History Manga / TigerMask

''Tiger Mask'' is a Japanese manga series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji. It was later adapted into an anime series by Creator/ToeiAnimation.

** According to El Sicodelico, being unable to do them right is the only reason he and his stronger brother Mil Mascaras are unable to defeat Dory Funk Jr. (then reigning NWA world champion), Verne Gagne (Wrestling/{{A|mericanWrestlingAssociation}}WA champion) and Wrestling/PedroMorales (Wrestling/{{W|orldWrestlingFederation}}WWF champion). Dory Funk Jr.'s apparition seems to confirm this in-universe, as when Tiger Mask fought him for the championship [[spoiler: and was on the verge of defeating him he punched the referee, losing by disqualification but keeping the belt.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Minutes before the match for the NWA championship, Naoto Date gets run over by a car and dies. No one will ever know he was the great champion Tiger Mask. Made even worse by the fact that he had survived countless assassination attempts and lethal matches only to die in a ''totally random accident''!]]

** DragonAscendant: May be the boss of the new Tiger's Cave in ''Tiger Mask W''.

** [[spoiler: Technician]] Miracle 3 in the manga is another. Tiger's Cave best pupil? Check. Very fast and capable wrestler capable of overwhelming world champion-level wrestlers with superior technique? Check. Above the world champion when it comes to fouls? He's a Tiger's Cave pupil, check to infinity. In fact Tiger Mask adopted the Romero Special (Miracle 3 favourite FinishingMove) as one of his own high school techniques.

* FinishingMove: What did you expect from a wrestling manga? Tiger Mask had to develop his own Finisher after some episodes, rather than starting with his own, after he realised that he is in a handicap against other wrestlers that got them. Then, after [[spoiler: Mr. Question]] made it utterly useless, he created another, taking care of creating variations in case he found someone that could counteract the basic version (as Bobo Brazil and Black V learned at their expense). And he created a ''third'' after [[spoiler: Miracle 3]] counteracted that too.

** Mr. X narrowly averts it thrice in the manga. The first time was after Red Death Mask's defeat: Mr. X begged to not be thrown on the execution ring where Red Death Mask had just been murdered, but the executives [[FelonyMisdemeanor first berate him for daring to assume they'll give him the death of a wrestler]] and then announce that, having done everything he could and succeeded in the secondary goal of making Tiger Mask resort to fouls, he'll be given another chance. The second time is after Miracle 3's defeat: this time the executives were ready to have him killed, but Mr. X returned with a kidnapped [[spoiler: Kenta]] to bait Tiger Mask into going back at Tiger's Cave, and the executives decided to wait and see (when Tiger Mask actually showed up Mr. X was spared again). Finally, after Mr. X's last plan fails due to the TrueCompanions [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome storming Tiger's Cave with Tiger Mask]], they decide to let him get killed by the beasts supposed to kill the attackers, but [[spoiler: [[TheDogBitesBack Tiger's Cave trainees opened the gate so that the beasts would invade the main base]], saving his life (last we see him he's holding the executives at gunpoint as they run away in s helicopter)]].
* ZeroApprovalGambit: Tiger Mask is quite fond of these. As a heel his gimmick was that of the foreigner who beat the crap of everyone and intentionally called for the fans' hate, so there would be more people watching his matches in the hope to see him defeated. As a face he did it three times he was expecting to die (first he abandoned the World Big League tournament and insulted Baba to try and win the Maskmen World League, then he beat the crap out of aspirant wrestler Teppei Oiwa to supposedly vent the frustration of having to fight [[KungFuProofMook Black V]], and then insulted the whole JWA roster before having to try and storm Tiger's Cave) so that his loved ones wouldn't suffer (plus Teppei Oiwa's beating doubled as a SecretTestOfCharacter), but every time someone saw through it: when he quit the World Big League [[spoiler: Baba]] thought about it and realized that Tiger Mask wanted the first prize to [[spoiler: pay a surgery to heal a blind girl]] and, with the identity of Great Zebra, helped taking down Egyptian Mummy and Lionman; Teppei immediately recognized it was a test of character and told so to Ruriko (who, for once, had actually fallen for it); when Tiger Mask insulted the JWA roster Baba, who remembered the past experiences, immediately called him on it, and when Tiger Mask insisted he [[spoiler: [[TrueCompanions followed him to Tiger's Cave with the rest of the roster]], [[BigDamnHeroes saving his life]] and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome helping taking down Tiger's Cave]] ]].

