The Fall 2016 Anime Preview Guide

Tiger Mask W

Three years ago on the pro wrestling circuit, a challenger nicknamed Yellow Devil employed devious and destructive tactics to take down a Japanese wrestler named Daisuke - with permanent injuries. Two young men training under Daisuke, his son Takuma and Takuma's friend Naoto, witnessed their master's fall. Vowing revenge, Takuma strove to join GWM, the outfit that backed Yellow Devil, while Naoto trained in the secret hopes of taking on Yellow Devil himself. Now GWM is coming back to Japan for the first time in three years. Takuma has won his place there as “Tiger the Dark,” while Naoto has kept up his intense private training. With GWM poised to take out another Japanese pro wrestler, both young men are ready to find Yellow Devil – either from the inside as Tiger the Dark, or from the outside as the mysterious Tiger Mask! Tiger Mask W is a spiritual sequel to the classic Tiger Mask anime and can be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 3:45 PM EST.

Paul Jensen

Rating:

Speaking from a critical perspective, Tiger Mask W doesn't appear to be a particularly good show. The writing lacks any hint of subtlety, the visuals look dated in a less than flattering way, and this first episode as a whole is difficult to take seriously. That being said, I had more fun watching it than I've had with a wide range of arguably better titles. I can't quite call it nostalgia, as I've never been a pro wrestling fan and haven't watched many anime series of the appropriate vintage. I think it's more of an appreciation for this show's all-in commitment to being what it is, for better or for worse.

Tiger Mask W evokes an attitude and approach that we don't see all that often these days. It's an anime series about manly men doing manly things, like fighting a bear while hanging upside-down from a rope or throwing a dude off the side of a mountain (both actual things that occur in this episode). It's obvious who's a hero and who's a villain, and most of the dialogue that isn't in direct service of advancing the plot covers topics related to justice and fighting spirit. It's all rather silly and over the top, and I can hardly blame any viewer who rolls his or her eyes and walks away after a few minutes.

The saving grace of this series is that it seems to be having fun with its own excesses. It stops short of being a parody, and is more like a celebration of the simple entertainment that this sort of approach can deliver. I get the impression that the real-world audience is expected to hoot and holler along with the crowds at the fictional wrestling matches. It's not at all the kind of thing I'd seek out for my own enjoyment, but it still put a big, goofy grin on my face more than once.

In a single-episode dose, Tiger Mask W is good, dumb fun. Whether or not it can hold up for a full season is another matter entirely. The same things that make it enjoyable in the short term could easily grow old after a while. I can't see myself getting emotionally invested in the larger-than-life characters, and it doesn't look as if the story is hiding any big twists or clever insights. If you're looking for something completely different, however, it could be just the thing to cleanse your palate in between more modern shows.

Theron Martin

Rating:

The original Tiger Mask manga, which was published in the late '60s and early '70s, generated two anime series: one by the same name with a 105 episode run from 1969 to 1971 and a shorter sequel, Tiger Mask II, in the early '80s. It also had a live-action film adaptation in 2013 and inspired a succession of actual pro wrestlers to adopt the title moniker. Hence this new production, which is sponsored at least in part by New Japan Pro Wrestling, is very definitely a nostalgia piece. That being said, you don't actually have to know a thing about the original to appreciate it; in fact, I have the distinct impression that it is aiming for a whole new audience among youths as well as older adults who might fondly remember the original.

The first episode works because it keeps things simple and campy. In this setting pro wrestling is real and bloody violence which can do permanent harm. Pro wrestling outside of Japans is, of course, under the control of a megalithic organization with questionable ethics. Two brothers (?) take different paths to avenging their father, who was apparently crippled by an evil wrestler. And that's about all there really is to it. It has lots of beefcake guys strutting around in nothing but wrestling shorts (even out in a mountainside!), a voluptuous blond manager who wields a whip and occasionally takes on a vague dominatrix flair, a slight, spunky girl who is a cousin of the brothers and whose name is Rukia Kuchiki Haruna. Naturally the action emphasis is heavily on wrestling moves, which actually aren't badly animated.

And yes, this is all as ridiculous as it sounds in execution. However, I actually found myself entertained by it, though probably not always in the way that was intended. Some of it is just so silly (the mountain climbing scene in particular), and yet is played so perfectly straight, that I got a few good laughs out of it. The producers also know how to milk the content for maximum flair, which helps a lot; cheese is best served in cheesy fashion, after all. This is one of those series that will just cause your eyes to roll if you don't actively switch off your brain while watching it, but if you can do that then it can be enough fun to be worth checking out.

