Today’s article will complete my review of the new Tiger Mask W cartoon — Episode #1. We last saw young Naoto at ringside, watching his wrestling trainer suffer a bloody beating in the ring.
Now we fast forward three years and Naoto is seen hanging upside down from a tree. When a bear attacks him, he rotates 36o degrees, slamming the poor dumb creature on its face to kill it. Then he and his family enjoy some bear meat for supper.
I’ll bet we see that same Suplex move later in the wrestling ring.
This is a dangerous way to hunt, but when you’re a stud like Naoto and you know awesome pro wrestling moves, it’s very effective.
By the way, the producer of Tiger Mask has ordered the deletion of the full episode from YouTube. So I found it on another source that I don’t want to mention here so I don’t risk causing it to get deleted. E-mail me if you want the link to the anime website where I found Tiger Mask W.
Next we see Naoto’s old friend Takuma facing a bear attack of his own. He is now training at the secret Tiger’s Den academy, where ruthless Heel wrestlers are taught to be mean.
The trainees are climbing a mountain in a snowstorm, wearing nothing but their trunks and boots. This is the sort of exercises they always do at Tigers Den.
Wow — Takuma does not play around!
Some tough looking (and sexy!) brute grabs Takuma’s ankle to pull him off the mountain! But Takuma performs an awesome backflip and tosses the other sumbitch right off the mountain — sending him tumbling through the clouds and presumably to his death.
This heartless turn-about (common in the Tiger Mask universe) enables Takuma to reach the top of the mountain first.
Takuma’s reward for winning the race to the peak is a red and black mask, received from some voluptuous blonde named Miss X. He will now wrestle in the mask with the name “Tiger the Black.”
A link has now been created between Takuma in his red mask and Naoto when he wears the yellow mask. The two will appear similar and unique, separated from other men by their unusual tiger masks. This implies a queer secret relationship between the two former best friends.
Speaking of queer relationships, now it’s time to wrassle again. Tiger the Dark (aka Takuma) is in his debut match against a gorgeous masked muscleman whom I will call Jobber the Blond.
We see the Tiger punish the Jobber in a tight headlock, his sharp teeth just inches from that spiky blond hair.
If the story of Tiger Mask W is meant to be a queer love story between Naoto and Takuma, then of course this hunk must be punished. He has dared to wrestle shirtless with Takuma, to come between the two heroes, so he must pay a painful price for being so tempting and beautiful.
We don’t get to witness exactly how Tiger the Dark defeated this jobber — the scene had cut away to Naoto arriving at the arena.
But we get to see the aftermath, with the blond sprawled out, vulnerable and open to receiving more abuse. Tiger the Dark stands over him, uninterested in further contact (because this jobber is NOT Naoto.) 
The crowd is in shock when the classic figure of Tiger Mask, the hero who disappeared from pro wrestling decades ago, enters the ring. We know this to actually be our hero Naoto, now challenging the bushy-eyed bully — Odin — who punched him in the face earlier in the episode.
Odin has some nice guns on him, dayum! He clamps on a Headlock and beats Tiger Mask like a drum, his long hair flowing all around, more beautiful than Niagara Falls.
Check out that sadistic grin on the bully’s face as he punishes our hero. Little touches like that make this cartoon a big turn-on.
Odin is just killing our poor Tiger Mask!
An Irish Whip into the ropes results in a sweet Back Body Drop by Odin, harming Tiger Mask’s spine and offering us a nice close-up view of his muscular torso and big meaty pectoral muscles.
There is always something arousing about seeing one’s hero helpless and hurting. The cartoonists tap into that vibe by making Tiger Mask suffer.
A big Bicep-Flexing Sleeper by Odin! And some arrogant smack-talking! GOD I LOVE THIS CARTOON!
Tiger Mask flips over Odin’s head to reverse the hold, securing a deadly Neck Lock.
Of course Odin will suffer now, mainly for not being Takuma — for daring to get shirtless and physical with Naoto, thereby potentially blocking their relationship.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Desires
Tiger Mask proceeds to fuck up Odin, injuring his shoulder, delivering his trademark German Suplex, then nearly kicking the dude’s long hair right off his head.
Tiger Mask then exits from the ring, not actually pinning Odin (perhaps because Miss X who is at ringside had threatened to have Odin executed if he lost to Tiger Mask.)
And that’s the end of Episode #1. I liked it — plenty of drama, sexual tension, good wrestling imagery, deadly villains, and even a budding gay love story.
I hope you weren’t bored, thinking I went into far too much detail. If so, too bad — I dig this show and love to write about it, so you’re going to be seeing much more Tiger Mask talk on this blog in the coming months. Enjoy!
Damn hot cartoon…!