Hello and welcome to our weapon air yet in exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.

And I'm brenda with color. Your anime, Mr. sako. The signature move from mcfolley, aka mankind.

But you lost me on that one.

No one else watched wwf. What the hell?

I'm so sorry. No saw like two pay per view things when I was sleeping over at a cousin's house, but that's it.

Stone cold. The rock.

Let's see if our guest has any extra help for you this week. We are joined by someone you know from Young Justice. Someone you know from Cannonbusters. Big city greens. We are with xeno Robinson.

Hey, I really wanted to go and I'm in Anime Robinson to follow up.

Honestly, that would have been perfect.

Yeah, I was like waiting in the wings. Waiting for the jdq.

Much better.

Yeah. Welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

It's always nice having an anime professional in the building.

Somewhat.

Above expert.

You get paid more for it than we do.

That is true. Not much though.

So yeah. We are in our Four Kids entertainment block and Saturday morning, my childhood. Yes. It's the most formative questionable content that.

Was put on TV.

Who let this go? Who agreed to this?

Some American, I'm sure. American?

We can buy these cartoons on the cheap. Where are they from?

Japan. They don't know anything about entertainment. We're going to bring it over here and change everyone's names to Tom and Eddie. Give it all brand new teenage songs, good Christian name, do our own pseudo rock theme songs and butcher the original imaginative world that this used to be a part of.

I don't know about butcher because I still will top on that One Piece Wrap.

Oh, wait, no, hold on. The one Piece wrap and the shaman King intro are.

Chopper is doctoring how.

Else would we know if Chopper is Doctoring?

Yeah, the rap doesn't tell us.

It's more informative than it is educational.

That's the point.

So, yeah, we have a show I was unfamiliar with but just looks wild as all hell. This week we're watching Ultimate Muscle.

Ultimate Muscle. Oh, my God. So Four Kids is like, one of my introductions to anime and also like 90% of my childhood. So I kind of remember this show.

Yeah. So we know these nerds history with anime. What was your upbringing with it besides this piece of art? What were your formative shows that got you into it?

Dragon Ball Z, for sure. I think everybody most people. That's how it starts. Yeah. Dragon Buzzie for sure. And then four kids like shaman King. One piece ultimate Muscle Fighting. Food on. Like four kids learning food on. Introduced a bunch of anime to Americans. Even though it wasn't super accurate, they still kind of did it. So I guess I have to give them credit for that. Oh, and yugio. I don't know if that was four kids, right? That was four kids.

Yeah.

Believe so.

Yeah, that's how and I used to come home after school and watch or even wake up on Saturday mornings, come home after school and watch Dragon Ball Z. And then wake up Saturday mornings and watch all the other shows that I just named. And that was kind of my saturdays. Every Saturday. That's what I would do. Get my get my bowl of Captain Crunch or Lucky charms and watch four kids watch four kids TV.

It's very sad to me that there was a definitive end to Saturday morning cartoon.

That is heartbreaking.

I don't know how else you just amassed like three or 4 hours of cartoons a week without the Saturday morning block.

Right. What do kids do now? I mean, I guess all the cartoons are in the palm of their hands and everything, but no kid kids are going to stop having the experience of that. waking up in the morning before your parents going and getting your bowl of cereal and waiting for all your cartoons to start or watching cartoons while eating your cereal. Like, kids aren't going to really do that anymore.

That's that's sad.

Or if you get there like too early, you get there like half an hour early before the show you want to watch.

Right.

And then you find this weird actually. Like, what is this obsession of hunting down any information about it?

Or you'd wake up and it'd be like an infomercial. But you knew. You knew after this infomercial, my show is going to start.

Who the hell's you can pick up grapefruits with this vacuum.

I don't care.

I don't care. Just give me my anime. Where is Dittymont? Yeah, it's like you knew saturn when the cartoons were over, when you started seeing real people and you go, ew, real people. Human. I'm out of here.

I'm done. Yeah.

So yeah. dana and Brendan. Did you watch Ultimate Muscle growing up? I apparently was watching this channel at the time and did not register that this was a thing. Did you know about the existence of this show?

No, I did not.

Hell yeah, I did. fucking loved ultimate Muscle Man.

Of course you did.

Of course I did.

Ultimate Muscle had like a weird block. It was like there one day and then wasn't just like, what that and fighting food on. There were like two shows that were there one day and just disappeared from the lineup.

Cryptid anime.

What happened to Ultimate Muscle? We are going to find out.

I honestly think I was just flipping through the channels and it was like I said, I got there early one day. I was waiting for kirby. kirby right back at yeah, I got there a little too early. And then I saw the ultimate muscle opening. I was like, I don't know what the fuck this, but I'm in. Like, I'm 100% in. So I got sunk real quick into.

That ultimate that's so bad.

I don't think I've researched the show and immediately gone. Yeah, Brendan watched it.

This makes sense. It's on brand. Check that.

So we are going to watch the first three episodes. I'm bouncing off one rope. I'm going to the next. I keep on bouncing, and I'm jumping into my spot on the couch.

Oh, yeah.

I'm so jazzed. We gotta before we move on, everyone's got to do a macho mancho man.

The wrestler voice.

Does he do the cream of the crop?

Cream of the crop.

Because also in the first spiderman movie, you ain't going nowhere. gotcha.

Oh, yeah.

I love doing that voice.

See, that's the most wrestling I watched.

Spiderman One. That's your wrestling experience.

This is completely unrelated. I have no memory of this, but I apparently used to watch that spiderman, like, every day.

Spiderman One.

No memory of it.

Yes.

Wow.

You were pressed that, like, year.

I guess. So it's probably one of those if you put it on right now, you just know it word for word.

Just for sharp.

Mosis.

Osborne Corporation. Okay.

Kind of a scientist money.

Anyways, we have some wild stuff to talk about today.

We got some spandex to get into.

Yes. That was a great segue.

So, yeah, for episode one of just plot glower going on here.

I don't know when I started watching the show, but I don't remember this episode at all. So it's like fresh but not. And I now realize why I watched this show because it's great.

Something we learned from our last episode watching Tokyo Meumu was sometimes four kids just decided first episodes aren't that important. They'll just move around. What's the first episode? So I wouldn't be surprised if they tried something 15 episodes in that would.