Nick Creamer

Rating:

Based on a manga and anime property from way back in 1969, Tiger Mask W has traveled a long way to be revived here in 2016. This first episode establishes a quick rivalry between two Tiger-themed wrestlers, Tiger Mask and Tiger the Dark, along with a grudge of years and an extremely macho aesthetic. It's not a very impressive show, but it is an extremely dedicated version of itself.

At times, it feels like Tiger Mask W is deliberately aping the painfully limited-animation style of early anime. Outside of a couple cuts in the final fight, there's basically no animation here - it's all just minimally shifting lip flaps, and characters stuck in awkward poses to avoid being redrawn. The underlying art style amplifies this effect; the character designs are extremely basic, shading is minimal, characters don't feel connected to their backgrounds, and the line work is deliberately rough. Tiger Mask W looks something like a time capsule, an old-fashioned show revived with the sheen of modern anime production.

Unfortunately, being deliberately bad generally isn't more interesting than the other kind of bad (unless you're a work of mad genius like The Lost Village). Tiger Mask W's cheap look may be intentional, but it's still off-putting - the characters aren't expressive at all, and action scenes rely on the over-the-top drama of their fundamentals (Tiger Mask just threw a bear!) over any power of execution. That's a major flaw, considering Tiger Mask W's storytelling is just as basic as its visual style. If you're going for campy bombast, you can't just rely on nostalgia - modern throwbacks like JoJo may feel archaic in some ways, but they complement that old-fashioned energy with legitimately compelling execution.

Meaning that in the end, nostalgia is really all Tiger Mask W has going for it. It's not an overtly frustrating show or anything, it's just a cheap-looking and clumsily written one. If you have a lasting fondness for old-fashioned daytime anime, or possibly are a big fan of the kayfabe narratives of pro wrestling, Tiger Mask W might be worth a look. Otherwise, this is probably an easy skip.

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

If you harbor the sneaking suspicion that Tiger Mask W is a reboot of something from the 1970s, congratulations – you're right. The third incarnation of the original Tiger Mask manga by Ikki Kajiwara and Naoki Suji, which first ran from 1968 – 1971 and had a 105-episode anime series from 1969 -1971, Tiger Mask W moves the action up to today, adds in a second guy in a Tiger Mask, and otherwise runs like the kind of old-school masculine drama that will put hair on your chest and give you the urge to spit a lot, mostly because guys keep getting slammed in the gut.

Now I will give you that I know very little about pro wrestling – my only claim to knowledge comes from the fact that my parents were close friends with The Amazin' Blazin' Robbie Ellis. But I'm fairly certain that it is intended to be mostly for show; the big moves are choreographed and there's no intention to truly harm anyone, just the spectacle of it. That is absolutely not true in this show, especially with the two villainous characters introduced thus far, Yellow Devil and Odin. (Yellow Devil straight up cuts a guy within the first five minutes.) Both men, however, work for a shady world-wide wrestling company known as GWM, which stands for “Global Wrestling Monopoly.” With a name like that, you know they're up to no good, and the fact that their public face even calls herself Miss X in the workplace screams “up to no good.” (Then there's the fact that part of their recruitment testing is to scale a cliff in the blowing snow wearing only wrestling briefs and boots.) They call their training facility the Tiger's Den, and honestly, tigers seem kinder than these people. But that's where young wrestling aspirant Takuma goes after his father is disabled by Yellow Devil in a match, presumably to destroy the group, and Yellow Devil, from the inside. Meanwhile his friend and fellow wrestler-in-training Naoto opts to go the loner route and undergoes his own specialized routine, which seems to consist of hanging upside down from snowy ruins and killing the occasional bear. (Which he then eats. How economical!) It doesn't seem like either of them know what the other is up to, but it's clear that they've both become incredibly good – Takuma as Tiger the Dark handily wins his first pro match and Naoto storms in, takes out the evil Odin, and then rides off into the night.

I do feel like this episode assumes some familiarity with the original manga and TV series, because it seems very much like we ought to know why the tigers are so significant, or perhaps who more of the people are. The animation and character designs aren't terrific either, so it would be very easy to write this one off, particularly because storytelling has changed a lot since 1968 and Tiger Mask W seems more interested in nostalgia than updating its style. But in terms of over-the-top insanity, this looks like it will only get crazier from here. If you like your men big and thickly muscled and don't mind some outdated art and writing – or if you just want to hear Yū Kobayashi kill it as Miss X – this is a fun throwback that stands to get better as it goes on.