The MuscleMan vs The Monkey King or Kinnikuman vs Dragon Ball

The 1980s was a crazy period of tme e it flm, TV, sports, comic ooks, and in this case: Japanese fghtng comic ooksa

1980s Jump was in a lot of ways a much diferent east then it was todaya Its heroes were not the standard small, spiky haired dim ut lova le and a lot of PASSION and HEART heroes that have ecome so common place in Japanese media that even tokusatsu programming like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai have goten in on the archetype in recent yearsa No, the heroes of 80s Jump were of a more serious nature, physically imposing fgures of stoic raw muscle with the main protagonists of Fist of the North Star and the frst few parts of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures (aka Glam rock North Star) eing the most popular imagesa

Then in 1979 and 1984 in walk one Kinniku Suguru of Kinniku Planet and one Son Goku of the Planet (not the father or son) Vegetaa

Despite startng years part oth Dragon Ball and Kinnikuman are really interestng to compare and contrast to one another when looked at side oth sidea

For example:

Both started as gag of the week manga that shifed into atle (or Batule mangua as Derek of Dragon Ball Culture fame would put it)a

Both have heroes that go against the norm of then current Jump heroesa

Both heroes go through a development and passing of the torch (though Goku it was more of an atempted passing at any rate)

Both heroes married and had a kid to act as their replacementa

Both heroes started out as novices and eventually ecame seasoned warriors and lastly, Both heroes eventually matured as they aged over the yearsa

Granted, many of these are just road overviews etween the two series and their respectve heroes so naturally, I’ma go in more deptha And what eter way to get more in depth then y examining the two heroes themselves, Goku and Suguru?

Put simply Kinnikuman is Goku's polar opposite and Goku is Kinniku’sa They are in many ways mirrors of one anothera

Physically Kinnikuman is an adult with muscles (hence the name Kinnikuman) that goes etween eing a loser Cojin superhero so lame aliens put of their invasion of earth ecause they don't want their rep to take a hit fghtng him, to actual moments of adassery when he goes into a more serious mode as it were efore developing into a full lown hero of justcea

In other words, Kinnikuman has a lot more natural in uilt power compared to Goku early on at least, which leads to an interestng diference etween the two series’ take on the common “ ecoming stronger” aspect of Shonen mangaa

Goku in the early arcs of Dragon Ball is a nature oy, natve in the ways of the world with no clue what a female even looked like untl he ran into Bulma of Capsule Corp fame one fateful daya Goku, compared to Kinnikuman, is short, kinda chu y looking (which is more Toriamia’s chi i artstyle of the tme then actual chu ), a child with all the positvely that only a young oy can possesa

Kinnikuman's a klutz, can e lazy, a goofall, and hard to take seriously at tmes (hence the ad rep in the early series) and yet even during the early few chapters there are moments of genuine heroism from hima Another interestng diference etween the two is that Kinnikuman's is one that takes place in our world (al eit one with popular American and Japanese superheroes)and ages roughly in real tme, startng in 1979 and ending sometme in the mid to late 80s where as Goku’s journey takes place in a world similar ut ultmately very diferent from our owna

Goku, though he’s freakishly strong to egin with, has an innate self driven desire to eter improve himself physically and skill wisea Suguru y comparison doesn’t train for strength so much as he does for skilla The diference etween the two series takes on ‘ ecoming stronger’ are ironic in a sensea Both Kinnikuman and Dragon Ball were not doing the strongest in the Jump poles at the tme, hence spicing things up with tournaments and rivals at the likea

Even the early series comedy is an interestng contrasta

Humor in the early few arcs of Dragon Ball are more Goku reactng to the world around him and not understanding thing from what counts as a traditonally atractve female to social cues to even asic things like iological gender diferencesa In short, his natve nature makes him est when he has other characters worth ouncing of of (which makes Toriamia’s decision to have him train solo a confusing one in retrospect ut I digress) and the humor is more a out people’s reactons to Goku’s ehavior then a out Goku himselfa Or, in other words, Goku himself is not the ut of Toriyama’s jokes ut more his naturea

Suguru is y comparison a walking punchline efore the wrestling stuf takes over and even then many arcs later (and even as far as the sequel series Ultmate Muscle) the creatve duo of Yudetamago never forget the character's roots as the good ole But Monkey (to use TV Tropes’ phrasing)a I have litle dou t were Yudetamago postng Kinnikuman to Pixiv (Japan’s version of DeviantArt) today Suguru would no dou t e called the ‘Do Not Steal’ of Ultraman OCsa

