Episode 14 is called Love is Blind. It's mostly a throwaway episode with a minor "villain" who can turn invisible by holding his breath. He's been sneaking backstage at concerts and stealing things from performers. After defeating Jake Martinez with teamwork, Tiger and Barnaby have become close and now "trust" each other as partners, even concealing from the public during talk show interviews their rocky and contentious start as a duo.
That cooperation turned things around for Bild Stern's first hero teamup. Barnaby finished in 1st place and won the title King of Heroes on the previous season of Hero TV. I guess that kinda happens when you save the entire three level city from being collapsed and sunk into the ocean. Wild Tiger, too, has gotten his act together, moving up to 4th in the points. And even the Origami Cyclone made good on his word to be better than last. Rock Bison has dropped to dead last.
So why did I bother to write about such a minor episode? To gloat. In this episode, Blue Rose (Karina) finally realizes that she has the hots for Wild Tiger. Which is pretty creepy considering that she's still a high school girl and he's in his 30s with an 11 year old daughter of his own. Oh anime... tentacle rape and statutory rape romances. And you don't even get the whole Lolita thing right.
There's a mixup where Karina thinks Kotetsu is asking her out but really he's just asking for some extra dance instruction (don't ask, just watch). However, to retrieve Karina's stolen bag from the aforementioned invisible creeper, Kotetsu is able to achieve power levels well beyond his normal Hundred Power. Is this activated because of his <3 for Karina? Or does he achieve a power level over 9000 because he's no longer thinking about getting credit for his heroing?
The downside of his boosted power is that it doesn't last for the normal 5 full minutes of the normal Hundred Power. Barnaby doesn't believe him when he explains this, instead crediting Kotetsu for intentionally letting Rock Bison capture the thief to boost his points and flagging confidence.
Will Barnaby have a similar over-drive capability for his Hundred Power? What will trigger it?
Aside: So far, no two NEXT have the same power except for Kotetsu and Barnaby. While the other characters note this, they don't seem curious about it. It remains to be seen if Tiger and Bunny have some deeper, hidden connection besides being Bild Stern's first dynamic duo.
For your edification, here's how to tell you're in <3 with a boy (if you're a Japanese high school girl):
1. You can't keep your eyes off him when he's around and he's always on your mind.
2. Everybody calls you by your nickname, including him, but you want him to call you by your real name.
3. You want to keep everything he gives you even if it's just a silly note or a real ugly workout towel.
Showing posts with label tiger and bunny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tiger and bunny. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
"hey bunny, watch me pull a tiger out of my hat." "again?"
After re-reading yesterday's post on Tiger & Bunny, I realized I provided more of a plot summary with some commentary than a honest-to-goodness review, you know, with criticism and stuff, of the first 14 episodes. With your indulgence, imma try to correct that now.
Part of what inspired this revisit was this review of the first episode entitled "Tiger and Bunny is an Anime for Old Men that Kids Should Definitely Watch." The basic thrust of the review is that Kotetsu, a veteran hero well above the average age of your typical anime hero, makes for a different kind of story, one with layers rarely explored directly in anime.
That's definitely something novel about the show as a whole. Almost all of the characters are adults except for Dragon Kid, who is very much a teenager. If the inspiring, talented newcomer Barnaby Brooks, Jr. is a nearly ancient and decrepit 24 years old typical anime standards. Sky High, Rock Bison, and Fire Emblem are all men in there mid to late twenties, if not in the 30s along with Kotetsu. Blue Rose lives at home with her parents and is too young to drink as pointed out in an episode but it's not clear exactly how close to 20 she is. Origami Cyclone is recently out of the Hero training academy and probably somewhere between 18 and 20.
There are a couple of other anime I can think of like this, populated mostly by adults rather than relying on teenagers to save the world. Cowboy Bebop, for instance. Jet's already had a career as a seasoned veteran of the ISSF before becoming a bounty hunter. Spike's grown up around the Red Dragon cartel. And Faye is a hundred and something, give or take a few decades, though she's clearly out of high school.
And then there's Ghost in the Shell. Not super talented teens among the ranks of Section 9. Just cyborg veterans Major Kusanagi, Batou, and the experienced but 100% Ishikawa and no super genius kids behind the plot.
Trigun also features a mostly adult cast. Vash grew up from adolescent on the ship to adult on the planet. Wolfwood is a mercenary in it to support an orphanage. And even if they look a little young, Meryl and Milly are both adults. No teens would be needed in the glamorous, planet-saving role of insurance agents.
And, perhaps not unsurprisingly, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, and Trigun are three of my favorite anime.[1] Maybe it's this shared focus on adults with adult problems that has caught my attention in Tiger & Bunny.[2] The adults here aren't just in the background, coaching the ingenue or savant on how to reach their full potential.[3] Kotetsu is actually the focus of the story. He's a man in his 30s, deceased wife, teenage daughter who lives with his mother whom he rarely sees because of his job being a hero.
He's one of the least popular of Hero TV's stars if not the least liked by the public. He's never been a big point getter because he's always more concerned about saving people than doing the things that will award him points to push ahead in the rankings. But he wouldn't mind a little recognition for what he contributes...
He's a contradiction. On the one hand, he's reckless and sloppy, always rushing in to try to save people without thinking things through. This often accounts for the significant damage to property he racks up and which his corporate sponsor has to pay for. Kotetsu doesn't care what it costs because all that matters to him is protecting the innocent. Stern Bild's first NEXT hero Legend inspired Kotetsu to take up the mantle of Wild Tiger to follow in the man's footsteps. Kotetsu's leap first policy often brings him into personal conflicts with the other heroes.
On the other hand, Kotetsu has incredibly keen instincts and reasoning skills. Based on a suspicious face, he figures out where a bomb has likely been placed in a towering skyscraper. That same memory and reasoning of that face brings them into contact with Lunatic, who is hunting down bad guys and killing them. It's Kotetsu's ability to put together disparate bits of information that allows him to figure out that Jake Martinez can read minds and it's his savvy and cunning that devises a plan to beat him by not telling Barnaby the truth.
Kotetsu is often the advisor and the conscience of the group. He counsels Blue Rose, Origami Cyclone, and Dragon Kid. And he's always working through his rocky relationship with Barnaby. Kotetsu is one who will lie about his motives for the sake of protecting others, a quality that the younger (and female) heroes often don't understand until either Rock Bison or Fire Emblem step up to explain the disconnect between Kotetsu's actions and intentions.
