Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin Arc Episode 0

It's definitely a disappointing decision that the return of Kinnikuman is a continuation of where the previous anime left off rather than a full remake. The original series isn't even available to legally stream anywhere, and the last part of the anime never even got an official sub, meaning that most people watching this show will not have watched the original and have no legal way to do so even if they're interested. So the circumstances for a full remake seemed perfect. Instead we spend a whole episode explaining all of the stuff we're not going to see (a lot of which looks really cooland interesting), before jumping neck deep into a story with characters we barely know. Sure, it's a very long story and the likelihood it would have gotten all the way to this arc was low, but dropping viewers this deep into the story with only a recap episode as context is a much, much worse solution. The episode itself was just a recap. Which is generally not very compelling anime. And it holds true here as well. It's made a little bit better by virtue that this is all new to viewers like myself, but the breakneck pace makes it hard to appreciate any of the story, characters, or action. In essence, this episode is just a slap in the face to any viewers who actually wanted to see the full story.

This one-shot special episode serves to recap some previous events while setting up a forthcoming arc. It's rather silly, but it doesn't really do too much that makes me want to see more from this series. Maybe in the future, but not right now. This isn't necessarily boring, and there are some comedic moments that make me not regret watching it, but I will probably stick to the ten anime I'm already watching. It's cool to see a connection between all these characters, proving we have some deep lore. The story that was displayed in this one episode, though, is quite silly. Like, so funny thatit's not funny, and hard to take seriously. I'm not really into this. It's not really what I want out of modern anime. I will admit something feels very valuable about the style to this, but as it stands, this episode did not pull me in that much.