This week’s tribute to the great Tiger Mask cartoon features a violent Tag Team match. Tiger Mask has partnered with Antonio Inoki (a real life Japanese wrestler) to battle two twins in matching green tights and faceless masks. I’m not sure what the Heel team calls themselves because I don’t understand the language. I’ve called them the “Mystery Twins” in this gallery because of the question mark logo on their masks and I suspect they probably have a name along those lines.
If you’re into gut kicks and rough trampling scenes, you’d like this match. Inoki plays the Babyface in Peril for most of the match, suffering from a relentless Stomp-a-Thon. The dull thuds of the Mystery Twins’ boots pounding into his body are like a drum solo that goes on for far too long. They can also leap several stories into the air, then soar down and slam into his belly with all their force, their boots driven right into Inoki’s helpless abs.
The dirty Tag Team also enjoy jumping up at the same time and Dropkicking their victim in perfect synchronicity, striking the victim’s skull at the exact same moment. This is portrayed with great drama and deadliness, and the great Inoki is soon wearing the crimson mask, shamed by trickles of blood running down his face.
One theme used in Tiger Mask is the inviolable honor of the hero. Despite repeated, endless, prolonged Two-on-One attacks by the cheating team, Tiger Mask remains outside the ropes, obediently (and foolishly) in compliance with the rules. I realize this gimmick is often portrayed in Tag Team wrestling matches, but the exaggerated violence and over-stated brutality afforded by the cartoon create greater tension and frustration from Tiger Mask’s refusal to insert himself into the match and rescue his handsome partner.
The cheating team are percussive with their attacks, now Headbutting Inoki’s injured forehead to draw more blood. With their faceless masks, the cheating Mystery Twins take on almost a phallic appearance, their rounded heads repeatedly, rhythmically slamming into Inoki. Each thrust produces more fluid blasting forth as the helpless man is abused without pause. It almost looks like a rape.
The Tiger Mask cartoonists, perhaps to save money, often repeat scenes or motions. For example, they may draw a man stomping his victim once, but then they replay and repeat the same motion 6, 8, or even 12 times in a row. This allows them to fill a long wrestling match with the least possible unique frames needing to be drawn, but in this match, the repetition also creates a pounding, relentless, unstoppable, sadistic beating. We see a long series of stomps (over and over like a machine), a record-setting number of headbutts that would leave anybody with brain trauma, and repeated use of their deadly Flying Double Dropkick to the skull. The repetition adds drama, and having no faces on their masks, the attackers seem inhuman (and merciless) like machines.
This is like if you’ve ever watched a one-sided fist-fight, and one guy starts really thumping his weaker opponent, and you want him to stop but he keeps striking and kicking anyway, without mercy even though he’s clearly won.
Eventually the cartoonists have mercy on Inoki (or grow bored of his torture) and they allow him to tag in his partner Tiger Mask. However, Tiger Mask also soon falls victim to the dirty Double Team abuse and is soon in great trouble. This is just the sort of Tag Team match I love to watch, but in the cartoon world of Tiger Mask, the cruelty, pain, injustice, and brutality is multiplied and magnified, and the villains never get tired.
