Category: Tiger & Bunny

It’s episodes like this that show that this series is excellent at creating action scenes. The gorgeous architecture really shined in the aerial battle of this episode. And overall, this was a really big episode for this series, as it showed the formal introduction of what really looks like the main villain here: a judge posing as a superhero who is firmly against the practices of the main cast.

The interesting thing is that this episode toyed with what his intentions might be. If his intentions are to pull a Light and to indiscriminately kill all bad guys, then his murders in the prisons don’t make any sense: they’re way too selective. While at the same time if he meant to silence people, then his actions seem way too random. It’s probably that his work as a judge has something to do with his real intentions.

Meanwhile, the part where Tiger and Blue Rose were forced to partner up for a while was also hilarious, showing that Blue Rose is an even worse team player than the two main characters. The way she just danced around Tiger and the way in which Tiger just let everything happen was just adorable. Oh, and that mechanic also never fails to crack me up. His voice actor is hilarious for one thing, but this episode also showed that he talks in a completely different tone in front of Barnaby. This episode was chock full of not-really-subtle foreshadowing, but that was a definite nice touch.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Okay, so the title of this episode seemed to suggest that it would be an episode about Fire Emblem; it wasn’t. It’s instead about a villain who also uses fire as a weapon. Of course Fire Emblem did make many appearances in this episode, and even though we didn’t get to know anything about his past, he only got more adorable through is antics.

Instead, we got ourselves a major villain. His introduction was a great one: usually when a main villain gets introduced, he just appears in one shot, trying to look cool. This guy immediately succeeded in making himself into a threat by linking him to Barnaby’s past, having him brutally kill previous villains and by by making his flames far more effective than the fire user of the group. This show has a lot with people with the same powers.

The chemistry between the characters is still amazing. Especially the interplay between Tiger and Bunny is great, and this episode also showed Tiger and Fire Emblem together, and they too make a great combo with each other. I especially love how the creators also aren’t afraid to build up jokes during the exciting parts, somehow succeeding not to make the jokes feel out of place. What’s more: this show has these things that you’d think are random jokes at first, yet prove to be important plot points later on, like the prank photo that Tiger made on Barnaby’s cell phone and the suit designer being claustrophobic. It’s all weaved wonderfully together.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Oh, I loved this episode. It was quite silly, but it poked fun at a lot of superhero cliches in the process, and yet at the same time it gave a lot of depth to Barnaby’s character. This show understands what makes a good episodic series!

The banter between the characters especially was priceless here. The tension between Tiger and Bunny is of course great, but the side characters actually all support this. In this episode especially the designer was hilarious in the way that he kept the team together, but Skyhigh too was great. I love how the best hero for once isn’t the main rival to be overcome, but instead is this guy passionately helpful yet simple guy who you just cannot dislike. Barnaby meanwhile, the guy you’d expect in this position, instead keeps getting harassed by his partner.

Then there were the weapon upgrades during the battle at the end. I loved the way in which they poked fun at superhero upgrades: first they cleave diamond, and then they just turn out to be fashion accessories that furthermore don’t disappear, making Barnaby walk rather wonky. They’re these neat touches that just keep popping up.

Also, this is what I want in an episodic series beyond a solid execution: variety. Every episode so far has been different and unlike the other. In fact, that is THE advantage of episodic series over shows with a continuous story: they allow the creators to fastly switch from one premise to the other to show many different stories and flesh out the cast from many different views and moods. A lot of series that use this formula unfortunately forget this and just go with strings of episodes that look like each other.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Yesterday I was asked about reconstructions by Deedee. Back then I couldn’t really think of a good example that I really liked of one, but as I watched this episode of Tiger & Bunny I realized that it’s actually a pretty good example of a deconstruction. It accepts the flaws of the superhero genre, and then proceeds to create a highly creative setting around this flawed concept that both celebrates it and criticizes it. Of course it makes no sense for the heroes to be able to always be at the right place at the right time, but this series happily plays with that idea and has fun with it.

