Now, this episode did pull a bunch of cheese balls for its penultimate episode. With that, I mean common tropes and cheesy cliches that get pulled over and over. Because of that I had a few problems with this episode, and unfortunately it’s been the least impressive Tiger & Bunny episode I’ve seen in a while.
Basically there are two main points that annoyed me. The focus on the power of friendship had its cheese moments, but it was perfectly in line with this series. What wasn’t in line was the robot guy. The creators have such an interesting villain with Maverick, and here this episode focused instead on this stereotypical evil guy that the rest of the series did so well to avoid, and who also pulled a number of strange actions that made it a bit too easy for the main cast to just escape I mean, if you’re an evil genius, at least remember to have more than one guy in your security department.
The second thing that bugged me was the end of the episode, which pulled the dreaded “let’s pretend to kill off our lead character”-twist. This twist annoys me in particular because hardly any show who pulls that actually pulls through with it. At the very least though; this episode did put a lot of meaning behind Kotetsu’s “death”: the decline of his powers has been building up for ages. It was a nice moment for this to really show.
At this point, I doubt whether this series will really have one of the best endings of the seasons, but it’s still possible to end with a bang. It really needs to use the build-up of this episode, plus give a good part to everyone involved. A standard ending however isn’t going to cut it for me at this point.
Rating: * (Good)
I really do agree with you.
I also really hated the fact that they killed of the robot with a freaking lazer gun that happened to be by Barnaby’s feet. That’s the power of those two, a random lazer gun. And yeah, Tiger’s “death” annoyed me.
That is… if his death is actually fake. While I’m willing to bet 98% percent that he’s going to come back and complete the cliche, I’m hoping (and don’t think poorly of me) that the creators will have some balls and that he actually dies and the show completes off that.
But we’ll see.
Katangatari played it straight. Of course they had serious balls. I think I’ll decide whether Tiger and Bunny deserves a 2nd season or if they’re just milking it based on whether they decide to play it straight or not.
I shed some tears along with Bunny :'(
They’ve done a good job in sharing to us the (main) characters, and I do believe this show was all about the characters, and less about the story. That’s why I found the last scene to be heartbreaking. Add to that the fact that I marathoned all 24 episodes. XD
But I do agree Kotetsu’s “death” is so cliche (but, what isn’t?). But, then again, this is Sunrise (read: Code Geass). Who knows what will happen in the next episode.
What the hell kind of shuriken is Origami carrying?
Damn, I shed a few tears at the end. But he can’t be dead… right?
Two characters killed off this weekend in two of my favourite shows. Not the best of weeks. I think I’ll drown myself in icecream now.
I suspect Maverick’s twist is that he’s been consistently acting to demonstrate the value of the NEXT through orchestrating the need for them, and that he’s waiting in the shadows there to give his final justification to the heroes. They’ll rebuke him, Lunatic will pop in to assassinate him, then the heroes will protest with Kotetsu’s spirit of justice, cue some plot hax and possibly a sequel hook, and some heart-warming closer.
When I watch T&B I expect cliches and cheese. I just expect them to both be done well, and T&B did that this episode. It also had me in tears clinging to my roommate as we watched the episode together. Whether or not Sunrise goes through with Kotetsu’s death, the mere thought alone was able to bring me to tears.
[SPOILER ALERT!]
Of course, since this is Sunrise there is a high possibility that they will go through with it. Just like they did with Lelouch and Spike and the whole freakin’ cast of Wolf’s Rain. This event happening has been a possibility in my mind since the very beginning. The fact that Kotetsu’s arc has been very nicely wrapped up, this series was originally meant to be only one season long and a second season still hasn’t been confirmed, and Kotetsu has always been the “mentor” who was has been mentoring the “hero” (Barnaby). After all, most of the plot has been centered around Barnaby with Kotetsu simply being the driving force for the plot and Barnaby’s advancement.
Of course, I don’t want Kotetsu to die and I really won’t care or complain if they do keep him alive (and just have him retire at the end and eating Barnaby’s fried rice, god that line still gets to me! T^T) It’ll all just depend on how it is executed and if Sunrise decides to continue being Sunrise or if they are going to stick by the comic cliches that has made up the majority of the T&B series.
-Kaede’s escape: it makes sense to only need one security guard when you consider that Maverick thought she was a NEXT with the same power as he. A mind-altering power is useless when you need to untie yourself and take out a guard.
-It would be really bad to kill Kotetsu off now. Not because “boohoo favorite character got killed, that’s sad” but because of the message that would bring. First, any character development Barnaby ever had will go away and he’ll be worst, since the only person he decided to trust got killed…and in a way by him no less. Plus, dying as he lost his powers makes it feel kinda like: “yeah, there’s no point in Kotetsu alive if he can’t be a hero”. It would be much better to see Kotetsu struggling to live without his powers.