Granted, such a comparison is a fair one as the two were clearly more than inspired y the then current live acton hero for their own charactera But where as Ultraman is a rave hero of justce, Suguru as mentoned efore is nota The humor of his series’ early chapters are at HIS expense compared to Dragon Ball’s comedy eing more shared among the cast with Goku eing a less direct fgure of ridiculea Then comes the two series take on the classic shoenn idea of ecoming strongera With Dragon Ball, we have Master Roshi’s classic crazy training regime, every Rocky style training system cranked to 11a

Suguru though is a diferent matera

He did some training efore his ig match with Ro in Mask in the fnals for the 20th Cojin (Superhuman) Olympics ut it was mostly a pu licity stunt then actual training in of itselfa Later, when he goes to Hawaii in his glo al tour shortly afer winning the 20th Cojin championship elt his training is learning the 48 fnishing moves, one of which ecomes his signature Kinniku Buster, from Hawaii's former champ Kamehameha (who ironically pro a ly taught Suguru more hands on of page stuf on then Roshi ever did with his on page hands of methoda Seriously, almost no one ever actually learns the Kamehameha wave from Roshi, they learn it on the fy in the heat of atle which makes you queston just what the hell Roshi was teaching them etween arcs in the frst place)a

In short, Kinnikuman's training is not a out raising his power level as it were (which are fxed stats in the series for some reasona And yes, technically Kinnikuman did the power level thing frst)a He already has a powerhouse of a ody, ut what he lacks are the skills and moral character to make the est use of said odya

Goku is a out improving his strength while Suguru is a out improving his skilla Goku is more comparatvely self centered (sparing more than a few villains either out of a mix of mercy or desire to fght them again depending on exactly which version of Dragon Ball you go with) ut also more ‘pure’/no le in ways that only a oy raised in the mortcians y an old martal arts hermit can ea

Suguru is a modern man of the city with all of the vices of civilizaton ut also ecome more genuinely heroic 2/3rd of the way through the original manga’s run (if not earlier then that) and ecomes a full ‘Justce Cojin’ in oth name and deeda He is the type of person who, afer he fnally ecomes the 58th King of Kinniku Planet could unironically make the infamous ‘Hope of the Universe’ speech that many Dragon Ball purist decry with complete sinceritya

In short, the ttular Kinnikuman is a more fawed human eing (well, Cojin at any rate) then Goku is and in my mind having recently reread over Kinnikuman I have to say more interestnga In short, while Goku’s journal is one of self development of his own free will and his adventures are a side efect of said training (though with plenty of ad guy utng kicking involved when Goku does come across guys like the Red Ri on Army for example) Suguru is more a out ecoming a man worthy of the ttle of the 58th King Planet Kinnikua

Though Surguru grew up on earth thinking himself just a ‘normal’ Cojin (though given he lives in the same setng as Kamen Rider and Superman can’t lame the guy for not realizing he was that diferent compared to the other heroes appearance/power wise) and didn’t learn the truth untl his early 20s (much like Goku) ut what could have een just another forgoten plot point or character moment (coughRadtzcoughGrandpaGohan) ecomes Surguru’s new goal: Become worthy of the ttle of King of Planet Kinnikua Every atle and arc from that chapter onward goes to that goal whether Kinnikuman realized it or not and y the end of the series’ original run make no mistake, Surguru has ecome worthy of the ttle of Kinga Another thing I think helps ground Surguru is the fact that the man has a family who he actually interacts witha Granted, Surguru’s parents are even more callous then Goku’s have retroactvely proven to e and to e fair to Goku, oth his adoptve parent and actual parents are deada Where as Bardock and Gine sent their son of ased on a gut feeling that Freiza was up to something (with that something eing low up Vegeta [the planet]) Surguru’s parents lef their only son on earth (sorta, its complicated) not as a eacon of hope ut ecause they mistake their son with a pig that had wandered on and throw Surguru out y accident ( ecause Surguru’s mask is pig like you see)a

Honestly, why the King and Queen of muscle planet took 19 years to relocate their son is eyond mea

However, in conclusion, if Dragon Ball is a out Goku going from a no ody to one of the strongest dudes in his multverse then Kinnikuman is a out a fawed superhuman eventually ecoming worthy of ecoming the King he was meant to e oth in terms of character and deeda

And honestly? Afer Goku's nonchalant attude in Super its refreshing to see a hero properly mature and grow as a persona

