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Kinnikuman (キン肉マン, literally "muscle man") was a manga created by a group of two Japanese high school students, Nakai Yoshinori and Takashi Shimada, to parody the immensely popular Ultraman. They are known under the pen name Yudetamago. The manga was published in
Shueisha's Weekly
Shonen Jump.
Kinnikuman's powers came from eating garlic, which would gradually fill the "garlic
meter" on his forehead until he could unleash powerful "stink attacks". Kinnikuman developed into its own series, and
episodes would usually involve professional wrestling
scenarios in which Kinnikuman would fight ridiculous parodies of popular Japanese superheroes and their adversaries, including "The Toilet
Paper Mummy", a giant hand, and monsters based on things like pachinko machines and telephones.
The wildly popular Kinnikuman figurines came to the United
States in the mid-1980s under the brand name M.U.S.C.L.E., which stands for
"Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere".
For the release, Kinnikuman was renamed "Muscle Man", and Buffaloman was renamed "Teri-Bull". The figures were only available
in random assortments, and originally were only available in a sort of fleshy pink, but
eventually other colors were used as well. Accessories included a wrestling championship belt that opened up and could be used to
carry figures, and a wrestling ring where most of the figures could be squeezed into a pair of plastic clamps and then whacked
together using a pair of joysticks.
There have also been numerous Kinnikuman video games, anime, and other toys. M.U.S.C.L.E. inspired a similar American toy,
Monster in My
Pocket, in which the figures were based on typical western monsters rather than Japanese pro-wrestler parodies.
A sequel manga to Kinnikuman, called Kinnikuman II Sei was written by Yudetamago, starring Suguru Muscle's son,
Mantaro Muscle a.k.a. Kid Muscle. Kinnikuman II Sei is known as Ultimate Muscle in most English-speaking
countries.
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