This is the one that makes you understand why a mask matters more than a man. The original left a hole shaped like Naoto Date, the heel who went straight because one orphanage kid said he wanted to grow up vicious, and the sequel does not pretend that hole can be filled. It hands the stripes to someone new and asks the ugliest question in the genre: can you inherit a symbol without inheriting the debt to Tiger's Cave, the outfit that manufactures monsters and bills them half their purse for the privilege? 1981 timing is the part fans get smug about, because Satoru Sayama was putting on the mask for real in New Japan while these 33 episodes aired, so the cartoon and the shoot were feeding each other in real time. The wrestling is drawn like wrestling, holds and counters and the long pause before the crowd figures out who to cheer. And it still ends up being about kids in a home watching a TV, deciding what a hero looks like.

Tiger Mask Nisei is the second season of Tiger Mask, and it brings in a different cast of characters from the original. That first series told of Naoto Date, a feared heel wrestler in America who turned to heroic fighting after returning to Japan, inspired by a boy from the orphanage where he himself was raised. This sports series picks up the franchise with new characters over 33 episodes.