Make sense to me. I would totally believe that. That's something four kids would do.

Yeah, because who needs narrative structure when.

You'Re trying to watch it? They don't they don't get all they want to see is the guy do the thing, and that's it. That's all they need. Yeah, and that's and I and I feel like now I understand that because there are so many jokes that only an adult would get. And it's like, I get it. They would write that in there. I feel like this writer is having fun, but also, like, no kid's going to get that. You're not expecting adults to watch this either, are you? But maybe I guess if you're watching cartoons with your kid, like, a lot.

Of kid shows will have the like, okay, let's throw the parents who are forced watching this a bone every once in a while.

Right?

But just the pure pun density of this. You know comedy scholars are not going to be watching this, right?

I love it. This lightened my soul. I've had a terrible week, and this is just this is a release I needed of just a pun maelstorm.

I think that I knew that this show was going to be amazing when in its first two minutes, a giant fist decided to crash into Earth. And I was like, I'm on board.

Yes.

Let's go.

Let me set the stage. We got the intergalactic Wrestling Federation narration talking about a payperview fight of a giant fist full of a wrestling team called the dmp.

A wrestling team of aliens called the dmp.

Oh, forgive me.

How did I leave that out?

Some aliens in a Fist rocket ship, I guess, crash land into Earth and I guess just challenged the world to fight.

It was the greatest landing in Fissory.

Just came out. The Fist asking for fades, just demanding hands from everyone.

These aliens crash. They're just causing mayhem. And the Muscle League of Earth decides that they're going to take on these bad guys, and they're going to try to knock them out.

And we don't see any of it.

No quick snippets.

How unfortunate.

We see them fail, I guess. So I guess the Muscle League has been established on Earth, and they're all older wrestlers, well established at this point. So they challenged them, but handily get their asses kicked. So we see a team sort of reminiscing about what we need to beat. This is some fresh blood.

King Muscle. Just like that guy. Remember that guy?

King Muscle. He was remember the champion back in the day? Weird how he mysteriously disappeared. Okay. But legend has it that King mussel has a son, and he should have the muscle juice needed to beat these aliens at their own game. Their own wrestling game.

Wrestling game.

So from this point, we get the opening, which is pure for kids.

Incredible. It is pure, man. Heroes join the operation from different planets, different nations. There's an intergalactic Federation to monitor the situation. Catch. Each and every confirmation will be broadcast on this station.

When you thought of four kids openings because this is.

And then the song just changes, like, halfway through, and it doesn't get that rhythm to it anymore.

It's a country, but rock, but soul at the same time.

You have to appeal to every child in America.

It's also the entire origin story of the main character, condensed in, like, 25 seconds.

Before we meet the main character, we need to know his whole deal. Yeah, that's some fun stuff.

I got to point out this real quick. In the opening, we see that's not the main character's face.

It's a mask.

Yeah, that was disturbing. And I cannot unsee it. That just sits in the back of my brain whenever I look at it, and it's disturbing.

It's an interesting mask, so I guess it has to come and pre installed with a hole in the middle so his little tuft of hair can pop out. Can pop out right there. I still don't I never knew back then. And I still don't know to this day if those lips are his lips or if they're the lips of the mask.

I think they're part of the mask.

Right?

People talk about his lips, too, and it's like, well, do they not know with the mask?

Just for anybody who hasn't, he has giant, giant lips that's huge, like homer simpson's goatee thing.

Just that is all mouth.

Yeah, but my question is, we see in the opening when he's putting on the mask on his son, we see the fin tail thing on the back get folded down, and we see the seams on it. So that's part of the mask. But then everyone else on the planet has that. So is everyone in a mask?

Everyone on the planet except the mom, I think. Yeah.

She doesn't have one.

For some, the mom's, like, humanish. Are they just like, human underneath? I don't know.

They're from planet Muscle. They're for sure aliens.

Yeah.

Maybe he's part human. He didn't have a fin. Maybe that's why he spilled one into his mask.

Baby, we're not that deep in the Lord.

We clearly have to watch more. This is with the goal. This is what makes this show amazing.

That was question reveal after 63.

It just leaves you with more questions, and therefore, you have to watch more.

You got to set up these mysteries.

Are the lips real? Is the fin there? What does it DPA do that makes them so terrifying? They haven't done anything. They've just shown up in this giant fist and he beat up other wrestlers. That's it.

Well, let's bring in our hero and see what he contributes to the fight.

Right?

Because right now it's nothing. We go up into space, up to Planet Muscle, where Kid Muscle is being served dinner by his butler man servant, and he sings a little song about how excited he is to eat. He does sing that little Rice.

Oh, my God.

He's told he can't have his dinner until he finishes his homework, so he.

Throws a hissy fit after I done singing the song. Now you take it away.

That was so rude. Why would you give it to me?

Why would you put it in front of his face, watch him sing the song and then go, you know what? Never mind. You can't have it anyway.

The butler loves the song.

He wants the song. I know if I give him his food, he's going to sing, and that will just make it all worth it. Now take it away.

They don't leave me in money. I just get paid in the soft. So he's doing his homework, quote unquote, looking at nudie mags in his textbook.

Which are clips, what they're supposed to be. But four kids. Four kids did them and put all.

The women cover them up.

So now he's just looking at girls who are fully dressed, but they're pretty girls studying geometry. Women, Jews, I wonder if it was actually a geometry book or if it actually was like a nudie mag in Japan, and they edited it to be a geometry book for the dove for four kids when they brought it to America. I really wonder. I really, really do.

Well, that's part of the joke. It's geometry because he's still.

Did you.

Guys know he's 14?

Jojo'S character.

What do you mean collective? What? Dad. It was surprising to me, and I guess I never I was watching like, why does this grown adult have this voice?

And why is he doing homework?

And why is he called Kid Muscle? I guess that's why.

That'Ll do it.

We're like three minutes into this first episode.

I'll rock it through this since it's all a chase sequence. grandpa comes in, tells him he has to be a champion and fight on Earth. Kid Muscles like, I'm a little baby coward. You can't do this to me. He distracts grandpa with the nudie mag and runs away. He's being pursued by cars with aliens.

Everything'S got their car.

They have cars.

Just the flesh cars of Planet Mother.

With the eyes and the lips.

