Akira Kushida -- Kinnikuman Go Fight!（キン肉マンGo Fight!）

 

Yes, the Force of Nature that is seiyuu Tomokazu Sugita（杉田智和）. Quicksilver with a quip, he is such a teasing master that even Takagi-san blushes in his sights. I've often watched those live events in which he's mercilessly driven fellow seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）into the embarrassment zone and paroxysms of laughter, and he's done the same to eminently teasable Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）on her radio program.

However, this article isn't on Sugita naturally as you can see from the title. Still that video above when he strode into the radio program in that costume was the spark for my curiosity. I learned that he was decked out as Warsman, one of the myriad characters in the manga-turned-anime "Kinnikuman"（キン肉マン）, and so I decided to see what all the hoopla was all about.

"Kinnikuman" is a character that I was hearing all about from time to time since my JET days when some of the junior high school kids were reading and watching him, and then that interest tallied forth into my long years in the Tokyo and Chiba area when I learned that some of my adult friends were also fans of the manga and the anime. The 1983 show was all about a goofy but stout-hearted superhero who had to battle all sorts of rivals to the throne via a wrestling championship of which Warsman starts out as a villain but then turns into an ally.

I looked up the theme song for "Kinnikuman" and discovered that the program had three opening themes, four ending themes, and many insert songs in which one of them was even "Me Gumi no Hito" （め組のひと）by Rats And Star. So, I guess Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）had actually been connected with an anime before, albeit indirectly.

Anyways, the first of those opening themes was "Kinnikuman Go Fight!" by anison veteran Akira Kushida（串田アキラ）. Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composed by Hiroaki Serizawa（芹澤廣明）, the proud horns are part and parcel of the anime opening theme experience. I've heard them all the time on any mecha or superhero anime back in those days. However, there is that underlying rhythm provided by the keyboards which is surprisingly light and mellow along the lines of an AOR tune.

The delight from the audience above on hearing the intro for Kushida and "Kinnikuman Go Fight!" shows how beloved he and the seiyuu for the titular hero himself, Akira Kamiya（神谷明）, have been.