The Muscleman Vs the Monkey King Or Kinnikuman Vs Dragon Ball The
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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