Professional wrestling, brought to you by pop culture and the make believe world of mass media.
Karate Master
1973 – 1974
Karate Master was an anime series that aired in Japan about… karate. It also depicted American wrestlers and wrestling fans as xenophobic hate mongers. I have no idea whether or not this was supposed to be aimed at kids or adults at the time it came out, but the adult me definitely appreciated it more than 10-year-old me ever would have.
While I’m sure there’s quite a bit of manga and anime based on wrestling, or puroresu, they’re not all easy to come by. Luckily, thanks to my Hulu Plus subscription, I stumbled across the oddly sexually-charged, hard-hitting, competitive world of joshi wrestling that is Wanna be the Strongest in the World. And it was a lot better than I expected.
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