Kinnikuman: Kanpeki Choujin Shiso-hen

I went into this completely blind. All I knew was that this was a fighting anime with big, buff dudes. I never expected the fights to be this entertaining with so many different, creative movesets. Things are very simple to understand even for a new fan as there is a lot of expositon and discussions about past events. The characters, although pretty flat, have a lot of charm to them. There is a distinct personality to all of them. The thing I feel like this series does the best is having extremely unique as well as imaginative character designs. You can see how a certaincharacter will act and fight as soon as you first lay your eyes on them. Not to go into too much detail, I would just like to summarise "Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin Arc" as simple, yet entertaining.

One of anime's greatest comebacks since the Heisei era. Kinnikuman is one of those fever dreams you most definitely thought have never existed but turns out to be just a show completely shrouded in the abyss. It is most definitely a great show but it is far from being a flawless masterpiece. Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin arc not only gives light to its side characters but also making them somewhat unforgettable despite fighting (mostly) once albeit the minor chojins. The show doesn't waste them giving them well crafted ideologies and dialogues that goes deep. Also bringing the twist of a Villain vs Villain perspective never ceases toamaze me. Topics like how does it feel to be a dirty fighter, and what does it take nor cost to persuade an obstinate individual. The fights were great especially to wrestling and old japanese fans, they're not the flashy kind but offer a rather impactful mix into the shonen genre. Each and every character have their own unique gimmicks to how they approach a fight exploring more about their personalities and abilities not just from their looks. Speaking of their designs, it's a rather breath of fresh air seeing them as they are mostly reminiscent of older shows unlike the generic stuff put in newer animes. We have a spring wrestler and a wrestler who is a literal mountain. Albeit having a focus to new audiences, this show does its fanservice tremendously well also showing that the old characters have improved drastically and learning from their mistakes. What's also impressive is that this excuse for a Deus Ex Machina doesn't overstay their welcome as they come in risks with the cast losing having a somewhat dash of unpredictability to the fights. However there are times where old revelations gets mentioned having newcomers of the series become confused. Like I said earlier, the show was still riddled with flaws not just the cheap animation but also its plot. Having an Episode 0 recap does summarize what had happened through the previous series but it doesn't fill you in MUCH of what had happened due to some moments where characters tell an old event from the original 1983 run with having little to no knowledge about what it actually was. On top of that, the plot of this anime is sort of bare bones as it still focuses on beating one group because they're "bad". The backstories and exposition do become rather predictable but it still somehow turns enjoyable. This also does not help that this is a direct sequel to the old anime, and not Ultimate Muscle which most Western fans knew back in the 2000s. The old anime hasn't actually aged pretty well aside from its animation and dated Japanese pop culture references with low brow humor, also from the fact that there aren't any official translations of it. Thus you'll have to binge watch the original anime to actually understand things like the arcs, and the titular Perfect Chojin antagonists. Kinnikuman, the protagonist, is almost drowned out compared to his original self as his friends and enemies get more screentime. There isn't much focus to his character and is one of the major problems of this show having the "Outshined MC trope". Though I already did see this through since they thought Episode 0 already filled you in on Kinnikuman's character leaving you clueless about his origins and affiliations. Lastly, their color palettes are based out of the manga so that just explains their boring and repeated use of White and Red uniform colors. The anime does have flaws but it is at least great to see it returning after, I don't know... 4 DECADES AND A HALF. 8/10 Great comeback for the goat

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