Matt's Lion King - Antonio Inoki Story -

A fantastic semi-documentary comic about Antonio Inoki's roots with Ikki Kajiwara, Hisao Maki, and Shunji Obata!!

Synopsis:
February 7, 1976, Nippon Budokan.
In a match that was billed as the "world's best martial arts match," Antonio Inoki
defeated judo open weight gold medalist Williem Ruska with three consecutive backdrop shots! He kept it close to his heart and
planned his next fight against world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.
A young boy, Hiroji Inoki, was determined by his grandfather to immigrate his family to Brazil in search of a new world.
Despite facing the death of his grandfather on the way, he manages to arrive in Brazil, which is nothing more than a new world in name, and
turns out to be a hellish farm ruled by fear and violence...
The Inoki family lives a positive life despite being forced into a life of slavery, and the evil hand of a cruel farm owner approaches!

Commentary
Antonio Inoki is a symbol of the Japanese professional wrestling world and the "burning fighting spirit" who laid the foundation for mixed martial arts.
There is a phantom work that takes its roots and turns it into a graphic novel.
Yes, it's the "Matt's Lion King" you're holding in your hands right now.

The work was announced in May 1976. It was a time when the public's expectations for Inoki were high, as he was about to compete against Muhammad Ali to determine the world's best martial arts title (although it ended up being harshly criticized as the "Mediocre Fight of the Century"). It was in this favorable mood that this work began serialization in Weekly Shonen King magazine. The story focuses on his success in Japanese professional wrestling since his days as a Brazilian immigrant, and many star wrestlers of yesteryear who made their names in the early days of professional wrestling, such as Rikidozan, Toyoto, Giant Baba, and Kintaro Oki, also appear.

However, the highlight is that the original story and composition were written by brothers Kajiwara Ikki and Maki Hisao, who were closely connected to the professional wrestling and martial arts worlds of the time.
In an episode in which Inoki's family immigrated to Brazil when he was a boy,
an evil farm owner unleashes a group of menacing assassins called the Black Power Killer Trio, and the brothers fight against it, and Rikidozan watches over Inoki's growth as kindly as a Buddha. This semi-documentary comic is sprinkled with Kajiwara and Maki's tastes that fuse fact and fantasy.

In recent years, masterpieces such as ``Antonio Inoki's Autobiography'' (Shinchosha) and "Antonio Inoki in 1976'' (Bungei Shunju) have been published and become a hot topic, but let's enjoy the roots of Antonio Inoki, which are a little different from those works.