Kinnikuman Second Generation: Ultimate Muscle 2,” running for 13 episodes from January 4 to March 29, 2006, in Japan. Directed by Toshiaki Komura, these spin-off series were released as two-DVD box sets on February 24 and June 23, 2006.
More good news came in October 2022 when Discotek Media announced they had the license for Ultimate Muscle and were gearing up to release the 77 episodes on Blu-ray Disc in early 2023.
A fresh anime commemorating the 40th anniversary of the original anime TV series was revealed on March 16, 2023. Hold on tight for the release date of Kinnikuman anime series of 2024 based on the 2011 manga revival’s arc, produced by one of the best anime studios Production I.G and directed by Akira Sato. Makoto Fukami is set to lead the series composition, while Hirotaka Marufuji will design the characters, and Yasuharu Takanashi will compose the music.
