- Tiger Mask
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Not to be confused with Tigers Mask.
Tiger Mask 
タイガーマスク
(Taigā Masuku)Genre Sports Manga Written by Ikki Kajiwara Illustrated by Naoki Tsuji Published by Kodansha Demographic Shōnen Magazine Bokura Magazine (1968-1969)
Weekly Shōnen Magazine (1970-1971)Original run 1968 – 1971 Volumes 14 TV anime Directed by Takeshi Tamiya Studio Toei Animation Network Yomiuri TV Original run October 2, 1969 – September 30, 1971 Episodes 105 TV anime Tiger Mask II Studio Toei Animation Network TV Asahi Original run April 20, 1981 – January 18, 1982 Episodes 33 Anime film Directed by Takeshi Tamiya Studio Toei Animation Released 1970 Tiger Mask (タイガーマスク Taigā Masuku) is a Japanese manga series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji. The series was first published in Kodansha's Bokura Magazine from 1968 to 1969 and was later published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1970 to 1971. It was later adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation which first aired on Yomiuri TV on October 2, 1969 and ended its run on September 30, 1971, airing 105 episodes. In real life, the name has been used by a succession of Japanese professional wrestling characters as a gimmick. The Tiger Mask persona is instantly recognizable by its trademark mask, designed to look like a tiger's head, as well as the combination of high flying attacks and martial arts in the ring.
Contents
Story
In the manga and anime, Tiger Mask (whose real name was Naoto Date) was a feared heel wrestler in America who was extremely vicious in the ring. However, he became a face after returning to Japan when a young boy said that he wanted to be a villain like Tiger Mask when he grew up. The boy resided in an orphanage, the same one that Tiger Mask grew up in during his childhood. Feeling that he did not want the boy to idolize a villain, Tiger was inspired to be a heroic wrestler.
The main antagonist in the manga and anime was Tiger's Cave, a mysterious organization that trained young people to be villainous wrestlers on the condition that they gave half of their earnings to the organization. Tiger Mask was once a member of Tiger's Cave under the name "Yellow Devil", but no longer wanted anything to do with them, instead donating his money to the orphanage. This infuriated the leader of the organization and he sent numerous assassins, including other professional wrestlers, to punish him.
Concept
The manga was originally created for the Bokura and Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 1968 by Ikki Kajiwara and Naoki Tsuji. The manga would be reprinted by Kodansha comics, and made available in Hong Kong. Further versions include Sankei Comics and the Kodansha KC Special. The anime would be televised nationally in Japan, while two movies would be constructed from reusing footage of the series.[1] Most of the environment and characters were fictional, but real-life pro wrestlers like Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba, Michiaki Yoshimura, Kintaro Ohki and Seiji Sakaguchi were included in the manga and anime as well.
A continuation of the series was followed by Tiger Mask II in 1981.
Staff
- Director: Takeshi Tamiya
- Additional Directors: Kimio Yabuki, Tomoharu Katsumata, Fusahito Nagaki, Hiroshi Shidara, Yoshio Kuroda, Yasuo Yamaguchi
- Screenwriter: Masaki Tsuji, Tadashi Kondo, Tomohiro Ando
- Design: Naoki Tsuiji
- Animator: Keijiro Kimura, Koichi Murata
- Music: Shunsuke Kikuchi
Characters
Tiger Mask and His Comrades
- Naoto Date (伊達 直人 Date Naoto)/Tiger Mask (タイガーマスク Taigā Masuku)
- Seiyū: Kei Tomiyama, Katsuji Mori (ep. 32~39)