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Happens three times. The first is when Great Zebra almost kicked in his one match and has to stop himself, as kicking would have been a dead giveaway to his real identity as [[spoiler: Giant Baba]]. Then there is Tiger Mask using the Super Tiger Drop on Freddie Blessie ''after'' Mr. Question countered it, resulting in Blessie dealing Tiger Mask the one defeat he never succeeded in avenging. Finally there is the match against Mr. Kamikaze, that Tiger Mask had decided to throw because Mr. Kamikaze's defeat would have resulted in Tiger's Cave killing his son, but, half stunned, executed the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker and ''won'' (he actually cried "Damn it!" when he recovered his senses and realized what he had done. He then [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome proceeded to save Mr. Kamikaze's son anyway]]).

* RightUnderTheirNoses: Mr. Question first appearance in a flashback is this: Baba was observing a battle royal for a prize of 100,000$ when he spotted him jumping on the ring ''without anyone else noticing''. That was immediately followed by the then nameless Mr. Question first CrowningMomentOfAwesome, when he established himself as TheDreaded and the fourth most powerful wrestler of the world by [[CurbStompBattle single-handedly throwing out of the ring all the other wrestlers]].

* [[WorldsStrongestMan World's Strongest Wrestler]]: Played with. In terms of pure strength Gorilla Man is unrivaled, but was handily defeated by Tiger Mask when he was still unexperienced in fighting fairly. The series shows that skills are more important than pure strength, well evidenced by Tiger Mask losing a round against the technician [[spoiler: Miracle 3]] and, a couple minutes later and still tired, [[CurbStompBattle curbstomps]] the much stronger but less skilled [[spoiler: Strongman Miracle 3]], and the string of victories that Mr.Chi (physically the weakest fighter in the series) achieved against physically stronger foes, including ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome the best Korean wrestler in history]]'', before handing Tiger Mask his ass on a silver platter and losing only due [[DidntSeeThatComing a truly unexpected development]].
** Interpreting the trope as 'best wrestler around', the series has the following World's Strongest Wrestlers: Mr.Chi/The Great Zuma in his prime (by the time he appears he's the fourth due him being [[spoiler: over seventy years old]]), Wrestling/LouThesz (real life wrestler with enormous strength and formidable skills. Before passing his prime, the strength of a wrestler in-series was measured by how long it took for Thesz to win), Wrestling/BrunoSammartino (real life wrestler, he's shown as one of the physically strongest and a fine technician to boot, thus being mentioned as the strongest in many occasions after Thesz passed his prime), and Dory Funk Jr. (real life wrestler and final adversary to Tiger Mask. ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Drawed with Thesz when he was still in his prime]]''). Tiger Mask qualifies at the end of the series, actually [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome defeating Dory Funk Jr.]] (the manga actually says that he was the strongest in the world as he held Funk in a Cobra Twist).

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Mr. Chi/The Great Zuma is this, having the ability to understand how to use or defeat ''any'' move by seeing it once. He shows the copying ability by using the Cobra Twist after seeing it in use once, and then defeated [[spoiler: Tiger Mask's first finisher]] with embarrassing ease after seeing it once.
** Mr. Chi's apprentice Snow Singh has a similar but lesser ability, being able to intercept flying attacks after the second time they're used on him, following with grabbing the unsuspecting victim and either sending him flying or applying a ferocious MetronomicManMashing.

* BadassBoast: Many wrestlers have declared they'll defeat Tiger Mask and/or his FinishingMove. So far the only ones who succeeded are Mr. Chi (who had promised [[spoiler:he'd make the Ultra Tiger Drop useless]]. Tiger Mask barely defeated him, but he still kept his promise) and Miracle 3 (who declared he'd [[spoiler: counter the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker]] and defeat Tiger Mask, and was successful on both accounts).

