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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Rent | 9 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2441#1552] |
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(Rent-/ Watch+) I really hate it when a potentially fun premise finds itself eventually getting bogged down by the conventional elements it was seemingly trying to subvert. Tiger and Bunny's premise was unique in the fact you had superheroes on a reality show competing for points and being corporate-sponsored, which had me thinking this series would get its fun off exploiting the premise and poking fun of the absurdities commonplace with superhero formulas when I first heard about it. Instead, it creates plot development out of Kotetsu and Barnaby getting used to each other as a superhero duo when the former's company gets bought out and the two running into developments involving a vigilante hero and a crime organization. The series does decently flesh out both characters as the show prominently focuses on both of them and we get to learn what drove both men into becoming heroes. It also introduces some decent ideas explored such as said vigilante hero in the form of Lunatic and the idea of superheroes losing their powers, as what happens to a major character in the second half to Tiger and Bunny. In terms of visuals, Tiger and Bunny is easily one of the better-looking titles to come out for the year thus far sporting plenty of detail and color to go along with the vast environments shown through the city landscapes of Sternbild City. This same high-quality also went into creating the character designs as the costumes of the heroes are slick to look at, especially the costumes worn by Kotetsu and Barnaby. Action scenes are fluid to look at and get fairly diverse as there are chase scenes by foot and motorcycle, aerial fights and hand-to-hand combat. However, Tiger and Bunny finds itself getting bogged down quite a bit by its conventional elements which make it almost seem like a cookie-cutter shounen anime. A number of the characters are tacked on with an archetype that has been done to death in typical plot setups such as Kotetsu being the slow-witted and impulsive hero of the series, Fire Emblem your stereotypical gay man and Blue Rose a tsundere. The show also gets into the annoying habit of resorting to contrived plot developments or conveniently ditching certain points of the plot to help advance any major plot developments that the Heroes are caught up in, particularly with major baddies Jake and Albert. I couldn't help but wonder the number of times the show resorted to deus ex machina just to force the plot into a certain direction without making sense of things, especially when the Heroes were put into situations where they were seemingly on the losing end of fights as they fought against villains who were either too powerful to be defeated easily or developed an elaborate plot that fell apart due to contrived developments. Both major plots with Jake and Albert had their potential yet the series fails to provide a solid resolution to both because things get too messy and/or cliched in their developments towards the final moments of both arcs. Overall, Tiger and Bunny had its potential yet fell flat due to it not escaping the more conventional elements that get tossed into its path. While still having some decent ideas it explores and having its moments in developments with Barnaby and Kotetsu, it still made for a fairly mediocre watch for me and I imagine enough folks will be eating up the news of the series having a sequel planned in the works. Last updated Saturday, September 17 2011. Created Saturday, September 17 2011. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2441#628] | ||||||
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I was skeptical of this show during the chase scene which takes up the first half; the 'Superheroes being exploited by the media' angle was amusing, but that didn't mean the show wouldn't be just a fight-of-the-week thing with little more originality than the basic premise. Several times I started watching, then quickly switched to something else. But once I finally watched the entire episode, I was pleasantly surprised. Kotetsu/Wild Tiger has been given an interesting personality which one can sympathise with. His career as a superhero hasn't been going well, and he's undergoing a sort of mid-life crisis. The ultimate humiliation comes when he is assigned to act as a partner with a newcomer bishonen guy who he resents. With writing as solid as this, all sorts of opportunities for fun and intriguing storytelling present themselves. It certainly doesn't hurt that Sunrise animation has delivered me a number of highly entertaining series, going all the way back to City Hunter. Talk about 'product placement'! This show is both making fun of the practice of advertising things by having fictional characters consume them, and doing just that. There was even a genuine Pepsi ad from the station break which showed one of the animated characters drinking it. Anyway, although I have no idea exactly where this will go, I have gone from skepticism to enthusiastic optimism about this show, and doubt that it will let me down. At around one-third of the way through the series, I find that my enthusiasm has fallen off somewhat. There's a background plot of Barnaby/Bunny trying to track down the killers of his parents, but it's not moving all that quickly and I am impatient. Tiger's problems have been set aside, which annoys me because he is my favorite character. I haven't been able to get into Barnaby all that much since his issues are truly ones that would demand a superhero, while Tiger having trouble with his daughter seems like an amusing case of a superhero with an all too common problem, which is amusing and makes me identify with him. Each episode has a short-term plot in which one particular NEXT gets the limelight for an episode, but these aren't all that thrilling either. With quality as it is, I wish this had been a one- rather than two-season show. Last updated Wednesday, August 24 2011. Created Friday, April 08 2011. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Official Tiger and Bunny Site (Japanese) | http://www.tigerandbunny.net/ |
