Tiger & Bunny is a new anime program current airing weekly in Japan and simulcast on Hulu and Viz Anime. Produced by Sunrise it's directed by Keiichi Satou (best known for his work on Big O). The series revolves around a couple of super heroes who fight crime while driving ad revenue and product placement for a hero themed television program.
Synopsis
Free time is bountiful for our heroes. Barnaby is off with his research, Tiger taking a reluctant but welcome vacation to visit his daughter, while the rest socialize and relax. As you might imagine, it's just too good to be true. Over the course of an hour all hell breaks loose in Stern Build.
While heading out of town the Bronx Bridge is bombed right before Tiger's eyes. Heading in to help he's confronted by several of those armored mecha introduced earlier in the series. The rest of our heroes arrive to support Tiger only to be redirected elsewhere in the city as more targets are bombed. Barnaby, however, does not join the fray. Instead he's headed to the prison to confront the man he believes murdered his parents. After years of searching he finally finds the man and completes his faded memory.
In the midst of battle Tiger opens up one of the mecha's cockpits to confront the operator. Instead of a human he finds it being controlled by a stuffed teddy bear. Other heroes discover the same thing and they come to the conclusion that a NEXT must be behind the attacks. Not just any NEXT, but a member of Ouroboros. The purpose behind their attacks is made known when they hijack Heroes TV. They've sealed off Stern Bild and are holding its residents hostage. Their ransom demand? The release of Jake Martinez, the man who murdered Barnaby's parents.
Review
As fun as an episode as this was, something felt off. I think it had something to do with the pacing. Early on in the episode things are rather relaxed with long sequences and a nice calm jazz track. When shit hits the fan, the dramatic music kicks in, and the pacing... stays the same. Any attempt at tension is quickly lost during long cuts and filler scenes. I could understand Tiger going after the bear, but did it really need to last that long and feature him awkwardly kicking a stone at the guy? And why did all of the robots (who magically appeared on the bridge, the diamond faced NEXT's power perhaps?) withhold their attacks while he was taking his time? There are several other instances throughout the episode where they're dropping the ball constantly. It would make sense if the NEXT controlling them was limited in the amount she could handle but subsequent sequences and a continuous expansion of fronts contradict that argument.
Wait, is that his...?
With regard to the mecha, it seemed like Tiger & Bunny used episode 6 to set them up for being well armored and strong. Now they can just be kicked away, slicked in half, and hatches easily opened? Granted they look like cheaper models in comparison to the fully armored one seen previously. Couldn't the funds behind those robots, and the time and resources required to dropping millions of business cards all over the city, have been better put toward just breaking their comrade out of prison in the first place?
No ammo? No problem!
Speaking of things that don't make sense, why didn't that woman get out of her car and run like everyone else during the bombing/robots showing up/robots fighting Tiger/robots fighting all the heroes/robots fighting Tiger by himself sequence of events? I also noticed that during Fire Emblem's entrance his mouth didn't move when he shouted "Fiiire." Shortly after one of the robots flings a car by the trunk which surely would not have been possible. In addition, there ware what, three separate bombings? And that covers all the entry/exit points into a city of 20 million? The Devil's in the details people.
Wait, how is it that the suspension bridge hasn't collapsed outright?
These wtf bits aside the plot is solid and does a great job of setting up some new villains. Bunny's discovery was handled well as was the set up to autonomous teddy bears. The big reveal over Ouroboros was great. The show's setting up a bit of cat and mouse game instead of the easier 'super strong villain' route. Ouroboros' designs cues are certainly interesting though the playing card theme reminds me of DC's Royal Flush Gang.
Those details...
I'm looking forward to seeing how things play out in the upcoming episodes. It certainly looks like the set up for Origami Cyclone wasn't in vein. I think we'll also see some independent action on behalf of Lunatic. At first he's the one responsible for putting the heroes up against the terrorists all by themselves but later displays anger upon hearing Ouroboros' demands. My money is on him interfering and cause our heroes plans to go awry.
He's complaining about what in this episode again?
