Tiger & Bunny – 23



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)

10 thoughts on “Tiger & Bunny – 23

  1. Lunatic is probably going to end up appearing again, I really don’t doubt it.

    Also, I am wondering what they are going to do for the ending as well. There has to be one more unexpected factor or mystery still left, because I highly doubt that they are going to have the last episode be an epilogue episode when it is going to be shown in theaters along with episode 24. They are going to make sure it goes out with more of a bang than that.

    Unless, of course, we get a final episode that somehow reflects the first episode, only showing us how things are different without Maverick being involved. Because, without Maverick not only is HeroTV going to be affected, but the entirety of Sternbild, since he was essentially the man pulling all of the political strings as well.

    But, the title for episode 25 certainly suggests something a bit more epic than an episode that mirrors the first or something like that. So, I’m still ready for some unexpected revelation or event to occur.

  2. Btw psgels T&B will probably have a second season so all the unresolved stuff like the true form if Ouroboros, Blue Rose’s crush on Tiger, backgrounds for Sky High and the other heroes that didn’t get their own episode, etc will probably be covered there.

  3. The timeline for the construction of Android Tiger strains credulity. The sudden Bond villain level of stupid that’s taken over Maverick’s efforts is also not that heartening either. To be honest, this seems a little tacked on.

  4. @m: Actually, the time line really isn’t all that far-fetched, nor is the idea of Maverick replacing heroes with robots.

    Most fans speculated that there was something odd with the sleep chambers that were introduced fairly early on in the series and then kinda forgotten about. After Barnaby’s memories started becoming a jumbled mess, most fans started to believe that they altered memories, but it seems now that they were being used by Maverick to obtain data on Kotetsu and Barnaby’s powers (in order to make the suit).

    Then Rotwang and Cis were introduced in episode 15, when we found out that he once worked with Barnaby’s parents, and used their research to create Cis. Barnaby and Kotetsu were told the story that she malfunctioned after being struck by lightning, but I actually highly doubt that.

    She was the first prototype robot to take on the heroes, why she never reacted to Keith is because she met him as Keith rather than as Sky High. Still, something about her was not good enough and she got defeated. Still, Rotwang was probably able to get some data from her (possibly during the fight between Wild Tiger, Barnaby, and Sky High) and was able to use that to perfect Robo!Tiger.

    Also, the robot plot line was brought in very early in the series, it was one of the first things we found out about Barnaby’s parents after the initial reveal that they are dead. We also found out that Maverick was a close friend to Barnaby’s parents and therefore was probably a friend (or at least knew of) Rotwang too, due to the friend of a friend type of connection.

    Maverick showed that he would go to extreme lengths, at first to get public acceptance of NEXT, and then for ratings. So, him using the NEXT in order to get information on their powers and then disposing of them and replacing them with Robots to get a better, more spectacular edge, that could then bring in more ratings, seems right within Maverick’s character to me.

    Some fans even predicted that this was Maverick’s plan the moment Robo!Tiger appeared.

    The whole time line for the creation of Robo!Tiger has been spaced out over the entirety of the series, as has the connections the characters (Maverick, Rotwang, and Barnaby’s parents) had/have with each other.

  5. I have high hopes for the end of the series. I was excited even from the first episode, and it’s still going strong to me, so I can see it continuing on.

    A second season would be awesome! Maybe some more focus on the other characters. I mean, with the parents’ murder finally actually figured out, Bunny can’t really be super angst anymore… I hope. But that’s just if there really is a second season.

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