[Archon_Wing]

Time to review Tiger and Bunny!

It would only be natural for folks to react with skepticism, when we found out there’s yet another superhero anime out there. After all, a lot of the American comic book ones came to anime with umm… mixed results, and now Sunrise will try with their own, original brand of superheroes. And they’re gonna fight for various businesses with blatant product placements?

So it’s fairly ironic, that while the American superhero adaptations were crap, that anime was able to make their own original show about superheroes and make it work. Who would have known? But it is perhaps the fact that is anime original, that it doesn’t have to be bound by the shackles of a source material. The result is a series that succeeds at being comical and being serious, while telling a story about a world that is radically different from ours, but ultimately, also very similar. Telling a fantastical story while bringing upon themes relevant to real life has never been an easy task, but Tiger and Bunny manages to pull through.

Visuals: 8/10
“Drink Pepsi Next!”

Spoiler:

Well, Tiger and Bunny hasn’t the greatest visuals out there, but they are very solid. The character designs are very distinct, with Kotetsu and Barnaby being the most so, and of course those power suits they where are always amusing to look at. There are also some great fights, such as the infamous one against Jake Marteniz, and the fight against the Rotwang robots. Vivid colorful beams really help highlight the superhero fights. My personal favorite must be lunatic; his costume definitely fits, and those blue flames are very damned cool. (Even if people complain about them in Starcraft II)

Animation is generally very consistent and smooth, though it gets a bit funky during the CGI. On the plus side, you just have to love all the outfits everyone wears!

Sound: 9/10
“Next time, on HERO TV…”

Spoiler:

Sunrise just has a knack for creating great soundtracks, and Tiger & Bunny is no exception. We needed epic superhero themes, and we got them! They seemed to have gotten inspiration from American superhero movies and cartoons for this, and my goodness it just feels right at home. My favorite is of course, the infamous next episode preview music, so much that I was watching those anyways when I was trying to catchup with the series.

Special mention goes to the amazing 2nd ED “Mind Game”, which suited the darker atmosphere of the series.

There’s too many good tunes from this show; if you want some just skip to a random moment in any episode. In fact, you’re better off pointing out when the music isn’t right for the situation .

Story: 9/10
“Now comes 100% plot hole free”

Spoiler:

There are usually several goals when it comes to good story telling:

• Create and explain concepts
• Establish the relevance of these things through plot elements
• Establish the setting and relevance to the story
• Create a cause for concern for these occurrences
• Maintain consistency and logic, within context
• Pace events so the story feels natural

Simple, but most fail at doing this properly.

Tiger and Bunny, however, passes this test with flying colors. Practically every thread in the story is relevant; despite all the so called “filler” there’s really never that many moments that feel out of place. I would often watch an episode, and be like “Oh no, this is a screw around episode”, only to find out that it’s relevant to the plot and some things might even require another watching! One of the biggest examples of this is the Cis plotline, which started as seemingly a episode for Sky High to engage in goofy antics, but actually is part of the villains’ plan. The whole Jake Marteniz story was a coverup for Maverick’s evildoing. It was all a distraction, and if looked upon backwards, actually makes sense. All the threads: Kotetsu’s loss of powers, his relationship with his daughter, Bunny’s past, the network needing ratings, the Lunatic killings all came together in the end. They all had purpose to either develop character or tell us more about the world.

I mean, who know that this reality tv show was going to be part of an evil plot made by greedy villains to maintain powers? Actually it could be guessed, and hey it was; just not in the way one would expect. It’s the kind of thing that makes sense.

It’s also a very imaginative story, and excels in world building. It seems to me that the writers really did consider “what would life be like if it had commercialized superheroes”. And in this society where mass media is so prevalent, the tactics of marketing and commercialism really made sense. Maverick’s desire to manipulate events to boost ratings and to deceive the populace into a delusion really rings true—this feels like a real scandal, a real conspiracy. And the conspiracy was also defeated via a war of ideas. So the parts were Maverick tries to “silence” his occupation really gets eerie and ups the tension once we realize what’s at stake around here.

That being said, I guess the presence of Lunatic and Kaede, while somewhat reasonable, proved to be somewhat convenient towards the end. The last fight against the robots also didn’t feel as well connected; it seemed to me that the anime climaxed with Tiger vs the rest of the heroes.

But that’s hardly a deal breaker. What we have here is a imaginative and amazingly self consistent story.

Characters: 9/10
“My parents are dead! Rawr!”

Spoiler:

One of the largest charms of Tiger and Bunny is the amazing duo of well, the titular characters. Kotetsu is your aged superhero who cannot get with the times. But not only this, his body is breaking down so that even if he’d like to fight, he can’t because his powers give way. Having less than 5 minutes is not exactly, the best place to be in. He’s also rather unrestrained, being an utter hindrance and clown in a number of situations. The result is that nobody ends up buying his merchandise, he has no respect, and if he had to work with someone, he’d be quite the burden. My favorite moment is when he lands in the dumpster and it makes him consider retiring.