They promote. The faces react to stuff too.

Yeah, they talk from the car. He uses his fart powers to launch himself away because I guess we need to establish before anything else, he can fart propel himself. Good. Thank you.

A lot of farts.

He falls off a cliff, he lands in a spaceship and accidentally, oops, launches himself to Earth.

Some convenience somehow.

Conveniently.

This was all grandpa's plan.

I knew he was going to run away. I set up this spaceship specifically to go to Earth for him. When he falls into it, face cars.

Chase him to the spaceport. So he gets blasted off to Earth, crash lands, doesn't realize he's on Earth. He finds a shed that also has.

His face on it.

Yes, just a random shed in like a children's playground. We see like swings and park equipment around. And inside the shed we find a stasis chamber where a tiny alien planet Muscle Man is. This is meat.

I love meat. I love him.

Sounds like a 45 year old man.

He's very Phil from hercules.

Very.

Someone saw hercules and was like, yeah, we can do that.

We could do the anime version of that.

Reminds me of Doctor Girlfriend from the Venture Brothers and the deepest voice.

And I think he's voiced by Dr. eggman. I'm almost positive. I'm almost positive it's Dr. eggman in that little man's voice.

Yeah.

Shockingly. This page didn't have a behind the voice actors page set up.

I doubt it. I feel like half the actors just like, don't even put my name off. Take my name off.

We can't pay without the don't worry about it.

Wikipedia, I think like the first four characters, terry has a voice and so does Kid Muscle and Meet, those are listed. But everybody else I haven't seen, but it's like a lot of old school, like four kids, people, the people who.

Hit their prime in 2002. fats.

They're still working. They still are working. You'd be surprised. They're still out there making anime. They're like doing the 6th season of yugio right now. If it's eggman, he's still doing eggman.

Yeah, true. I just learned yugio still going.

Yeah, dexter or something or other.

Seven series.

They find meat. Turns out he was Kid muscle's dad's trainer when he was champion of the Earth. And when he retired, King Muscle disappeared and Meat was like, hey, I think it's best if I freeze myself until wrestling is needed again.

The only reason.

Wake me up when wrestling is cool again.

Muscle went away, and Meat was like, well, guess I'm dead until someone just wakes me up. I have no life. I am but a ghost trapped to the wrestling vessel.

Rustling is over. I have no will to live anymore. I have no reason to exist.

When wrestling returns, so will I.

As the prophecy for oracle told.

When.

Planet Muscle lines with the moon when.

They need a trainer again, planet Muscle.

Is in retrograde, me realizes that Kid Muscle is King muscle's son, and Kid Muscle realizes he's on Earth. So he runs out to the spaceship and finds one of the dmp hiding inside. This is our first villain. Adversarious.

Adversaries. I freaking love this chef kiss.

So good.

Unplugged my headphones.

He didn't even want to hear us talk.

Adversaries got to be again.

Oh my God.

So we have our first villain. He's literally villain, man. We know he'll stick around for a while.

He can project across a plush out of his chest very, very far. Where does it go? How does that work?

It'd be so good if there was like a mile long plus on his back and shifts to the front when he uses it.

I push all my bones into my.

Chest and project it forward really fast.

He doesn't like kid muscle. We see. Kid Muscle, one of the fun things he does as a cartoon character is he dresses up in costumes and disguises like bugs bunny and tries to talk his way out as like, a British exchange student.

I think this was supposed to be Detective conan because he got like, little shorts in the glasses.

Oh my God.

It looked very similar at least.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

Honestly. I loved that. That was my favorite part.

No, you have me mistaken.

I have to go back and study now.

Well, the disguise doesn't get very far because the adversaries still tries to kick his ass as he's evading. And Kid Muscle is like doing acrobatics to run away. Meat is like, oh, this kid's got the stuff. Does he have the ultimate muscle? In the chase, adversaries steps on Kid Muscles dinner that he brought all the way from Planet Muscle and just so enraged that the loving meal his mom prepared for him is destroyed in the grass. That rage channels into the ultimate muscle like power activation. And he is now ready to kick some ass. And Meat gives us just the episode one. Do you get it? It's his heart. His heart's. The ultimate muscle.

I love there's one line where Me says, every muscle has to be in perfect position and pumping and pumping power.

Peak power.

These writers love alliteration I mean, it.

Works for this because they are trying to channel the fun of wrestling announcers. So it does match up. It's not for kids being like, yeah, let's just do this for the hell of it. This is a show about bus drivers.

They're like, no, we can lean into.

The trope a little bit. So, yeah. With Ultimate Muscle activated, he does his signature butt buster move. Butt just, of course, slams them into the ground and yields.

Yeah, he loses. He lost.

Dead.

Does not want any of that. And he gives up. Still being held upside down. He like, whispers in his ear, okay, you win. I guess it if your first move.

Is but related, I don't want to.

Get anything else you have up here.

I don't know what other moves he has.

And then we see some mysterious hooded figures watching from afar in their cave pool and going.

We must punish him because he's the son of who he is the son of. And then they like, evil laugh their way out.

And that's episode one.

How exciting.

I was thoroughly entertained watching this first episode. This probably would take a day, like a weekend and watch this show, like the whole rest of it.

I'm tempted to I have nothing planned for tomorrow.

I'm excited. Okay, episode two. Here we go.

Here we go.

There's a long recap at the beginning.

Which that's fun and that has all.

Knowing that these were definitely shown a week apart.

It's hoping to catch all the kids that just pass it by and get it as they flip through channels.

Yeah, exactly. So we start out, and it's like, right after the fight and Meet asks Kid, he's like, so can I be a manager? Kid, come on.

Come on, kid.

I don't even want to be a wrestler, my dude. No. And then a spaceship arrives. And of course, he just got to Earth where he was supposed to go. And now he's going to yeet on out of there.

I had to pick up some meat from the store.

So he's like, no, I don't want to be abducted. And meat is like, no, we got to go. This is the big times, kid. Come on. So they board the spaceship, and they're headed toward the hercules nebula, which is very on the nose.

What's that?

And then they're on there, and there's just a bunch of buff dudes working out working out on the ship. And they're wrestlers. And Kid is like, how boring. I don't want to do this. Which is pretty much his attitude this whole episode.

Yeah. Either scared or boring.