We don't know yet how Kotetsu's wife died or why he seems so reluctant to actually visit Kaede. He always makes promises to see her but those promises always seem to be broken and not always by things out of his control. He seems to genuinely love his daughter but can't accept the fact that she's growing up. He often talks to her like she's a much younger child than her physical appearance would indicate. But he fauns over getting her the right presents and hopes that they make her happy. But there's also a sense of sadness there and that he's running away from something.
The teenagers of Tiger & Bunny aren't the saviors of the world or even Bild Stern. Both Blue Rose and Dragon Kid are talented but they aren't on par with the skills of Sky High or Barnaby. And until just recently, Origami Kid has remained in the background, content to show up on screen to advertise his sponsors but definitely not in the heat of action earning points.
Super heroes isn't a genre usually tackled by anime. Tiger & Bunny doesn't do super heroes like Western comics with capes and tights. Besides Blue Rose, Dragon Kid (the women), and Fire Emblem (the gay), all the heroes are all ensconced in powered exosuits. The NEXT may have super powers like X-Men but the Japanese fetish for robots persists. The shells aren't strictly required for their super powers but they do offer superior protection against firearms and nifty gadgets like flight, a timer for Barnaby and Kotetsu's Hundred Power, and such.
As eye candy, Blue Rose is scantily clad, well, at least compared to the protective suits worn by the other heroes. Dragon Kid gets by on a crazy headdress and some vaguely chinoiserie kungfu getup and staff. You know, because she knows kungfu and stuff so she doesn't need a metal suit weighing her down. Fire Emblem wears the most Western super hero costume of all, red tights with a cowl and cape, but for some reason it evokes for me images of a luchadore more than a crimefighter.
It's often Blue Rose who doesn't understand Kotetsu's words or deeds, prompting one of the other male heroes (usually Rock Bison or Fire Emblem) to intercede. I'm not sure if this is meant to say something about women's intuition and stereotypically empathetic nature (it doesn't exist or can't penetrate the honor code of men or she's too young and not mature / sexually developed enough yet to possess such a motherly virtue) or if it's perhaps setting up romantic tension between her and Kotetsu. As I mentioned in the previous post, Dragon Kid is the tomboy who's learning to own her girlishness under the paternal eye of Kotetsu.
Which agains begs the question: why is Kotetsu so removed from his daughter Kaede's life? It's a puzzle, one I firmly believe Tiger & Bunny will unlock as the plot progresses.
Often in anime, it's the teenage characters who have to take on the responsibility of saving the world, a burden that's not theirs but that they accept because they have the power to make the difference. I think his narrative choice stems just as much from audience appeal (shounen and shoujou, after all, are aimed at teens) as it does from the aesthetic of mono no aware in Japanese culture. There is a beauty in things that blossom and then wither quickly. This does not necessarily mean death but often includes innocence, something the teen protagonists lose on their way to saving the world. Grizzled veterans can't lose their innocence again; often they serve as guides to protect the protagonist from as long as possible from the loss and then to help them navigate through it.[4]
Tiger & Bunny doesn't have this loss of innocence or young protector at the core of its plot. Rather, it's a veteran, Kotetsu, a seemingly unremarkable hero on the decline and well past his prime. But what he has to offer is a sometimes cunning mind and a faith in the responsibility and role of heroes that inspires those around him when they take the time to actually listen to the seeming washed-up loser. It's a different kind of anime, maybe a little more mature. Kotetsu is nuanced, complex, frank and sincere while remaining enigmatic and aloof. Rock Bison seems to know quite a bit about him. How? Fire Emblem also understands him. There are questions that future episodes promise to deliver answers to.
Unlike the typical teenage anime hero, Kotetsu is a man with a past, secrets, and regrets. He doesn't have his whole future rising before him. He is in the twilight of his super hero days. Wild Tiger is a man holding on for dear life to the present, to a world that seems simple with bad guys and good guys and saving people as the only important goal. But at the same time he seems to realize there is much more to life, to friends, to family. Confronting that adventure doesn't look to be the one he's comfortable embarking on. Things from past lurk darkly somewhere, trailing the Tiger. Splinters of something dark are hinted at. And it may just be Bunny, no teenage savior himself, who plucks those splinters from Tiger's paw and redeems the old man not only in his own eyes but also those of the people of Bild Stern who have largely overlooked this tireless champion.
Probably after he sacrifices himself to save the city.
Sorry I haven't said more about the quality of the animation, which is overall high.
[1] Another anime that focuses mostly on adults with adult problems is Eureka Seven, even though Eureka and Thurston, two of the main characters, are teens. I like it but it's definitely got that whole WTF this plot makes no damn sense / where did this bizarre shit come from angle / techno-spiritual babble that too often ruins the conclusion of an otherwise good series. But space surfers piloting giant mecha? It's like Point Break meets Evangelion in more ways than one.
[2] Note: just because the plot is all about teens doesn't mean I don't like it. Not quite in this vein, but Akira is amazing. I also enjoy Yu Yu Hakusho, Bleach, and Naruto.
[3] Seriously, I'm not even going to list all the series I've seen with this as the theme. Most recently, Aquarion featured it.
[4] A topic worth exploring is the difference between the teenage heroes of anime and their counterparts in contemporary Western Young Adult Fiction such as Harry Potter, Twilight, or whatever godawful series birthed I Am Number Four.
Part of what inspired this revisit was this review of the first episode entitled "Tiger and Bunny is an Anime for Old Men that Kids Should Definitely Watch." The basic thrust of the review is that Kotetsu, a veteran hero well above the average age of your typical anime hero, makes for a different kind of story, one with layers rarely explored directly in anime.
That's definitely something novel about the show as a whole. Almost all of the characters are adults except for Dragon Kid, who is very much a teenager. If the inspiring, talented newcomer Barnaby Brooks, Jr. is a nearly ancient and decrepit 24 years old typical anime standards. Sky High, Rock Bison, and Fire Emblem are all men in there mid to late twenties, if not in the 30s along with Kotetsu. Blue Rose lives at home with her parents and is too young to drink as pointed out in an episode but it's not clear exactly how close to 20 she is. Origami Cyclone is recently out of the Hero training academy and probably somewhere between 18 and 20.
