Tatakae! Dragon logo

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


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 requesit 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.



DragonDragon

Shiranui, Ryuma aka Dragon travels across Asia seeking vengence for the murder of his mentor, the head of the Fubiki Karate School, by the Shadow Assassins Guild. Shadow specialzes in making murders look like accidents or suicides. There are some contradictions in the dialogue in episode 2 the Shadow boss claims no one even suspected Shadow existed until Dragon. Then in episode 3 says INTERPOL has learned they exist and has sent an agent. That agent was the first person Dragon met in Hong Kong in episode 1, and was after Shadow before Dragon. He does not reveal his identity to Dragon until episode 3.

Musashi, KojiroBruce Leung

While visiting Hong Kong, Dragon aquires a side kick the bumbling but well meaning Musashi, Kojiro. And a mysterios rival who claims not to be a Shadow assassin but never the less doesn't want Dragon interfering in his own plans, whatever those may be. In Macao the mysterious rival reveals that he's actually INTERPOL agent Bruce Leung assigned to bring down Shadow, and not Dragon's enemy after all. Appearing in the first three episodes it seems like he's going to be a major character but after episode 3 he only appears again at the end of episode 8. INTERPOL's headquarters in in Paris, yet INTERPOL agents in Japanese series never speak French. And FBI agents don't speak English either. This particular INTERPOL agent is actually played by a Chinese speaking actor and had to be dubbed by a Japanese voice actor.

Lin, ShuKurihiko border=

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 midflight he has no choice but to take him to theorphange, "The Acorn House", he works at in Japan. :The Acorn House" is run by Dr. Kuri who likes alcohol too much. The "Arcons" as Dragon refes 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 refered to as "Dr. Kuri's Clinic" however the doctor is actually last seen at the end of episode 15 even though the clinic is still used as Dragon's home base for the rest of the series..


Shadow henchmen

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.

Eyes of Darkness

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.


Tatakae! Dragon logo

(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.)


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 Jagaur           Blue Cat
05 07/39/1974 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 Jagaur
15 10/08/1974 Who Is Black Jagaur?!           Black Jagaur (different mask)
16 10/15/1974 The Dark Dojo Of Fear           Whirlwind
17 10/22/1974 The Mysterious Demon Fist!!           Hayate
18 10/29/1974 Dragon The Great Turnabout           Flash, Thunder, Rock Storm
19 11/05/1974 The Enemy With The Strongest Tai Chi           ?????
20 11/12/1974 The Demonic Wrestler           ?????
21 11/19/1974 The Black Rider Assassin           ?????
22 11/26/1974 The Incredible Man From Hong Kong           ?????
23 12/03/1974 Challange: Hurricane Karate!           ?????
24 12/10/1974 Target: The Karate Champion           ?????
25 12/17/1974 Counterattack! The Dark Tiger           ?????
26 12/24/1974 Farewell, Dragon           ?????


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.


DVD
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