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 | |||||||||||
Majin Leung | Bruce Leung | |||||||||||
Majin Leung (voice) | Akio, Nojima | |||||||||||
Narrator | Utsumi, Kenji |
For the first part of the series (episodes 1-15) the Shadow assasins guild seems to be lead by the mysterios Black Jagaur whose face is never seen (until just before he dies) and 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 the 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 Jagaur 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 Jagaur 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 Jagaur, 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 Jagaur was merely the regional boss, stationed in Japan For the second half of the series (episodes 16-26) Shadow Japan is under the command of a pinstriped suit wearing, pipe smoking, American known as Eyes of Darkness. Unlike Black Jagaur, this boss appears on camera in his very first episode. 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 then return to America. Like every "American" in Japanese televsion he continies to speak Japanse even, when he's alone talking to himself, instead of reverting his to native tongue, English. The assassins working under him do not use colors or animals in their names instead most of them name themselves after natural forces.
(Clicking on an episode
title will lead to an episode summary [ncluding photoes] which will
contain spoilers, especially epsiode 15's
Clicking on the assassin's name will just display a photo with no other
spoilers.)
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 DVD by BCI Eclipse,
in Japanese with English subtitles.
When BCI Eclipse went bankrupt its properties were aquired by Mill
Creek Entertainment
which rereleased the DVD
set under its logo on March 9, 2010.
Ending
Theme
Tatakae!
Dragon (Fight! Dragon) is a Senkousha / Tokyo Channel 12
Production