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Crunchyroll to Stream Tiger Mask W Anime

posted on by Karen Ressler
Wrestling anime premieres on Saturday

Crunchyroll announced on Friday that it will stream Tiger Mask W, Toei Animation's new anime based on Ikki Kajiwara and Naoki Tsuji's Tiger Mask manga. The first episode will stream on Saturday, October 1 at 3:45 p.m. EDT in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Central and South America including the Caribbean.

In Japan, the anime will premiere on October 1 at 26:45 (effectively October 2 at 2:45 a.m.) on TV Asahi.

The staff describe the anime:

The protagonists are two young pro wrestlers, Naoto Azuma and Takuma Fujii. Both were trainees of "Jipang Pro Wrestling," a small pro wrestling team, until it was crushed by the evil "Global Wrestling Monopoly (GWM)" team. To plan their revenge, Azuma trained at the foot of Mount Fuji, becoming the "New Tiger Mask," while Takuma entered "The Tiger's Hole," the organization that manipulates GWM, becoming "Tiger the Dark."

Toshiaki Komura (Kinnikuman Nisei, Ring ni Kakero 1, Futari wa Precure Splash Star) is directing the series at Toei Animation, with Katsuhiko Chiba (Rune Soldier, Baby Steps, Onmyou Taisenki) supervising the series' scripts. Hisashi Kagawa (Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, SaiKano, Fresh Pretty Cure) is designing the characters, while Junichi Hayama (Fist of the North Star 2, Casshern Sins, A Town Where You Live) is the action animation director. Yoshito Watanabe (Dragon Ball Z, Digimon Frontier, One Piece Special – Adventure of Nebulandia) is credited for art design. Yasuharu Takanashi (Naruto Shippūden, Fairy Tail Zero) and -yaiba- (Naruto Shippūden, Boruto -Naruto the Movie-) are composing the music. Reggae band Shōnan no Kaze is performing both the anime's opening theme song "Ike! Tiger Mask" (Go! Tiger Mask) and the ending theme song "King of the Wild."

The new production is being "revamped" for a new digital era by blending a touch of classic cel animation with current 2D and 3DCG animation.

The New Japan Pro Wrestling organization is collaborating with Toei Animation on the project, and its wrestlers will appear in the project under their own names.

The original "Tiger Mask" is the alter ego of the character Naoto Date, a pro wrestler who goes against an evil wrestling organization and fights for children in an orphanage. The original manga ran from 1968 to 1971 in Kodansha's Bokura magazine, Weekly Shōnen Magazine, and other magazines. Along with the baseball manga Kyojin no Hoshi, Tiger Mask is considered Kajiwara's life work. The manga already inspired two anime series in 1969-1971 and 1981-1982. The 1969 television anime series recorded 31.9% as its highest rating. There are even real-life wrestlers who have been inspired by the manga and anime to compete under the Tiger Mask persona.


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