Then there is setnga

Now, on paper oth Kinnikuman and Dragon Ball are products of their tme and in Kinnikuman literally as they menton then current dates throughout the seriesa The series oth in universe and out starts in 1979a The 20th Cojin Olympics are held in 1980a And y the tme the sequel series was pu lished in late 90s, early 2000s, guess how much tme had passed since? Enough to the point where the second Generaton of Cojin fghts had to step up to the plate ecause everyone else was in their 50sa

In short it gives the world a very strong sense of oth tme and place that, given the general Sat morning cartoonish nature in the 1980s argua ly fts prety damn well given the tme it takes placea

On the other hand, the reference to more popular superheroes like Superman and Kamen Rider does leave the series in an interestng conundruma Afer all, if oth heroes exist in the same universe as Kinnikuman then why don’t they ever help out in matches? Now, the most reasona le answer is ‘its just a pop culture reference relax’ ut I like thinking oth Kamen Rider and Sups were too usy dealing with the Shocker organizaton and the entrety of Crisis on Infnite Earths as my good to explanatona

Dragon Ball, y comparison is in theory tmelessa The frst chapter of the series opens in a classically fairy tale/myth sort of way (ftng that the frst saga of the series was roughly ased on Journey to the West) and most everyone is doing a rough version of their world’s take on Kung Fu (which if you want more I highly recommend Derek Palderk’s Dragon Bally Culture series in either kindle or print version for far more Dragon info then you could ever possi ly want or need in a good way)a With adventuring added ina

However, its the litle things that etray Dragon Ball’s 1984 startng yeara Things like technology and fashiona Now, granted, the series does have more fantastcal technology such as tme machines, fying cars, and everything a out the concept of Capsulesa But its the small things like Roshi’s VCR player and exercising tapes, Commander Red talking to Tao through a corded phone, and the general design of Frezia’s entre space army that etray the 1980s era it was madea

As for fashion, given Toriyama’s vastly underrated sense of character and clothing design (for a so called lazy man he sure does give the cast a lot of diferent outits throughout the manga’s original run) he makes the 80s/90s fashion sense of the series work a lot eter then a lot of movies and TV shows of the tme, honestlya Toriyama makes it a part of Dragon Ball’s charming aesthetc that can e enjoyed without ustng a gut at the sheer comic colorfulness of most 80s fashiona At any rate, Bulma makes the ig hair work far eter then a lot of real life actresses and models dida

As for the overall setng, the Dragon World (or Dragon Earth if you prefer) is not our eartha Yes, the setng with capsules, name puns eing rampant when last names are a rarity (for some unexplained and looking ack odd as hell reason), fying cars, space aliens, scouters, and monkey tailed young oys turning into giant laser spewing apes when they see a full moon to name just a few, is not in fact out eartha

The Dragon World does not have our landmasses and as such doesn’t have our natonsa There is no America or Japan or China or Russiaa Just a unch of democratcally elected Mayors of a unch of random cites and Districts (which possi ly go up to 500 as our hero Son Goku lives in East District 493) who are in turn ruled y a dog person king (who’s ancestor may or may not have goten the jo y way of the ttular dragon allsa DB the series is vague in that area sadly)a

As such nailing the cast in dragon all to real life ethnicity categories is a tghtrope spread over a very tricky quagmire at esta

Is Goku Japanese like his original anime voice would suggest? Or is he closer to Chinese like his Monkey King Origins would imply otherwise? Or does the fact that he is a Saiyan mean that even applying things like ‘Asian’ or ‘White’ in themselves is an ultmately pointless goal in of itself?

Same with his wife Chichia She sure as hell acts like every Japanese Tiger Mother to ever spawn a child(who needs to protect the planet when you can e a scholar? Not a specifc kind of scholar mind youa Just A Scholara) ut her origins are like Goku, ted to Journey of the West so does that make her Chinese? Or if her ‘country’ style Japanese is anything to go y in the anime does it make her and goku closer to something more Midwestern or American Southern comparison wise?