- Kentarō Takaoka (高岡 拳太郎 Takaoka Kentarō)/Yellow Devil (イエロー・デビル Ierō Debiru)
- Seiyū: Ryouichi Tanaka
- Daigo Daimon (大門 大吾 Daimon Daigo)/Mister Fudo (ミスター不動 Misutā Fudo)
- Toranosuke Arashi (嵐 虎之介 Arashi Toranosuke)
- The Great Zebra (ザ・グレイト・ゼブラ Za Gureito Zebura)
Chibikko House
- Mr. Wakatsuki (若月先生 Wakatsuki-sensei)
- Seiyū: Kenji Nakagawa
- Ruriko Wakatsuki (若月 ルリ子 Wakatsuki Ruriko)
- Seiyū: Nana Yamaguchi (ep. 1~77), Michiko Nomura (ep. 78~105)
- Kenta (健太)
- Yoshibō (ヨシ坊)
- Seiyū: Masako Taki (ep. 1~55), Noriko Watanabe (ep. 56~105)
- Chappy (チャッピー Chappī)
- Gaboten (ガボテン)
- Mikuro (ミクロ)
- Yoko Takaoka (高岡洋子 Takaoka Ykōo)
- Seiyū: Reiko Katsura
Tiger's Cave
- Mister X (ミスターＸ Misutā X)
- Boss (ボス Bosu)
- Seiyū: Taimei Suzuki
The Boss is the leader of the Tiger Cave. He makes his first appearance disguised as the unbelievably strong fighter Miracle 3, the only fighter with total supremacy in the three fundamental abilities (strength, speed and illegal moves). Miracle 3 wins every fight in a clear and correct way, studying Tiger Mask style against some fighters chosen by him. When he finally fights with Tiger Mask, he reassumes his old name: Tiger The Great.
Tiger The Great is too strong even for Naoto. The match rapidly becomes a brutal beatdown, culminating when Tiger The Great rips the mask off Naoto's face with a broken wood board. This act snaps the already fragile mind of Naoto, driving him to an escalation of violence that stops only with the death of Tiger The Great, smashed under the illumination stage.
- Big Tiger (ビッグ・タイガー Biggu Taigā)
- Black Tiger (ブラック・タイガー Burakku Taigā)
- Seiyū: Kenji Nakagawa
- King Tiger (キング・タイガー Kingu Taigā)
- Seiyū: Masao Nakasone
The third master of the Tiger Cave. He was considered the strongest fighter ever; he was forced to retire because nobody was capable to fight him on an even basis. Adding to his considerable technique, King Tiger is the absolute master of illegal moves. His fight with Tiger Mask rapidly escalates to a real bloodbath; in the end, King Tiger dies impaling himself on the jagged remains of a table.
- Miracle 3 (ミラクル３ Mirakuru 3)
- See Boss
- Tiger The Great (タイガー・ザ・グレイト Taigā za Gureito)
- See Boss
Japanese Pro Wrestling Promotion
- Giant Baba
- See The Great Zebra
- Seiyū: Masao Nakasone
- Kintaro Ohki/Kim Ill (キム・イル Kimu Iru)
- Seiyū: Kousei Tomita
Other
- Jack Brisco (ジャック・ブリスコ Jakku Burisuko)
- Seiyū: Ichirou Nagai
- Mister Kamikaze (ミスター・カミカゼ Misutā Kamikaze)
- Black V (ブラックＶ Burakku V)
- Announcer (アナウンサー Anaunsā)
Adaptations
The movies were titled as such in English when exported outside Japan. They are by no means actual translations.
Japanese Name English Name Release Date Type タイガーマスク Tiger Mask 1970 movie タイガーマスク ふく面リーグ戦 Tiger Mask: War against the League of Masked Wrestlers July 19, 1970 movie Finishers
- Back drop
- Fujiyama Tiger Backbreaker: Kicking the opponent into the air and catching them into a back breaker with your head directly under and against their spine.
- Tiger V: Combination of a Tomoe Nage, Pile Driver and leg splitting
Notable Opponents Manga
- Black Python
- Gorillaman
- Apollo Brothers: One is a beast who was easily defeated, the weaker looking suave older brother was a technician.
- Black V: Protege of Bobo Brazil, Black V is flexible like a yoga master, extremely hard head butts and his finisher is a spinning flying missile headbutt.
- Mr. ?: A very old and legendary wrestler from India. Wanted to punish Tiger Mask for being such an evil wrestler, didn't realize that Tiger had become good.
- !: A creepy alien looking wrestler that actually was a short guy with a bowling ball on top of his head under the costume. Had oil on his body.
