is a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji. The series was first published in Kodansha's ''Bokura Magazine'' from 1968 to 1970 and was later published in ''

Weekly Shōnen Magazine is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male hig ...

'' from 1970 to 1971. It was later adapted into an anime series by

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Sl ...

which first aired on

Yomiuri TV JOIX-DTV (channel 10), branded as , is the Kansai region flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned by the subsidiary of the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglome ...

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Com ...

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 A gimmick is a novel device or idea designed primarily to attract attention or increase appeal, often with little intrinsic value. When applied to retail marketing, it is a unique or quirky feature designed to make a product or service "stand ou ...

. 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.

Plot

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 The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may aff ...

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 the Tiger's Den, 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 the Tiger's Den 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. In , a new opponent called "Outer Space Mask" bullies his way into the ring without representing any wrestling federation. Tatsuo Aku, once an orphan child from the "house of the children", was a fan of Naoto, who has died. He would put on his old hero's mask to become the new Tiger Mask.

Characters

Tiger Mask and his comrades

; / * Voiced by:

Kei Tomiyama , better known by his stage name , was a Japanese actor, voice actor, and narrator born in Anshan, Manchukuo. Tomiyama was affiliated with Aoni Production and Production Baobab. Tomiyama is best known for his roles in '' Tiger Mask'' (Naoto ...

, Katsuji Mori (ep. 32~39) ; / * Voiced by: Ryouichi Tanaka ; / * Voiced by:

Kazuya Tatekabe was a Japanese actor and voice actor. He was born in Kimobetsu, Hokkaidō. He was represented by Kenyu Horiuchi's Kenyu Office at the time of his death. He was most known for the roles of Jaian (''Doraemon''), Walsa (''Time Bokan''), and Tonzura ...

; * Voiced by: Yonehiko Kitagawa ; * Voiced by: Shingo Kanemoto

Chibikko House

; * Voiced by:

Kenji Nakagawa Kenji may refer to: *Kenji (given name), a masculine Japanese given name, and list of people & characters with this name *Kenji (era), a Japanese era spanned from 1275 to 1278 * ''Kenji'' (manga) (拳児), a 1980s manga by Matsuda Ryuchi * "Kenji" ...

; * Voiced by: Nana Yamaguchi (ep. 1~77), Michiko Nomura (ep. 78~105) ; * Voiced by:

Masako Nozawa is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator. Throughout her life, she has been affiliated with Production Baobab, 81 Produce and self-owned Office Nozawa; she is also affiliated with Aoni Production. Her late husband, Masaaki Tsukada, ...

; * Voiced by: Masako Taki (ep. 1~55), Noriko Watanabe (ep. 56~105) ; * Voiced by: Sachiko Chijimatsu ; * Voiced by:

Keiko Yamamoto , born August 7, 1943, is a Japanese voice actress from Osaka Prefecture. Many of her roles have been older women, young boys, or tomboyish young girls. Filmography Anime television series * Akado Suzunosuke – Akadō Suzunosuke * Andersen ...

; * Voiced by:

Kazuko Sugiyama , known by her stage name , is a Japanese actress and voice actress who was born in Nagoya and works for Aoni Production. In February 2010, she received a "Merit Award" from the 4th Seiyu Awards. Filmography Anime *Hanako Mori in ''Inakappe T ...

; * Voiced by: Reiko Katsura

Tiger's Den

; * Voiced by: Hidekatsu Shibata Mister X is the main antagonist of the series. ; / / * Voiced by: Taimei Suzuki The Boss is the leader of the Tiger's Den. 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's style against some fighters chosen by him. When he finally fights with Tiger Mask, he reassumes his old name: Tiger the Great. ; * Voiced by: Yonehiko Kitagawa ; * Voiced by:

; * Voiced by: Masao Nakasone The third master of the Tiger's Den. 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.

Other characters

;TV announcer * Voiced by: Keiichi Noda Ring announcer and narrator.

''Tiger Mask II'' characters

Publication history

The manga was originally created for the '' Bokura Magazine'' in 1968 by Ikki Kajiwara and

Naoki Tsuji Naoki (直樹) is a masculine Japanese given name and surname. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese long jumper * Naoki Bandou, voice actor *Naoki Harada (原田直樹, born 1991), Japanese footballer *, Japanese footballer * Naoki H ...

