Category: Tiger & Bunny

Okay, and with this we may very well have the best episode of Tiger & Bunny yet. Holy crap, that was bittersweet.

What’s awesome about these past episodes is that they only show how much this series had been planning in advance. Both this and the Sky High episode were some of the most anticipated episodes around. Instead of showing them in the first half, the creators really saved them for the later half of the series, when the cast has already grown significantly.

Yes, there will be a catch: while it would be an awesome twist if Kotetsu really kept true to his words, there has to be some catch for Tiger left. But that doesn’t prevent this episode from being completely awesome. Kaede alone was already more than worth the wait, but this episode delivers and makes both Kotetsu’s brother and mother a delight to watch as well. It was all wonderfully down to earth. Even the thunder storm doesn’t matter. Yes it was very coincidental, but the things it accomplished more than made up for it.

By far the best was Kotetsu’s development though. This guy got a ton of depth with this episode. This episode really showed how he still sees his daughter as a 6-year-old kid, due to the lack of time they spent together, and seeing his mother and brother lecture him about it was also an excellent touch. Finally showing his dead wife only made things complete.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Holy crap, what a plot twist! Compared to the light-hearted episodes of the last two weeks, this episode was really dark. It didn’t just reveal Lunatic’s background, it also put a completely new spin to this series.

There have been plenty of hints so far that the city of Sternbild is corrupt and closely linked to Ouroboros, but there is one thing that always stood solid as the epitome of goodness: Mr. Legend. That’s exactly what he was though: a legend. His history was written so that he really stands out as a heroic figure, completely masking his flaws. It’s also not like he turned out to be some sort of Ouroboros Mastermind, and during his glory days he probably did some amazing things. He was the one who popularized the hero business after all, and inspired countless of people. Sure he was probably influenced by corporate strategies, but even then he himself had a huge influence there.

And then his powers declined, he started drinking and beat his own wife and son so badly that his son (aka Lunatic) ended up killing him.

What’s more: this episode also rocked because of the huge contrast between Kotetsu and Barnaby. I mean, they already were opposites and all, but right now, Barnaby is going though his glory days, while Kotetsu is about to leave them with the loss of his powers. Tiger in a way is very similar to Mr. Legend, his great example, so I’m really not sure what the creators have in store for him. Like I said before, it would really be interesting if he really were to lose his powers. At this point there have been no hints whatsoever to power upgrades, so it would be a bit of a shame if something like that ended up solving his problems.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Here it is: the long-awaited Sky-High episode. And it was worth the wait! It’s finally time to really get to know him.

And again, this episode somehow did it while also delivering a bunch of really nice twists to the plot. Skyhigh here actually gets to show why he used to be the king of heroes: he’s far from as active as the Dragon Kid for example, but his powers are by far the strongest out of all of the heroes out there. It’s really interesting how, while he’s an interesting character, most of his awesome points have just been hinted towards and that makes for a really interesting character, especially since this episode focuses on his flaws. And builds some romance around him. That also really was awesome.

I’m not sure whether this was intentional or not, but that robot actually has this really similar voice as Dorothy from the Big O. It’s really bizarre, especially considering their parts and personalities in both series are totally different, but they do speak with this similar tone. She also was animated really well, by the way.

Also, if this were a shounen series, then Tiger is about to get a huge power up. In this series however, where his powers are anything but conventional aside from the fact that he’s really strong, anything can happen. I’d actually really want to see Tiger lose his powers for real, without the creators pulling some Deus ex Machna as an excuse to make him stronger.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

This was a really silly episode, but I absolutely loved it. The humour was exactly what this series needed after the previous arc, but most importantly: timeskip!

this episode was a riot to watch, but on top of that it contained a ton of character development because we skipped 10 months forward. Bison, Blue Rose, Tiger, Barnaby: they all changed, and it was awesome. The trust between the main duo is finally complete and got the chance to mature a bit, Bison changed to the resident loser and especially Blue Rose’s crush on Tiger gave an interesting twist to her character. Usually it’s nothing special when a girl falls in love with the main character and all, but Tiger & Bunny has never been a romantic comedy: it was immediately established that Kotetsu had a dead wife and a daughter and so far the creators never hinted at Blue Rose liking him so far: this was no love at first sight like you see at nearly every series, but instead it’s only something that grew over the course of the past episodes. As character development it fits great into this series.