- Gorgotha Cross: Fights Tiger with a spiked crucifix in the middle of the ring. Uses fake blood to get compassion from his opponents by looking hurt and then takes advantage.
- The Golden mask: Wears a medieval looking golden mask with steel teeth. The mask can emit a super shiny bright ray that temporarily blinds his opponents.
- The Dracula: Wears a full body suit and mask covered in hair, the hair becomes thorns that will cause you to bleed out, under the outfit is a handsome wrestler.
- Satan the Kid
- Lionman: The coach at the Tiger's Hole
- Mapman: Looks like Frankenstein, has scars all over his body
- Mr. Kamikaze: Ruler of the underground pro wrestling org in France. A former Karate-ka.
- The Red Death Mask: A legendary figure that acts almost like an assassin for the Tiger Cave. His mask is jester-like with bug like compound eyes. Wears an attire all in red, with a cape and pointy shoes like the Iron Sheik; after being defeated by Tiger Mask, it is later seen working as a slave and being whipped in Tiger Cave.
- Fake Tiger: A Korean wrestler who was a friend of Date Naoto who had a similar build to him. He wore a tiger mask with steel fangs, note that the real tiger mask had plastic fangs. They fought in a Vegas style match that was luck induced, where weapons would come from the floor of the arena gladiator style.
- The Piranian: His true identity was a man known as Iron Tusk. He used his steel dentures for biting and his dorsal fin on his costume to attack Tiger Mask, but his ultimate move was to take Tiger Mask into the water in a pool death match.
- Devilspider: No doubt this character was used as the blue print for the Ashuraman character in Kinnikuman. A former circus acrobat, Tiger fought Devilspider on a spider web looking trampoline-ish ring.
- Mr. Hyde
- Universal Kamen: former acrobat
- Viking Kidd: In a Ocean ring death match
- Cyclone Guston: Speculated to be a former pro-football player, has only eye on his mask.
- Miracle Three: The ultimate from the Tiger's Hole. Said to have perfected all three qualities of a master pro wrestler—technique, strength, speed and rule breaking—it turned out that it was actually three guys with similar build and attire.
- Guillotine Gordon
- Killer Kowalski: In this manga nicknamed Hell's President.
Video games
While the Tiger Mask character has shown up in quite a number of wrestling video games such as Fire Pro Wrestling D, Toukon Retsuden 3, and Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, the video games are not directly based on the story of the manga or anime. Tiger Mask was originally supposed to be a character in Street Fighter II.[citation needed] The Tekken video game series has a character named King that is an homage of Tiger Mask, there is no coincidence that the pro wrestler, the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, later in his career was called Tiger King.
Professional wrestling
Main character
In the early 1980s, the bookers in the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion licensed the character and created a real-life Tiger Mask, originally portrayed by Satoru Sayama, to help boost their junior heavyweight division.[2] In the United States, Tiger Mask was the first wrestler to simultaneously hold the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.[2] Sayama played the role until 1983, when he left New Japan due to his hatred for the backstage politics of professional wrestling in general. As Tiger Mask, Sayama feuded with Kuniaki Kobayashi, Canada's Bret Hart, England's Chris Adams, Steve Wright and legendary Dynamite Kid, Mexico's Fishman and the original Black Tiger (see below).
In 1984, the rights to the Tiger Mask gimmick were bought by All Japan Pro Wrestling and given to Mitsuharu Misawa. Misawa also feuded with Dynamite Kid and Kuniaki Kobayashi, as well as Chavo Guerrero, Sr. and Atsushi Onita; he then moved up to the heavyweight division to feud, albeit unsuccessfully, with Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu. In May 1990, after Tenryu left All Japan, Misawa gave up the mask in the middle of a match to wrestle as himself.
New Japan's Koji Kanemoto became the third Tiger Mask in March 1992, but was unsuccessful due to the dominance of Jushin Liger. Kanemoto was never able to win a title as Tiger Mask, and eventually lost the mask in a mask-vs-mask match against Liger in January 1994.
