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)
Thing is, this show is not about an ensemble cast, it’s about Tiger & Bunny. The other characters are fun and interesting as well but they’re not main characters. I think it’s not realistic to expect that the show will focus on them any more than it has until now.
In this episode they simply couldn’t have crammed detailed depictions of everyone’s work in. We were shown bits and pieces of what Blue Rose, Dragon Kid and Fire Emblem were up to, some shots of Origami and the others, but there was no reason to expect more. What they did was simply not the point.
“mind reading” i fucking called that in the last post! :p
anyway, as kuromitsu said, the focus is tiger and bunny, so of course the rest of the cast wont get as much screentime, but i looks like blue rose will get a lot of development next episode.
Personally, I thought most of the remaining heroes got a pretty good opportunity to shine. Origami was the one who delivered the vital intelligence tidbit about how to counteract the bears. They even pointed it out during the episode. Rose, Kid and Emblem took down the mechs, which would otherwise have left everyone still in the palm of Jake and Kriem, despite Barnaby’s victory. Only Skyhigh and poor Rock Bison had to job this time around, unless you count buying time.
Overall I thought the team effort was depicted well, even though it’s ultimately Barnaby who ended up as the figurehead of the rescue plan in public opinion.
One thing I found interesting was that the outcome seems to have solidified Lunatic’s views that evil must be exterminated, seeing how Jake (and maybe Kriem) got ultimately killed in the end, while they were trying to escape. Seems Lunatic stayed true to his word and waited to see where Tiger’s justice would lead, but I think he’ll go back into action now, since Tiger’s justice lead to the same conclusion that Lunatic’s justice would have (at least from his POV).
Watching this episode just made me angry. “Hey, you got one good kick at the bad guy Bunny so let’s just talk for like a day and ignore the bad guy while he’s lying down and perfectly able to probably stand up, or at least crawl, or at least snap his fingers in our general direction like he does to make his blast attacks.” I mean I know he was like derp i broke a rib, but is he so weak that he can’t even… I don’t know, that just really pissed me off. I guess Bunny choked him a little bit too, but still. He can’t be stupid enough to just sit there and wait for his henchman to yell at him while the guy’s he’s fighting talk to each other for like and hour completely ignoring him before deciding to get up. Oh well, at least Bunny will be less of a bitch the rest of the show, hopefully. No more angst.
@Outis: If I’m not mistaken, Kriem survived. In the scene where the helicopter exploded, we can see that Kriem was lying on top of the stadium roof, with Kotetsu and Barnaby. The only one that I’m not so sure off is Jake, who looks like he died when the helicopter came crashing down.
@Pafiume
I dont think if i understand your post, i take it you didnt like Jake lying down while tiger and bunny was talking and he could just strike back?
Its a “typical” movie trope, an untouchable bad guy cries like a wimp when he actually DOES get touched. We’ve seen this countless of times before and this was no different. That explains why he got so mad when kotetsu accidentally hit him.
And here bunny gives him a few pretty hard hits plus he got choked a lot, so he might have been out for the count. Besides, they had figures out his power anyway so he would be easier to attack.
But like i said, typical movie cliche, the “untouchable god” isnt used to being touched.
So it was a 2-power situation; from the reactions of the other characters, we were apparently meant to think that NEXTs only get one power, since they had also thought that was the case. I wonder if they’ll make anything of it later, or if it was just a one-off fluke to make Jake more dangerous. Ah well… least my explanation made enough sense for Tiger to use it as his ‘fake’ explanation of Jake’s other power. ;P
I agree with Pafiume. Even if its a ‘standard’ bad guy cliche, it was rather disappointing for Jake to go into helpless ‘curl up and cry’ mode while the heroes patted each other on the back after getting a rib broken (which he was lucid enough to comment on specifically instead of just whimpering in pain) – especially since his surprise and fear quickly turned to berserker rage when Tiger hit him. Also, given that Bunny’s power had just been used (and he would easily be able to find out that Tiger was still injured has used his power recently as well), Jake should have been able to realize that the heroes had just used their ONE SHOT to hurt him, and were now essentially at his mercy.
It would have been less upsetting if he hadn’t taken SO LONG to do something (even if was just to try and escape).
Knowing some information on future episodes makes it so that I don’t really have much complaints about the lack of screen time when it comes to the other heroes. Next week we are going to get an episode that will most likely focus on Karina’s crush on Kotetsu, in which she has been daughter-zoned since the moment he met her.
Episode 15 is going to be called “Sky’s the Limit…” and caused waterworks by the creators, so the fandom is expecting a Sky High focused episode and something sad.
There is also the fact that Kotetsu’s family does not consist solely of his mother and daughter.
Also, the Drama CD’s provide some good background to characters such as Antonio and Kotetsu’s wife. Kotetsu and Antonio knew each other since high school, in which Antonio (who is all about manliness) was a delinquent at another school nearby. But eventually became friends with Kotetsu after he finds out that some of his wannabe lackeys kidnapped Kotetsu’s class rep, who was a girl called Tomoe, who Kotetsu then rescues.