There are a couple of other anime I can think of like this, populated mostly by adults rather than relying on teenagers to save the world. Cowboy Bebop, for instance. Jet's already had a career as a seasoned veteran of the ISSF before becoming a bounty hunter. Spike's grown up around the Red Dragon cartel. And Faye is a hundred and something, give or take a few decades, though she's clearly out of high school.
And then there's Ghost in the Shell. Not super talented teens among the ranks of Section 9. Just cyborg veterans Major Kusanagi, Batou, and the experienced but 100% Ishikawa and no super genius kids behind the plot.
Trigun also features a mostly adult cast. Vash grew up from adolescent on the ship to adult on the planet. Wolfwood is a mercenary in it to support an orphanage. And even if they look a little young, Meryl and Milly are both adults. No teens would be needed in the glamorous, planet-saving role of insurance agents.
And, perhaps not unsurprisingly, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, and Trigun are three of my favorite anime.[1] Maybe it's this shared focus on adults with adult problems that has caught my attention in Tiger & Bunny.[2] The adults here aren't just in the background, coaching the ingenue or savant on how to reach their full potential.[3] Kotetsu is actually the focus of the story. He's a man in his 30s, deceased wife, teenage daughter who lives with his mother whom he rarely sees because of his job being a hero.
He's one of the least popular of Hero TV's stars if not the least liked by the public. He's never been a big point getter because he's always more concerned about saving people than doing the things that will award him points to push ahead in the rankings. But he wouldn't mind a little recognition for what he contributes...
He's a contradiction. On the one hand, he's reckless and sloppy, always rushing in to try to save people without thinking things through. This often accounts for the significant damage to property he racks up and which his corporate sponsor has to pay for. Kotetsu doesn't care what it costs because all that matters to him is protecting the innocent. Stern Bild's first NEXT hero Legend inspired Kotetsu to take up the mantle of Wild Tiger to follow in the man's footsteps. Kotetsu's leap first policy often brings him into personal conflicts with the other heroes.
On the other hand, Kotetsu has incredibly keen instincts and reasoning skills. Based on a suspicious face, he figures out where a bomb has likely been placed in a towering skyscraper. That same memory and reasoning of that face brings them into contact with Lunatic, who is hunting down bad guys and killing them. It's Kotetsu's ability to put together disparate bits of information that allows him to figure out that Jake Martinez can read minds and it's his savvy and cunning that devises a plan to beat him by not telling Barnaby the truth.
Kotetsu is often the advisor and the conscience of the group. He counsels Blue Rose, Origami Cyclone, and Dragon Kid. And he's always working through his rocky relationship with Barnaby. Kotetsu is one who will lie about his motives for the sake of protecting others, a quality that the younger (and female) heroes often don't understand until either Rock Bison or Fire Emblem step up to explain the disconnect between Kotetsu's actions and intentions.
We don't know yet how Kotetsu's wife died or why he seems so reluctant to actually visit Kaede. He always makes promises to see her but those promises always seem to be broken and not always by things out of his control. He seems to genuinely love his daughter but can't accept the fact that she's growing up. He often talks to her like she's a much younger child than her physical appearance would indicate. But he fauns over getting her the right presents and hopes that they make her happy. But there's also a sense of sadness there and that he's running away from something.
The teenagers of Tiger & Bunny aren't the saviors of the world or even Bild Stern. Both Blue Rose and Dragon Kid are talented but they aren't on par with the skills of Sky High or Barnaby. And until just recently, Origami Kid has remained in the background, content to show up on screen to advertise his sponsors but definitely not in the heat of action earning points.
Super heroes isn't a genre usually tackled by anime. Tiger & Bunny doesn't do super heroes like Western comics with capes and tights. Besides Blue Rose, Dragon Kid (the women), and Fire Emblem (the gay), all the heroes are all ensconced in powered exosuits. The NEXT may have super powers like X-Men but the Japanese fetish for robots persists. The shells aren't strictly required for their super powers but they do offer superior protection against firearms and nifty gadgets like flight, a timer for Barnaby and Kotetsu's Hundred Power, and such.
As eye candy, Blue Rose is scantily clad, well, at least compared to the protective suits worn by the other heroes. Dragon Kid gets by on a crazy headdress and some vaguely chinoiserie kungfu getup and staff. You know, because she knows kungfu and stuff so she doesn't need a metal suit weighing her down. Fire Emblem wears the most Western super hero costume of all, red tights with a cowl and cape, but for some reason it evokes for me images of a luchadore more than a crimefighter.
It's often Blue Rose who doesn't understand Kotetsu's words or deeds, prompting one of the other male heroes (usually Rock Bison or Fire Emblem) to intercede. I'm not sure if this is meant to say something about women's intuition and stereotypically empathetic nature (it doesn't exist or can't penetrate the honor code of men or she's too young and not mature / sexually developed enough yet to possess such a motherly virtue) or if it's perhaps setting up romantic tension between her and Kotetsu. As I mentioned in the previous post, Dragon Kid is the tomboy who's learning to own her girlishness under the paternal eye of Kotetsu.
Which agains begs the question: why is Kotetsu so removed from his daughter Kaede's life? It's a puzzle, one I firmly believe Tiger & Bunny will unlock as the plot progresses.
Often in anime, it's the teenage characters who have to take on the responsibility of saving the world, a burden that's not theirs but that they accept because they have the power to make the difference. I think his narrative choice stems just as much from audience appeal (shounen and shoujou, after all, are aimed at teens) as it does from the aesthetic of mono no aware in Japanese culture. There is a beauty in things that blossom and then wither quickly. This does not necessarily mean death but often includes innocence, something the teen protagonists lose on their way to saving the world. Grizzled veterans can't lose their innocence again; often they serve as guides to protect the protagonist from as long as possible from the loss and then to help them navigate through it.[4]
Tiger & Bunny doesn't have this loss of innocence or young protector at the core of its plot. Rather, it's a veteran, Kotetsu, a seemingly unremarkable hero on the decline and well past his prime. But what he has to offer is a sometimes cunning mind and a faith in the responsibility and role of heroes that inspires those around him when they take the time to actually listen to the seeming washed-up loser. It's a different kind of anime, maybe a little more mature. Kotetsu is nuanced, complex, frank and sincere while remaining enigmatic and aloof. Rock Bison seems to know quite a bit about him. How? Fire Emblem also understands him. There are questions that future episodes promise to deliver answers to.