But Mead is like, yeah, mead is like, you're destined to do this. You're destined to be just like your dad, King Muscle. And then all the wrestlers are like, that's Kid Muscle.

No way.

No Muscle.

I want to point out real quick, when he gets off there, kid Muscle says, oh, it looks like a Village People work out music video. And I feel like that reference is only for me 20 years after their who else? Who else would get that reference from an anime translating to an American kids TV show?

Yeah, because I definitely didn't understand. I had no idea what he was talking about. I was like, I'm sure that's a reference and I don't get it.

Yes. And then all of these guys introduce themselves and that's good and everything, but nothing else matters except my man.

I'm Dick. Dick Van.

Dick. Dick. Dick van dick.

Yes.

I cannot believe four kids got away with that. I have no idea who didn't catch that or who let that go. But I was like, how did they let that happen? How did that even get in there?

I could have sworn his name was gisele Man.

Someone just knew addict existed. They found that research and they're like, oh, we can sensors. Quick, call the head of the studio.

We have to call him that. It's his species.

We can't change it.

No other animal is deer like with horns.

And a very manly face. Very handsome man.

I think that guy is kaiba. I think that's the voice of kaiba.

That's kaiba's persona.

Yeah.

I will say it's not as good as Dick, dick Van Dick. But Ski Adams was introduced, and he straits a bite into an orange like a goddamn apple. He just bites into it with the skin and all. And that horrified me.

I'm pretty sure he said his name. And I was like, damn, I should write that down. That's hilarious. And then Dick dick Van dick came, and I was like, oh, never mind. I couldn't think of anything else.

I don't really remember anyone else's name because I blacked out as soon as I heard.

Priority all matters.

Yeah. So all these nice guys are introducing themselves, and then we get a mysterious boy in the corner who has a Southern accent. And every time he talked, all I heard in my mind was, yeehaw giddy.

Yeehaw giddy, yup, baby.

And he does not like King Muscle because his dad is the one who should have gotten all the attention. But he was too humble for it, and now he wants it. This boy's, Terry canyon.

I think it was canyon.

I think it was canyon. Terry canyon. He's Terry man, but he has a K on his forehead, which we don't ever get told what it stands for.

The K is for questionable.

That's what it's for.

Starting with the K.

It's for his A censored, because he cut them off before he could say anything. That was an incredible sequence that I'll let you yes.

So funny. So yes. So this is the rival. Here he is. And they're heading to, they say, the hercules factory to find out if they're going to be a part of the Muscle League.

The muscle league.

Got ourselves a training episode.

Yeah. And they arrive, and they walk up, and there are silhouettes of three men standing on the stairs. And I saw one and immediately was like, all night. Is that you?

The deep call back for my hero academia.

And unfortunately, it was not. Boy, I wish they had the greatest.

Line ever, which was, do you remember your first nightmare, or you're going to wish that you were still having it after we're through with you? And I was like, yes, and this is the best. Why would you repeat your first nightmare ever?

Specifically their first?

I do wish there was a scary clown at the foot of my bed.

Do you remember your first nightmare?

Honestly? I do wish that I love a clown. I love a clown. What can I say?

We haven't all seen it 14 times.

You know what? It's 13.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Sorry.

And I've seen the second one three times, so get off my dick.

All right.

Okay. So it's time to train. Train in pain. And they're put through, like, stamina tests, and there's some stuff that I've already forgotten. They're, like, standing in line to punch or kick at some flaming punching bag. And Terry is just having a he's doing great. He is on it. And kid calls Terry a teacher's pet. And Terry oh, and that's when he's about to call him a kiss out.

But meats like, oh, wait, you can't use profanity or you'll get kicked out of the league. And then he's like, wrestlers are known.

For their clean outlook way of living.

We're all also straight edge. No alcohol.

No drugs, none of that. No profanity.

Good Christian work, good wrestling organization for.

Every hour training, and we expect an hour of volunteer work.

You can't beat up aliens with that filthy mouth.

So after he insults Terry, terry then kicks the punching bag so hard that it launches that kid, but it doesn't hit him, thank goodness. And then they have to do, like, a suplex test where they bend back over some spikes, and they have to bend perfectly so their back doesn't hit it, which is inventive. I love this.

So inventive.

Oh, God. So Terry does it perfectly. Of course. He's been training for this for centuries. And Kid is a big crybaby, and he doesn't want to do it because that's his thing right now. And then when Kid goes to do it, terry spits a peanut at him, and it hits him in the arm, and he's like, ouch.

I'm so apart.

He loses balance and gets pierced by a spike. ouch, ouchies, ouchy. And then Me yells at Terry for, like, being an asshole. He's just like, stop it. Your dad was such a good man. And terry's like, yeah, and I don't want to be like my dad.

Also, I can't believe we've gone this far. The head, like, trainer has the worst Sean connery accent I have ever heard.

I was going to bring it up. His name is Robin Mask. And I am almost sure it's just a Robin Hood joke because he sounds like Sean connery and it's abysmal everybody.

Has a terrible accent.

I was going to say we've just completely neglected the offensive accent.

We're kind of skirting around. There's like an Indian themed wrestler clearly voiced by a white guy.

Everyone's voiced by a white guy.

Yeah, pretty much.

And there's, like, Indian, Russian, Russian.

Why does the Japanese guy look like that? Why is his face just in the middle of his such a small but.

He'S not a man. He's an alien. Like, he's not human.

Oh, yeah, that's the justification there it is.

If anything is more questionable, it's just like, what is this? It's upsetting.

Yeah. And then we get a flashback of Terry just being a shitty kid. Because terry's like, daddy, why are all your trophies smaller than smaller than King Muscles?

Yeah, accidents.

And then Terry Man is like terry man is like, oh, I just love being your daddy, son. I don't need all those accolades. And Terry is just like, Fuck that, daddy. I want the attention. And he just smacked him being a shitty kid.

Casual child abuse. Throw sprinkled into my Saturday morning.

But they tried to cover it up. He was like, you're going on punishment? And I was like, this is clearly a backhand.

I'm surprised they didn't try, like, photoshopping, like, some of his fingers down to be like, I am pointing for you.

To go deer over there.

But he just said, I don't care about the fame. Like King Muscle. I want to spend time with my son, who I love.

