Kinnikuman Gold Mask arc, pt.6: I’ll finish this arc one day, I swear. Anyway, the big boss has finally appeared: Akuma Shogun! Also, everyone is still tiny and inside Warsman’s body. #Kinnikuman#GoldMask
The first to feel the Shogun’a wrath is Geronimo, leading to one of the series’ most infamous flubs: as Geronimo gets spun round and round, a second Geronimo is visible in the group reaction shot. Oops. Sadly, this mistake is corrected in later editions.
The parody manga The Chojin-sama by Makochin Ishihara (a cross between Kinnikuman and his earlier series The Sanmei-sama) offers the theory that Geronimo is hit so hard that he has an out-of-body experience, and this explanation is later used in the Chojin Encyclopedia.
Geronimo isn’t finished yet though: when the five-tiered rings collapse, he holds them all up in order to save his friends. What a guy!
Kinnikuman and co escape via Warsman’s tear ducts and return to normal size. Everyone chips in some of their Chojin Power to revive Geronimo, but it’s no use: Geronimo is a human after all! He admired the Chojin who saved him as a kid and so wanted to become one.
That’s right, this whole time he’s been a perfectly ordinary, non-super powered human…who beat a top Devil Chojin in single combat, restarted his own heart with his bare hands, held up five wresting rings, etc. I don’t know what Zamasu is talking about: humans are awesome!
Since his human body is incompatible with Chojin Power, Geronimo dies. When Akuma Shogun mocks his death, Kinnikuman angrily attacks him, but it’s not the time or place for that. They’ve got to settle things in the ring, but first Kinnikuman must face Ashura Man.
At this moment, who should arrive but Buffaloman? When last seen he was a headless corpse, but now he’s alive again, because why not? While dead he helped out Terry against Ashura Man, but now he sides with his old boss Akuma Shogun.
As the Kinniku/Ashura match goes on though, Buffaloman begins giving Kinnikuman advice. The Ashura Buster attack is similar to the Kinniku Buster…but as master of the Kinniku Buster, Kinnikuman ought to be able to spot the Ashura Buster’s weakness!
Thanks to Buffaloman, Kinnikuman realizes that he can just pull his head out to escape the hold. He counterattacks Ashura Man by driving his head into a small piece of ice in midair, which doesn’t seem like it should hurt at all, yet does somehow
Next he finishes Ashura Man off by driving him into the ground. There, that looks a little more painful. Defeated, Ashura Man sacrifices himself to merge with Akuma Shogun, who now has the power of all six Devil Knights
Even worse, by beating the Ashura Buster, Kinnikuman has shown how his own Kinniku Buster can be nullified. He needs a new finishing move! To buy him time, Buffaloman officially switches sides and takes on Akuma Shogun, revealing his hairless head in the process!
This last part has caused much debate among Kinnikuman fans. Is Buffaloman straight-up bald, or what? The Chojin Encyclopedia says the “current mainstream theory” is that he temporarily shaved his head to mark his transition from Devil Chojin to Justice Chojin.
Next Time: how long can Freeza hold out against Broly while Goku and Vegeta perfect the Fusion Dance?!
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November, Age 762: on Earth, above Earth, and up in the afterlife, everyone continues to train hard in preparation for Vegeta and Nappa’s arrival. Even Kaio gets in on the action, although he soon tuckers out. #HistoryofEver
Goku hasn’t trained under 10G since his month in the time chamber as a kid, so he’s a little out of practice. To warm up, he spends weeks catching Bubbles, then (in the anime) nearly as long catching Gregory. By November though, he’s ready for a speed run…
As mentioned yesterday, the DBZ anime’s Saiyan arc training filler incorporates many ideas which Toriyama provided for the anime staff, and Gregory is a prime example. Toriyama came up with his character design and a few notes when asked for an extra character for Goku’s training
Age 761, let’s say November: Goku is dead, but in this series that’s only a temporary inconvenience at most. Word goes down the pipeline not to resurrect him before he can get some solid training in. #HistoryofEver
Meanwhile on Earth, the band gets back together again to climb up to Kami’s for training of their own. Down on the ground, Lunch is the same as ever…but Upa looks a bit different.
(The shortchanged ghost is a reference to the famous Japanese ghost story Banchō Sarayashiki, the joke being that in Japanese both plates and paper money are counted with the measure word 枚/mai. One Piece and Yu Yu Hakusho also riff on this tale. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banchō_Sa…)
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai sp.1: it’s a clip show. Frankly I think the staff have earned a break or three after the Baran arc, so I don’t mind too much. And this might be a good time to go through some stuff from the Dai Perfect Book. #DragonQuest
This guide starts off the Memorial Story section, reviewing Dai and co’s journey (just like a recap episode!), showing where each major battle was fought and what levels the characters were at. Yep, it’s character levels just like a DQ game. What could possibly go wrong?
This isn’t the first time the characters have been given proper DQ stats: the manga volumes feature periodic character stat sheets (left out in some releases), which Riku Sanjo came up with by raising a party in DQ III (as the Perfect Book explains later on).
Age 761: five years after becoming world champion and marrying Chi Chi, Goku’s life is irrevocably changed by unwelcome visitors. He’ll have to join forces with his arch-rival Piccolo in order to beat his most powerful foe yet and rescue his kidnapped son. #HistoryofEver
Also, later that same year Raditz shows up.
Raditz tracks down his brother and gives him a semi-accurate explanation of his Saiyan origins. Sure, he doesn’t seem to know the truth about Planet Vegeta’s destruction or the real reason Bardock sent Goku to Earth, etc etc, but cut him some slack. He’s a fighter, not a teacher!
Age 760 or so: from their base on Planet Freeza No.79, Freeza’s forces control at least 282% of all inhabited worlds. But they’re still expanding! The Saiyan trio of Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz conquer Planet Shatts with overwhelming power (and no visual movement). #HistoryofEver
(This Tsufruian clearly thought he could escape the Saiyans by immigrating to Planet Shatts. How naive!)
Sadly, Freeza and his retinue are unmoved by the Saiyans’ hard work, and a tense stand-off ensues. Only the ever-impulsive Nappa dares break the stillness.
Age 760 to 770: after decades of work, Doctor Mu completes Planet M2, home base for his Machine Mutants as they gather energy for Baby. Mu converts an alien named Rild into a Machine Mutant linked to M2 itself, thus making him stronger than Buu (well, one of them) #HistoryofEver
Rild’s connection to M2 is explained in GT, but it’s only in the GT Perfect File Vol.1 that we learn he started out as an ordinary alien before Mu restructured him into a Machine Mutant (similar to Gero’s later treatment of Lapis and Lazuli).
Around 759~760: Goku gets interviewed by Weekly Jump! Or so says the Daizenshuu 7 timeline. Jump’s done “interviews” with the cast of Yu Yu Hakusho and The Adventure of Dai, so I assume the daizenshuu is referencing a similar feature for DB…but I’ve been unable to find it yet.