Unlike the typical teenage anime hero, Kotetsu is a man with a past, secrets, and regrets. He doesn't have his whole future rising before him. He is in the twilight of his super hero days. Wild Tiger is a man holding on for dear life to the present, to a world that seems simple with bad guys and good guys and saving people as the only important goal. But at the same time he seems to realize there is much more to life, to friends, to family. Confronting that adventure doesn't look to be the one he's comfortable embarking on. Things from past lurk darkly somewhere, trailing the Tiger. Splinters of something dark are hinted at. And it may just be Bunny, no teenage savior himself, who plucks those splinters from Tiger's paw and redeems the old man not only in his own eyes but also those of the people of Bild Stern who have largely overlooked this tireless champion.
Probably after he sacrifices himself to save the city.
Sorry I haven't said more about the quality of the animation, which is overall high.
[1] Another anime that focuses mostly on adults with adult problems is Eureka Seven, even though Eureka and Thurston, two of the main characters, are teens. I like it but it's definitely got that whole WTF this plot makes no damn sense / where did this bizarre shit come from angle / techno-spiritual babble that too often ruins the conclusion of an otherwise good series. But space surfers piloting giant mecha? It's like Point Break meets Evangelion in more ways than one.
[2] Note: just because the plot is all about teens doesn't mean I don't like it. Not quite in this vein, but Akira is amazing. I also enjoy Yu Yu Hakusho, Bleach, and Naruto.
[3] Seriously, I'm not even going to list all the series I've seen with this as the theme. Most recently, Aquarion featured it.
[4] A topic worth exploring is the difference between the teenage heroes of anime and their counterparts in contemporary Western Young Adult Fiction such as Harry Potter, Twilight, or whatever godawful series birthed I Am Number Four.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
tiger & bunny: redux
About two months ago, I commented on the first episode of an anime I was watching on Hulu called Tiger and Bunny. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to keep up with it on Hulu because apparently Hulu doesn't carry the right license to stream the show to the UK.[1] Thankfully, I've managed to find a number of UK sites that carry it.
A word about the broadcast. It looks like Viz Media has a license to re-broadcast the show in the States right after it's shown in Japan. What that means, practically, is that most websites the newest episode of Tiger & Bunny available for streaming on Saturday with subtitles. It's an interesting experiment in bringing current anime to the rest of the world quickly. Tiger & Bunny, a show about the super heroes of Bild Stern who competed for points to be crowned King of Heroes, seems both an odd choice and yet timely, what with the huge popularity of movies based on American comic book licenses in recent years (Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, Thor...)
FYI... there are tons of anime as well as movie and tv shows available to stream for free through youtube. Tiger & Bunny, however, is not one of them.
I've made it up to episode 14. If it's going to be a one season and done series, that means I'm just over half-way through (26 episodes total). But the show has just cleared it's first major story arc so now seems as good a time as any to revisit and review it.
Before, I said the team-up of Tiger and Bunny as the first NEXT crime-fighting duo presented elements of the buddy cop genre. That's not entirely true. Whereas the veteran cop is usually by the books and perhaps a little bit surly, both Wild Tiger (Kotetsu, the veteran) and his rookie parter Barnaby Brooks, Jr. (Bunny) have moments of the recklessness element that usually defines the rookie partner trope of this genre. Wild Tiger is generally reckless, always sticking his neck out to save people, which he sees as the one and only purpose of being a hero, disregarding the property damage he inflicts or the toes of his fellow heroes he may step on. Barnaby is more reserved, focused and the number two point getter behind King of Heroes Sky High as the next season of Hero TV progresses.
Barnaby can be set off, however, by his single-minded drive to hunt down the man who killed his parents. This drive is the reason he alone among the heroes has chosen to publicly reveal his face and identity to the public. He has taken his father's name so that when he finds the murdered, his father will symbolically be there extracting justice.
Barnaby witnessed the fiery murder of his parents when he was a child but cannot remember the face of the killer. However, the image of a tattoo has been seared into his memory. A super rich billionaire loner (Batman, anybody) with only his nanny to look after him (::kaff, kaff:: Alfred), Barnaby has taken it upon himself to sift through information to find a lead. A man with a similar tattoo turns up, revealing the name Ouroboros, which Barnaby takes to be the name of the organization behind his parents' murder.
Several episodes were devoted to exploring the backstories of some of the other heroes. For instance, in "Fear is Often Greater than the Danger," the beautiful ice queen Blue Rose decides to quit being a hero to pursue her desire to be a singer full time. She has been performing secretly out of costume in a lounge. But a lecture by Kotetsu brings her back to heroing and she swoops in at the last minute to save the heroes from an inferno.
In "Fire is a Good Servant but a Bad Master," Tiger and Bunny team-up with Fire Emblem to clear him of murder charges. Another NEXT has been killing criminals with fire powers that point to Fire Emblem. Fire Emblem is unique among the heroes not only because he doesn't have a corporate sponsor, he is actually the CEO of the company behind Fire Emblem, but he is openly and flamboyantly gay. Yes, the flamer character is flaming. But this doesn't seem to be mean-spirited, just the source of some rather silly humor. In a later episode when he is dispatched with Blue Rose and Dragon Kid to save the city, he talks about "girl power" and seems confused when Blue Rose responds that only two of them are girls.
Gay and ambiguously gendered characters are quite popular in anime and manga. No, I'm not just talking about the long-haired pretty boys, either. Because of the lack of religious sin and other cultural forces, homosexuality is not condemned like it is in the West. Notice I didn't say it's more accepted. But this topic is fodder for another entire blog post. If you're interested in the topic, let me know in the comments.
Investigating the fiery murders with Fire Emblem introduces the anti-hero Lunatic, a masked vigilante who shoots fiery bolts from a crossbow. He criticizes the justice delivered by the point-collecting stars of Hero TV. Certain hints seem to indicate that he is a certain long-haired judge Yuri Petrov seen hanging around the offices but as of episode 14, Lunatic's identity has not been positively revealed.
