Tatakae!
Dragon (Fight! Dragon)
Tatakae!
Dragon (Fight! Dragon) ran from July 2, 1974 through
December 24, 1974 (for 26 episodes)
Opening
Theme
| Character |
|
Actor/Actress |
| Shiranui, Ryuma aka Dragon |
|
Kurata, Yasuaki |
| Musashi, Kojiro |
|
Akatsuka, Makoto |
| Narrator |
|
Utsumi, Kenji |
Tatakae!
Dragon (Fight! Dragon) was a martial arts, action series not
science fiction/fantasy.
There are no transforming heroes or monsters which is why its under
"Honorable Mention".
It does have the good vs. evil theme and the hero and the villains do
fight under aliases.
There is even the required regular child character..
Most of the villains
are played by two actors, one a martial arts expert (usually from Hong
Kong)
who performs the combat sequences and another who dubbed the voice, in
Japanese.
Shiranui, Ryuma aka Dragon travels across Asia
seeking vengeance for the murder of his mentor, the head of the Fubiki Karate School, by the Shadow Assassins Guild.
Shadow specializes in making murders look like accidents or suicides
While
visiting Hong Kong, Dragon acquires a side kick the bumbling but well
meaning Musashi, Kojiro. The character is named after two Japanse
master swordsmen Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro, Their duel is
stuff of legends. Musashi, Kojiro is badly misnamed, he is nothing like
either of them. He is bad at karate because he's lazy and doesn't
practice enough, he also overeats.There are a few occasions where he
gets lucky and actually wins a battle but for the most part he's there
to give Dragon someone to rescue and to provide comic relief. His best
episode is episode 11 in which he dawns multiple disguises to follow
Flying Squirrel, the only Shadow Assassin he is actually able to best,
mostly by accident.
As Dragon is
flying back to Japan from Hong Kong he discovers Lin, Shu is on his
plane claiming he's going to Japan to learn Karate from Dragon and its
okay with his parents. Not being able to drop the boy off mid flight he
has no choice but to take him to the orphanage, "The Acorn House".
Connected to the Acorn House is Dr. Kuri's Clinic and Dragon's dojo.
Dr. Kuri likes alcohol too much.The "Acorns" as Dragon refers to the
orphans are only seen in the early episodes. Although the assassin in
episode 13 threatens to kill "every man, woman and child" at Acorn
House and tells his men to "start with the small fry" none of the
children are actually seen in the episode. Shu's mother becomes ill in
episode 14 and he is placed on a plane to fly back home at the start of
the episode, and is never mentioned again. None of the other children
are there to say good bye and Dragon never refers to the Acorns again
in fact the location is only referred to as "Dr. Kuri's Clinic". After
appearing at the end of episode 15. Dr. Kuri is missing until episode
19 when he appears having been asleep and immediately wants a drink.
For
the first part of the series (episodes 1-15) the Shadow assassins guild
seems to be lead by the mysterious Black Jaguar whose face is never
seen (until just before he dies), only his a hand holding a cigar
appears on camera. And he uses a disguised voice. There are clues to
his identity and if you pay close enough attention you should be able
to figure out who is before Dragon does. All off te assassins under him
are named after animals and most have a color in their name. Only a
handful actually dress in the color matching their name however. The
henchmen who assisst the assassins may wear black shirts with a Jaguar
image on them or they may wear briighter colored shirts without the
logo. They're mixed in episodes 14 and 15. Before he dies, Black Jaguar
warns Dragon that even if he is killed Shadow will go on. Naturally the
Jaguar shirts are never seen after episode 15.
After
the demise of Black Jaguar, Dragon is told that Shadow is an
international organization, something he should have realized having
fought them in Hong Hong, Macao, Japan and Manilla, and that Black
Jaguar was merely the regional boss, stationed in Japan The new boss
seems to be a pinstriped suit wearing, pipe smoking, American known as
Eyes of Darkness. To prove that Shadow is international and that he is
not Japanese he speaks four words of English "he must die" and "go"
(not the Japanse word for five) in episode 16. In episode 17 he states
that he came to Japan from America to complete unfinished business in
Japan and that he will return to America soon. His assassins are Cold
Wind & Gale.
Eyes
of Darkness proves to be a man of his word when he is replaced as the
boss of Shadow Japan (episode 18) by Dark Tiger. Apparently all Shadow
bosses must be smokers. Despite his animal based name most of his
assassins are named after natural forces (mostly wind) not animals.