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Happens three times. The first is when Great Zebra almost kicked in his one match and has to stop himself, as kicking would have been a dead giveaway to his real identity as [[spoiler: Giant Baba]]. Then there is Tiger Mask using the Super Tiger Drop on Freddie Blessie ''after'' Mr. Chi countered it, resulting in Blessie dealing Tiger Mask the one defeat he never succeeded in avenging. Finally there is the match against Mr. Kamikaze, that Tiger Mask had decided to throw because Mr. Kamikaze's defeat would have resulted in Tiger's Cave killing his son, but, half stunned, executed the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker and ''won'' (he actually cried "Damn it!" when he recovered his senses and realized what he had done. He then [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome proceeded to save Mr. Kamikaze's son anyway]]).

* DidntSeeThatComing: Once in a while, a wrestler does something completely unexpected, but [[spoiler: the trainees of Tiger's Cave setting gorillas and leopards on the admins]] and the way Tiger Mask defeated Mr. Chi takes the cake, the latter having ''Tiger Mask himself'' unable to believe it (he was following an apparently useless suggestion from Kintaro Oki out of respect, not really expecting it to work).

** Played straight and averted by the protagonist himself. It had been played straight for his first finisher, when, after revealing it to the public by ''obliterating'' Ursus Apollon, had to deal with his much more skilled brother Star who could counter it by keeping his legs closed and then with Mr. Chi, who found a perfect counter that was quite embarrassing, and for the match with Gorilla Man, where his using the bridge position to counter the enemy's attack of jumping on a downed foe would have resulted in Tiger Mask's death due the enormous weight if Baba hadn't saw it coming and harmed his neck to stop him from the bridge (after the match, in which Gorilla Man ''broke the ring'' with that attack, Tiger Mask admitted it). Averted most of the times, as Tiger Mask has the habit of thinking ahead (and, after the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker, took care of researching ''any'' possible counter he could think of, as Bobo Brazil, [[KungFuProofMook Black V]] and [[TheBrute The Convict]] learned the hard way).

* FinishingMove: What did you expect from a wrestling manga? Tiger Mask had to develop his own Finisher after some episodes, rather than starting with his own, after he realised that he is in a handicap against other wrestlers that got them. Then, after [[spoiler: Mr. Chi]] made it utterly useless, he created another, taking care of creating variations in case he found someone that could counteract the basic version (as Bobo Brazil and Black V learned at their expense). And he created a ''third'' after [[spoiler: Miracle 3]] counteracted that too.

*** In fact Tiger Mask created his legal {{Finishing Move}}s to have a last resort that was not Tiger's Cave-style fouls. And Mr. Chi making the Super Tiger Drop useless resulted in him reverting to the Tiger's Cave style at the first provocation.

* GrievousHarmWithABody: Once in a while a wrestler is sent flying on another, but the times where it was most impressive was when Mr. Chi ended his CurbStompBattle against twenty opponents by throwing one of the last three on the other two, Tiger Mask receiving a MetronomicManMashing from Snow Singh and Red Death Mask throwing half a dozen journalists at Tiger Mask before attacking him with their bench.

* HeroKiller: In order of appearance we have: Gorillaman (the physically strongest fighter of the series), Lionman (Tiger's Cave head coach), Star Apollon (one of the best technical wrestler of the story), Mr. Chi (in-universe, [[OldMaster the best wrestler in history]], that even with the handicap of being [[spoiler: over sixty years old]] [[CurbstompBattle curbstomped]] Tiger Mask for most of the fight and lost only due a DeusExMachina. In his prime he was practically invincible), Red Death Mask (Tiger's Cave designated HeroKiller), Mr. Kamikaze (the strongest fighter of Tiger's Cave underground fighting rings), Black V ([[KungFuProofMook a wrestler apparently immune to submission holds]]), The Convict ([[TheBrute a giant wrestler with enormous strength]]), Miracle 3 (Tiger's Cave greatest miracle, a wrestler with superb technique, immense physical strength and incredible ability with fouls. [[spoiler: He's actually three different persons: Tiger's Cave finest technical fighter, greatest strongman and foulest wrestler]]) and the fake Tiger Mask.

* NonchalantDodge: Great Zuma, as Mr. Chi, used it as his main defense, as, while [[WeakButSkilled unmatched in technique, he was far physically weaker than his opponents]]. Being by far the most skilled character in the series, his NonchalantDodge has the habit to let an overeager opponent hit a wall, the ropes or the ring post.
** In his match against Black V, Tiger Mask took a page from Mr. Chi's book, and defended himself from the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Missile Headbutt]] by dodging and letting Black V hit the ring ropes (and kick him while he was tied up) or the ring post, before stepping up the game and ''drop kicking'' the Missile Headbutt (Tiger Mask landed on the journalists' table. Black V on concrete and ridicule).