Lunatic figures into a few episodes as he murders various criminals, leading Barnaby, Kotetsu, and others to believe he works for Ouroboros and is eliminating loose ends, possibly people who could lead Barnaby to his parents' killer.
"There is Always a Next Time" delves into the past of Origami Cyclone, a sort of ninja-esque NEXT whose powers have never been shown. He is mostly known for just showing up in the background at most TV encounters and working very hard to make an appearance on Hero TV. Notably, he is the only NEXT to collect fewer points than Kotetsu.
Kotetsu, Barnaby, and the Origami Cyclone have been dispatched to a training academy for NEXT to prepare them to be the next generation of heroes of Bild Stern and the next generation of stars for Hero TV. When Kotetsu's class wants him to judge their abilities and let them know if they have what it takes to be heroes, he manages to politely encourage them even though most of them have powers more useless than Cypher, Skin, and Beak.[2] Origami Cyclone then asks Kotetsu to judge his power, which is the very Mystique-like power to copy appearances. Kotetsu encourages him by saying that he was chosen to become a Hero because there is something only he can do (starting to catch a theme yet).
In "Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child," the mayor of Bild Stern assigns Kotetsu the job of babysitting his child while he and his wife go out of the city. Even though Kotetsu has a daughter, Kaede, and thus has experience with children unlike any of the other heroes, the baby takes a liking to Dragon Kid, a tomboyish Chinese girl with lightning powers. Her parents sent her to Bild Stern to be a hero. The baby and Dragon Kid are kidnapped, and one of the kidnappers states that their parents (she mistakes the baby and Dragon Kid to be siblings) will pay a good ransom because they obviously love their children as revealed by what the flower on the baby's hat means. Dragon Kid takes this language of flowers idea home after she defeats the kidnappers and finds out the flower hair clip her parents gave her means "thinking about you." Going against her tomboyish nature, she finally decides to wear the pin, garnering a compliment from Kotetsu.
The next four episodes are the culmination of the plot. Barnaby finally remembers the face of his parents' killer and tracks him down to a prison in Bild Stern. Before I discuss those episodes, a few brief, overarching comments.
As unpopular with the public as he is, Kotetsu is the heart and soul of the Heroes. Barnaby and Blue Rose don't show him much respect and even Dragon Kid has some unkind things to say about his words and deeds sometimes. However, Rock Bison and Fire Emblem always stick up for him, often pointing out that what Kotetsu says isn't always exactly the truth because he is protecting somebody else or trying to do the right thing.
He is often the one with the right words of encouragement for the other heroes, serving as a mentor to them. He may not earn the points but he lends moral support and often the insight that allows the others to succeed.
And he's much brighter than almost everybody gives him credit for. It's his memory for faces that produces a lead in the Ouroboros subplot. And his ability to connect various bits of information to uncovers Jake Martinez's second power... Now, the close of the story arc.
The heart of Ouroboros leads to Jake Martinez, a mercenary currently in prison. Barnaby is on his way to see him when trouble breaks out in Bild Stern. This trouble also prevents Kotetsu from going home to see his daugher for the first time in an undisclosed length of time. He never takes vacation and every time he tries to make it home, a super-hero crisis happens. How inconvenient!
Mecha have appeared all over the city and starting blowing things up. The heroes are all called in to action and dispatched to various parts of the city to deal with multiple incursions. Kotetsu tells Barnaby to go ahead and go to the prison because he has been waiting his whole life for that confrontation.
The mecha attack, however, is just the opening move and a distraction from the real aim. Ouroboros villain Kriem has sent them out so that she can break her boyfriend Jake Martinez out of prison. Threatening to destroy the city if the mayor doesn't comply with her demands, Bild Stern releases Jake Martinez. The city complies but Origami Cyclone has used his shapeshifting powers to infiltrate the group as a human henchmen.
As villains as wont to do villainy, Jake backs out of the deal and threatens to destroy Bild Stern if the 7 heroes of Hero TV don't battle him in a one-on-one tournament. Origami Cyclone is discovered and injured. With his force field powers, Jake manages to defeat the King of Heroes Sky High, Rock Bison, and Kotetsu easily. Agnes, the producer of Hero TV, hatches a plot to delay the tournament by telling Jake they can get more viewers if he waits until the next day to fight Barnaby rather than doing it late at night. Jake agrees.
In reality, the ploy is meant to buy time so that signal jammers can be placed around the city to block Kriem's control over the stuffed animal bears that pilot the mecha. The next day, Barnaby fights Jake while Fire Emblem, Blue Rose, and Dragon Kid move into position to destroy the disabled mecha when the signal jammers are turned on.
Barnaby can't land a blow and Jake taunts him that it's because he has a second power, something unheard for NEXT. Kotetsu figures out that his power is reading minds and rushes out to tell Barnaby even though Kotetsu is severely injured. Meanwhile, the plot to disable the mecha doesn't work because they have auto-defense instructions and the three heroes have a difficult battle on their hands.
Kotetsu hatches a brilliant scheme that relies on deceiving Barnaby about the true nature of Jake's power so that Jake can't simply read his mind and avoid the attack. Barnaby believes Kotetsu and he manages to defeat the much more powerful Jake Martinez thank's to Kotetsu's plan. Kriem demands the heroes hand the defeated Jake over, believing she still holds the city hostage. In fact, Fire Emblem, Blue Rose, and Dragon Kid have defeated all the mecha.
Jake tries to escape but Kotetsu stops him. Trying to get free, Jake shoots down the helicopter Kriem is flying. She escapes, probably into Hero custody. However, it looks like the copter crashes on Jake. But I'm no sucker. I know how comic books go. Jake is not dead even though all indicators say otherwise. I fully expect him to figure into the endgame of this season or series. Maybe not as the major villain but somehow working for it. And Agnes will probably be involved somehow, too. But I'm starting to have second thoughts about her. She may have just been a red herring.
And that, briefly, is the first 14 episodes of Tiger & Bunny.
One thing I find particularly weird is how much the mayor of Bild Stern resembles a cross between Barack Obama and Tom Dubois from The Boondocks. Not because anime characters that resemble real, famous people is unusual. I just didn't expect the personality of Bild Stern's mayor to be linked to a Barack Obama-esque image by Japanese animators. The mayor, quite simply, is a huge, indecisive coward who cares more about how the public will perceive the outcome of any decision than how it will actually effect the citizens of Bild Stern. I thought Barack Obama was perceived a lot more positively abroad. It's just a little strange but still pretty funny.
