Category: Finished Series: Action

Now, this episode was build-up, so it was not as impressive as the previous episodes. That pay-off had better be worth it, because a show as awesome as this one deserves an awesome finale.

And yeah, I applaud the creators for avoiding the cheese when getting Barnaby out of Maverick’s memory control. Tiger’s attempts to get through to him had a great emotional response, and yet it was a simple insult that did the trick. That really was a great anti-climax, and at the same time it was a great conclusion to the bond between Kotetsu and Barnaby.

But Christ, we’ll already be ending in two weeks! This really strikes me as the show that’s gonna end with a one-episode epilogue (or at least an epilogue that will take a significant amount of time of the final episode for that epilogue), so we’re going to get the meat of the ending of this series next week!

The big potential pitfall I think will be that the ending is going to get too mundane: at this point, all of the mysteries are solved, and the struggles between the main cast are gone. It’s entirely about trying to defeat Maverick and that Robot now. This is really something where the creators are going to have to go over the top.

That ending is going to matter a lot, whether I’m going to rate this 90/100 or 87,5/100. These numbers may seem random, but let me put it this way: this series still has the potential to become my favourite Sunrise series of the past ten years. If that ending is good, it will probably stand on top of my current top 3 of Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, Zone of the Enders and The Big O (Gintama unfortunately doesn’t count because of its second half). If the ending is mundane, it probably won’t make that top 3, so I’m really eager to see whether this series will be able to do it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Um yeah. That’s possible too. I really kept wondering on how the creators would end up solving the memory alterations of Maverick. The previous episode built up an epic plan to do that, and it really looked like Tiger was going to have to try his best to both convince everyone, while not being too cheesy at the same time. Or just wait for Kaede to show up and zap everyone back.

It’s a bit weird at first, but as the episode went on I really appreciated what a great anti-climax this was. After all, this episode did avoid exactly what I was afraid of: cheesy monologues for every single one of the side characters. Instead, Tiger’s attempts were shown to have some subtle influences, but they just weren’t enough for the team mentality of the heroes who worked together. In the meantime, Sky High’s brilliant action of touching Kaede on the shoulder still leaves the perfect opportunity for Kotetsu to really scrape the barrel in trying to get the memories of his friend back: for a lot of different characters, this indeed would have been rather weird.

Added to that was that the characters were just incredibly enjoyable throughout the entire episode. Just about everyone shined and was fun to watch. The cast of Tiger & Bunny really has what I’d like to call the X-Factor for me: it’s hard to describe, but beyond well developed and acted, they put in this extra bit to make them even more interesting, and make them consistently enjoyable, even when they’re not doing anything. For me, this is one of the greatest heights a cast can reach. This series has had episodes that hinted to that very much in the past, but this episode sealed the deal.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Okay, so Maverick’s plan myay have holes, but it’s damn fun to watch it unfold. It’s bold and imaginative, and yet not completely stupid or overly complicated, and Tiger is really going to have to put in effort in cleaning his name. This episode was wonderful in showing his confusion in trying to figure out what the hell happened. He had no reason to doubt Maverick until it really became obvious what was going on through that news broadcast, so he was constantly trying to figure out what the heck happened. His acting was excellent throughout this entire episode.

Oh, and Kaede also stole the show in this episode. She really showed a different side of hers in this episode, and I loved the way she reacted to Kotetsu’s real identity. Now, furthermore: the creators introduced her powers for a reason, meaning that she’s not simply going to play the role of hostage. I’m really looking forward to seeing how she’ll end up getting used.

Now, the big challenge for the creators will be to convincingly return everyone’s memories. We’ve already seen how Maverick’s powers work: they malfunction when they start to believe something that contradicts their fake memories. Barnaby really believed that Jake didn’t murder his parents after Kriem’s confession and the fact that there was no Ouroboros sign on Jake’s hand. In other words: this really will be up to the scriptwriters. They have to take the current cast of heroes, and make us believe that they believe that Kotetsu (a complete stranger in their minds) isn’t a murderer. This can VERY EASILY lapse into cheese.

