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Tiger Mask W Coming to Crunchyroll

Published on October 3, 2016

Upcoming wrestling anime Tiger Mask W is being simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Tiger Mask began life as a professional wrestling manga by Ikki Kajiwara and Naoki Tsuji from 1968 to 1971. In 1969 it was adapted into an anime by Toei Animation that ran for 105 episodes. The franchise became popular enough that one of Japan’s biggest wrestling promotions, New Japan Pro Wrestling, licensed the character to create a real-life Tiger Mask.

Toei Animation is making a new Tiger Mask anime for the first time since the early 80s, with Tiger Mask W.

The main characters are Naoto Azuma and Takuma Fujii, two young pro wrestlers. They were trainees at a small wrestling organization called Zipangu Pro Wrestling, but it wound up getting crushed by the wicked pro wrestling organization Tiger’s Den. In retaliation, Naoto trains at the base of Mt. Fuji and becomes the new Tiger Mask, and Takuma meanwhile deliberately joins Tiger’s Den and becomes Tiger the Dark.

The legacy left behind by the original Tiger mask is inherited by a new wrestler…!

Tiger Mask W isn’t just reintroducing the franchise to the anime world, it is also bringing some NJPW stars along for the ride. Some of NJPW’s biggest stars will be characters in the anime, including Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe, the stars of the Garo: Ashura special.

The first episode will land on Crunchyroll this Saturday, October 1st at 12:45PM PDT.

Source: Crunchyroll