So far, no backstory episodes have been devoted to Sky High or Rock Bison. Rock Bison has been revealed to be one of Kotetsu's friends, a drinking buddy, and somebody who knows about his personal life. He is also one of Kotestu's strongest supporters to the other Heroes. Sky High's history will probably be revealed in one of the later episodes since he is the King of Heroes. Seeing what drives him and why he works so hard to be the best will most likely come out as the heroes are pushed to their very limits as the series wraps up and heroes (and main characters) are killed. But that's just my prediction on how things will go. It's based on watching many, many anime series. I wonder what the Vegas odds would say.
So far, I'm really enjoying Tiger & Bunny. It fits in somewhere between the very serious and heavy-handedness of Evangelion or dark like Gunslinger Girl and something much more light-hearted like Case Closed (aka Detective Conan). It's anime super-heroes, a genre I can't think of any other series belonging to. Though it borrows some tropes from other genres (like buddy cop), it still has a lot of anime tropes (ice queen, tomboy, power suits, mecha) and structure as well. I'm looking forward to what next Saturday's episode will bring.
Episode 14 is titled "Love is Blind."
[1] Apparently a VPN would allow me to deceive Hulu as well as network sites like CBS into thinking my IP address was American. I have not opted to do that even though I'm American and dagnabbit I have a right to watch these shows.
[2] Yes, I did just make an X-Men reference.
A word about the broadcast. It looks like Viz Media has a license to re-broadcast the show in the States right after it's shown in Japan. What that means, practically, is that most websites the newest episode of Tiger & Bunny available for streaming on Saturday with subtitles. It's an interesting experiment in bringing current anime to the rest of the world quickly. Tiger & Bunny, a show about the super heroes of Bild Stern who competed for points to be crowned King of Heroes, seems both an odd choice and yet timely, what with the huge popularity of movies based on American comic book licenses in recent years (Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, Thor...)
FYI... there are tons of anime as well as movie and tv shows available to stream for free through youtube. Tiger & Bunny, however, is not one of them.
I've made it up to episode 14. If it's going to be a one season and done series, that means I'm just over half-way through (26 episodes total). But the show has just cleared it's first major story arc so now seems as good a time as any to revisit and review it.
Before, I said the team-up of Tiger and Bunny as the first NEXT crime-fighting duo presented elements of the buddy cop genre. That's not entirely true. Whereas the veteran cop is usually by the books and perhaps a little bit surly, both Wild Tiger (Kotetsu, the veteran) and his rookie parter Barnaby Brooks, Jr. (Bunny) have moments of the recklessness element that usually defines the rookie partner trope of this genre. Wild Tiger is generally reckless, always sticking his neck out to save people, which he sees as the one and only purpose of being a hero, disregarding the property damage he inflicts or the toes of his fellow heroes he may step on. Barnaby is more reserved, focused and the number two point getter behind King of Heroes Sky High as the next season of Hero TV progresses.
Barnaby can be set off, however, by his single-minded drive to hunt down the man who killed his parents. This drive is the reason he alone among the heroes has chosen to publicly reveal his face and identity to the public. He has taken his father's name so that when he finds the murdered, his father will symbolically be there extracting justice.
Barnaby witnessed the fiery murder of his parents when he was a child but cannot remember the face of the killer. However, the image of a tattoo has been seared into his memory. A super rich billionaire loner (Batman, anybody) with only his nanny to look after him (::kaff, kaff:: Alfred), Barnaby has taken it upon himself to sift through information to find a lead. A man with a similar tattoo turns up, revealing the name Ouroboros, which Barnaby takes to be the name of the organization behind his parents' murder.
Several episodes were devoted to exploring the backstories of some of the other heroes. For instance, in "Fear is Often Greater than the Danger," the beautiful ice queen Blue Rose decides to quit being a hero to pursue her desire to be a singer full time. She has been performing secretly out of costume in a lounge. But a lecture by Kotetsu brings her back to heroing and she swoops in at the last minute to save the heroes from an inferno.
In "Fire is a Good Servant but a Bad Master," Tiger and Bunny team-up with Fire Emblem to clear him of murder charges. Another NEXT has been killing criminals with fire powers that point to Fire Emblem. Fire Emblem is unique among the heroes not only because he doesn't have a corporate sponsor, he is actually the CEO of the company behind Fire Emblem, but he is openly and flamboyantly gay. Yes, the flamer character is flaming. But this doesn't seem to be mean-spirited, just the source of some rather silly humor. In a later episode when he is dispatched with Blue Rose and Dragon Kid to save the city, he talks about "girl power" and seems confused when Blue Rose responds that only two of them are girls.
Gay and ambiguously gendered characters are quite popular in anime and manga. No, I'm not just talking about the long-haired pretty boys, either. Because of the lack of religious sin and other cultural forces, homosexuality is not condemned like it is in the West. Notice I didn't say it's more accepted. But this topic is fodder for another entire blog post. If you're interested in the topic, let me know in the comments.
Investigating the fiery murders with Fire Emblem introduces the anti-hero Lunatic, a masked vigilante who shoots fiery bolts from a crossbow. He criticizes the justice delivered by the point-collecting stars of Hero TV. Certain hints seem to indicate that he is a certain long-haired judge Yuri Petrov seen hanging around the offices but as of episode 14, Lunatic's identity has not been positively revealed.
Lunatic figures into a few episodes as he murders various criminals, leading Barnaby, Kotetsu, and others to believe he works for Ouroboros and is eliminating loose ends, possibly people who could lead Barnaby to his parents' killer.
"There is Always a Next Time" delves into the past of Origami Cyclone, a sort of ninja-esque NEXT whose powers have never been shown. He is mostly known for just showing up in the background at most TV encounters and working very hard to make an appearance on Hero TV. Notably, he is the only NEXT to collect fewer points than Kotetsu.
Kotetsu, Barnaby, and the Origami Cyclone have been dispatched to a training academy for NEXT to prepare them to be the next generation of heroes of Bild Stern and the next generation of stars for Hero TV. When Kotetsu's class wants him to judge their abilities and let them know if they have what it takes to be heroes, he manages to politely encourage them even though most of them have powers more useless than Cypher, Skin, and Beak.[2] Origami Cyclone then asks Kotetsu to judge his power, which is the very Mystique-like power to copy appearances. Kotetsu encourages him by saying that he was chosen to become a Hero because there is something only he can do (starting to catch a theme yet).