* RightUnderTheirNoses: Mr. Chi first appearance in a flashback is this: Baba was observing a battle royal for a prize of 100,000$ when he spotted him jumping on the ring ''without anyone else noticing''. That was immediately followed by the then nameless Mr. Chi first CrowningMomentOfAwesome, when he established himself as TheDreaded and the fourth most powerful wrestler of the world by [[CurbStompBattle single-handedly throwing out of the ring all the other wrestlers]].

* WeakButSkilled: Mr. Chi/The Great Zuma is this, being [[spoiler: over ''seventy'' years old]] and, according to Tiger Mask, clearly physically weaker than the other competitors in the pan-Asian tournament, but at the same time can use ''perfectly'' almost all pro-wrestling move in existence, and his AwesomenessByAnalysis allows him to copy the ones he doesn't know and counteract them after seeing them ''once'', as best shown when he [[spoiler: counteracted Tiger Mask's first finishing move with embarrassing ease]].

Most people outside Japan, though, only know Tiger Mask as a real professional wrestler from a fad in TheEighties. While it only began as a homage and promotion to the fictional character, it grew into a popularity of its own, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff especially in the West]], due to the memorable Wrestling/DynamiteKid fights. Since then five wrestlers have adopted Tiger's identity: ''Wrestling/SatoruSayama'', ''Wrestling/MitsuharuMisawa'', ''Koji Kanemoto'', ''Yoshihiro Yamazaki'' and ''Ikuhisa Minowa'', in that order.(before them there was also Samson Kutsuwada in Korea but that didn't spawn a continuous legacy)

In the manga and anime, Tiger Mask was a feared {{heel}} wrestler in America who was extremely vicious in the ring. After returning to Japan, Tiger Mask joined the Japanese League headed by [[Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling Giant Baba]] and Wrestling/AntonioInoki (also RealLife wrestlers) who were then on the verge of kicking him out for his use of villainous techniques. Tiger Mask (whose real name was Naoto Date) was raised in an orphanage, and later joined Tiger's Cave (a criminal cartel whose main activity was to train young people to became Heel wrestlers) to became "Strong as a Tiger".

In the manga and anime, Tiger Mask was a feared {{heel}} wrestler in America who was extremely vicious in the ring. After returning to Japan, Tiger Mask joined the Japanese League headed by [[Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling Giant Baba]] and Wrestling/AntonioInoki (also RealLife wrestlers) who were then on the verge of kicking him out for his use of villainous techniques. Tiger Mask (whose real name was Naoto Date) was raised in an orphanage and later joined Tiger's Cave (a criminal cartel whose main activity was to train young people to became Heel wrestlers) to became "Strong as a Tiger".

To save the orphanage where he was born and raised he decided to go against the main rule of Tiger's Cave (all wrestlers must give 50% of their income to the organisation) and as such he was marked a "traitor" and other wrestlers from the Cave tried to kill him on the ring (while hired assassins tried to do the same outside of the ring).

When an orphan living in the same orphanage as Naoto started to take his heel persona as a life model Tiger Mask decided to fight honestly on the ring starting a series of confrontations that eventually brought him against the BigBad, the master of Tiger's Cave.

In the manga and anime, Tiger Mask was a feared {{heel}} wrestler in America who was extremely vicious in the ring. After returning to Japan Tiger Mask joined the Japanese League headed by [[Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling Giant Baba]] and Wrestling/AntonioInoki (also RealLife wrestlers) who were then on the verge of kicking him out for his use of villainous techniques. Tiger Mask (whose real name was Naoto Date) was raised in an orphanage and later joined Tiger's Cave (a criminal cartel whose main activity was to train young people to became Heel wrestlers) to became "Strong as a Tiger".

* [[spoiler:DownerEnding]]: [[spoiler:Minutes before the match for the NWA championship, Naoto Date gets run over by a car and dies. No one will ever know he was the great champion Tiger Mask. Made even worse by the fact that he had survived countless assassination attempts and lethal matches only to die in a ''totally random accident''!]]