But it turns out, he’s not exactly expired yet, because he’s the one that manages to hold off everyone else when they are brainwashed by Maverick. He almost managed to break through to Blue Rose simply by sheer willpower. And he’s also willing to give his life up, lying to bunny that he could escape while restraining the Rotwang robot. His relationship with his daughter is also another driving force behind his character, and once Kaede realizes her father is really the Wild Tiger, everything changes, and even she becomes part of the fight against evil, proving to be their most valuable piece.

So it’s rather unfortunate, he’s somewhat returned to being a shadow of his former self in being the one minute version. I guess it was kinda funny, but it may not have been a moment to poke fun of him. Occasionally, the anime will go a bit too far in not taking itself seriously which hurts the characters a little, but we do have season 2.

Barnaby J “Bunny” Brooks, is without a doubt my favorite character in the anime, and it has very much to do with the fact that he shares a similarity with Batman. Bunny has a tragic past, generally arrogant, unpleasant and insulting, but actually a deep compassion, competent as hell, and has a loyalty to others. I’d say many of my favorite characters tend to be like that. He has a tough job, as often it seems that everyone is relying on him, yet sometimes he’s not even the top scorer. He’d rather be alone and not rely on anyone else, but the ratings ask for otherwise.

It’s only natural through his background (and frequent memory tampering) that Bunny is perpetually serious business. He has nothing on his mind but to claim vengeance on his parents killer. Even though he’s a normally very calm and logical person, this one issue is one that he can’t hold back on, and who could blame him, given the horrific revelation that this was all Maverick’s plan.

So Bunny’s not exactly the one to be happy much, and Tiger tries. Usually it ends in failure, but occasionally you’ll see him happy, and Kotetsu’s like what??? Then again, it’s usually hilarious, and sets forth many a comedic moment that makes the series entertaining. The murder of Samantha simply serves to drive Barnaby off the edge, as she’s one of his pillars of sanity. He literally has nothing left and thus extremely weak to manipulation. The only thing that saves him is his friendship with Kotetsu, as much as he’d hate to admit.

It is rather unfortunate that Bunny didn’t get to finish Maverick off, but I guess justice is more important than vengeance.

The rest of the cast well… I guess they do their role. The villains are very colorful; Jake Martinez and Lunatic are very theatrical and fun to watch. Maverick is your classic asshole, and rest of your heros play a nice support role, but mainly Blue Rose. Sadly, we don’t really know nearly enough about them, save for Lunatic, but I guess that’s what the second season is for.

In general, Tiger and Bunny are by and far the most compelling characters, but that’s how it should be mostly. Overall not my favorite cast, but definitely very solid and at least nobody is that annoying.

Enjoyment: 9/10
“Good luck Mode. Over and Out”

Spoiler:

Well, let’s face it, a lot of stuff happens in Tiger and Bunny because it is cool. And in an anime about superheroes, it better be! I mean, how else we could tolerate these walking advertisements? I guess I did have some trouble with the anime initially, since I had stalled it a bit after episode 6; where I felt like the humor (the initial appeal) get a bit tiring, and it takes it a while to really catch on fire. But it’s really good that even the first half proves to be needed to building the story, so I would definitely say to anyone that’s stuck there to keep soldiering on.

It’s a really fine line to walk. Do you try developing faster to get the viewers’ attention or try to build it up? In any case, the middle of Tiger and Bunny is by and far the most entertaining where the plot threads start to slowly intersect and you’re left wondering how everything will pull together; when Lunatic will strike next, when are Kotetsu’s powers is going to crap out on him. Plus, the comedy was very well placed, with adequate shifts into seriousness. They’d go around doing silly things, and then just bring just enough plot to keep you going. Tiger and Bunny largely maintains the balance between comedy and drama.

The best parts come during the Marteniz arc and near the end when the entire team manages to stop screwing around and work together to kick ass. Or get their ass kicked badly. On camera. The tongue in cheek humor of this series is simply amazing.

And come on, this is arguably better than any actual “reality tv” shows you’ll be watching.

Overall: 9/10

Spoiler for A quick definition of the overall score:

9-10: Favorites Material. Must have created some kind of major emotional impact or changed the way I view anime, or caused me to develop a new outlook on an issue. Usually a 10 succeeds in doing all of these things and makes me continue wanting more from anime. Recommended without doubt to people

8: Solid and generally very consistent quality, generally recommended to most people. Usually anime that excels in many aspects that I have no qualm with but didn’t impact me are placed here.

7: Quality anime. It showed a distinct effort at points but has too many flaws; this is the baseline for recommendations

6: Entertaining. It managed to amuse or entertain me on a number of levels but has too many inconsistencies to be considered solid. I generally only recommend these to people who already have interest in the genre. This is generally considered average or basic entertainment

5: Whatever. Not bad and useful for the occasional lulz, but not really recommended as you could be watching better things.

4: Generic and uninspired stuff. Is rarely entertaining, but definitely not worth it

3: It feels like your screen is insulting you. Who made this shit?

1-2: The exact opposite of 9-10. It may have impacted me, but in the bad way. It makes me want to ragequit and never watch anime again.

Tiger and Bunny has proven itself to be a great experience. Not only was the concept unique to say the least, but it showed me that you could have this level of consistency and fun and storytelling.