Tiger and Bunny

[Yuko-san]

The maker of Big O Keiichi Sato has made a new anime called Tiger and Bunny.

The plot as far as I can tell;
Super powered people called NEXT showed up 45 years ago (Um, lol?), and started using their powers for good. Some NEXT are bad, as you can imagine, but the good seem to out weigh the bad (only on episode 3 though). The anime centers on a man named Kotetsu T. Kaburagi and a Barnaby Brooks Jr. AKA Tiger and Bunny. The NEXT that are good live in a re-imagined version of New York (again um, lol?) called Sternbild City. The Super powered NEXT are mostly on a TV series and are sponsored by companies, such as pepsi nex and anime network, and they all aspire to be king of heros. They take out petty crooks and Big time villains, which adds to a heroes respective point score. At the end of a tv season the hero with the highest score is King of Heroes.

So after a few episodes I gathered that Sato would rather work on Big O. The similarities on top are nill, similarities on a secondary layer are huge. In episode 15 there is a robot that looks like a slightly more childish version of Dorothy named Cis (chisu in Japanese), they are both robots and they have the same freaking voice actor. Sadly it seems bad things happen to Cis, but from the way she acts she was more on level with Destiny a bit. I think she's coming back, but not sure. Chisu was also designed after Dorothy. Also the years 40 and 45 are too close for comfort. And some of the Japanese voice actors from Big O show up. Sky High, the king of heroes at the start of the series, sounds a hell of a lot like Roger.


In quick summary go watch this already. It's only in Japanese, but there are subtitles.

[Professor Vogler]

Well, way to mark your spoilers there Yuko. That ep 15 reference is actually a major plot point in the episode.

In the same episode, Roger's japanese voice actor is recruited as Rotwang.... yet another homage to Big O, and to Metropolis. Aside from those bits though, it's a great stand alone series and I really really really cannot wait for the upcoming episodes.

[EyeOfPain]

I hadn't even known about the connection between T&B and TBO until episode 15.

Oh hey, 18's out...

[Brooklyn Luckfield]

Tiger and Bunny is probably the best anime I've seen in years and a welcome breath of fresh air.

[Yuko-san]

It's so popular in Japan they're releasing the boxset early. It's slated for release here in the US around December of January next year. I want this in English bad. The subtitles aren't bad, but sometimes they get things wrong and it's annoying.

And I didn't give anything away really. I just said that Cis (turns out my Japanese font is installed wrong on this machine, so I kept reading her name as chisu) and Dorothy look alike and that shit happens. Which is like a few animes Sato has worked on. Some character called Maya actually dresses like her on purpose in an episode of some magic girl anime. The character even says as much. Can't remember which anime, but the guy that made K-on had a hand in it.

[EyeOfPain]

As far as I can tell, no company has picked up rights for T&B outside streaming, and there's no way Japan will release a boxset by December.

[Yuko-san]

Bandai is releasing the box set in Japan by December. I thought I read something about an American voice over studio picking this up. Oh well if we can get it at all in English I'd be happy.

[Yuko-san]

Aand, bump.


I've finally watched up to episode nine. My internet is so slow I'm lucky if I can watch and episode every few days, but last night it worked and I got to watch 4 episodes in a row.

I can say after watching this much that the story moves progressively for one hero, while for the other the problems he faces almost never face the lime light. One hero get most of the episode to deal with problems, while the other might get 2 minutes every other episode to work on his. Kinda slow character progression, but for a short series it works.

I still think sato would rather work on Big O for all the references we see per-episode. Though most are only in the background and miniscule at best. While others, as I have mentioned, show up so clear you couldn't miss it if you where blind.

Also small spoiler for episode 8-9 that won't ruin much of anything but I think should be known. There a naked dude that shows up for about 20-30 seconds for both those episodes, and I kinda would've like a partial nudity warning, seeing as my family has the tendency to walk into my room at random. You won't see much, but still... Would have been nice.

[Professor Vogler]

The last episode of Tiger and Bunny will be aired in theaters across Japan as a special All night event.

This event will also be simulcasted.


BEGIN AWESOME NOW.

[Yuko-san]

Nice. But why are they doing this is the question? It must be a huge showdown is all I can think.

[Sharpshooter005]

Money from ticket sales probably

[Yuko-san]

Money from ticket sales probably

perhaps. But if Vizmedia is live streaming while it is also in theaters I have a feeling ticket sales won't be that good.
Are they releasing toys for this show by any chance? I want a bunny action figure.

[EyeOfPain]

Viz's streams are limited to North America.

And there will be a figure line.

[Yuko-san]

Why is it the only time I ever wanted anime characters to be real both animes are made by the same guy?

And Viz is only streaming here? I'm kinda surprised by that. Japan usually leaves the rest of the world out. Do we have to pay to stream?

[Professor Vogler]

The hype on TvTropes is that Tiger&Bunny is one of the greatest American Superhero comics never (yet) printed. Seriously! And I completely agree with them. It's really frakking good.