Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Special Guest Edition: Ultimate Muscle
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Oh, Ultimate Muscle. I watched it and Kirby: Right Back At Ya! every Saturday when they aired... And yet, I only really remember this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ac3Cr965jM
All my love to that adorable, corny theme song. 
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Whilst such a choice of words is accurate, vis-à-vis the state in which intellectual property ownership currently lies, I am sure that many a fellow forumite whose younger years were tainted by a grappling fixation would object to the association of such a gimmick with such a company. |
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Snomaster1
 SubscriberPosts: 2796 |
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I remember "Ultimate Muscle" too. I watched very little of it. From what I do remember,it was a very weird show. I really didn't get into it a whole lot. I guess it wasn't my type of show.
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Shaenon
Posts: 18 |
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Touche. I guess if I were being totally accurate about who owns the license now, I'd say "WWE," but it still feels wrong whenever I'm talking about older promotions.
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2545 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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I wouldn't quite say that 4Kids' version of the anime died out "quickly", especially since it did so well that 4Kids commissioned Toei to animate two more 12-episode seasons just so that the Superhuman Olympics story arc could be told in full in the anime.
But, anyway, I can definitely say that part of the reason why I really enjoyed Ultimate Muscle was because I was, and still am, a big fan of pro-wrestling. Seeing the over-the-top spectacle of this sport taken beyond its limits is just a lot of fun to see, and you can always tell that Yudetamago has a lot of fun creating new characters after seeing ideas that fans give them and finding out what crazy moves they can do. You also definitely see an evolution in Yoshinori Nakai's artwork as the manga goes on. At first it still has that simpler look that definitely leans more towards the original Kinnikuman artwork, but as you keep reading you see the art become much more polished & detailed, but still keeping the cartoonish style that Nakai has always used. The biggest problem I have with the manga, though, is definitely the ending... Mainly because it's not really an ending, per se. Yeah, it ends the Demon Seeds story arc, but you can really tell that there's still more story to be told, and I hate that we'll never get the sequel manga, Kinnikuman Nisei: Kyukyoku no Choujin Tag-hen/The Ultimate Superhuman Tag Chapter. Yeah, the sequel is essentially fan-pandering, since it's about Mantaro and the new generation going into the past and interacting with the original Kinnikuman characters during their primes, but at the same time it's at least a great form of pandering. JManga should try their hand at releasing it online... |
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GATSU
Posts: 15306 |
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Gee, I wonder why.  I'm actually surprised DC was ok with co-promoting Green Lantern with that manga, considering Brocken, Jr. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm sure even translating the sequel was a bit awkward, since there's a brief comment in which Jaegger indirectly implies Germans were the victims in WW2, because of our bombings. Fortunately, Brocken and Jaegger both suck, so I don't actually have to see them win much.
It didn't die a quick death here. It got an America-exclusive sequel, because it was more popular in America than Japan.
Apparently with some loathing, because I do remember one of the people manning the Viz AX booth bitching about it.  It was so much of a black sheep, in fact, that, Viz wouldn't even promote the manga in a Shojo Beat article on wrestling.
Well, he does have a nifty theme song.
Wrong body type. I could see him as Ramen Man, though.
I just wish Yudetamagao actually finished it properly, instead of telling us to move on to the next series. 
Geo: The irony is I'm not a pro-wrestling fan, mostly because I hate sitting through those beef-heads chew each other out for 45 minutes before actually fighting. But I liked that Kinnikuman Nisei's "story" actually had a sense of urgency and meaning to it.
You never know. But as I noted, it's the original series that's pretty taboo right now. |
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bones2039
Posts: 103 |
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I did watch a few episodes of Ultimate Muscle, but it never was anything that really grabbed me. It was ok. I thought about picking up the manga, but for whatever reason I never did. oh well, my loss.
Also, the NWO started in WCW, not WWF. While its true the WWE owns WCW now and the NWO did eventually make it to WWE after the fact, its hard to see NWO and not think WCW. |
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belvadeer
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I really tried to like Ultimate Muscle, but it just got largely stupid for me after a while. There was always one scene in the 4Kids dub (besides Dik Dik having his abs insulted) that I can't seem to forget. Kid Muscle said "Well that symbol on his head must mean he's a total a-", then Meat promptly cut him off from saying an obvious bad word. The exact moment where he cut him off looked like a really bad censorship attempt though.
Usually, I'm all for a show or book about big muscles (...don't judge), but when you have to take the hilarity too far, count me out. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2545 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Honestly, 4Kids' version of Ultimate Muscle was probably the raunchiest thing they've ever done. There was so much innuendo (sexual or otherwise) in that dub that they likely made it raunchier than the anime originally was. Though the manga ran in Weekly Playboy, there was also an alternate manga that ran in V-Jump for young children, and the anime was made to appeal to kids, even though it was adapting from the original manga, so a lot of the raunchy humor was replaced with more kiddy humor. For example, only in the anime does Mantaro have that silly beef bowl song he sings everytime he's about to eat one. Likely, in the original Japanese, Meat wasn't cutting Mantaro off for saying something dirty, but rather it was because he was saying something stupid. The writers at 4Kids just took that moment and went in another direction with it. |
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GVman
 Posts: 729 |
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The whole beef bowl song was a throwback to the original series. I can't remember if it was in the manga, but it was definitely in the anime.
Anyway, while I haven't read Nisei yet, the original Kinnikuman is a blast. Unfortunately, there's no official translation for it. Also, I've heard Nisei is a bit more realistic in the wrestling department than the original Kinnikuman. Is this true? And I know this is nit-picky, but there was a Gamecube game released stateside before Galactic Wrestling titled Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation. It's pretty much the same game as Galactic Wrestling but with less characters and heavier cell shading. |
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Psycho_Despair
Posts: 376 Location: East of Eden |
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I grew up watching Ultimate Muscle when I was in elementary school!!!!! I really enjoyed watching a series about aliens and superweirdos fighting in a wrestling arena!!! And its funny though I always found Kid Muscle annoying in the end I liked the character because he had some real bad ass moments!
And it was until last year that I started getting all nostalgic about Ultimate Muscle that I picked up a couple volumes of Ultimate Muscle and the first couple volumes of Kinnikuman II Sei: Kyuukyoku Choujin Tag Hen at Book Off 
(I would like to start from volume 1 but it seems to be out of print, right?) I also friended the Boiled Egg duo on Facebook then started to draw Kinnikuman fan art when I would be bored in class: http://www.twitpic.com/7av4kr http://www.twitpic.com/7oxzib It just funny how I started becoming more of a fan of the series thanks to nostalgia (I am 18 now). Phew! I am going crazy lmao Sorry, if I am getting annoying (^__^; ) I look forward to buying the rest of Ultimate Muscle. |
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FireChick
Subscriber Posts: 2392 Location: United States |
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WHAT?! THAT CAN ACTUALLY HAPPEN?!? I never knew! 
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2545 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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It's happened numerous times before. The extra Voltron episodes that were made solely for Voltron purposes & Big O Season II are the other two big examples of new anime being commissioned due to North American success. |
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Lizzie_B
 Posts: 302 |
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Same here. I'm ashamed to admit it, but i also watched One Piece when it was on. |
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belvadeer
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I always wanted to know who that dragon wrestler was six seconds into the song.
I meant the sudden cutoff then the switch back to Meat from Kid Muscle looked like really bad editing. Was it like that in the original version too? |
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