In "Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child," the mayor of Bild Stern assigns Kotetsu the job of babysitting his child while he and his wife go out of the city. Even though Kotetsu has a daughter, Kaede, and thus has experience with children unlike any of the other heroes, the baby takes a liking to Dragon Kid, a tomboyish Chinese girl with lightning powers. Her parents sent her to Bild Stern to be a hero. The baby and Dragon Kid are kidnapped, and one of the kidnappers states that their parents (she mistakes the baby and Dragon Kid to be siblings) will pay a good ransom because they obviously love their children as revealed by what the flower on the baby's hat means. Dragon Kid takes this language of flowers idea home after she defeats the kidnappers and finds out the flower hair clip her parents gave her means "thinking about you." Going against her tomboyish nature, she finally decides to wear the pin, garnering a compliment from Kotetsu.
The next four episodes are the culmination of the plot. Barnaby finally remembers the face of his parents' killer and tracks him down to a prison in Bild Stern. Before I discuss those episodes, a few brief, overarching comments.
As unpopular with the public as he is, Kotetsu is the heart and soul of the Heroes. Barnaby and Blue Rose don't show him much respect and even Dragon Kid has some unkind things to say about his words and deeds sometimes. However, Rock Bison and Fire Emblem always stick up for him, often pointing out that what Kotetsu says isn't always exactly the truth because he is protecting somebody else or trying to do the right thing.
He is often the one with the right words of encouragement for the other heroes, serving as a mentor to them. He may not earn the points but he lends moral support and often the insight that allows the others to succeed.
And he's much brighter than almost everybody gives him credit for. It's his memory for faces that produces a lead in the Ouroboros subplot. And his ability to connect various bits of information to uncovers Jake Martinez's second power... Now, the close of the story arc.
The heart of Ouroboros leads to Jake Martinez, a mercenary currently in prison. Barnaby is on his way to see him when trouble breaks out in Bild Stern. This trouble also prevents Kotetsu from going home to see his daugher for the first time in an undisclosed length of time. He never takes vacation and every time he tries to make it home, a super-hero crisis happens. How inconvenient!
Mecha have appeared all over the city and starting blowing things up. The heroes are all called in to action and dispatched to various parts of the city to deal with multiple incursions. Kotetsu tells Barnaby to go ahead and go to the prison because he has been waiting his whole life for that confrontation.
The mecha attack, however, is just the opening move and a distraction from the real aim. Ouroboros villain Kriem has sent them out so that she can break her boyfriend Jake Martinez out of prison. Threatening to destroy the city if the mayor doesn't comply with her demands, Bild Stern releases Jake Martinez. The city complies but Origami Cyclone has used his shapeshifting powers to infiltrate the group as a human henchmen.
As villains as wont to do villainy, Jake backs out of the deal and threatens to destroy Bild Stern if the 7 heroes of Hero TV don't battle him in a one-on-one tournament. Origami Cyclone is discovered and injured. With his force field powers, Jake manages to defeat the King of Heroes Sky High, Rock Bison, and Kotetsu easily. Agnes, the producer of Hero TV, hatches a plot to delay the tournament by telling Jake they can get more viewers if he waits until the next day to fight Barnaby rather than doing it late at night. Jake agrees.
In reality, the ploy is meant to buy time so that signal jammers can be placed around the city to block Kriem's control over the stuffed animal bears that pilot the mecha. The next day, Barnaby fights Jake while Fire Emblem, Blue Rose, and Dragon Kid move into position to destroy the disabled mecha when the signal jammers are turned on.
Barnaby can't land a blow and Jake taunts him that it's because he has a second power, something unheard for NEXT. Kotetsu figures out that his power is reading minds and rushes out to tell Barnaby even though Kotetsu is severely injured. Meanwhile, the plot to disable the mecha doesn't work because they have auto-defense instructions and the three heroes have a difficult battle on their hands.
Kotetsu hatches a brilliant scheme that relies on deceiving Barnaby about the true nature of Jake's power so that Jake can't simply read his mind and avoid the attack. Barnaby believes Kotetsu and he manages to defeat the much more powerful Jake Martinez thank's to Kotetsu's plan. Kriem demands the heroes hand the defeated Jake over, believing she still holds the city hostage. In fact, Fire Emblem, Blue Rose, and Dragon Kid have defeated all the mecha.
Jake tries to escape but Kotetsu stops him. Trying to get free, Jake shoots down the helicopter Kriem is flying. She escapes, probably into Hero custody. However, it looks like the copter crashes on Jake. But I'm no sucker. I know how comic books go. Jake is not dead even though all indicators say otherwise. I fully expect him to figure into the endgame of this season or series. Maybe not as the major villain but somehow working for it. And Agnes will probably be involved somehow, too. But I'm starting to have second thoughts about her. She may have just been a red herring.
And that, briefly, is the first 14 episodes of Tiger & Bunny.
So far, no backstory episodes have been devoted to Sky High or Rock Bison. Rock Bison has been revealed to be one of Kotetsu's friends, a drinking buddy, and somebody who knows about his personal life. He is also one of Kotestu's strongest supporters to the other Heroes. Sky High's history will probably be revealed in one of the later episodes since he is the King of Heroes. Seeing what drives him and why he works so hard to be the best will most likely come out as the heroes are pushed to their very limits as the series wraps up and heroes (and main characters) are killed. But that's just my prediction on how things will go. It's based on watching many, many anime series. I wonder what the Vegas odds would say.
So far, I'm really enjoying Tiger & Bunny. It fits in somewhere between the very serious and heavy-handedness of Evangelion or dark like Gunslinger Girl and something much more light-hearted like Case Closed (aka Detective Conan). It's anime super-heroes, a genre I can't think of any other series belonging to. Though it borrows some tropes from other genres (like buddy cop), it still has a lot of anime tropes (ice queen, tomboy, power suits, mecha) and structure as well. I'm looking forward to what next Saturday's episode will bring.
Episode 14 is titled "Love is Blind."
[1] Apparently a VPN would allow me to deceive Hulu as well as network sites like CBS into thinking my IP address was American. I have not opted to do that even though I'm American and dagnabbit I have a right to watch these shows.