The point eing, while I won’t elitle anyone for making the efort to line the cast of Dragon Ball up with real life ‘races’ as it were I ultmately think its one of those deals that will su jectvely depend greatly on the individual in queston

As for the series Kinnikuman it takes place, as I said efore, in the real worlda This in turn means that its one of THE most diverse rosters in Jump period if not one of the largest too oota What the series overall (including the sequel, the 2011 re oot series, and that crazy tme travel arc series) lacks in gender equality/female wrestlers it more than makes up for it sheer natonal diferences and insanely creatve creatures to ever step into a wrestling ringa Americaa Japana Chinaa The UKa The then Soviet Uniona These and many more are just some of the places the Cojin of Kinnikuman come froma

Hell, I’ll give the duo of Yudetamago credit where its due they actually have a prety decently accurate ( y 80s wrestling and Jump standards anyways) view of Americaa We have a Texas Cojin, a Natve American human turn Cojin (long story, not going to get into it here), and even a foot all Cojin (who does even less then Yamcha if one can elieve such a thing)a

Granted, those are American stereotypes frst and foremost ut are the likes of Terryman or Specialman really that much diferent from the likes of Sargent Slaughter or any of the other ig name wrestlers of the 80s and their larger than life personalites?

One downside of such a large cast is the fact that this naturally leads to some wrestlers (like the a ove mentoned Specialman and a few poor comic Cojin saps) eing more Jo er then an actual threat, to use some appropriate wrestling terminologya Which isn’t to say that a num er of former heels turns faces or the like don’t get their crack at ‘doing something’ atle wise ut given that the name of the series IS Kinnikuman and not say, Cojin Wrestlers for example, it does not take a rocket scientst to put two and two together on who’s going to e doing most of the heavy lifing fghtng wisea

Dragon Ball, despite what some random dragon all forum commentators may say on the su ject, is not in itself ted to Goku’s simple (if somewhat asic and land at tmes) goal of ‘ ecome stronger ecause I feel like it’a Goku is the protagonist ut that’s just ecause Toryaimia chose to make him the protagonista Unlike the likes of, say, Naruto or Harry Poter (or Kinnikuman for that mater) or any other main character named series, Dragon Ball could e a out any of the cast and it could stll work so long as the ttular alls are involved at some pointa

Afer all, part of what made Goku the Ace for his friends is the fact that he just fat out got eter training then they did frst and had ‘I’ma fghtn’ alien’ as a ackground going for hima And given how much the humans made progress wise in slightly less then the full year they had for the Saiyans (weaker then Goku and Piccolo to stronger then Radtz’s implied 1200 power level) I’m not unconvinced they could have handled things like the Time Cham er, The Kaio Ken, or Gravity training if they were given the plot focus for ita

Hell, if I’m completely honest I’d say the likes of Yamcha, Tien, and Krillin would have made for far more interestng protagonists with far more human goalsa And what eter way to show this then y doing another round of comparison (no I won’t do this for everyone, this series comparison is already getng long enough in the tooth as it is ut I might make them for shorter one of comparisons someday)a

Terryman vs Krillin

Both Terryman and Krillin have at frst lush nothing in common save for eing the secondary hero to their respectve protagonista However, I think a closer look proves otherwisea

Both Terryman and Krillin started out as jerks in their original appearance in their respectve mangaa who turned into eter people afer eing efriended y the main heroa Both characters, much like Kinnikuman and Son Goku, also represent their series respectve philosophy on ecoming strongera

And oth have also goten their fair share of screen tme and ‘due’ as it were in terms of ‘Doing things of importance’a

Since he’s the lesser known of the two I’ll start with the Texan Cojin himself, Terrymana

Terryman when he frst appears in the early parts of the story is portrayed as a self centered Cojin who will only help the people of Japan in return for cold hard casha At frst the Japanese Government is willing to comply, as it eats eing saved y a Cojin as useless as Kinnikuman, ut when a child does not have enough money to save his endangered father Terry stomps the kid away without a second thoughta

Kinnikuman, who has just witnessed this acton frst hand, does the only sane and ratonal thing to do in a situaton like thisa

He walks over, decks Terryman, turns to the kid and says ‘Come on, let’s go save your dad!’

Its at this point in the story that Terry goes from vague foreign heel of sorts (the wrestling angle hadn’t quite taken over yet) to one of Kinnikuman’s strongest allies and supportersa Heck, the two even tag team as the ‘Machine Guns’ at countless points throughout the series, to say nothing of Terryman going so far as to take a literal ullet for Kinnikuman during the 20th Cojin Olympicsa

Krillin, y comparison, is not quite to the level of Terryman’s jerkwadery ut stll y no means a pleasant or good person in his frst few introductory chaptersa Krillin at the start was everything Goku was nota Cowardly, arrogant ordering on smug, a cynic, a pervert (to the point where he has to old on to Goku’s shoulders when the two travel on the Flying Nim us1 or lank if you perfer), a cheat, a lair, and knowledgea le a out the concept of porn magazinesa

