Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the original 1983 TV anime, an official Twitter account revealed details on an upcoming adaptation of the 2011 Kinnikuman manga’s first story arc, titled Kinnikuman Kanpeki Choujin Shiso-hen, coming in 2024. The anime is being produced by Production I.G and directed by Satou Akira (Aoashi, Release the Spyce), with Fukami Makoto (Psycho-Pass) as the scriptwriter.
Created by childhood friends Nakai Yoshinori and Shimada Takashi (collectively known as Yudetamago), Kinnikuman began its run on Weekly Shounen Jump in 1979, preceded by two pilot stories. Beginning as a parody of tokusatsu superhero shows such as Ultraman, it tells the story of the titular character (born Kinniku Suguru) and his comically awful superheroic exploits. After discovering he is the displaced crown prince of Planet Kinniku and heir to a clan of born wrestlers, he befriends American hero Terryman and joins a wrestling tournament of other superhumanly powerful beings (or “Choujin”), marking the point where the series’ focus shifts to semi-serious, if increasingly dramatic, wrestling bouts.
Kinnikuman went on to become a Jump classic, fondly remembered and appreciated by famous authors such as Arakawa Hiromu, Mashima Hiro, Togashi Yoshihiro and Matsui Yuusei; it ran until 1987 for a total of 36 tankoubon volumes, which were reprinted as collector’s editions in 1993 and 2013. It is currently one of Japan’s best-selling manga, selling over 77 million copies by 2021. An extra volume collecting one-shot side stories was also published on January 29, 2010.
The manga was followed by a direct continuation in 2011, picking up where the final arc left off, published on Shueisha‘s Weekly Playboy web counterpart Shuu Play News starting on November 28, 2011, reprising the original cast with new characters and an all-new story. As of September 29, 2023, 46 more volumes have been released.
Aside from the 1983 anime by Toei Animation, which ran for 137 episodes, plus another 46 episodes for the Scramble for the Throne sequel, covering the manga’s final arc, a sequel series (eventually canonized as set after the 2011 reboot) was aired in 2002, titled Kinnikuman Nisei, starring Suguru’s son Kinniku Mantarou as the protagonist, as well as the successors of other characters from the original series. Also produced by Toei, it ran for 51 episodes and was also the only one to be licensed in English, namely by 4Kids Entertainment as “Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy”, and was followed by two spin-off series.
