Then I saw that episode 1 was on Hulu. HULU? Was this legitimacy? OK, so I watched it. It was not what I was expecting. It's not about Mafia or mecha. It's about SUPERHEROES! Why couldn't somebody just come out and say so? But mind you, this isn't like the other Japanese superhero animes that are re-makes revolving around American-made characters. This ain't Wolverine or Iron Man, folks. No, this is good stuff. GOOOOOOD. Just count how many times I use "awesome" and "cool" in this review.
Here we have bright and saturated visuals, comedy, some pretty sweet action sequences, loveable characters, and enough drama and melodrama to keep a sieve full. And an interesting twist on athlete sponsorship.
SYNOPSIS:
This is Stern Bild, the bright city of the (American) future, where citizens are kept safe by the troop of the city's resident heroes. But these heroes aren't freelancers or government employees. No, they're privately sponsored. After all, it takes big bucks to get those suits done at the dry cleaners. But that sponsorship doesn't just mean they get corporate logos slapped all over them like a biker or racecar. No, they have to let camera crews follow them around, to broadcast their feats in reality-TV style.
Our main character is one of these heroes, Kotetsu, whose hero name is Wild Tiger. Back in the day, he was cool. But now he's older, and has lost his shine. And his tween daughter thinks he's an absolute dweeb.
When his current hero company goes under, he gets transferred to another, where they aren't too thrilled about having an old has-been hero. So they make the unusual decision to partner him up with another hero, and sell them to audiences as a team. They pick one that has the exact same superpower as Wild Tiger. And it happens that this guy's everything that Kotetsu is not: fresh, new, young, arrogant, no sense of humor, dutiful to the sponsors, and he uses his real name for his hero work. Everyone knows that heroes are supposed to have a secret identity! Young upstart.
So Kotetsu's partnership with Barnaby Brooks Jr. gets off to a rough beginning. And it stays that way for a loooooong time, while Kotetsu keeps trying to loosen "Bunny-chan" up. (Yes, Barnaby is the 'Bunny' in Tiger & Bunny.) But Bunny isn't a hero just to do good. He has a specific goal in mind, and he won't let Kotetsu's goofiness distract him.
It turns out they will both need to learn a lot about each other to get this partnership to work.
MOST EVERYTHING ELSE:
I tried a few minutes of some of the animes based on Marvel characters. I didn't like them. And judging by their low MAL ratings, most other people don't either. But this is an original story. Fresher, brighter, and with no comic book (or manga) to compare it to. But you can still see classic superhero roots, in the villains particularly. They're generally very flashy, unlike real criminals. And hey, we even get a mad scientist.
Even though Tiger and Bunny are our main characters, there is a whole cast of heroes that they work alongside: ice-caster Blue Rose (who has a crush on Tiger), the fire-shooting Fire Emblem, wind-warping Sky-High, hunky Rock Bison, tomboyish Dragon Kid, and Japanophile Origami.
And there's non-hero characters. Kotetsu's daughter Kaede, his mom, his former boss Ben. His suit-maker, Saito, with the quiet voice (he gets his own subtitles, since apparently Tiger is the only one who can hear him). Agnes, the producer of HERO-TV, the reality show that follows the heroes around. Legend, the hero that saved Kotetsu as a kid, and encouraged him to become a hero himself. The rogue Lunatic, dispenser of vigilante justice, who I think most people wanted to get more screentime. (I wanted to see more of him too; after all, he's the only guy whose suit had bell-bottoms. BELL-BOTTOMS.)
It has a couple of story arcs. Some are as short as one episode, and give us a close-up look at the life of one of the heroes in the story. Other arcs span several episodes, as our heroes battle the villain of the moment. But there are clues scattered throughout the series that are used later.
The action scenes are generally pretty cool. There isn't one every episode, but when they come, they are, like, AWESOME!!!!
There's comedy aplenty, of the light kind.
