History Manga / TigerMask

->''Shiroi matto no janguru ni''\\
''Kyou mo arashi ga fukiareru''\\
''Ruuro muyou no akutou ni!''\\
''Seigi no panchi no buchikamase''
-->-- The suitably hot-blooded theme song

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The first anime's ending was BitterSweet, with Tiger the Great's death finally bringing an end to Tiger Den's reign of terror, but Naoto Dante being unmasked and having to flee the country with the promise that someday he'll come back and visit the orphanage once more... But then, in the sequel series, minutes before the match for the NWA championship, Naoto gets run over by a car and dies. No one will ever know he was the great champion Tiger Mask, as he threw the mask in a nearby river to hide the fact. Made even worse by the fact that he had survived countless assassination attempts and lethal matches only to die in a ''totally random accident''!]]

* 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, as he threw the mask in a nearby river to hide the fact. Made even worse by the fact that he had survived countless assassination attempts and lethal matches only to die in a ''totally random accident''!]]

* BadLiar: Naoto is very bad at lying, at least when he's improvising. Luckily he usually lies to a group of children who think he's a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob, so when they spot the first lie he can 'admit' a lie better suited to his cover, and they fall for that one.

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Naoto fakes being one, saying he discovered having a rich relative and inherited from him.

* TheRedBaron: Many wrestlers had such names, like Star Apollon (The Two Thousands Moves Man), Great Zuma (India's Sun King) and Tiger Mask himself (the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Yellow Demon]]). All of them are justified in some way: Star Apollon loved to brag of knowing two thousands wrestling moves (and he used on screen ''nineteen'' different moves, many of which extremely difficult), Great Zuma was practically invincible, and Tiger Mask had sent dozens of wrestlers to the hospital with the right combination of fouls, brain and brutality.

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'', ''Wrestling/KojiKanemoto'', ''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.)

A sequel titled ''Anime/TigerMaskW'' premiered in 2016.

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

* TheDreaded: Two of them. The first to appear is Mister Chi, who, while almost unknown, is terror incarnated for anyone who has seen him fight. The second one is Red Death Mask, Tiger's Cave HeroKiller and their [[UpToEleven foulest fighter at the time]] (when Tiger Mask realizes ''who'' has come for his head, he considers himself doomed).

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Tiger Mask's {{No Holds Barred Beatdown}}s are considered over the top even by the other Tiger's Cave wrestlers. Red Death Mask's are [[UpToEleven much worse]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: Flashbacks show that Naoto's TrainingFromHell had been made even ''[[UpToEleven worse]]'' by a sadistic trainer. At the Maskmen World League, Tiger Mask beat the utter crap out of Tiger's Cave wrestler King Satan... And discovered he was the same sadistic trainer.

** During the Maskmen World League, Skull Star and Mr. Shadow double-teamed him, with Mr. Shadow kicking Kenta for revealing everyone the double teaming and biting him. Tiger Mask didn't care of the double teaming, but avenged the kick with a beating that was well over the edge ''[[UpToEleven even for Tiger's Cave standards]]'', stopping only when Mr. Shadow was withing an inch of his life and [[EvenEvilHasStandards creeping out both Skull Star and the Tiger's Cave wrestler who had served as the referee]] (Skull Star being creeped out doubled as OhCrap, as he recognized the signs that Tiger Mask was pissed and knew he was next).

* UpToEleven: Miracle 3 does it three times. The first two happens at the same time, as he not only defeats the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker (that had previously proved itself a FinishingMove impossible to defeat) but does it in a way that requires the greatest display of strenght in the series (in fact he nearly fails in that), while the third is [[spoiler: him actually being three different wrestlers with similar build and the same mask, one being an extremely capable technical fighter (and the one who actually came up with the counter to the Tiger Breaker), one being the third physically strong fighter in the series (topped only by what seems to be a ''yeti'' and Gorilla Man, an absurdly huge man raised by gorillas), and the third a master of cheats, exchanging themselves with each other according to the needs of the fight. When exposed, this was actually called the greatest scam in the history of pro-wrestling]].
** Dick the Bruiser tries to pull this in terms of fighting dirty by setting Tiger Mask on fire and trying and strangling him with the ring rope, but Tiger Mask replies by [[InfernalRetaliation hitting him with his cape in flames]] (it helped that dousing his clothes with fuel and setting them on fire was part of [[TrainingFromHell Tiger's Cave standard training]], so he already knew the counter) and not only escaping from the ring rope but perfecting the attack on ''him''.
* UseYourHead: That's the shtick of real life wrestlers Kintaro Oki and Bobo Brazil: hitting their foes with devastating headbutts. Black V brought it UpToEleven thanks to Bobo Brazil training him to be a stronger version of himself.

->''Shiroi matto no... janguru ni,''\\
''Kyou mo... arashi ga fukiareru'\\

''Seigi no panchi no buchikamase!''\\

[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tiger_Mask_516.jpg]]

* RealityEnsues: Early on, Tiger Mask wins Mr. X's tournament to declare the world champion among masked wrestlers. At first it's treated mostly as an afterthought, as only the JWA recognized it, but then he gained more fame and the NWA recognized it... And as a NWA champion he quickly got multiple challenges he could not refuse, first The Convict ''on the same day the NWA recognized him as champion'', and after that was dealt with he got ''seven at the same time''.
** Tiger Mask never revealed his identity to anyone. Thus when the Fake Tiger Mask appeared only his friends believed in his innocence, as they were with him when the fake first appeared but couldn't convince the journalists they were with the real one.

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.)

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Played with: Tiger Mask's 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.
* [[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.Question (physically the weakest fighter in the series) achieved against physically stronger foes, including ''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]].

* WorfHadTheFlu: Tiger Mask's subpar performance against Cyclone Gaston was due he subjecting himself to Tiger's Cave-like TrainingFromHell in preparation for the rematch against Miracle 3 and fighting him without resting. The characters realized it when Tiger Mask fought Miracle 3 and, differently from the first match, fought on his same level of abilities.

* [[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 ''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. ''Drawed with Thesz when he was still in his prime''). Tiger Mask qualifies at the end of the series, actually defeating Dory Funk Jr. (the manga actually says that he was the strongest in the world as he held Funk in a Cobra Twist).