Also, apparently Tiger & Bunny will be 24 to 26 episodes long. I’ve yet to find official confirmation of this, but if this is true then it’d be awesome. This would really allow the creators to flesh out this setting of theirs, and this episode showed that they have every intention to do so. We finally get to see some background on one of the other heroes: the ice girl. My guess is that the other side characters will also get their own episodes. I also like that finally the most stereotypical character also became a bit more than a walking tramp. It’s a nice addition to see him own his own company, making him constrained by a whole number of different rules.

In the meantime, the action scenes still are fun to watch. They’re varied, and I like how they always involve multiple and different combinations of superheroes to make them fresh. The banter between the characters in-between the scenes especially is fun, and what the characters say are more than just cheesy one-liners.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Three episodes in and I must say that this series is making good use of its time. The past two episodes have put some good effort into developing the dynamics between the two lead characters and didn’t make them as cliched as they could have been. The previous episode was meant to set everything up, while in this episode they’re already changing. This holds great potential for the rest of this series.

The same goes for the setting: instead of doing random crimes each week, the creators make sure to make all of them count. The monsters and villains perhaps aren’t the most complex, but they each do their job of focusing on a different part of the setting. In this episode it was the boundaries of film crews, and how far people can go to capture exciting footage. I loved the twinkle in that director’s eye when she saw this opportunity to film two heroes diffusing a bomb in their spare time

As for the CG in this series, it’s obvious that the creators did not put in effort to make them blend in with the rest of the animation, but at least the creators are consistent: characters drawn in 2D area always in 2D, and 3D always remains in 3D. This is better than having animators randomly switch to 3D models that suddenly look completely different. Plus, the rest of the animation has quite a bit of movement in it, so for now I’m not too bothered by it. I’ve definitely seen worse.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tiger & Bunny is the series with the most impressive big picture of the season: perhaps it doesn’t have a single thing at which it’s the best of the season, but it has a bit of everything and does a lot of things right: likable characters, original backstory, good action, the second-best soundtrack of the season (after Hyouge Mono, which was bound to have the best soundtrack of the season anyway), an excellent sense of action and yet it isn’t afraid to look at its setting with some depth in mind, despite the flashy colours.

The flaws so far are a number of overused cliches that pop up here and there, though they all remain minor. I’m referring tot he flamboyant gay, for example, or how in this episode the bully was one of those one-sided bullies who are just there to get a plot going. Oh, and the way in which we have a workaholic who has no time for his daughter. That last one is really nit-picky, though, because this episode provided enough hints at how the creators plan to give the lead characters’ relationship with his daughter a lot of time to develop. Plus, we have a main character who is old enough to have a teenaged daughter. How awesome is that? During most other seasons we should have been glad enough to have a show with a character in his early twenties.

This episode also toyed with some other cliches as well. For example, the lead character gets a new suit that he obviously isn’t used to. Of course the likelihood for him to screw up by not knowing the right buttons to press is going to be larger. I also like how neither the lead character nor his partner are forcedly put above each other: they both have their strengths and weaknesses and yet they’re surprisingly similar: they’re both short-sighted, just in completely different ways.

In terms of the setting, this episode gave quite a nice hint about how the superheroes evolved in this universe. The superhero that the main character ran into when he was young looked really crude. It probably was at a time when the NEXT only barely appeared, and he was one of the first to take up the role of being a superhero. My guess is that after this guy caught popularity, the entire business was commercialized, people got some budget for actually good costumes and entire trends were born, like turning that ice girl into a complete idol. I also love how this show criticizes mass media, but at the same time doesn’t completely label them as purely evil.

Oh, and regarding the soundtrack: Yoshihiro Ike is one of my favourite composers, alongside Hikaru Nanase and Yuki Kajiura. It’s because of that that I’m really glad to see him on another series again where his soundtrack really works. He’s really masterful at these subtle background sounds that do a fantastic job at creating an atmosphere, and the consistency at which he does this is stunning.
Rating: ** (Excellent)