AWESOME ENGINE » Wrestling

Merchandisable Frogs and other things.

November 26th, 2006 by Brack

First things first, here is the greatest Ayako Hamada photo I have ever seen (nicked, I think, from the lj of one of the writers of Progressive Boink):

See! She can smile!

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I heard Andrew Thompson's song “We're In Business” today. I liked it's blend of vocodered robots and silliness. And songs which mention the singer's name in them are great. In short, it's Chromeo if Chromeo wrote stupid songs full of rhyming couplets about robots.

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I'm intending on get the rest of Kemonozume watched before I drive back tomorrow. I've 4 more episodes to watch. Episode 9 was really great I thought, my favourite since episode 6. AniPages Daily pointed out that apparantly it was animated by an all-female crew. Should that make a difference or be notable? I don't know. I mean, you wouldn't go out your way and proclaim something as having a special quality just because only men made it. It seems odd that, that should still be a notable thing. But I guess it's a male dominated industry and so it is still noteworthy.

Let's just say it was a a really good cartoon, and I shall keep an eye out for more things made by the same people, regardless of their gender.

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I see Keroro Gunso got licensed while I was working and not paying attention to the internet. ADV too. I wonder how much that cost them? Still good to see it licensed and good to see ADV pick up a potentially big series (and if handled well - a license to print money).

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Been catching up too with Man To Man With Dean Learner. Can't help wondering Ayoade and Holness' parodies are possibly too specific to have a wide appeal. Even when parodying something with a fairly high public status like Uri Gellar, they get into parodying specific points like Gellar's appearance on The Tonight Show.

Which for me is aces, as that's the sort of anal retentive accuracy that I'll eat up with a spoon. There's a vague spectre hanging over the show that the original concept may have the Deano's After Dark show we see clips of occasionally. And that probably would have been even better from my point of view, though possibly not for the casual viewer. Regardless, I've been enjoying it and the Merriman Weir and Glynn Nimron episodes especially.

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#55 - Tiger Mask

October 10th, 2006 by Brack

I really like the animation in this opening. The movement of the wrestlers looks great and the fact it doesn't use a static camera position is awesome.

This 1969 series is probably the most influential wrestling series, although there is one that is bigger that came later (and will come later in this list). The manga is discussed in Schodt's “Manga Manga” where you get to see the great villain Golgotha Cross, a wrestler with a barbed wire crucifix as a weapon. A BARBED WIRE CRUCIFIX!

Anyway back to it's influence. Like Jushin Liger, this series spawned a real wrestling gimmick (in fact the series had featured real wrestlers occasionally like Giant Baba). In 1981, Satoru Sayama donned the feline mask and became Tiger Mask.

However, unlike Liger more than one man has donned the mask. In 1984, Mitsuharu Misawa became Tiger Mask II. In the early 90's Koji Kanemoto was Tiger Mask III. And since 1995, there has been the as yet unknown Tiger Mask IV.

Also of note is the Black Tiger gimmick, the arch foe of the man who wears the Tiger Mask. It has been portrayed by a variety of wrestlers, most notably the late Eddie Guerrero.

And of course, King from Tekken is Tiger Mask in all but name. He even has the same origin as the manga/anime character (orphan who helps orphans).

Here's a site with more than you'll need to know about Tiger Mask

It's the return of Puroresu time!

DYNAMITE KID VS TIGER MASK I: