From Anime To Pro Wrestling: Jushin LigerA young Keiichi Yamada applied to the New Japan Pro Wrestling's (NJPW) dojo to fulfill his dream of being a professional wrestler in the early 1980s. But he was not accepted because he did not meet the height requirements they had at that time. Devastated but determined, Yamada would not give up his dream of becoming a professional wrestler, so he left for Mexico and began his training there. By his own account, he was almost starving while studying there, so NJPW officials who were visiting saw his state, took pity on him and asked him to come back to Japan to train in their dojo.
Competing in Japan in August 1987, Yamada debuted his "Shooting Star Press" in a match against Masakatsu Funaki, for which he had gotten the idea from reading the manga "Fist of the North Star." Yamada continued learning his craft in Japan as well as doing the traditional "excursions" in which NJPW would send a young wrestler overseas to become a more well-rounded performer. Within months of his second Canadian excursion, NJPW called him back, as they now needed him desperately for a gimmick based on an extremely popular anime superhero, Jushin Liger, created by manga artist Go Nagai, who is best known for creating Cutie Honey, Devilman, and Mazinger Z, which is notable for being the manga that introduced the concept of a human pilot inside the giant robot. The Jushin Liger anime had been Produced by Sunrise Inc. with cooperation of Dynamic Planning (Nagai's own company) and the series originally broadcast on Nagoya Broadcasting Network (NBN)/TV Asahi from March 11, 1989 to January 27, 1990 with a total of 43 episodes telling the story of a mild-mannered 16-year-old boy named Ken Taiga who realizes that he is the descendant of the legendary Liger warrior. In a burst of anger, Ken's Liger birthmark appears, and he rises his palm into the air, shouting the transforming command, "LIGER!" which then covers him in demonic, long-haired biomechanical armor. Ken transforms into Jushin Liger to fight the evil forces of the Dragonite! 
Some of the original Jushin Liger source material.
NJPW had used this method this previously with having a wrestler portray anime character "Tiger Mask", which had become a huge success, and they were eager to repeat that business. Yamada was given a superhero-like full body costume and a demonic looking mask, resembling the superhero type featured in tokusatsu and anime programs. The rest, as they say is history. Liger astonishingly continues to wrestle to this day, maintaining popularity with fans across the world despite injuries and even a brain tumor in 1996. He has performed consistently with the Jushin Liger persona since 1989, while the Tiger Mask persona has been handed down a succession of five of Japanese professional wrestlers. (Competing organization to NJPW, All-Japan pro wrestling purchased the rights to the Tiger Mask character in 1984.) The opening theme of the Jushin Liger anime "Ikari no Jushin" ( "Jushin's Rage"), which was performed by Yumi Hiroki, is also Jushin Thunder Liger's theme song, which he still uses to the present-day. 
Jushin Thunder Liger in the ring. Image source: http://newjapankingdom.tumblr.com/
Jushin Liger - a perfect example of a fictional character crossing over to real life! Let us know what you thought about this article in the comments. 
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