Those good times where I, along with the the rest of the fangirls around the world anticipate our SUPERHERO SATURDAY for our favourite NEXT heroes.
Also, today is the 31st of October, one of the character's of this shows birthday so I think it's the perfect time to finally leave my two cents about Tiger and Bunny.
Studio: Sunrise
I gotta be honest with you that this will be a very difficult anime to review, since it's my fave anime of 2011. it was something that made me think "Ah, there's no anime better than this one anymore" by the end of the season. It's something you wish to have a second season, but then again I fear to have more cos usually second seasons ruined everything... especially if it's an original anime.
To be honest, at first I was put off by the anime promotional poster. It looks so retro and some mascot girl is spread across the image. Also the title made me think it was some kind of hentai anime LOL.
but I checked it out anyway since the rest of the anime during that season looks... unappealing to me.
Then the first thing that made me impressed with the anime was...
my reaction: "LOLWTF WHY ARE THEY ADVERTISING COMPANIES"
It reminds me of how Johnny Storm had sponsors plastered on his hero suit, in Fantastic Four movie adaptation. I thought it was funny. It looks like a parody of reality tv shows, and being a superhero is serious business (they even have Hero Academy). And at least the hero gets PAID for saving lives (Consequently, the hero himself must pay for property damages). Really, has no one thought of that? Somehow it makes me question how western superheroes end up getting away with it, the costumes and props and stuff. Unless you're Ironman and Batman of course. And you don't have that one particular damsel in distress to save and get married and have a love triangle with a villain/rival, or have a second spineless damsel who becomes the hero's weakness. HEY IT'S JAPAN! Plot and characterization is a whole another level!
Speaking of characters... Tiger and Bunny may look like another shounen. Main character is the typical hotblooded and naive type... but instead of a young boy they took a man in his mid 30s, and he's also a SINGLE FATHER. That was another surprise, and it was intriguing. It's funny that the writers actually wanted the demographics to be for older otakus, those who retired from anime and sentai fans... the show ends up attracting many fangirls and even housewives. And every hot-blooded guy needs a cool and level headed partner to keep him on track. Instead of a girl, the heroine is a... um... obviously male version of Farrah Fawcett look-alike. Why I call him a "heroine" because he's kinda gay, does his hair and all -oh just check out his description. Plus his nickname is "Bunny" (yay more sexualization). At first I didn't like Kotetsu much because he's like an overgrown child, but later he showed his kakkoi side and worked hard for his partner's approval. The reason is that the writers want a character that represents working class people who's undergoing mid-life crisis... especially when they had to deal with a younger carreerman (Barnaby represents this). Barnaby on the other hand, at first I was disturbed by his behaviour that seemed too familiar, but then in the second cour I my feelings for him was neutral. At the end it is revealed that he shares the same birthday as I do so I was like "OH NO WONDER I DISLIKED HIM"/"OH NO WONDER HE'S LIKE THAT"
hightlight of the show
Did I mention gay? Oh yes, there's one character who's really on par with Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark, but he's gay and goes by the name of Nathan Seymour. He's not only a superhero, but he has his own company. Too bad he wasn't given the chance to show his flashback or whatever, but heck... he likes pink and calls himself a woman, yet he spits fire and has a muscular body. Therefore he's awesome! (in spite of his butt groping tendencies XD)
Though every episode is fun, giving us THE FEELS and making us crave for more... there's a darker side to it. These superheroes are super enhanced humans called NEXT which is a kind of disease(?) that came to be many years prior to the show. NEXT was discriminated at first, due to their freaky nature, they have unexplainable supernatural powers which emerges/develops anytime in your life... until there's the show called Hero TV, where the NEXT can put their superpowers to good use; becoming HEROES! This is an effective media idea to change the minds of the public towards NEXT. NEXT are after all, still humans, but with just something extra. Even the younger characters had to deal with their own dillema, not only as a NEXT but as a person as well (note that, one of the reasons you need to pick up this show is because of one loveable weeabo character)
DEGOZARU!
But then here's the catch; Some villains have superpowers too. So what's the deal? Why are there still NEXTs not using their powers for good? Why isn't every NEXT recruited into Hero Academy to become heroes? Perhaps there's a conspiracy behind this reality TV show? :3
The only thing I'm disappointed with the show is that they didn't go in depth about the scientific theories of NEXTs' existence, the history and the logic behind the development or the natural selection. I really hope this can be explained in their second movie (this is me being a sciencefag).
As I said earlier, about the art... at first it looked too retro for my tastes. But then I grew to like it. Character designer made a great deal of research on what the characters should wear, depending on their personalities. And it's rare to see characters who look goddamn different from each other cos you have far too many anime/mangas that only has one or two face templates. You have the guy with rather droopy eyes, there's one with a bit of wrinkles, one with rather crooked nose, etc. Heck, most of the fangirls are probably surprised that they're into men with faical hair (but I reckon we love Kotetsu cos he is a moe oyaji). However I'm a little disappointed that Masakazu Katsura doesn't vary much of the girls' faces. And finally the city is NOT JAPANbut it looks more like an advanced version of Manhattan. It's a apparently multiracial city since in the cast you have a French woman, Latino guy, a couple of Russians, Asians, Blacks and the rest are Caucasians.
I mean dude, this has more aesthetic values man. Skills of this artist is worth being worshipped than those who draw those same flat-faced bug eyed lolis!
Animation was nice especially during the fight scenes, and the motorcycles scenes. The rest of the time was pretty so-so but that's not the point here. Just sayin' that even the producers didn't expect to gain that many fans (Ozaki didn't give a f*ck about those... particular group of fangirls)
Also i love how... typically superhero-ish the OST is. It sort of reminds you of the superhero cartoon shows you see on TV. And I somehow got addicted to it. Plus there's some jazz and a random opera song (Barnaby's theme lolz).
So yeah the first movie is out, too bad I'm not in Japan to see it. Second movie will be out next year.
Ok i wanna conclude this. I could talk all day about Tiger & Bunny cos I love it so much that I watched it twice. And oh these are my collection.
sadly/luckily i'm not otaku enough!
Anyway, I just remembered someone asking me why I like this show, although I said that I'm not a superhero fan. The reason is simple; the BROMANCE.
It's also the reason why I enjoyed The Avengers. So it has nothing to do with muscular guys running around in a spangly suit.
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