Also, the comedy. The villain f this episode was hilarious, but especially the way in which he turned out to be that stand-in for Barnaby that was once used had me in stitched. Because of that the chase at the end of the episode was a really entertaining one, and Tiger’s powers getting wonky made it even better. His powers are changing, and yet this series has never shown anything like this before (the closest I guess was Jake getting two powers). There has to be a catch beyond simply “his powers are evolving”.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

And wit this we conclude the first half of Tiger & Bunny. This episode was… interesting, because it wasn’t exactly the best episode of the TV-series. Because the previous episodes built it up so meticulously this episode pretty much did everything you’d expected, without much surprises aside from Kotetsu using his head again. It’s good build-up though: Barnaby and Tiger will receive a lot of development from this episode.

The thing with Tiger & Bunny is that it’s really entertaining when building up, and it looks like the random episodes will continue again after this arc, so this is definitely promising to become even better. It’s there where this series can really start using its build-up of the first half. I expect the second half of this series to continue with a similar pattern as the first half, with it ending with a climax that focuses both on Lunatic and the fact that the entire city looks like the Ouroboros logo.

What I do hope is that that final arc will use its characters more. That’s the only thing that really bothered me in this episode: in the end everyone aside from Kotetsu and Barnaby was pretty useless and the only parts where they actually helped to solve things were just… cut out. I want to see the creators come up with a story that doesn’t just require the powers of everyone, I want them to come up with a scenario that puts all of them in the spotlights. They’re all great characters, they deserve that.
Rating: * (Good)

This episode was depressing to watch. I mean, it was almost completely one-sided the way in which some of the best heroes were just pummeled down like it was nothing. This episode did make sure to not god-mode that villain, and an obvious turning point was built up for the next episode, but damn: this episode put a big dent into the glory of these superheroes, especially with Sky High beaten so easily.

Also, the set-up where two main characters have to work together despite their differences is quite a cliche. Often this starts off with tension, leading to them getting to know each other and becoming friends for the rest of the series. This episode toyed with that really well, as it showed that there still is no full trust between Kotetsu and Barnaby when Kotetsu screws up Barnaby’s plan, right after he was asked to trust him (even though Barnaby did the same to Tiger a few episodes ago, only Barnaby didn’t screw up).

This arc is the halfway point of this series. It’s a really unusual place to show how damn flawed the main character is. Previously, this series built him up as this heroic guy with the right ideas, powers and mindset, and yet he hasn’t done anything well here, even compared to the other heroes who also were outclassed. The only way in which he was useful is due to a mistake he made that exposed the bad guy’s weak spot.

Overall, with Tiger and Bunny, Sunrise have finally done what I’ve been hoping of them: return to their string of awesome science fiction series of ten years ago. For nearly ten years, they just kept coming with imaginative action shows that just kept coming with original ideas that were really well executed, and yet for some strange reason this trend stopped around 2005/2006. I’ve got really mixed feelings about their next series, Sacred Seven though. The big thing with that show is that it has the most amazing staff members behind it… and yet it looks completely generic. These are the people whose resume includes the direction of Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, the animation direction behind Berserk, the script of Zone of the Enders, the original concept behind Karas and Argento Soma… and they end up doing a high school battle series that looks just like all the other high school battle series out there. WHY!?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Haha, the creators actually found a use for Origami’s powers! Usually when a character has weak or unusual powers, the creators hardly ever make full use of them. And this episode did exactly what I hoped with Origami by turning him into a spy.