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Played with: Tiger Mask limit is that he's unable to freely wrestle in normal style while including fouls interrupted before the count of three, but the one to give the speech ''to him'' to make him overcome it is El Sicodelico.

* ChekhovsGun: Early on it's shown that Tiger Mask is quite proficient in the bridge position, the back suplex and the Tomoe Nage Judo throw. The Fujiyama Tiger Breaker includes a Tomoe Nage to start the move (and in fact he first had the idea when he used one and started kicking his foe because he knew a Tomoe Nage wouldn't be enough), and the manga-only Tiger V is the fusion of four different moves including the Tomoe Nage and the back suplex and need the ability to use the bridge position.

** Before inventing his own, Tiger Mask could still rely on the classical piledriver (that in one memorable occasion was fused with the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker) and back suplex. The latter was actually his signature finisher before he created his first personal one (and performs it liberally in the opening), and actually surprised everyone when he first pulled it on Black Python.

** DragonAscendant: Is the boss of the new Tiger's Cave in ''Tiger Mask W''

* AdaptationalBadass: In the manga Tiger's Cave executives are weaklings, and even Mr. X can get the drop on them (he did). In the anime there are three masked executives that reveal to be [[ShroudedInMyth obscenely strong wrestlers wearing the mask of the Tiger and who were considered too strong to actually exist]], and the anime-only Big Boss is even stronger.

* BlessedWithSuck: How Tiger Mask being recognized as World Maskmen Champion by the NWA is treated: while he's now a world champion and his matches will earn him more money, it also means he cannot refuse a challenge or the title would be voided, and he's now getting loads of such challengers (the first ''on the very same day'' the NWA made the announcement).

* TheDragon: Mr. X is Tiger's Cave head manager, with only the admins (and, in the anime, the big boss of Tiger's Cave).

* HeroKiller: In order of appearance we have: Gorillaman (the physically strongest fighter of the series), Lionman (Tiger's Cave head coach), Star Apollon (one of the best technical wrestler of the story), Mr. Chi (in-universe, [[OldMaster the best wrestler in history]], that even with the handicap of being [[spoiler: over sixty years old]] [[CurbstompBattle curbstomped]] Tiger Mask for most of the fight and lost only due a DeusExMachina. In his prime he was practically invincible), Red Death Mask (Tiger's Cave designated HeroKiller), Mr. Kamikaze (the strongest fighter of Tiger's Cave undergroun fighting rings), Black V ([[KungFuProofMook a wrestler apparently immune to submission holds]]), The Convict ([[TheBrute a giant wrestler with enormous strength]]), Miracle 3 (Tiger's Cave greatest miracle, a wrestler with superb technique, immense physical strength and incredible ability with fouls. [[spoiler: He's actually three different persons: Tiger's Cave finest technical fighter, greatest strongman and foulest wrestler]]) and the fake Tiger Mask.

** A hell of n aversion happened in the manga version of Mr. Kamikaze Arc. When Tiger's Cave bouncers were about to execute Kamikaze's son for betrayal Tiger Mask told them to stop, and they invoked this trope while training their submachine guns. Tiger Mask showed them that his cloak was filled with ''dynamite'', and dared them to open fire as he moved to save the child. Then the bouncers played it straight, as they tried to kill Tiger Mask with knives in spite of being normal people.

* ZeroApprovalGambit: Tiger Mask is quite fond of these. As an eel his gimmick was that of the foreigner who beat the crap of everyone and intentionally called for the fans' hate, so there would be more people watching his matches in the hope to see him defeated. As a face he did it three times he was expecting to die (first he abandoned the World Big League tournament and insulted Baba to try and win the Maskmen World League, then he beat the crap out of aspirant wrestler Teppei Oiwa to supposedly vent the frustration of having to fight [[KungFuProofMook Black V]], and then insulted the whole JWA roster before having to try and storm Tiger's Cave) so that his loved ones wouldn't suffer (plus Teppei Oiwa's beating doubled as a SecretTestOfCharacter), but every time someone saw through it: when he quit the World Big League [[spoiler: Baba]] thought about it and realized that Tiger Mask wanted the first prize to [[spoiler: pay a surgery to heal a blind girl]] and, with the identity of Great Zebra, helped taking down Egyptian Mummy and Lionman; Teppei immediately recognized it was a test of character and told so to Ruriko (who, for once, had actually fallen for it); when Tiger Mask insulted the JWA roster Baba, who remembered the past experiences, immediately called him on it, and when Tiger Mask insisted he [[spoiler: [[TrueCompanions followed him to Tiger's Cave with the rest of the roster]], [[BigDamnHeroes saving his life]] and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome helping taking down Tiger's Cave]] ]].