[2] Yes, I did just make an X-Men reference.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
tiger & bunny wasn't what i expected
Some time ago I think I promised you I would revisit the topic of Wonder Woman and more generally the female figure in (American) comics. Well here's a bassackwards way to get there. I have a couple of incomplete anime series reviews lying around. So instead of tackling women in American comics, I'm going to take a detour through some of the female tropes in anime via those reviews to get the ball rolling.
The series to be reviewed in future installments are: Aquarion, Claymore, and Shigurui. Rest assured I will talk about quite a few more series in the course of this explication.
But before we go there, I'd like to return to a topic just recently addressed in this here very blog, namely gamification. I just watched the first episode of Tiger & Bunny and, well, here, see for yourself...
The basic premise, at least so far, is that super heroes in this world are employed by major corporations as billboards slash publicity stunts. This answers that age logistics question of who pays for damage caused by heroes in the course of saving the city - the corporate sponsor does.
In addition, the city's heroes compete on a TV show called Hero TV to be crowned the King of Heroes of the season. Here's where the gameification element comes in. Each hero is awarded points for various activities they perform while responding to the crime featured on that episode. First on the scene, second on the scene, made an arrest, and saved a civilian have showed up so far. For the TV audience at home, as the hero earn these points, a little message pops up on the screen naming the reward and the points earned for unlocking it. The season winner is determined, as one might reasonably suspect, by who has the most points at the end of the season.
Let me make a guess as to one of the main villains after just one episode. The series is produced by a woman who says at the awards ceremony wrap party that she expects next season to be much more intense. My suspicion is that she will somehow be involved with villains to help ramp up the danger for the heroes. But this bit of foreshadowing may just be a red herring.
The tiger and bunny of the title seems to refer to the first super hero team up. Wild Tiger, the veteran of the so called NEXT, or people with superpower mutations, isn't doing so well in the rankings. Similar to Hour Man, he can gain huge increases to his speed, strength, agility and such but for only 1/12th the time of the DC Comics hero. During the final episode of the season, he is rescued by a newcomer in new power armor who is later introduced as the newest hero of the city.
Wild Tiger is quite unpopular with the audience. He isn't the reigning champion like Sky High or scantily clad vixen Blue Rose, much to his chagrin. But he seems very much dedicated to doing the right thing for its own sake rather that to become King of Heroes or gain popularity. Still, he wouldn't mind a little recognition.
His corporate sponsor is bought out or goes out of business or something and so he is transferred to a new company. His new boss explains he and Barnaby Brooks, Jr., the man who rescued him before, have the same mutant power but that Barnaby will be more successful because of his youth. Then Wild Tiger is put into a suit of power armor and sent out to do the heroic thing.
Even though the episode closes with the arrival of a bull-themed hero Rock Bison we've seen before, the clear implication is that Wild Tiger and Brooks will team up to be the tiger and bunny of the series title. This veteran / reckless rookie buddy cop dynamic harkens back to popular American movies such as 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon. Like Murtaugh of Lethal Weapon, Wild Tiger has a family, his mother and young daughter, to care for, giving his pause from engaging in cavalier stunts such as revealing his secret identity on TV.
The pilot presented an interesting premise of a world in which people with superpowers have been wedded to corporations and entertainment, participating in a game of stopping crime. I'll definitely keep an eye out for subsequent episodes.
The series to be reviewed in future installments are: Aquarion, Claymore, and Shigurui. Rest assured I will talk about quite a few more series in the course of this explication.
But before we go there, I'd like to return to a topic just recently addressed in this here very blog, namely gamification. I just watched the first episode of Tiger & Bunny and, well, here, see for yourself...
The basic premise, at least so far, is that super heroes in this world are employed by major corporations as billboards slash publicity stunts. This answers that age logistics question of who pays for damage caused by heroes in the course of saving the city - the corporate sponsor does.
In addition, the city's heroes compete on a TV show called Hero TV to be crowned the King of Heroes of the season. Here's where the gameification element comes in. Each hero is awarded points for various activities they perform while responding to the crime featured on that episode. First on the scene, second on the scene, made an arrest, and saved a civilian have showed up so far. For the TV audience at home, as the hero earn these points, a little message pops up on the screen naming the reward and the points earned for unlocking it. The season winner is determined, as one might reasonably suspect, by who has the most points at the end of the season.
Let me make a guess as to one of the main villains after just one episode. The series is produced by a woman who says at the awards ceremony wrap party that she expects next season to be much more intense. My suspicion is that she will somehow be involved with villains to help ramp up the danger for the heroes. But this bit of foreshadowing may just be a red herring.
The tiger and bunny of the title seems to refer to the first super hero team up. Wild Tiger, the veteran of the so called NEXT, or people with superpower mutations, isn't doing so well in the rankings. Similar to Hour Man, he can gain huge increases to his speed, strength, agility and such but for only 1/12th the time of the DC Comics hero. During the final episode of the season, he is rescued by a newcomer in new power armor who is later introduced as the newest hero of the city.
Wild Tiger is quite unpopular with the audience. He isn't the reigning champion like Sky High or scantily clad vixen Blue Rose, much to his chagrin. But he seems very much dedicated to doing the right thing for its own sake rather that to become King of Heroes or gain popularity. Still, he wouldn't mind a little recognition.
His corporate sponsor is bought out or goes out of business or something and so he is transferred to a new company. His new boss explains he and Barnaby Brooks, Jr., the man who rescued him before, have the same mutant power but that Barnaby will be more successful because of his youth. Then Wild Tiger is put into a suit of power armor and sent out to do the heroic thing.
Even though the episode closes with the arrival of a bull-themed hero Rock Bison we've seen before, the clear implication is that Wild Tiger and Brooks will team up to be the tiger and bunny of the series title. This veteran / reckless rookie buddy cop dynamic harkens back to popular American movies such as 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon. Like Murtaugh of Lethal Weapon, Wild Tiger has a family, his mother and young daughter, to care for, giving his pause from engaging in cavalier stunts such as revealing his secret identity on TV.
The pilot presented an interesting premise of a world in which people with superpowers have been wedded to corporations and entertainment, participating in a game of stopping crime. I'll definitely keep an eye out for subsequent episodes.
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