This is how I show my love.

Well, then Terry is just like, I don't want that, dad.

Who cares, Bobby Hill?

I want the trophy. Yes. I want to wean dad, that's my purse.

I don't know you. Okay, so we have that flashback, and I forget what prompts this, but Kid Muscle says this line with a few years in the right therapist, you could work through these problems.

Oh, my God. That's what I was like, okay, positive message. Love this show.

Mental health is important. Kids.

Kids woke as fuck.

Like, this isn't the only time this show emphasizes mental health.

We get another one later.

Later, too. Barely, like, two minutes later.

Yeah, I wrote the other one down too.

And I was like, Add. Best show. I don't know why.

So good.

Watch this show.

So good.

Like, this show is just guys punching each other. They don't need to have positive messages about taking care of your mental self.

But they do what they do.

And mass therapy incredible.

In the 90s, ahead of the curve. Before this, that was even a thing. Actually, late 2000s, probably early two thousand.

S. I think the dub came out 2002, 2002. I don't know when the original Japanese version was released.

I don't either.

But so Junior, who is another wrestler and a robot, offers to take Kid to the nursing station and starts walking toward the ring instead. And everyone's like, Junior, you're taking him the wrong way. And he's like, no, I'm not. And he turns out to be a bad guy from the dmp.

Another pun happens here because Kid muscle is like, what are you cracking up about? And then his face bricks up. whoa, don't actually crack up.

I didn't write down his name. I just kept calling him Snake Man.

His name is he says, I'm Boaconda, and I'm pleased to meet you.

And he said he said, thanks to meet your acquaintance.

Thanks to meet your acquaintance. So many with his character. There's so many snake puns every line.

I love it.

So good.

Oh, boy, so good. Yeah, he's a big old snake robot. And he takes Kid into the ring, and he raises the titanium caves.

Oh, shit.

And it doesn't go away. There's no way to get in or out until there's a winner.

Two men enter. One man leave.

One man or snake robot leave. So the Snake Man says that he was programmed to destroy Kid. And Kid was like, oh, well, my goal is to stop you then, I guess, literally. And Kid yeah, kid is like, I'm going to use my butt buster to stop you. But in order to use the butt buster, he first needs to get the opponent into a headlock, which is proving to be very difficult because he's a very large Snake Man. I can extend, so he can't hold. Yeah, can't get up there. And then Terry gets mad because he's like, no, I want to fight.

I'm the champion. You want me to have them? I need the glory.

Please try to murder me, snake robots.

And then as he's saying these things, the Snake Man says, see, this is what happens when you don't make mental health a priority.

Advocating for mental health.

I may be programmed to kill, but I know therapy is helpful.

I know a mysto kid when I see one.

I'm a snake cyborg.

You got potential in you.

I see it.

And then just to get him away, snake man like, smacks Terry off the cage, and his leg gets hurt. And then a mysterious man in a hood approaches. And he's like, oh, that looks like it hurts, Kid. Let me tie it up with this bandana. And terry's like, that's my dad's bandana. And then he also drops a picture of terry's dad and Kid Muscle. I mean, King Muscle.

King conveniently drops with a trophy.

Oops, how that gets it.

Oh, no. Oh, my goodness. And then Terry is like, Why do you have these? And he's like, well, let me tell you. And he tells Terry that Terry Man gave his bandana to King Muscle, and then King Muscle always wore it to feel like Terry Man was fighting with him, and he always wanted to share the fame. But Terry Man said getting to spend time with his son was for a warden.

Beating my son is for a warden.

As long as I can smack a.

Child in the ring, I'm a winner at home as an opponent, I know I can beat.

I just love spending time with my terrible, shitty son. And then Terry just, like, immediately turns around, and he's just like, my dad was a good person. I want to be just like him. And then the guy's like, Are you sure? You just said you hated two minutes ago. But he's learned his lesson already.

All right, well, that was bad.

The light.

He sees the light.

Rewarded and rewarded, introduced and gone in the same episode. So he goes back to the cage, and he helps Kid by somehow disabling the Snake Man's tail with the peanut it is unclear.

And creates that what? A giant, giant hole in the snake.

Because he told Muscle he was holding back beforehand. So now we see the ultimate peanut.

Power that Terry Man has, which also he somehow hurt, and then he's no longer hurt, and the bandana disappears. But.

He'S able to spit peanuts so hard they dense a giant metal side, but they can't break open a wire.

Fence and get out, link the cage.

No one got bored.

My one weakness is chain link fences.

Chain link fences?

How does it hold together?

I don't understand.

But yeah. So he helps kid does the thing. He does the butt buster. wham, bam, wins the fight. And then they just, like, look at each other and give each other a.

Good old thumbs up.

And that's the end of the episode. They've learned their lessons.

It's like the freeze frame at the end of Rocky Three when, like, apollo and Rocky hit each other at the same time, and it spades into, like, a portrait. Like, oh, my God. So good.

That's good.

It was also this episode where it's the second episode we've seen terry and I just wrote down, wait a minute. Is he wearing white jeans with suspenders on a collared shirt that just has a six pack window, and it's just like hold on.

He also has a mullet.

Yeah, but I feel like that's a given. Excuse me. A blonde mullet.

That makes it a blonde mullet. Even better. But I feel like just, like, describing him and who he is, a mullet makes sense.

You could hear the mullet with the accent when you hear this, boys.

You assume a mullet.

Four kids, they love accents. Every character had to have one. It wasn't a full cast unless one character had an accent. Usually the blonde person. But one character definitely had to have an accent. joey wheeler. That was their choice in you.

Do it.

You joey wheeler, baby. Drag this one. They were like, what if we made a show where everybody.

Make them from the cell?

Oh, my God. Okay. Episode three opens with the recruits doing a little more training. Now it's down to whittle, down to, like, 43 wrestlers. Out of however many started, ken Muscles farting again. So some guys fall out to their deaths because they fart right there's.

Like they're hanging off the suspended off of a cliff doing a stamina thing.

Kid murders some of the people who should be his teammates.

No, this is how I lie. I love this show. The guy is looking. He's like, yeah, it's 44. And then one guy falls off and to the endless abyss, and he's just like and now it's 43. It's like, when did that guy die? We don't know.

Contact their parents.

They will not be home.