Oh, and on hindsight, I also want to praise the creators for the use of the red herring of Dorothy. It both was a great way to give character to Sky High, explain what Barnaby’s parents were doing, and reference back to The Big O (a uniquely great but underrated series). Sunrise, I’m really glad that you’re going back to the habit you seemingly abandoned five years ago, releasing all kinds of interesting and original premises. Here once again we have a show that worked out amazingly.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

And with this, Maverick sold me: this guy is one great villain. Most of the time when an old guy is the main villain, just about all he does is sit on a chair and order around. This guy however has found a great use of his powers and position to attempt to wrap up his own past. It’s great to see that here, the villains don’t have this flimsy plot that depends a lot on “we are the strongest! muahaha!”, but instead one where they also use their heads, and make it profitable as well.

What’s more is that he also makes very good use of his control over the mass media and the status of Hero TV, where he can pretty much convict anyone he wants to, without any counter-opinion on TV. I will play Devil’s advocate a bit though, because it remains a bit of a shaky plot, considering the amount of people it involves. Maverick altered the memories of the people he drugged, but what about their colleagues? I mean, tiger was pretty well known. They will probably find it strange that suddenly these people don’t know who Tiger is anymore. There’s just one of them who needs to raise a voice, and there will be a bit of a problem.

I also love how well this plot is created on hind-sight. I mean, it was clear that Maverick was the bad guy, but the creators did this without obvious foreshadowing. It’s just that some of his actions subtly gave things away, but you could only see these when looking for the bigger picture. Take the city that’s shaped like Ouroboros’s logo: at first I thought that they remodeled the city after the logo, but instead Maverick probably modeled the logo after the city for some reason.

Think back to that one prisoner who got caught by Tiger, who was ready to give himself up and go to prison before Lunatic murdered him. On hindsight that didn’t really look like your typical criminal: he’d be pretty pissed that he got caught and had to go to jail, giving up his freedom. It seemed more like this guy was a prisoner that was used by Maverick. He probably got a lighter sentence if he cooperated. That logo could be linked to one of the prisons of the city.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This episode contained the big plot twist. The one that had been looming for ages now and had been hinted at numerous times. It’s again the characters who made it awesome, but I do have one problem with it:

The ending would have been a great cliff-hanger if it wasn’t so bloody overused. Maverick is a great villain, but he also falls victim to the “let me tall you all about my evil plans, because I’m going to kill you afterwards anyway”-syndrome. At least I can understand the reasoning of him: his powers are convenient, but take a long while to load, so without some kind of precaution, nobody is stupid enough to wait for that. It’s a good way to tell about his plans in order to buy some time. Just… don’t pretend that it’s a cliff-hanger and that we don’t know what’s going to happen next.

As for the rest of the episode… is it really that weird for Kotetsu to have trouble saying that he’s losing his powers? How does that make him a ‘retard’, when his pride refuses him to expose a weakness to his partner, who he always tried to look cool in front of. People really aren’t that eager to share their personal problems with others. In fact, just about every character in this series is full of inner struggles, and throughout the entire series we’ve had the people around them just guess what’s up. It’s not like this is Kimi ni Todoke, whore the characters spend an entire season dodging their issues.

This episode, on top of having the big plot twist, also probably marked the depth in this series, where the relationships between the characters are at their lowest. Tiger who tried to keep both of his promises has instead gotten into a big fight with both Kaede and Barnaby, and the next few episodes will probably focus again on him, trying to make up with them.

The big question mark right now lies in the kind of villain that Maverick is: one kick and he’ll be out. At this point, the climax will be either en over the top fight with Lunatic, or a plot to expose Maverick’s lies to the public: something that also could be done by people without superpowers.
Rating: ** (Excellent)