Well why not?
I figured a once in a while anime review would be swank and just ot keep it on the wrestling side I decided that the first anime to review should be the extremely mediocre Jushin Liger anime from 1988!!

The Liger Anime series was based on the shortrun manga by Go Nagai, creator f such classics as Devilman, Cutey Honey and Mazinger Z (Transor Z in the US) as well as tons of other classic big robot shows and occult series which ran from the late 60's to the mid 80's.

The series ran 48 episodes and was produced by Nippon Sunrise (Moto: "WE Make Gundam!!")

The premise of the series is that demons from the beast realm are trying to invade earth with Bio-mechanical beasts. 200 years previously they were banned from the earth by a legendary waarior marked by the tattoo of a Liger (Lion/Tiger) on his hand. Now they are back and think that since the warrior is dead earth is theirs for the taking.

Little do they know that the warriors descendant bears the tatoo now and he happens to be a 16 year old named Ken!! Ken can summon the legendary Bio-unit Jushin Liger and merge with it to fight of the demons that plague mankind (and I don't mean Mickj Foley brother!!). Liger has the ability to summon the legendary "Liger Sword" and execute the devastating "Liger Slash" (listen to the ring music for Jushin Liger, it doubles as the Opening song for the anime in case you couldn't figure it out). When the power of Jushin Liger is not enough and Ken's life is in danger from bonding too long Jushin becomes enraged and thus becomes FIRE JUSHIN LIGER, complete with wolf like face and long red hair and horns.
 

The episodes 24-32
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These epsidoes deal with the deomns finally having found out Liger's weakness, attack the center of his chest before he transforms to Fire Liger and he's beaten. Ken (our hero) is still lamenting over the death of his grandfather (waaaay back in episode 8!!). Whn the demons invade a nearby city Ken decides its his duty save it!! But wiat, Ken's 2 female love interests Kei and ami start predicting doom for Ken as they keep falling under trance-like stats. Undaunted our hero rushes off to battle and spends 3 episodes getting his ass kicked, rallying to fight back and then get his ass kicked again (kind of like Kobashi/Williams match, Ken in the Kobsahi role).

The bad guys have Ken at their mercy when suddenly Kei and Ami join hands and bring to life the statue in the middle of the city park, a statue of a Pegasus!! It turns out they are the descendants of Pegaruda, the Bio-unit that acts as Liger's mount. Liger and Pega merge but still can't beat the damn beasts... until Ken combines the liger sword with the lgendary Pegasus Lance to form the Pega-lancer! Do I need to say who wins?
 

Overall... lord is this show out there!! Go Nagai was scraping the bottom of the barrel as he was finishing up "Violence Jack" at this point and wanted a more kid friendly manga. the animation is horrible but the show is fun to watch sometimes. Is it a keeper? HELL NO!! but if you want to learn about where Yamada got the gimmick from here's whjere to begin. It should be noted that before ther transformation to Fire Liger, Jushin Liger's head looks exactly like Yamada's first Liger mask. The later versions (Which Go Nagai helped design) were done to look like Fire Liger. Makes me wonder if Benoit was supposed to be Pegaruda (disturbing imagery of Liger sitting astride Chris Benoit's back are frightening!!)

On a 5 ***** scale this show rates ** Intersting concept, poor execution but some solid action!!

James