Ultimate Muscle - History

History

The manga was created in 1979 by anime artistic team Yudetamago (Nakai Yoshinori and Takashi Shimada) while they were still in high school.

Kinnikuman Nisei was first published in the Japanese men's magazine Weekly Playboy, aimed at the now grown-up fans of the original. Another manga aimed at children called Kinnikuman II-Sei: All Chōjin Dai Shingeki was published in V-Jump. The anime was first broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo on January 1, 2002 for 51 episodes until its cancellation on December 25. The anime was broadcast in the United States in 2002 on the Fox Box (now known as 4Kids TV). The anime was more popular in the United States than Japan and is one of the few anime that had a second season made especially for the American market. Although the series ended afterward, the second season of Ultimate Muscle, titled Kinnikuman Second Generations Ultimate Muscle began airing in Japan on April 7, 2004 on TV Tokyo, but only 13 episodes were shown. The series resumed on January 4, 2006 as Kinnikuman Second Generations Ultimate Muscle 2. There are a total of 77 episodes of Ultimate Muscle and two movies based on the TV series. According to the forward for volume 25 of the manga, the 4Kids version of Kinnikuman Nisei aired in Japan, too.

The manga began being published in English by VIZ Media in December 2003. It was originally published in Japan by Shueisha.