So what changed? Goku changes him in part and partly facing his past (sketchy as it is laid out for us in the manga) at the 21st tournamenta Despite all of his seeming outward confdence in his a ilites Krillin is at heart incredi ly unsure of himself thanks to the a usive nature of his older Orin Temple fellow monks who have no dou t spent most of Krillin’s years elitling him and physically knocking the stuffing out out hima

Underneath the ravo in his a ilites and general ratsh personality is a very insecure young oy with confdence issuesa Which is ultmately I think what makes Krillin a more interestng character then Gokua Whereas Goku wants to get strong for his own sake, never eing satsfed for his current level of strength, Krillin at frst wants to get strong for And to Krillin’s credit, he does keep up with Goku in his training with Roshi, eing only slightly ehind him in terms of progress (which considering Goku’s alien

1 To e fair to Krillin given that Roshi and Bulma are some of the only other examples that we have to go on as ‘unpure of heart’ y the fying magic cloud’s standards I’m not wholly unconvinced the fying fuf all isn’t just a prudea nature is prety damn impressive)a Krillin, afer years of eing the per-ver al and literal punching ag of his Orin Temple seniors (or at least two assholes who pushed Krillin to the point where tracking down a mystcal old man martal arts master who might not even exist in the middle of the ocean seemed like a via le and good idea)a Naturally, having done training that would make Clark “Doc” Savage gawk that has pushed Krillin to the Dragon Ball version One Punch Man standards (aka stupidly strong physically) Krillin naturally crushes his former tormentors in the preliminaries for the 21st World Martal Arts Tournament/Strongest Under the Heavensa

Now with that it of development out of the way one might expect Krillin to gain more confdence has he grew older, right?

Well, yes and noa Krillin afer the Training for the 21st Tournament Arc does ecome a ‘nicer’ character not unlike Terryman’s change in personalitya And yet where there was rash over confdence in his a ilites (although eing a le to run 100 meters in just 10 seconds does put him at Olympic level) there comes a sort of more relatea le nervousness a out his charactera Where as Goku will go into atle with a determined glare on his face or a confdent smile if in a more causal spar, Krillin will e sweatng ullets and shaking with nervesa

By comparison Terryman has far more confdence in his own a ilites and while a frequent tag team partner of Kinnikuman never feels like he’s in the Muscle Planet prince’s shadowa

A fnal comparison etween Krillin and Terryman are how their respectve fan ases see them at least as far as America is concerneda While oth are hardly without their fans oth are looked down for either eing less then impressive fghtng style wise (Terryman uses su missions which while hardly a ad style lacks the fash of the Kinniku Buster) or eing a ‘weak coward pussy’ (Krillin)a I’ll leave it to you as to which of them has it worse in their respectve fan asesa

