Tiger Mask (1969 TV Series)

Aired: 1969 - 1971

A TV anime produced by Toei Doga (now Toei Animation). Based on the manga written by Ikki Kajiwara and drawn by Naoki Tsuji, serialized in Kodansha's Bokura, Weekly Bokura Magazine, and Weekly Shonen Magazine. Broadcast in 105 episodes on the Nippon TV network (production by Yomiuri TV) from October 2, 1969 to September 30, 1971. Naoto Date (voiced by Kei Tomiyama, with Katsuji Mori in episodes 31-39), raised at the Chibikko House orphanage, is sent into Japanese pro wrestling as an assassin of the heel-wrestler training organization Tiger's Den, but, moved by the orphans' welfare, defies his masters to fight as the masked heel Tiger Mask, taking down his Tiger's Den classmates one by one. Recording a peak rating of 31.9 percent, it succeeded in adapting gekiga-style art to animation via the use of a trace machine, and established pro-wrestling anime as a lasting genre. (C)Ikki Kajiwara, Naoki Tsuji / Kodansha / Toei Animation