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)
This Episode was really good, I liked how it went and flowed. Although I’m a little sad that he even considers retiring, but then again I don’t have a daughter so I can’t understand that myself.
Also I spotted an amusing typo in your post, its at the beginning of the final paragraph.
“By >fart
I enjoyed the portrayal of the family, especially Kotetsu’s brother. The little quips between them really showed that they are family and have a long history together. My personal highlight between them were the wavering eyes of the older brother when he saw Kotetsu in dismay in the bar. It’s just a little thing, but it continues to emphasize how good the show is at establishing its characters and letting them play off each other.
Belzera: that indeed was an amusing typo. Fixed it now, though.
T&B is pulling off the “show with heart” trick. It is essentially a comedy-action series, but the Kotetsu stories manage to rise above that, by having authenticity. Whether it is Tiger as the guy who wants to do a good job, not just look good at the job, or him having problems relating to his daughter, or facing retirement as his powers wane, the stories about Kotetsu always ring true.
Yeah, I definitely agree with you Otis. The small characterizations of this show are great. I also enjoyed the family resemblances of the brothers in bone structure, a bit more than I am used too.
Legend and Kotetsu did have one other thing in common as is established here. They both have/had families, a kid and….the kid has NEXT power as had been revealed by the end.
….none of the other heroes are under such circumstances. Could that be related to why they are both losing powers?
LordVernon gives a really interesting point that I didn’t notice.
It may be only conincidence or not; only time will tell.
It was really great seeing Kotetsu catch up with his family. His antiquated image of his daughter comes as no surprised but they pulled it off well, aside from the storm scene. Even then, the the episode executed the storm trope well enough.
Lord Vernon raises a good point. Perhaps NEXT powers behave more like a mantle or title where when a child comes of age their parent’s powers decline as it kind of transfers over to the kid.
I don’t really go along with the whole “when a NEXT parent’s powers are declining then their children gain NEXT powers”/”when a NEXT child gains powers then their NEXT parent loses theirs” theory. Simply because, if that was the case, more people would be losing their NEXT powers and it wouldn’t be considered something rare and basically unheard of. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a standard age for when people gain their NEXT powers.
Anyway, as for this episode. I loved it! It went down exactly like I was hoping it would! It was great to see all these different sides to Kotetsu: him being a little brother, him as a son, him as a father, and even him crying. That was intense to watch, even though the scene itself was incredibly realistic and nowhere near melodramatic.
I also really adore that there is an obvious family resemblance with all of the Kaburagi family members, yet they all look slightly different, and you can even see the mix of physical characteristics from Kotetsu and Tomoe in Kaede. It’s extremely rare to see characters looking like that. Very refreshing.
As for the storm scene. I didn’t really have an issue with it, because I had been *waiting* since episode 3 for Kotetsu to rescue Kaede from something. So I didn’t care what it was he saved her from. Also, in that scene, I’m fairly certain Kaede saw the blue glow of Kotetsu’s NEXT powers, and then probably put two and two together, and realized who her father was. That’s why she just goes ahead and shows him her NEXT powers (since it appeared, to me anyway, that she was already aware of her powers, but no one else in the family was).
Finally, I think Kotetsu will definitely go through with his decision to retire. It just won’t be right away, but the OP implies that Kaede will be moving into the city with him. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kotetsu retires, becomes a trainer for his daughter or becomes a teacher at the Hero Academy, and Kaede becomes a Hero or something like that.
This is Sunrise though, so who knows. /wall of text
This was another nice episode. Works that are about other works or genres of them have a lot of flexibility for using contrivances from them, as long as they’re obviously doing something with them besides exploiting them and pretending they’re not. Kotetsu is also depicted somewhat interestingly when he’s not just being used as the butt of everything. He’s obviously not a very great father and that his priorities have caused his daughter some emotional damage, and while he decides to move back and raise her himself, we don’t really get the sense that he really reflected on why what he had done would look to her like abandonment and that if he weren’t losing his abilities that he would have changed anything about his relationship with her. It’s actually a good route, because we can really imagine him thinking that what he’s done has been justified by the greater good and a nudge from his wife’s dying request. It makes him more interesting.
Not knowing whether the origin of the NEXT powers will play a role in the plot or not makes the speculation bait mildly insidious.
Kaede and Ivan both demonstrate powers as their parents’ powers wane, but we don’t know if those events are related or if the NEXT powers are hereditary and just happen to manifest during maturation like secondary sexual characteristics.
We also have Jake who had two powers, and we may wonder whether he was a chimera that inherited powers from both zygotes or if he was actively given two abilities by the real person behind Ouroboros.
Kotetsu and Mr. Legend are also closely tied to Maverick, who has always been a target of speculation, and whose ward just happened to develop abilities identical to those of Kotetsu. One wonders if perhaps the arrival of NEXT powers might not have been caused by someone–someone that can also neutralize them. Or perhaps simply neutralize them when they are no longer of use to him.
Kaede also visited the city before she developed powers, and we might imagine that something circulates through the city (perhaps nanobots, both a scifi favorite and a loose conenction to Maverick’s relationship with Barnaby’s parents) that causes the abilities to emerge in some percentage of people to provide fodder for the reality show.
A problem with the last idea is that Pao Lin is from another country and we don’t know if she had ever been to Sternbild before her NEXT powers developed. We also can’t be certain that if a human is responsible for the emergence of the NEXT that he hasn’t been conducting experiments in dishes outside of Sternbild.
We also have the possibility that the origins of the powers aren’t important, the mechanics will never be explicitly explained, and perhaps that Maverick is really a good guy that is aware of Ouroboros’s machinations, but runs the HeroTV to charade to fund and train people to thwart them.
Uh, I meant Yuri not Ivan. I have no idea why I wrote Ivan.
I dropped this show after episode eight thinking it was going nowhere. After reading your review of this episode I think It was a bad idea. I hope someone in America can give this a dub.
Really liked this episode. Got me to tears by the end of it.
Now, I don`t think that there are nanomachines working on the NEXT heroes, just simple genetics like the X-men.
Yet, I wouldn`t be surprise if Barnaby is actually something else. I got a Batman Beyond vibe, and that Barnaby is a clone of Mr. Legend (with a few genetical fixes to make it better to the media) with all his memories being invented up to certain age. Besides, The World Needs a Mr. Legend.
Now, if Kaede goes to Sternbild, I just want to see the clash of her seeing Karina.
Kaede: OMG You want to be my new mom…BUT YOU ARE ONLY 8 YEARS OLDER THAN ME!!!
Karina: OMG….BEING A MOTHER….TO A 10 YEAR OLD KID!!!! “shortcircuits”
BTW it is just me, but I wish that Sky High becomes Kaede`s tutor if she really has anti-gravity/fly powers.