. The manga would be reprinted by Kodansha comics, and made available in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. 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. Most of the environment and characters were fictional, but real-life pro wrestlers like

Antonio Inoki Muhammad Hussain Inoki (born ; February 20, 1943 – October 1, 2022) was a Japanese professional wrestler, martial artist, politician, and promoter of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. He was best known by the ring name , a homage ...

Giant Baba , best known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player. He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota ...

Michiaki Yoshimura Michiaki (written: 倫明, 道明, 道章, 道秋 or 宙明) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * (born 1972), Japanese voice actor * (born 1977), Japanese footballer * (1890–1947), Imperial Japanese Navy a ...

, Kintaro Ohki and

Seiji Sakaguchi is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and judoka, Sakaguchi holds a 7th dan red and white belt in Judo. Sakaguchi was a mainstay of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and also competed for the World Wide Wrestling Federation and the Nat ...

were included in the manga and anime as well. On March 3, 2016,

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority share ...

announced the revival of the Tiger Mask anime series. The series, entitled '' Tiger Mask W'', premiered on

in October 2016. It is also currently streaming on Crunchyroll, marking it as the first Tiger Mask anime available to American viewers. This new series is the exclusive sequel of the anime version and completely ignores ''Tiger Mask II'', which confirms Naoto Date's death like in the manga. In fact, his death isn't confirmed.

Adaptations

Films

The movies were titled as such in English when exported outside Japan. They are not actual translations.

Video games

While the Tiger Mask character has appeared in a number of wrestling video games, such as '' Fire Pro Wrestling D'', '' Toukon Retsuden 3'', '' Sunday vs Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen'' and ''

Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 ''Virtual Pro Wrestling 64'' is a professional wrestling video game released in 1997 on the Nintendo 64 video game console, game console and the second game in the ''Virtual Pro Wrestling'' series. The game is a sequel to the original ''Virtual Pr ...

'', the games are not directly based on the story of the manga or anime.

Cultural influences

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 (born November 27, 1957) is a Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, MMA and wrestling promoter and writer, best known as the original Tiger Mask. He has wrestled under his real name as well as the names Sammy Lee, and masked S ...

, to help boost their junior heavyweight division. 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. In 2012 an Israeli artist named Omer Rabinovitz recorded a fictional song over the series opening sequence renaming it 'Namer HaKesef' ("The Silver/Money Leopard"), reaching over 400 thousand views on Youtube and becoming a cult phenomenon in Israel. Fictional episodes created independently by the community, and a Minecraft skin was also created. In '' Ben 10 Alien Force'', Rath is a tiger-like alien who uses wrestling moves on his foes. Similarly, both characters were also vicious at first but then turned good after meeting a small child.

In video games

In the ''

Tekken is a Japanese Media mix, media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations. The ...

'' video game series, a character named

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...

shares similarities with Tiger Mask, except his mask is that of a jaguar rather than a tiger. ''

Street Fighter II is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the '' Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's '' Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Sys ...

'', in its early concept design stages, had a very similar homage to Tiger Mask in its character roster. In the video game series ''

Hotline Miami ''Hotline Miami'' is a top-down shooter video game by Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin, collectively known as Dennaton Games. The game was published by Devolver Digital and released on 23 October 2012 for Microsoft Windows. Set in 1989 Mi ...

'', there is a tiger mask that when equipped, allows you throw devastating punches when unarmed. This may be a reference to Tiger Mask. In the '' Yo-Kai Watch'' game series, a yokai named Machonyan wears a tiger mask. ''

Pokémon Sun and Moon and are 2016 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. They are the first installments in the seventh generation of the Pokémon (video game series), ''Pokémon ...

'' introduced Incineroar, the "Heel Pokémon," displaying elements of both a tiger and a wrestler. It is also a playable character in '' Super Smash Bros. Ultimate''.

References

External links

*
Tiger Mask movie Japanese
{{Toei Animation films 1968 manga 1969 anime television series debuts 1971 Japanese television series endings 1981 anime television series debuts 1982 Japanese television series endings Ikki Kajiwara Kodansha manga Manga adapted into films Martial arts anime and manga Professional wrestling comics Shōnen manga Shunsuke Kikuchi Toei Animation television TV Asahi original programming Wrestling in anime and manga Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation original programming Television series about tigers Gekiga Japanese sports drama films