However, Kinnikuman isn't perfect y any meansa

 Artwork at lot sketchier compared to Toriyama's (who already head Dra Slump under his elt y the tme of startng dragon all) which I’m not sure is a result of the artst eing new to the manga pu lishing usiness at the tme or just the artst’s choice of sketchier drawing tools compared to Toriyama’s more detailed and solid line art approacha Whatever the reason, Kinnikuman’s sketchier art in the frst one third of the series does impact the acton in places such as the 20th Cojin tournament arc to name just one examplea By comparison while many of the preliminary fghts of the 21st World Martal Arts Tournament might have een simple, Toriyama’s art was solid enough to make the simple art easy to follow and seea  A num er of villain to good guy transitons just come the hell out of nowherea Credit where it’s due to Dragon Ball at least with Tien, Vegeta, Piccolo and the Androids you at least got to see the logic ehind their change on page or screen or they weren't that evil in the frst placea  Adding to the a ove point, the way Kinnikuman reacts to some characters sacrifcing their lives (they don't stay dead long and come ack at a rate that make’s Dragon Ball’s look almost underplayed y comparison) you'd think they had een life long uds/Justce Cojin y the way some of cast reacta  Also, while some of the designs for a lot of the wrestlers are cool and creatve (thanks in part to the fans around the country that sent many diferent character ideas in) there are some are a it TOO out there if that makes any sense, though credit to Yudetamago they do make for some damn crazy atles that make Dragon Ball almost look sane y comparisona  And the lack of female wrestlers is weak even y 80s Jump standardsa Afer all even Dragon Ball had 23rd tournament Chichi, Videl, and 18a Heck, though she was played for laughs the 21st tournament fghter Ranfan did make it to the fnal 8 fghters of that tournament on nothing more then her own skill (otherwise everyone would have known a out her underwear plan from earlier in the preliminaries)a  While Kinnkuman does have a stronger growth of character compared to Goku’s more causal of screen maturaton, his slides ack to cowardice while not wholly unreasona le (the acton of the Devil Cojin alone live up to their name to say nothing of the Perfect Cojin who are even worse then them) do get a it tresome afer 300 something chaptersa One step forward, half a step ack as it werea  While the pop culture references of Kinnikuman do give it a stronger sense of tme/setng compared to Dragon Ball’s original ‘made up on the fy’ world making they also are the series dou le edge sworda Some like parody references to Superman or Rocky are one thinga But when Yudetamago get more local in their 80s pop culture references (as in stuf strictly to Japan that’s more then just Kamen Rider) you had eter hope that the translators notes explain said references or you’ll pro a ly e lost otherwisea  While the early reference to American and Japanese superheroes are cute at frst if you start thinking a out the implicatons with any sort of seriousness (as people online are want to do) the headaches start to uild upa  Yudetamago, while I admire the amount of crazy designs oth you and your fans have come up with over the years I have just one minor qui le on some of the namesa If I may paraphrase an old quote of the Nostalgia Critc “You can’t just slap ‘man’ on someone and expect them to e a fully developed three dimensional charactera” Like, whatever else you can say a out the 4Kids du of the sequel anime their names y and large were far eter compared to the original names at least as far as the sequel Kinnikuman series wenta  By contrast, Toriyama-sensei? Last names are used for a freaking reason and just having them ‘not e a thing’ in the larger Dragon World makes no freaking sensea Like, I get ita It explains why say, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, ect all have only one name ut a throw away line like that just raises so many questonsa

Finally comes the series respectve overall popularitya In this area Dragon Ball crushes more then a Kinniku Buster into a concert arena stagea Granted, Kinnkuman on a whole would not have lasted multple anime, OVA movies, a few outs of fller or its sequel anime had een commission more seasons from 4Kids Entertainment had the series not een populara Hell, none of the original Jump reading target audience would have othered to send in any designs for the series if they didn’t like ita

And yet Dragon Ball is stll getng new content and sequels (well, midquel if you wish to argue semantcs) to this day where as Kinnkuman is mostly just a comic with a fair it of solid acton fgure merch ehind ita

Why is this? Is it ecause Dragon Ball had a stronger sense of progression/gaining strength compared to Kinnikuman’s more statc system? Is it ecause Dragon Ball had a smaller and less out there (and thus more memora le) cast? Is it ecause Dragon Ball’s heel turn for its characters were relatvely more explained? Could it e that people just preferred Son Goku’s more idealized simpler/pure hearted personality compared to Suguru’s more fawed ut human characterizaton? Or do people just like the few cute female fghters Dragon Ball has compared to the sausage fest that is the Kinnikuman franchise?

Honestly, I’d say its a mixture of all that and more when you get down to ita Some of it pro a ly has to do with the fact that Toriyama was a stronger artst then Yudetamago was and had a stronger sense of fghtng choreography and was working with a more intercity source material (Chinese Kung Fu flms vs the throws and power moves of pro wrestling)a Other the fact that Dragon Ball takes place in its own world similar ut ultmately very diferent from our own with a sort of ‘anything can happen’ here kind of vi ea

But ultmately what it comes down to is that dragon all has a stronger sense of progress and a comparatvely more lika le protagonista Goku might e super strong startng out ut he stll faces people even stronger then him and is always willing to push himself to the next level, never eing fully satsfed with his own current powera In additon, early Goku is simple and charming in a way that’s infectousa

While I’d say that Goku is a far less interestng character even in his own series (not unlike how Superman is at tmes the least interestng mem er of the Justce League depending on the Era and writer in queston) he is a lot more lika le out of the gate then Suguru’s more fawed ut ultmately harder to like personality is (not helped y eing mocked and poked fun at even as he progresses as a wrestler)a

All in all I do recommend checking out the original manga for oth seriesa The entrely of Dragon Ball can e purchased legally though any num er of means though the original Kinnikuman not quite so mucha Kinnikuman, in its original 1979 to mid to late 80s run was never fully released in the West to my knowledgea As such, though I normally advocate for ‘supportng the official release’ when possi ly, as an alternatve I would suggest the likes of Kissmanga or others of its kind to view the original seriesa