Kotetsu learns the truth about his partnership with Barnaby, which doesn’t go over well in the slightest.
What They Say:
Under the orders of his new employer, Wild Tiger (Kotetsu) finds himself paired up with Barnaby Brooks Jr. But the difference in their approach to being a hero, prevents them from working as a team.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first episode of the series felt like the perfect blend of things for me where it introduced superheroes in a modern way with sponsorships, marketing and more while still keeping the costumes and the fun of it all, but also the way that it’s just a job in a sense, just one with a real sense of fun and adventure to it if you can get through the awkward parts of it. Sunrise put out an opening episode that really looked great as well, giving it a very strong visual feel that made it feel like a fully realized world where they intended to go all out, both with the regular animation and the CG animation that’s going to populate a lot of it.
Kotetsu has found himself in a difficult position now as he’s under a new company and sponsorship, has had his outfit changed and is now partnered up with Barnaby, someone he definitely doesn’t care much for. But the two of them are thrown in a number of situations to be dealt with as there are plenty of villains and monsters that are causing trouble. Kotetsu continues to be the good, classic hard working hero who does his best to try to explain to Barnaby about how a hero is supposed to act. Barnaby, as is to be expected, doesn’t give a fig and just wants to get out there and do the deed. There’s a lot captured in the first full on fight here as the various heroes come together to deal with a large rampaging villain and I love the marketing/commercial angle of it all where they promote Blue Rose (and Pepsi NEX, which I want! Maketing ‘” successful!) with the lights and music. And I can’t help but to snicker when I see the big Bandai logo on Barnaby’s chest. It’s so appropriate.
What really gets to Kotetsu though is that when he rails against Barnaby to their boss, he discovers that he’s not his partner, but rather his assistant. It just gets more and more humiliating for Kotetsu as time goes on and it doesn’t end there either as he gets some grief from engineering about how he’s using the uniform. Part of it is definitely a learning curve, since he mostly had just an ordinary suit before but he now has something far more powerful, something that can let him get a lot more involved and withstand things in a way that he never could before. The engineering side is definitely cute as the lead there is so quiet they have to subtitle his dialogue so people can hear him. The features he has for the new suit are definitely good, though they’re ones that are going to take Kotetsu some time to get used to.
In Summary:
There’s a lot to like with this show after a first episode that won me over handily. With this one, we see the pairing of Tiger & Bunny together and the problems that it has, and we get a good look at who Kotetsu really is and his idea of what being a hero is all about. There’s plenty of laughs here, but it’s generally not meant to be huge laugh out loud material based on what’s going on in the show. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you grin and really enjoy it. Sunrise is doing a kick-ass job with this show so far on just about every level, though it reminds me of IGPX in a way, because of the way it wants to draw the various elements together. The two leads still need time to be fleshed out more to really get behind them, especially Barnaby, but so far the series has a whole lot of heart, great action and excellent animation that will draw me back easily week after week.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
Grade: B+
Simulcast By: Viz Media