He fell into another shuttle that just sent him home.

Don't worry, kids. And then we see them doing more training. I love that there's one training session that's specifically just wrestling crocodiles. Like, all the world and all the aliens.

This is how I'm going to stop them. Practice on crocodiles first.

Everyone knows crocodiles are ten times stronger.

Than our universally beard adversary ultimate wrestlers.

Crocodile robin mask is in there. Like, I just heard of this thing called Crocodile Dundee. Hear me out.

We need to get an Australian accent in here.

Oh, God. So we get the Muscle Leak reps talking to the council of elders. It's just this weird group of people, and it's Kid mussel's grandfather, his mom, and then I think just two other people I forget already. And so I guess they're the representatives and the hercules League. Like, guys that are training everyone, like, are talking to, like, after we finish this training, these are the recruits who survive and are going to be in the next Muscle League. And one dude just straight up has curry on his head. Like a plate of curry balance on his head.

Yes, he does.

We're not addressing this, okay?

Nobody he's not going to say anything. He's not going to come out with a terrible Thailand accent like, I'm curry, man.

Actually, it is chocolate pudding. My American.

Wait, did we already pass the part where he was talking about barbecue pizza?

No.

Oh, yes. He was like it was in the training with my chat. One of the rings is on fire, and they have the wrestle on a fire pit ring. And Kid mussel is just making barbecue.

Pizza, which is not they did their best, what the dish is called.

But I think it's like that thing.

With, like, shredded cabbage. And then you cook it on a grill and you put, like, a dark sauce on top and, like, Japanese mayo. I forget what it's called, but I'm pretty sure it was that. And they looked at that and they were like, barbecue, barbecue pizza.

And then they really tried to drive it home because Kim Muscle was like, yeah, I love barbecue pizza. With the cheese and the barbecue, the tomato sauce and the bread. Do you believe me yet?

I've listed all the ingredients.

The localization team is like, guys were already in this hole. You might as well keep going till they hit gold. Like, keep digging. Oh, Jesus.

We have 50 flaps to fill here.

So they're like, all right, here are the recruits. And the guy that announces the recruits is a long hair hercules League rep we've never seen before. And he's definitely doing a beatles accent really bad. So the recruits come out, and all the ones that made it are basically the ones we were introduced to. How convenient, right? And except we don't see Kid Muscle. And his mom and grandpa are there worried like, oh, no, did Kid not make it? And his mom's like, I already invited people to the party after he made it, and how am I going to cancel all of it? Like all the muscle plants. Hey, if he didn't make it, he's probably dead. Might want to prioritize that, right?

There definitely was an endless abyss that people were falling into.

And then we see someone mysterious stranger riding in on a horse with a cape. And it looks very similar to Kid Muscle, but he's wearing a mask. And everyone's like, who's this strange figure? How are you guys the defenders of the universe?

Kid Muscle can't ride a horse.

He's not known to wear disguises.

He never wears a mask at all.

Except all the time. And he's like, oh, don't worry, guys. It's me, kid. Muscle. And he pulls off the mask. He's like, what? There's another mask under this?

And they're like, prove that you're kid muscle. Yeah.

He's like, oh, let me take this other mask off. There's another mask. And he's just ripping a thousand masks off, and there's just another one underneath. And they're just like, nah, that's a villain. Let's beat the shit out of beating him up. And then all of a sudden, he pulls off the last one, and it's like, It's me. And it's just like, God, why did you do this? This serves no purpose. And then I forget exactly the context. I just have my notes. There's a weird comment by Grandpa about a workout tape and the woman he loves. I don't remember the context there.

Yeah, he's like, oh, kid muscle did survive. I guess that's why he ordered so many workout tapes.

And the grandpa was like, Actually, no.

Those were for me.

Grandpa'S just a dirty old man.

I just think she's neat. He says something like that.

She's neat, she's real dandy.

He's really cool, totally swell. And then they all start celebrating a little bit. Like, oh, boy, we all made it into the Muscle League. That's great. Wait a minute. One final test and then the ground starts shaking and we just feel like rocks moving around and just another big old stone hand just comes erupting out.

Of the ground body.

I have to say, do you think people on the Steven Universe team because it's got big stone hand, it's also got space arm.

Like, I definitely was getting some Steven Universe size from it.

You heard it here first. Ultimate Muscle. The anime inspired Stephen universe. It's a Steven Universe to go that far.

They have a rustling thing with.

Tiger millionaire. Tiger millionaire? Yeah.

I have to call someone to get rid of the Steven Universe tattoo. I have hold on.

Disassociate all entirely from this is a prequel theory.

Every picture of my cosplays finished.

Rebecca Sugar hit us up. We found out your secret.

Found your secret. Come on the show, prove us wrong.

That black. I'm kidding. I love her.

This giant hand comes out and has a wrestling ring on each finger. And they say, for your final test, you have to wrestle in one of those ring with whoever your opponent ends up being. You won't know until you get in there. They're just like, well, shit, I guess if that's the final test, we got to do it. So terry and shamu.

Shamu.

His name is Shamu.

Or it is Samu, but at some point someone says Shamu.

There's so many bad accents because of.

The Sean connery accent.

It's robin Mashamo.

So he says shamo.

Okay, so Samu samu the token Indian character, but he's fine because he's an alien. Question man, I guess.

Don't think about it too hard.

It's space.

And he goes him and Terry go running into the ranks like, we're going to fight first. And then the floor opens up and the opponents come up and what? It's their instructors. We have to fight the people that trained us. And they're like, well, we got our ass kicks by the dmp, so if you can't beat us, you sure she can't beat them?

Which is good.

Like, it's solid. Yeah, that's fair. That's a fair point. And we see. Terry has to fight Buffalo Man, who's just got the worst Russian accent for some goddamn reason.

Yeah, why is he Buffalo themed and has a Russian accent? They know that's not a Russian thing, right?

He says something in Russian, like it's not Dostania, but it's something that Russian word. And then Shamu I'm going to keep saying, that fine.

We can just switch it to Shamu. He's a whale.

That's fine. He's a whale.

That's actually probably politically better.

Because Shamu is not the problem with seaworld.

His opponent is the instructor, who is kind of this vaguely Chinese character we've seen and his name is Ramen Man ramen, which is bad for a number.

