The Tiger & Bunny property continues to be one of my favorites of the past decade and I lament that it didn’t get as extended a run as it could have. Viz Media has continued to bring out what they have where they can and now the first of two feature films, The Beginning, has been added to the Tubi streaming service for free viewing. It’s available in bilingual form so you can watch the dubbed version or the subtitled version.
The series was directed by Keiichi Satou based on the series composition by Masafumi Nishida and was animated by Sunrise.
The main Japanese cast includes Hiroaki Hirata as Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger, Masakazu Morita as Barnaby Brooks Jr., Go Inoue as Keith Goodman/Sky High, Hiroshi Iwasaki as Saito, Katsuhisa Houki as Ben Jackson, Keiji Fujiwara as Jake Martinez, Kenjiro Tsuda as Nathan Seymour/Fire Emblem, Koji Yusa as Yuri Petrov/Lunatic, Mariya Ise as Pao-Lin Huang/Dragon Kid, Michiko Neya as Kriem, Minako Kotobuki as Karina Lyle/Blue Rose, Nobuaki Fukuda as Albert Maverick, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Ivan Karelin/Origami Cyclone, Rina Hidaka as Kaede Kaburagi, Taiten Kusunoki as Antonio Lopez/Rock Bison, Wataru Yokojima as Alexander Lloyds and Yuko Kaida as Agnes Joubert.
The main English cast includes Wally Wingert as Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger, Yuri Lowenthal as Barnaby Brooks Jr., Beau Billingslea as Ben Jackson, Daran Norris as Alexander Lloyds, Dave Wittenberg as Doc Saito, Eden Riegel as Kaede Kaburagi, Jamieson K Price as Albert Maverick, John Eric Bentley as Nathan Seymour/Fire Emblem, Kari Wahlgren as Karina Lyle/Blue Rose, Laura Bailey as Pao-Lin Huang/Dragon Kid, Liam O’Brien as Yuri Petrov/Lunatic, Michael Sinterniklaas as Ivan Karelin/Origami Cyclone, Patrick Seitz as Keith Goodman/Sky High, Stephanie Sheh as Kriem, Steven Jay Blum as Jake Martinez, Tara Platt as Agnes Joubert and Travis Willingham as Antonio Lopez/Rock Bison.
Plot concept: Sternbild City is home to people called “Next,” who use their special abilities to protect the people as superheroes. These heroes solve cases and save lives so they can wear sponsor logos or acquire “hero points.” Their activities are documented on the popular program “Hero TV,” which picks the “King of Heroes” in a yearly ranking. The veteran hero Wild Tiger has always preferred to work alone, but now he’s been assigned the rookie Barnaby Brooks Jr., who has a different perspective on being a superhero.