Dark Tiger appears in episodes 19, 20, 23-26. Dark Tiger greets people,
friend and foe alike with "A'salam", when its Dragon he is speaking to
he makes "peace" sound like a threat. In episode 24 he uses the full
"As-salamu alaykum", so he's apparently supposed to be Arabic and
possibly a Muslim, though of course the rest of his dialogue is in
Japanese. Dark Tiger is more obssessed with defeating Dragon than
either Black Jaguar or Eyes of Darkness. As a result of Dragon's
constant interfernce in Shadow Japan's operations its decided that the
Japanese branch is costing too munch money and it is to be shut down.
Before leaving Dark Tiger tries one last time to elimnate Dragon. He
arrogantly (and blasphemously) refers to his final four assassins as
"Shadow's Great Gods: God of Wind, God of Water, God of Lightning and
God of Fire".
(Clicking on an episode
title will lead to an episode summary [including photos] which will
contain spoilers, especially epsiode 15's
Clicking on the assassin's name will just display a photo with no other
spoilers.)
| Episode
Title |
Shadow
Assassin(s) |
| 01
07/02/1974 Dragon Files To Hong Kong |
Red Tiger |
| 02
07/09/1974 Dragon's Foe Is Purple Snake |
Red
Tiger & Purple Snake |
| 03
07/16/1974 The Messenger Of Evil Is Red
Scorpion |
Red Scorpion |
| 04
07/23/1974 Dragon VS, Black Jaguar |
Blue Cat |
| 05
07/30/1974 The Frightening Silver
Praying Mantis |
Silver Praying Mantis |
| 06
08/06/1974 Dragon VS, Female Dragon |
Striped Wolf & Spotted Wolf |
| 07
08/13/1974 Onward Dragon! To Devil's
Island!! |
Green Spider |
| 08
08/20/1974 Dragon In Danger! Certain
Death |
Green
Spider & Golden Bat
|
| 09
08/27/1974 The Bizzare Dark Karate |
Dark Lizard & Shadow Weasal |
| 10
09/03/1974 Dragon Fights To The Finish
In Manila |
Brown Lizard |
| 11
09/10/1974 Dragon Goes Missing |
Gray Fox & Flying Squirrel |
| 12
09/17/1974 Shadow's Invitation To Death |
Yellow Sea Snake |
| 13
09/24/1974 Dragon's Great Escape |
One-Eyed Condor & Jackal |
| 14
10/01/1974 Touch And Go For Dragon |
Brown Moray Eel & Black Jaguar |
| 15
10/08/1974 Who Is Black Jaguar?! |
Black Jaguar (different mask) |
| 16
10/15/1974 The Dark Dojo Of Fear |
Cold Wind |
| 17
10/22/1974 The Mysterious Demon Fist!! |
Gale |
| 18
10/29/1974 Dragon The Great Turnabout |
Flash, Thunder, Rock Storm< |
| 19
11/05/1974 The Enemy With The
Strongest Tai Chi |
Whirlwind |
| 20
11/12/1974 The Demonic Wrestler |
Shock |
| 21
11/19/1974 The Black Rider Assassin |
Magnum & Winter Wind |
| 22
11/26/1974 The Incredible Man From Hong Kong |
Violent Wind & Sea Storm |
| 23
12/03/1974 Challenge: Hurricane Karate! |
Hurricane |
| 24
12/10/1974 Target: The Karate Champion |
Landslide |
| 25
12/17/1974 Counterattack! The Dark
Tiger |
Dark Tiger, Wind, Water, Lightning, Fire |
| 26
12/24/1974 Farewell, Dragon |
Wind, Lightning, Water, Fire, Dark Tiger |
At the end of episode 26, Dragon finally understanding that all he has
done is wipe out Shadow Japan, that Shadow is an international
assassins guild, boards a jet plane (destination unspecified) to "wipe
out Shadow every where in the world". The final words are however,
Kojiro's "Bro! (with tears in eyes) followed by a short prayer for his
safe return and one last "Bro!" (aniki). THE END. (1st credit sequence
repeating opening theme runs as usual, followed by second ending
credits sequence with "Lonely Dragon" playing for the last time).
Each episode
ended with the following warning: "KARATE REQUIRES PROPER PRACTICE
NEVER
IMITATE WHAT YOU SEE" (In Japanese of course). In the first episode its
only printed on the screen, beginning with the second episode Dragon
recites the warning, probably in case there were children watching who
hadn't learned to read yet.
Tatakae!
Dragon (Fight! Dragon) was released on DID by BCI Eclipse,
in Japanese with English subtitles.
When BCI Eclipse went bankrupt its properties were acquired by Mill
Creek Entertainment
which rereleased the DVD
set under its logo on March 9, 2010.
Ending
Theme
Back
To
Henshin Hall Of Fame
Tatakae!
Dragon (Fight! Dragon) is a Senkousha / Tokyo Channel 12
Production