Since 1995, the name Tiger Mask has been held by Yoshihiro Yamazaki, who was trained directly (and is officially endorsed) by Sayama. Tiger Mask IV, originally based at Michinoku Pro Wrestling, entered New Japan in 2002; since then, he has been one of the top candidates (alongside Minoru Tanaka) to replace the now-aging Liger as the top star of New Japan's junior heavyweight division.
A Fifth Generation Tiger Mask MMA fighter Ikuhisa Minowa debuted on July 18, 2010 alongside the original Tiger Mask, Sayama, in a tag match for Maki Dojo.
Generation Name Tiger Mask I Satoru Sayama Tiger Mask II Mitsuharu Misawa Tiger Mask III Koji Kanemoto Tiger Mask IV Yoshihiro Yamazaki Tiger Mask V Ikuhisa Minowa Related characters
The evil twin character Black Tiger (using a black costume with silver stripes) was created by New Japan to oppose the man who portrayed Tiger Mask at the time, although he did not have to have the existing Tiger Mask as his exclusive antagonist. Black Tiger had always been portrayed by foreign wrestlers: Mark Rocco (British), Robert Cortes (American), Eddie Guerrero (Mexican-American), Silver King (Mexican) and Rocky Romero (Cuban-American). As Black Tiger, Rocco also feuded with The Cobra (George Takano), and Guerrero also feuded with Jushin Liger and Wild Pegasus. A fifth Black Tiger surfaced and, breaking away from the Black Tiger tradition, recently revealed to be Tatsuhito Takaiwa, who had just finished a long run with the Zero-ONE promotion.
When Tiger Mask IV was in the Japanese independents, he was briefly opposed by The Masked Tiger, a character portrayed by Battlarts wrestler Takeshi Ono.
Último Dragón, as a temporary break between gigs in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), adopted the name and character Second Tiger, modeled after the original, Satoru Sayama, who was his childhood idol. Último also made a character called Tiger Dragon which saw his attire a blend of the Último Dragón and Tiger Mask garb. Sayama himself used the Super Tiger (in the original UWF) and uses the Tiger King and Original Tiger Mask characters in special appearances since 1996, as a means to differentiate himself as being the original.
Sayama also gave brief authorization for a female version of the character, called Tiger Dream, to be played by female wrestler Candy Okutsu in the mid-1990s. He and Tiger Mask IV also provided her with training.
Osaka Pro has a wrestler named Tigers Mask who wears a mask similar to Tiger Mask and is portrayed as a fan of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team.
Former Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling superstar Ricky Fuji developed a Tiger Mask persona of his own called Calgary Tiger, influenced by the Canadian city, where he was trained, and debuted as a wrestler. He had debuted under the Tiger Mask persona in Stampede Wrestling, before changing his persona to Black Tomcat, while in the North Western Wrestling Federation in Canada.
Championships and accomplishments
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him (Mitsuharu Misawa) #37 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
Cultural influence
In 2010 and 2011, several people in Japan donated to children's homes and other social welfare centers by using the name "Naoto Date" as an alias.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Clements, Jonathan. McCarthy Helen. [2006] (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5
- ^ a b Guerrero, Eddie (2005). Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story. Simon and Schuster. p. 91. ISBN 0743493532.
- ^ "Gifts from 'comic heroes' help Japan's orphans." CNN. January 11, 2011. Retrieved on January 12, 2011.
External links
- Tiger Mask Catoon Arabic / English Website - Story, Characters, Downloads,DVD And Much More..
- - موقع النمر القنع - القصة, ملخص الحلقات, الشخصيات, الـ دى فى دى, والمزيد
- Tiger Mask Wrestler Info
- Tiger Mask (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
- Tiger Mask movie Japanese
- A history of the Tiger Mask gimmick, with all the profiles of the Tiger Mask wrestlers, plus related and unrelated characters (In Japanese)
- Tiger Mask screenshots from Anime Click
- Tiger Mask Anime Info in details English and Japanese
Categories:- Manga series
- Anime series
- Anime films
- Anime of 1969
- Anime of 1970
- Manga of 1968
- Shōnen manga
- Martial arts anime and manga
- Sports anime and manga
- Shunsuke Kikuchi
- Comics based on wrestling
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