Ramen is Japanese.

It's troublesome for a number of reasons.

Again, why is his face like this?

He's got, like, a noodle head.

He's got, like, an oval. Not even an oval. Like a oval. Like a tube.

It's so weird.

Does he have a weird hair? Shape shifting? He looks like that, yeah.

He has a cloak on filter on snapchat, where your eyes and your mouth, like, it gets rid of the rest of your face, so it's just your eyes and mouth rest is soft.

He's got a cloak over his head. He looks disheveled because he's, like, beat up and ashamed. And then he throws it off and shakes his hair, and it immediately goes into, like, a top, not braid, and then kind of, like really long boom and shoe mustache. And it's just like, oh, we're going full stair full there. Great.

All of his efforts are like, what?

It's real bad.

It's something.

We've arrived.

We've got so we got the four wrestlers in their matches, and they're talking shit. This is where I went. Just like, oh, God. Every character here has an accent.

Everybody'S just on for you.

The only one shockingly that is okay.

That is actually kind of good.

It's very cartoonishly Southern, but it's less like by comparison. And then we get the bell rings, and then there's just, like, a long period of everyone staring each other down for a while. And then we get reaction shots of the crowd. And then kid muscle farts, of course. Everyone out.

What's the episode of ultimate muscle without kid muscle? Farting.

And you got to fill the quote.

Actually murdering three or four people.

And then Buffalo, a man goes in. He's like, Hello, Terry. Let's shake hands. And he's like, all right. Yeah, you're respectable. You help with my dad and Buffalo Man's. I got you. And just, like, blindside throws him on the ground. He's like, you can't trust anybody in the ring. Starts wailing on him, and it's like, I mean, he's got a point, but, like, damn. And then Ramen Man goes for the same shake, and chamu is like, no, not falling for that.

Over there.

Like, I am looking in that ring. And Kid Muscle just starts making these weird jokes and just popping up, like, in costumes as, like, a schoolgirl. I couldn't even follow what the joke?

Oh, yeah, he tried to pretend to be a fan so he, in the past, is not a wrestler. And then Meat was like, oh, stop being an idiot, kid. And that happened, like, two more times.

I can't think of any specific examples, but I know this is just a very dense minute of wordplay. The writers were just going nuts for every word of it was some sort of punter joke or something. And we got some comedic, like, slapstick jokes there. And then here's another line. Robin man. Like, blocking all the punches. And he goes, good, Shamu. You punch fast and hard, but you'll learn fast.

You'll learn fast the hard way. Yes.

And it's just like so they'll play on, like he said, fast and hard.

And then he said fast and hard again.

And it's just like, proud of yourself?

What a genius. This riding crew.

This is great. They just transcendent their minds. Incredible.

Like, blown away.

Like, pardon me. hates it because it's like, I bet you're very smug about this. But then part of me is like, you should be. I respect the fuck out of this movie. I'm so happy with this show. I love it so much.

Great.

And then after he says that line, ramen man like, flips over and gets his shamu. And I'll hold and hold his arms and shamu just like, hey, tapping out. I'm done. It's like, wow. For a potential Muscle League candidate, you quit real fast very quickly.

Wow. pussy.

Step your team up.

Oh, god. And then meanwhile, Terry stolen the Grimeskin.

Getting wheeled off, getting punched for like 40 seconds at least.

Yeah, just consistent.

But hey, his dad used to beat him.

So.

It finally makes sense. My dad was training me for this motivation.

Terry says. He's like, oh, I was blocking all those punches intentionally. I was letting you burn out your energy. Buffalo man. Buffalo man is like, fucking what? All right. And just heats them up into the sky. He just starts spinning. And we see Buffalo Man, like, kicking his feet like a buffalo about to charge because that's his character. And terry's just spinning in like this barrel while as he's coming back down, still talking a lot of shit for having not done anything yet, right?

He got tricked by a handshake, beat on and thrown into space.

So cockheady, he's like, I'm still going to win.

Buffalo man hits him, like, with two of his charges as he comes back down to the ground. But then the third one, terry's like, ah, now I got you. And grabs his horns and then, like, flips over them because he Southern rodeo, the character, get it? And he puts him in like a sleeper hold with his leg, raises his arm up and starts cutting off circulation to his head. And then Buffalo mansometz right away. And it's just like, wow, no wonder everyone lost.

These guys are terrible.

So Terry ends up being the first one to join the Muscle League out of the nuke group.

Good for you, Terry.

Good job. And then Kid Muscle is like, oh, man, I feel sick. I don't know what I ate, but I got to get out of here. And he tries to escape his match, and he falls on just a random technology cart. It's just like a cart full of.

Buttons, an av club.

He falls in the overhead projector in.

Case there was a rain delay. We were going to put on a fern gully.

I love that movie.

So the cart falls with Kid Muscle on it, and it rolls up the giant stone hand somehow.

Gravity doesn't matter.

We're in space. They're aliens.

So kid muscle falls into the ring, and he's like, oh, no, now I got a fight. He's like, well, time to find out who my opponent is. What instructor do I have to fight? And we find out. It's actually King mussel. He's got to fight his dad. What a twist.

What a twist.

What will happen? Can he kick his own dad's ass?

Suitable. Man, I'm about to beat your ass, Red.

You abandoned me. I guess so, yeah. Let's get some rage out.

Did people think he was dead or just disappeared?

Yeah, that's never made clear.

In the first episode. They're like, he's gone.

But he went to get milk and everything.

And what a baller move to make your grand return in front of your abandoned wife, in front of your own father so you can kick your son's ass.

The show is full of bad dad.

Oh, my God.

They're all terrible fathers.

Wow.

So that's episode three. That's where we're ending.

Oh, my gosh.

We've done it.

What a show.

It just don't get any better than this.

It does.

It I mean so, dugan, are we there yet?

How do you feel?

So, yes. The way we're doing it for the four kids, one of would I have watched this if I had known about it as a child? Hell, yes, I would have. Fucking because just fighting and the jokes per minute, just, like, the capacity there is off the charts. Hell, yeah. This was me written all over it. And even now we talk about the adaptation and all that, but just the jokes per second that come out is just astonishing.

