It’s been ten months since Tiger & Bunny saved the city. Did they go to Disneyworld yet?
What They Say:
Ten months have passed since the epic battle between the heroes and the terrorist Jake Martinez. Tiger and Barnaby, now hailed as the heroes who saved Stern Bild, find their lives occupied with interviews and other media events.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The second half of the series works with a fairly standard bit of tradition as it has the show advance forward in time a bit, this time by ten months, and it shifts the initial focus to how Kotetsu and Barnaby are now essentially celebrities after the events with Martinez. They do definitely deserve the recognition for what they did to save the city, but with it being ten months later, it’s a little strange that they’re still such public celebrities. You can easily imagine them getting attention on the street and the like, but as a media sensation, ten months is ten lifetimes if not more and it’s hard to believe that there aren’t other things dominating the circuit that would garner attention. And that these two would still be interested in doing the shows as well, never mind the corporate sponsorship side running them into the ground like that.
A lot of the episode is spent on the quiet side of things beyond the publicity appearance aspect of things. It deals with things about the characters themselves, with how they’re just kind of going through the motions with things, such as more interviews and running with the workout routines that they have to do to keep in shape for their jobs. There’s some mild friction between a few of them, especially as Kotetsu and Barnaby are still being treated like royalty, but it’s a natural expression at that point since it did happen nearly a year ago and things have moved on since then. And people have moved on as well, though the media and the sponsors keep pushing since it suits their financial interests.
With all that has happened, and the growing interest in heroes now, they’ve come up with an interesting angle to play as well by splitting things into two leagues. Those we’ve known are kept to the first league which deals with major crimes while the more amateur side that will try to capitalize on the popularity will handle the minor crimes. They end up getting their due in this episode in a cute way, helping out Blue Rose when things go south on her through a petty crime, and they get to do so alongside the very popular Tiger and Bunny. It’s a cute episode overall and there’s some very nice mild moments of potential romance mixed into it as well that’s slowly starting to come to the surface that gives it a bit of extra color that’s really appealing.
In Summary:
After the buildup and execution of the main arc that developed over the first half of the series, Tiger & Bunny has a pretty fun, simple and light episode here that lets the characters have fun even if it does play heavily with the obvious cliches. With the option of either this or going headfirst into the next big arc, a little levity is definitely far more appreciated for an episode. The advance in the timeline is also welcome since it pushes back against the idea of so much happening in such a short space of time. While this has a goofier feeling in general because of the main “villain” of the episode and how everyone else reacts to it, it manages to work in its own way and left me smiling and hopeful for more Blue Rose material to be a key part of the second half.
Grade: B-
Simulcast By: Viz Anime
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.