There are a lot of hints that Tomoe ends up being Kotetsu’s future wife (she loves heroes and is a huge fan of Hero TV, she helps Kotetsu figure out his superhero name, and by the end of the Drama CD she calls him Kotetsu-kun and he calls her Tomoe-chan…And then gets hit in the stomach for it).
There is also another Drama CD that only just came out and deals with Blue Rose having an Idol radio program. She has her issues with it though and the special guest is Barnaby who basically trolls her:
Barnaby: “Next weeks guest is going to be Wild Tiger.”
Karina: “Really!?”
Barnaby: “No, only joking.” XD
So, by having these Drama CDs and just a bit of future knowledge, I wasn’t all that bothered by the way this episode mostly focused on Barnaby and Kotetsu. Though, I could see how not having it could make it seem like the other characters aren’t getting as much screen time as they could be getting (though the Girls Team was fantastic!!)
Still, as others have said Tiger and Bunny is the name of the show and they are the main focus of this series. I also think that some of the other heroes will have more focus than the others.
It seems that they spent the first half of the series building up Kotetsu’s respect among the younger heroes of the program (Karina, Barnaby, Ivan, and Pao-lin), which is why those characters got more focused episodes. The second season will probably deal with him getting the respect and praise he deserves from the public.
Overall there were a lot of things that I really liked about this episode, then again I am also part of the periphery demographic and they really, really know how to please that demographic, especially with this episode: there was a ton of fangirl fodder here.
Ah, sorry for the extremely long comment. Just thought some extra information on the characters would be good to know. ^.~
Yeah, that drama CD was pretty good, and im positive we will also see some of it in the series itself, they have hinted many times at kotetsu’s past, but the first season has been primarily barnaby. Now its kotetsu’s turn. Also his wife sounds like perfect waifu material so thats something to look forward to as well.
Also, something i didnt say in the comments about the past episode, is that we actually got to see just how powerful Sky High is. We’ve been told he is number 1, but never saw him in actual action. But after watching him furiously attacking Jake, he is definetly not someone to screw around with.
Some fans, myself included, have also been thinking that Jake wasn’t the one who killed Barnaby’s parents. I’ve been having this thought ever since the whole “I don’t remember killing them” incident between Jake and Barnaby.
There is also the fact that we keep seeing Barnaby’s flashback, and with each one the scene (as well as the face of the murderer) becomes clearer. The murderer also used a gun, which never really made the “Jake is Barnaby’s parents killer” sit well with me and other fans.
It seems more likely than ever that Barnaby’s parents killer may have been a normal human, rather than a NEXT (maybe a lackey kinda like how Chuckman was) for the leader of Ouroboros (maybe Maverick?) or even Maverick himself.
I’m really looking forward to where the second half of this series is going to go.
Yeah, maybe he was just fucking with barnaby just like Lunatic did when he was asked about oruroboros. Good point about the gun, i thought about it quickly but didnt give it much thought after.
But there is a huge overarching theory, that i myself has been proactive about, that the entire government (mostly maverick) is fooling the heroes and the citizens.
I will try and make it very short so you can put the pieces together yourself:
– Heroes promote different companies
– Those companies want the heroes to keep promoting because its so popular
– Government pays/hires criminals to do, well, criminal stuff
– Heroes think they are acting out justice
– They are instead, being used as pawns in a political game of money
– Lunatic has seen through their plans, but cant bring them down because of his position, he would be found out too quickly and/or it would be too suspicious.
– Also, he hates the heroes because they enact this “wrong kind of justice”, and he thinks they are in on it, that is why he attacks them.
– He is neither with ouroboros or the heroes, he is a third party. A joker so to speak.
– Also, if you look at an overhead map of the city, you can draw out ouroboros logo on it.
there are many more tidbits to this theory, but you get the gist of it.
@Rex: Oh, I know about that theory and am a huge supporter of it. I’ve been a fan of it ever since it showed up on the internet and ever since Maverick really started giving off creepy vibes. I also think that Lunatic may have personally infiltrated the place to take down the whole conspiracy, since he doesn’t really seem to like Maverick or any of the other sponsors really, and he has an anti-hero vibe about him.
Also, while this doesn’t have to do with the big conspiracy theory directly, I also would not be surprised in the least if, somewhere down the road, Agnes goes too far with her obsession with viewer ratings and eventually the other staff members end up going against one of her decisions. Connecting that in with the above theory though, I could also easily see her getting used by Maverick (if he is indeed the one pulling all the strings) in the end.
Agreeing with the guys that are saying that this isn’t an ensemble show. It’s a ‘Tiger and Bunny’ show (it’s the title that gives it away). I for one applaud the fact that the show doesn’t really focus on all of the supporting cast all that much during climactic arcs.
It’s my main gripe about shounen series in general; “I’m trying to watch Naruto! Naruto! The guy in the title! I don’t care overly much about the idiotic amount of other characters you came up with!”
I do wonder if they might be pushing a Tiger/Blue Rose relationship. Also, we haven’t gotten perspectives of Rock Bison and Sky High. I hope the 2nd half addresses that.
I wrote about T&B and its reflection on media & heroes at: http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/7058545573/tiger-and-bunny-heroes
You bring up a good point that the city looks like Ouroboros. Will the organization even make a comeback?