Yeah, that's why this is, like so my favorite parts of, like, these, like, late 90s, early two thousands dogs. Like, this is, once again, why I love digimon, because they're just like, we don't need to fill time, but we're going to earn our paycheck, and we're going to put as many jokes in here as we can. And just like, oh, it's so good. I love it.

Who cares about the translation aspect? Let's just let's just make it our own thing.

That's exactly what they do.

Let me just show this off to my next employer of look. I am so clever.

What's that Japanese symbol that appears on his head? Should we explain that when he goes Super saiyan and powered up? No, better. I got a Village People reference I can cram in here that's about 40 years late. These kids will not you guys are.

Going to love it.

You love it. No one else will. It's just like, oh, my God.

Honestly, I've talked about shows that make my brain go fast. That just overwhelmed me. This shit, I could not this is so much. It's giving me anxiety. Like the pace. I think it was mostly just the first episode. I was just like, what the fuck? And then I got used to it.

But gee, it goes fast and hard. Like wrestling.

Like wrestling.

Was it as good as you remember? zeno?

This was better than I remembered. I watched Ultimate Muscle as a kid because it was a cartoon. Now I'm like yo. Wait. This show is actually kind of gold. You found appreciation for how incredibly entertaining this show is. I mean, it's just crazy. It's just insane. I mean, the first 2 seconds, a giant arm, a giant hand crashes in their ears.

Mountain food.

And then he gets chased by face cars into a spaceship conveniently planned to go to Earth, fights a dude and then gets taken by another spaceship to go somewhere else in space to fight in another ring. It's crazy. And you could have seen a bit.

Of it in the opening sequence, but some of the villains, they fight later on. One guy's got just straight up a trex for a hand. One guy's like a chess piece. I remember specifically. One dude is just a literal skyscraper. He's just a building that wrestles.

I am on board. Has the thought capacity to think of that.

I could think of 100 stories with that villain.

How many episodes are there?

24, I think.

24.

Hold on, hold on.

Where I was watching it, it had like 75.

Yeah.

And I want this on Netflix because I want to watch this at the gym.

This motivation, baby. 77 episodes of this dub. And you know what my favorite thing is in the subsection of this show on the website? One episode only. Episode one.

This is an American show now. This ain't anime. Yeah.

This belongs to taxes.

Oh, my God. I genuinely want to keep watching it. I am absolutely looking at merch. I'm getting a shirt.

I am getting a mask.

Like Kid muscle.

I wonder how offensive this show is going to get as I continue watching it.

Based on the three episodes, we have at least like, five racist. Of course it's going to get worse.

I am very excited to see what they got away with that they would not be able to get away with. And I mean, like something. And I feel like as an adult, the jokes I'll have a greater the K must stand for kiss. There was so much of that I was like as a kid. That would have flew right over my head.

Oh, my God. This was wonderful experience.

This was a good time.

This was a great time to send it.

I found myself laughing out loud, so me too. Watching this at the audacity. How dare this show.

At least three separate times, I've noted that my jaw just dropped based on what I was seeing and or hearing.

I froze myself till wrestling was cool again.

Why? adversaries.

I still don't think we've. Given enough appreciation for Dick Dick Van. Dick.

Dick.

Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick.

Dick. Dick.

Van Dick, the true star of ultimate mother. Just Gold. He's my new dad.

My wrestling dad.

As dugan texted me. He is my new.

Van dick. Have we talked about the walrus yet? The alien walrus?

That's how full on walrus, man. We didn't even get to we had.

A septum piercing style.

Bad accented knock off of droopy.

There was like a Canadian, like pepsi Man.

Oh, my God. I was too distracted by dick dick.

I couldn't get over Dick Dick is stealing the show. But I was like, why is there a Walrus here?

Who are these fellows?

Some reason wants to be a wrestler and makes all of these food puns.

Each one of these guys doesn't get their own episode dedicated to their backstory. I don't care. I need to know more about Dick Dick, baby.

While he's like, knee deep in a wrestling match with a giant lobster.

I got some good news. It happened. Everyone got their own backstory episode.

Thank God.

Also, something very important. There is an Ultimate Muscle video game for the game.

Yes.

Because I just had the realization this would be such a good punch out style game. Just going up against all these insane people.

We got to get it. This is so good. I genuinely keep watching the show.

It's pretty great. The writing is really good, actually, for being like a watered down children's cartoon. I was thoroughly entertained.

Yeah.

It helps that it wasn't like the typical anime, like Tokyo mew mew, where it's like, yeah, magical girl. There's like regular everyday life. But we're still going to try to get these insane jokes and stuff that don't fit. This is perfect for it, where it's just yeah, it's off the wall. We can make it already crazy.

We can just play that up. And I think that's what they do. The show doesn't really take itself super seriously, so the writing doesn't have to either. It's not like shaman King. shaman King was like an actual super serious show. And they kind of dumbed it down to the point where it was like kind of like it kind of took out a lot of the emotional weight and stuff like that.

This was like a jojo's, bizarre venture. Character designer woke up after a coke binge and caught WWE rawl on Monday night what if? And it just went off.

My deadline is tomorrow.

So good.

Well, thank you for joining us on this journey. Of course. You gave us a gift this day.

I'm so glad I could bring this back into your lives. This incredible underrated and underappreciated masterpiece of quality cartoon.

Curtis absolutely.

Well, where can people find you online? zeno, what would you like to draw attention to?

People can find me online at Childish. Underscore gamezino or childish gamezino.

That's so good.

Thank you so much. That's kind of it. Yeah. I don't know if I can talk about anything I'm doing, but I'm doing things. So, yeah.

Cannonbusters is still fresh. Everyone go watch.

It still on Netflix. It's an anime junk justice season three. It's on brand, and hopefully there'll be more anime.

Here's hoping.

He's hoping.

And if there's an anime you would like us to watch, you can send us your recommendations to our email arwaverte@gmail.com. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram at arwyvariat. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.

You can find me on Instagram at queen. Period weebu and on Twitter at queen underscore weebu and queen underscore weebu art.

You can find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast I do. But honestly, someone just recommend Ultimate Muscle again just so we can watch, like, another three episodes.

Oh, no. We got to dip back in.

What a shame.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for our theme song stories off the album Beats. You can find all of Louis music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

I have an anime recommendation for you guys.

What you got?

We are ready.

Corey in the house. Yeah.