My only complaint is that he’s a bit of a bad actor. Apart from that this episode was all about the parts about Superheroes that don’t involve fighting: hostages, public relationships, politics and infiltration. It was a nerve wrecking episode because of how easily the villains would be able to kill off half the city if they run into something they don’t like. The part after the ED shows that Origami indeed had been found out, so who knows what could happen to him? This arc so far has looked really eager to subvert some superhero tropes.

Also, I love how at first, this series appeared to have all sorts of convenient plotholes… that actually make perfect sense. Now that’s some good writing here. If Ouroboros is indeed in control of some of the most powerful figures in the city, then these people as opposed to Origami Cyclone, are some great actors.

Oh and this episode also revealed something major about the backstory of this series: the original hero guy? He’s dead right now. This gives a very interesting twist to his whole backstory: was he aware about the corruption in the city when he was still working? Or did he die fighting that exact corruption?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

The good thing: Barnaby can finally remember the face of his parents’ killer after seeing a picture of him. The bad: this happened right before some of his comrades execute a city-wide plan to bust this guy out of jail. It ties in with the big flaw of this show: its coincidences; they just keep happening over and over.

In any case though, with this episode we seem to be heading into the meat of this series now that Ouroboros has finally showed itself. But even there I doubt that the entire second half of this show will be about Ouroboros: there is still Lunatic of course, but also tons of different side-plots that can work out really nicely if given an episode or two.

This episode was a step back from the previous episodes though. It lacked personality. It may have introduced new characters, but as for the older cast, it didn’t really show anything new about them aside from a short compilation of what they do in their time off. That part was very good, by the way. Compilations like that work especially well in action-packed series with large casts like this one.
Rating: * (Good)

This show is a delight to watch, even when Lunatic goes on a holiday. Instead, this episode was about the Dragon Kid and like all of the previous that were meant to highlight a particular character, it gave a complete new meaning to her.

what’s more though: even in those episodes, the series continues to build the bond between the important characters, even when they’re not the focus. This episode was also about Kotetsu and his daughter, Barnaby becoming more open about his trauma. This was all made possible by a seemingly silly story at first: taking care of a baby. Because of it though, we even got to see the producer woman being put into a situation that would have been impossible to film (the son of the major getting kidnapped would be… really hard to explain), reducing her to a simple assistant, rather than someone who always gives out orders. All of that was really refreshing. This really was an episode where characters could relate to each other.

The only pity is that the main villains this time only played such a small role. Girls with those abilities deserve to be more than just child kidnappers. I know that it makes perfect sense for the three of them to team up, but they could have been featured in a story that took a bit more advantage of their abilities. Right now they were held back by the one major flaw in storytelling of this series: the way that the main characters are criminal magnets. I know that this series does this to prove its point about superheroes and all, but in this case it prevented a bunch of potentially awesome villains to shine even more.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This episode really took me by surprise at how good it was, and it did that multiple times, actually. I mean, holy crap, this episode just kept throwing twists and turns, and even the mood just kept changing throughout the episode. You’ll never know what this show will focus on next. This time, we’ve gotten ourselves an Origami episode.

I love how Origami turned out to be completely different from his Superhero persona. Before this, he always stayed in the shadows, but he seemed like another quirky guy, but it was almost cute to see what kind of a pessimist he actually was, on top of being the worst ranked superhero out there (also subverting another cliche of the lead character either being the best, semi-best or worst out there). On top of that, this episode also gave a different meaning to Lunatic by having him mot kill some random stranger, but instead an old friend of Origami (that guy also got some interesting development despite only appearing in one episode, by the way).

The parts at the superhero academy had me in stitches. This episode indeed confirmed that it’s difficult to become a superhero like that, but I did not expect to see these incredibly stupid and pointless powers out there, from being able to stretch out facial skin to sweating really badly. In a way, it does make sense: if people are born randomly with useful powers like in Tiger’s case, there also will be probably even more people born with pointless powers that are only good for a novelty act. Heck, Origami’s powers are completely different from what I expected: his powers are mostly just useless in this kind of setting. He should have been a secret agent or something.
Rating: *** (Awesome)