But what's at the core of the show is DRAMA. Lots of it. If the scene involving the little boy and the trading cards doesn't impact you some way, then you should just stop watching, because that's the melodramatic slant in this show. There's the drama of a dad trying to get his kid to say he's cool. Promising to meet with her, but then having to break his promise because he has been called to an assignment. There's the drama of a man whose goal is to take revenge for his parents who were murdered. You almost wonder if Barnaby suffers from depression, since he keeps getting bogged down in melodramatic angst, and takes it out on anybody who tries to get close to him. And the one who tries to do that is our very own Kotetsu. Barnaby is in serious need of some professional counseling.
Incidentally, there is a bit racial variety. Which is unusual for anime, but was probably obligatory since the story is set, after all, in a place much like the United States. We have a couple of black characters: The mayor of Stern Bild (à la Obama, I'm sure); Ben, who is Kotetsu's former boss and current mentor; and Fire Emblem (a lot of viewers chew out his character because he is the cliché gay character you see a lot in anime; oh well, the makers are still Japanese after all). And Kotetsu and his family, and Saito are Asian...or more specifically, Japanese. No other kinds of Asians around apparently. And all the other characters are probably white.
The animation is very awesome. The setting is often the sparky-lit city at night. Outlining is done in brown instead of the usual black, so the everything looks "warm" and alive. Action scenes are done well. And there's lots of CGI. Which makes some purists mad. The suits are where you see it most. Some people squawk at this, which isn't fair, because it's usually done pretty well, especially for the chunky suits that Tiger and Barnaby wear. The only place where it doesn't work very well is Fire Emblem's skin-tight suit. Though his cape with the creeping-flames pattern is cool. I'd want one of those myself.
Style. There's lots of style. There's something about this that almost says "superheroes are a fashion statement." Well, that and the fact that Tiger and Bunny almost ALWAYS wear the same clothes. It's just begging for people to cosplay them. And the music seems to fit in with the style. The music is cool. Awesomely awesome. It varies from jazz to opera and places in-between. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Pixar movie "The Incredibles." Something about that retro-esque heroes-in-real-life feels very similar to this.
MAKE SURE to watch after the ED in each episode. Often, there's a little bit of extra story at the end before the previews roll. And by then you might as well watch the previews too, since they're usually narrated by either Tiger or Barnany, and begin with him saying "Hi, I'm Tiger, the member of Tiger and Bunny who wears a beard!" or something else idiotic. Also, the episode titles are all in English, and based off some proverb. Tiger doesn't even try to say the next episode title, but Barnaby does, and sound pretty horrible. Some people said it was worth it to watch each episode just to hear Barnaby's Engrish at the end.
Some viewers felt that the final arc in the series was a bit lame. I wouldn't say it was terrible, but it definitely did go for the cliche situations of "superhero meets the big boss" and more. Not necessarily bad, but it raised the bar pretty high for itself by then. But fans are waiting to see if there will be a second season….
WHAT IT'S NOT:
It's not primarily action. We don't get a full-blown action sequence every episode.
It's not primarily comedy, unless you want to laugh at Barnaby's childish attitude, or Kotetsu's blunders. Which ARE funny.
There's very little ecchi. Unless you count Blue Rose's costume.
There's little romance. Blue Rose obviously has a thing for Kotetsu, even though he's a generation older than herself. (It's OK Blue Rose, I sorta do too.) Yaoi fans may be disappointed that nothing goes on between our two main characters. (Though that hasn't prevented scores of Yaoi doujinshi from being made.)
It's also not hugely….intelligent. I have to say this for people who are expecting an amazingly intricate and solid plot. While the story overall is good and throws a few cureveballs, there are some mental goofs. But that is all forgiven because the drama is SOOOO feel-good, and the characters are so loveable.
CONCLUSION:
I can say I'm very happy to see this show as popular as it is. I wrote a review after seeing episode 4, when the show's MAL rating was below 7. Now it's above 8. I'm happy it's getting love.
Unlike most shounen series which are primarily about an action or suspense-driven story, Tiger and Bunny's partnership, or attempt at a partnership, is the main draw. You care about them, and the other characters. You REALLY CARE. You might even say this is meddling in seinen territory. Which is probably why this attracts viewers from all sorts of demographics. If you like drama, and a little action, comedy, nice music and animation, and an interesting setting, please, please give this a try. But beware. You might just get hooked.
