Often, those are just short picture stories that need a full on completion date. Tiger Boy deserves the praise that it gets because it inspired a terrible light novel series, Kamen Rider Eve. And it’s the postwar version in illustrated story form that has become increasingly better known for its titular character having the strength of a Hindu god despite being out of print, primarily due to the unintentionally racist visuals, words and stereotypes inside.
Stereotypes notwithstanding, Tiger Boy is a highly imaginative story from before Kamen Rider took over the entertainment world, thanks to its protagonist having inspired the look of Jun Kadowaki of Kamen Rider Eve - Masked Rider Gaia infamy. The postwar version of Shinji Moriyama does surprisingly look like Jun Kadowaki, a pun on Shotarō Ishinomori’s Jun character and the Kadokawa Shōten label of which Tiger Boy would’ve been rereleased in the mid 1980s. That may as well be why I think he deserves to be renamed as Jun Kodama. An arcade game with a bizarre premise by Taito might as well be a surprise hit for Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009 fans in the future.