At least that’s how I saw it…
Um, LilyGinnyBlack: I do have to react to that comment of yours, especially because Sunrise is notorious for actually doing the entire opposite.
[SPOILERS COMING UP!!]
The examples you mentioned were different from this one. First of all: Lelouch and Spike died in the last episode, not the penultimate. Wolf’s Rain meanwhile isn’t Sunrise at all.
Meanwhile we have Sunrise series like Mai Hime, with its incredibly notorious ending, Mai Otome, whihc pulled the same things and Code Geass, which also had plenty of tendencies to bring back dead characters.
@psgels: With Wolfs Rain, I just meant that Sunrise had a part in it, I should have clarified, sorry (they were just the production team though, at least, according to ANN). Also, I just meant that they could do it, because they have do it before. So it’s still a very possible option.
That’s why I can actually see this series going either way in the end though, especially if the series goes with the comic book cliches. Though, this series also has a strong Buddy-Cop theme to it too, and usually a passing of the torch happens, either through retirement or death (basically the two options we are left with).
Yeah, and there is still Lunatic. Tough job to stuff it all in one episode if you ask me.
While not everything especially bothered me (they actually disarmed the android before they used it) what did bother me was that with 100x manpower they can’t make a scratch on a humanoid robot. I mean shit, tiger could bend a fucking railway with ease, what’s up with that?
Also, why trust the racist bastard who puts detonators on a necklace and openly admits to wanting all of you dead? I mean, unless he specifically made them in a moment’s notice, my first thought would be that a switch on YOUR necklace would detonate YOUR bomb. It’d be awesome if they had actually killed a character that way. That’d be a way better use of Blue Rose than her stupid speech.
It wouldn’t be surprised if they kept Tiger alive and it wouldn’t bother me given a good reason (being that he didn’t really die, just pass out and medical science saves the day.) What is good about the series is that the two main characters stay in character, especially tiger. Something that kind of killed the side-cast for me this episode.
I hope they’re gonna get a good epilogue, something that ties things up neatly but allows characters to be their selves.
@LilyGinnyBlack: The Sunrise thing is just a meme. Yes, there were Sunrise shows where the main characters died. So what? There are many Sunrise shows where the main characters didn’t die, what about those? (And Wolf’s Rain was fully a Bones original production. Sunrise cooperated on only one episode which wasn’t anywhere near the end.)
My problem with this episode was that despite all the drama it was so obvious that no-one would push the button, and it’s so obvious that Kotetsu will survive. The predictability completely defuses the drama. Ah well, at least the Bunny & Kotetsu scene was nice.
@Oh! I’m glad to hear that they only worked on one episode. Still, I find the fact that the company can and has done something like that good enough to leave the option of Kotetsu not surviving just as possible as Kotetsu surviving.
Personally, I would like for him to retire in the end and get my two daddies ending that I have been hoping for, but I found the drama surrounding Kotetsu valid because Sunrise may still go in that direction (it was something I’ve had in the back of my head the moment I started watching the series).
When it comes to this series, I have never let myself be certain about anything. Since, even though the series has been rather straightforward, they have pulled some unexpected things on us here and there before. So, I think that they can still do that in the end here, too.
Either way I am looking forward to whatever they decide to do for the last episode.
Personally I think the best ending would be Kotetsu retiring and raising Kaede to be a hero with his ideals. He could still have a minute or so of 100x power, which is enough to make him awesome in a pinch, so they could even use him in a sequel.
Second best would be to follow through with Kotetsu’s death, and have the next episode focus on nailing Maverick, then switching to a funeral, and playing that straight.
to 1: At first, laser gun seems random, but actually robo guy dropped it after T&B combo attack, so it’s more or less justified
I agree, I thought for a final fight it was really disappointing. I kinda wish Lunatic would’ve been more of a featured character since he is so deep instead of the stupid robot.
The fights against Jack were much more exciting and honestly I thought it was one of the worst episodes of the show… I just hope the finale will end it nicely.
I really don’t see why people are applying such high standards to this anime all of a sudden. If you liked what came before so much, this wasn’t much different. They just pulled out all the cheesy stops because we’re at the end of this Hollywood-inspired hay-ride.
I could endless nitpick all the episodes; heck, I could have done with a little less angst and a little more action.. but it’s still great fun in an energetic and nostalgic way, playing a game of tropes that has no right to be this entertaining. Pretty rare for an anime. And I appreciate that.
As for Dr. Rotwang, maybe that’s intentional – so that Maverick can still survive and blame it all on the criminal extremist. It’s not like they have any evidence against Maverick or anything (not even Yuri knows about it).
Also, how the heck does Origami cut open a steel door with his swords? If he’s able to do that, he’s a capable hero just slicing people with his sword 😐 In fact, why not give him H-01’s laser sword? That thing can transform any ordinary Joe into a lean, mean, killing machine.