There’s a lot to be serious about in shonen manga and anime: childhood trauma, deadly battles, brutal defeats, world-ending drama, and debates over power levels and cross-universe “vs” matches. Most of these tropes were popularised by the grandaddy of the battle series, Dragon Ball, which is still chugging along.
But for those that miss the more comedic roots of Akira Toriyama’s franchise, you’ll find this – and much more – in spades in its forebear, Kinnikuman.
You may be more familiar with Kinnikuman by its English title, Ultimate Muscle. While the manga began serialization in 1979 (five years before Dragon Ball) and received its first anime adaptation just four years later, it didn’t officially reach the West until the early 2000s. Despite needing significant (necessary) cuts, Ultimate Muscle gained a cult following, only to disappear after 2006. Meanwhile, the Kinnikuman manga and its various spinoffs in Japan petered out by 2013. Cut to the summer of 2024, and Kinnikuman Perfect Origin Arc began dropping weekly episodes on Netflix. Created to celebrate the franchise’s 40th anniversary, the new show is adapted from the revival arc of the manga and returns for the latter half of the Winter 2024-25 anime season.
Creator duo Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada (aka ‘Yudetamago’) initially began their manga, in which superheroes compete in interplanetary wrestling matches, as a parody of Ultraman. You don’t need to know anything about Ultraman, superheroes, or wrestling to enjoy Kinnikuman. And speaking from personal experience, you don’t need to know anything about Kinnikuman to enjoy Perfect Origin Arc. An exposition-heavy “Episode 0” does most of the work filling you in where you might have been Googling to get up to speed. However, you could skip even this and dive right in: the story, in essence, comprises legacy chojin (superheroes) having to team up with legacy akuma chojin (villains) to fight a bunch of bigger bad guys from another world who are called the Perfect Large Numbers. Safe to say those who live for tournament arcs will be well-fed.
Every episode revolves almost entirely around wrestling matches, which is perfect if you’re after low-commitment easy-viewing on par with your favorite Saturday morning cartoon you may have dipped in and out of as a kid. But to say that Perfect Origin Arc is “leave your brain at the door” entertainment isn’t to downplay its creativity or quality. Strangely, the titular alien prince who looks like he’s wearing a mask of his own skin is one of the more normal-looking characters in a cast that includes chojin based on ramen noodles, babies, toilets, springs, cassette players, and more. Your mind might wander as you try to imagine what the quality of life is for a guy whose entire body is a metal coil… only to refocus when said guy delivers Hellraiser-levels of violence on his opponent in a ring situated on an Egyptian pyramid (yes, with an audience – wrestling fans are nothing but committed in the world of Kinnikuman).
The hardcore nature of the fighting catches the uninitiated off-guard, starkly contrasting the silliness of the character designs, and, indeed, the “fake” nature of wrestling. However, the handsomely crafted animation style by Production I.G keeps things firmly in the realm of Looney Tunes. The ludicrous cartoonishness of torrents of blood and inhuman bodily contortions will make you laugh more than they will churn your stomach. It also prevents the nuts-and-bolts formula of match after match from becoming dull: the escalation in absurd action combined with unique and peculiar powersets make every Perfect Origin Arc battle wildly unpredictable. This is complemented by some brilliant voice work from actors who are clearly enjoying letting loose to embody this weird and wacky cast.
It’s not just a visual and audio treat, though; the Kinnikuman revival is surprisingly emotionally engaging, too. The anime deftly laces its fights with enough flashbacks, sparring dialogue, and wrestling-style melodrama for the personal stakes to be as clear as the overarching, world-saving ones. Granted, you won’t be bawling your eyes out when your favorite chojin suffers defeat, but for such a large ensemble of characters with a wealth of history between them, you might be surprised how affected you feel when an anthropomorphized toy you met a handful of episodes back crumbles to dust in the arms of his best friend.
Kinnikuman Perfect Origin Arc probably won’t top any Best Of lists, but as a revival of a dormant shonen classic, it should at least go down as a nostalgic delight for existing fans, and an accessible piece of pure entertainment for new ones.