* BullyingTheDragon: Happens late in the manga, when, during the Fake Tiger Mask arc, Tiger Mask is thought to have returned an eel: when he goes to America to find the imposter and prove he's still a {{face}} fighting other wrestlers without fouls, American wrestlers attack him with fouls to get a first strike. Mr. K is initially lucky, as Tiger Mask doesn't reply in kind, but later he and another wrestler have a run-in with the imposter, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown who shows them exactly]] ''[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown why]]'' [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Tiger's Cave wrestlers are so feared]].

* BullyingTheDragon: Happens late in the manga, when, during the Fake Tiger Mask arc, Tiger Mask is thought to have returned an heel: when he goes to America to find the imposter and prove he's still a {{face}} fighting other wrestlers without fouls, American wrestlers attack him with fouls to get a first strike. Mr. K is initially lucky, as Tiger Mask doesn't reply in kind, but later he and another wrestler have a run-in with the imposter, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown who shows them exactly]] ''[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown why]]'' [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Tiger's Cave wrestlers are so feared]].

** Another instance happened during [[spoiler: the storming of Tiger's Cave]], when Tiger Mask executed the Tiger V on one of Tiger's Cave wrestlers but had forgotten he wasn't on the ring, and thus there was no rope to grab to avoid giving an headbutt to the floor. He immediately called himself an idiot for that.

** An hell of aversion happened in the manga version of Mr. Kamikaze Arc. When Tiger's Cave bouncers were about to execute Kamikaze's son for betrayal Tiger Mask told them to stop, and they invoked this trope while training their submachine guns. Tiger Mask showed them that his cloak was filled with ''dynamite'', and dared them to open fire as he moved to save the child. Then the bouncers played it straight, as they tried to kill Tiger Mask with knives in spite of being normal people.

* LargeHam: Mr. X ''loves'' to describe in vivid particulars how strong is the wrestler he's sicking on Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask himself was one when he was an heel, but he never reached his levels.

* {{Pirate}}: The manga-only character Viking Kid has a viking pirate gymmick, and nearly defeated Tiger Mask in a death match held in a floating ring in the middle of the ocean.

* ZeroApprovalGambit: Tiger Mask is quite fond of these. As an heel his gymmick was that of the foreigner who beat the crap of everyone and intentionally called for the fans' hate, so there would be more people watching his matches in the hope to see him defeated. As a face he did it three times he was expecting to die (first he abandoned the World Big League tournament and insulted Baba to try and win the Maskmen World League, then he beat the crap out of aspirant wrestler Teppei Oiwa to supposedly vent the frustration of having to fight [[KungFuProofMook Black V]], and then insulted the whole JWA roster before having to try and storm Tiger's Cave) so that his loved ones wouldn't suffer (plus Teppei Oiwa's beating doubled as a SecretTestOfCharacter), but every time someone saw through it: when he quit the World Big League [[spoiler: Baba]] thought about it and realized that Tiger Mask wanted the first prize to [[spoiler: pay a surgery to heal a blind girl]] and, with the identity of Great Zebra, helped taking down Egyptian Mummy and Lionman; Teppei immediately recognized it was a test of character and told so to Ruriko (who, for once, had actually fallen for it); when Tiger Mask insulted the JWA roster Baba, who remembered the past experiences, immediately called him on it, and when Tiger Mask insisted he [[spoiler: [[TrueCompanions followed him to Tiger's Cave with the rest of the roster]], [[BigDamnHeroes saving his life]] and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome helping taking down Tiger's Cave]] ]].

'''''Tiger Mask''''' is a Japanese manga series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji. It was later adapted into an anime series by Creator/ToeiAnimation.

'''''Tiger Mask''''' is a Japanese manga series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji. It was later adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation.