Tiger Mask

Tiger Mask
Cover of the 2001 re-release of the first manga volume
タイガーマスク (Taigā Masuku)
Genre	Sports (professional wrestling)
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
Anime television series
Directed by	Takeshi Tamiya
Written by	Masaki Tsuji Tadashi Kondo Toyohiro Ando
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Toei Animation
Original network	Yomiuri TV
Original run	October 2, 1969 – September 30, 1971
Episodes	105
Anime film
Directed by	Takeshi Tamiya
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	1970 (1970)
Anime television series
Tiger Mask II
Directed by	Kozo Morishita
Written by	Haruya Yamazaki
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Toei Animation
Original network	TV Asahi
Original run	April 20, 1981 – January 18, 1982
Episodes	33
Live-action film
Directed by	Ken Ochiai
Produced by	Toshiaki Nakazawa Hidehiro Ito Yoshihiro Yamamoto
Written by	Hidehiro Ito Itaru Era Ken Ochiai Michael Welles Schock
Music by	Koji Endo
Studio	Shochiku
Released	November 9, 2013 (2013-11-09)
Runtime	90 minutes

Tiger Mask (Japanese: タイガーマスク, Hepburn: 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 1971 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.

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 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.