Now is the Time to Catch Up With Tiger & Bunny
Tired of the glut of Marvel and DC superheroes? Do you pine for something fun yet emotional, filled with superheroic excitement but without the excess baggage of franchise-strangled continuity? Look no further than Bandai Namco Filmworks’ (formerly known as Studio Sunrise of Mobile Suit Gundam and Love Live fame) fantastic TV anime Tiger & Bunny, recently resurrected in time for Easter with a welcome second season by Netflix.
Originally broadcast in 25 episodes back in 2011, I’ve previously written a little about Tiger & Bunny in a 2011 retrospective and more recently in AniTAY’s Spring 2022 Sequel Guide. Having just recently re-watched the entire first season and two movies with my 11-year-old son in anticipation of the new season, I want to gush about how much I love the show, and how you will too, if you give it a chance.
Set in 1978 in an alternate history North America (specifically in a retro-futuristic version of New York named “Stern Bild”), apart from the fact that one of the main duo is of ethnic Japanese descent, Tiger & Bunny resolutely avoids most overt Japanese cultural signifiers, meaning it’s extremely accessible even to viewers with no prior experience of anime or its overused tropes.
Stern Bild itself is arrestingly designed — a city on three levels (Bronze Stage, Silver Stage and Gold Stage) built either on an island or a peninsula — think Ultra Manhattan — it invokes the massive city in Girls’ Last Tour. Huge metal pillars cast into godlike visages support each level, with tall skyscrapers not even reaching the height of the next floor. Inverted monorails dangle beneath the colossal platforms. It’s a colourful world, and almost the entire show takes place within the city boundaries, its stakes more personal and local than the multiverse-shattering insanity of many modern superhero shows and movies.
In his mid-thirties, veteran hero Kotetsu Kaburagi (alias Wild Tiger) is that rare thing in anime — a non-teenage protagonist, with realistic worries about ageing and becoming irrelevant. A show originally aimed presumably at adult men with more than a passing familiarity with North American superhero comics, Tiger & Bunny soon attracted a much wider audience, including the Fujoshi demographic, typically adult women with an attraction to pretty boys with finely sculped torsos. (See swimming drama Free for another incredibly blatant example.) Kotetsu is one of the seven prominent heroes in Stern Bild who feature daily on prime time Hero TV, their exploits broadcast as part of a megacorporation multimedia promotional blitz.
Partly a parody of blatant product placement and partly a serious examination of the corrupting influence of corporate greed, Kotetsu balances his producer’s demands for choreographed, time-sensitive spectacle with the needs of the people he rescues. All while his suit is emblazoned with his sponsors’ crassly prominent trademarks, which even the show’s opening sequence takes pain to focus and linger on. In this world, hero work is only sanctioned with the involvement of big business to fund the powered exosuits and also to pay for the inevitable collateral damage caused by superhero work.
In order to boost ratings, Stern Bild’s heroes must compete with one another for points bonuses in order to improve their ranking. Their bosses seem predictably more interested in their hero employees’ public popularity than moral fortitude. Bonus points are earned by arriving first at a crime scene, by rescuing citizens, or by apprehending criminals. Much hero work seems to comprise of foiling bank robberies, chasing fleeing criminals or rescuing people from fires or collapsing buildings — the kind of work more traditionally done by Police or Fire services, but in this city performed, packaged and sold by costumed super-powered private corporate employees.
Every hero has their own power, explained by the relatively recent emergence of the next stage of human evolution, “Next”. A person with Next abilities glows blue as they activate, whether they possess the power of wind (the rocketeer-esque Sky High), flames (the outrageously camp Fire Emblem), ice (the deliberately over-sexualised cold-powered teenage dominatrix Blue Rose), shapeshifting (the shy, confidence-lacking Origame Cyclone), electricity (the diminutive but ass-kickingly strong Dragon Kid) or invulnerability (the colossal and clumsy Rock Bison).
Kotetsu is a “power-type” Next, in that on ability activation, he temporarily gains the strength of a hundred men. Unfortunately this lasts for only five minutes, after which he returns to normal, and it takes around an hour for his abilities to recharge. Because of his difficulty in gauging the best times to use his abilities, he frequently messes up, causes ridiculous collateral damage, and usually finds himself at the bottom of the hero rankings as something of a joke amongst the populace. This is frequently referenced by the piles of hero trading cards seen at the street newsagent vendor Kotetsu frequents — Sky High and Blue Rose’s cards are usually sold out, while his are always the biggest, unsold pile.
When Kotetsu’s boss quits and sells his company to conglomerate Appollon Media, his new employer teams him up (against his will) with essentially a younger, flashier, more handsome version of him — the cool but emotionally fragile, standoffish and somewhat tsundere Barnaby Brooks Jnr. Barnaby has the same “hundred power”, plus eschews the use of a pseudonym, preferring to perform hero work under his own name, something that contradicts Kotetsu’s strongly-held beliefs about secret identities. The two instantly clash, and the main focus of the show is on developing their partnership though multiple dramatic ups and downs. Kotetsu’s constant use of the unwanted nickname “Bunny” for Barnaby (due to his suit’s bunny ear-like appendages) drives Barnaby to distraction.
For a new viewer, it’s best to start with the movie Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning, as long as you can access it. Netflix has only just added it to their catalogue in the US, though it doesn’t appear in the UK, where the only option right now is an out-of-print DVD/blu-ray from Anime Limited. This is a strange hybrid of a film. The first half squeezes in the majority of footage of episodes one and two, while the second half is a new story that sandwiches in neatly before episode three and gives some excellent character moments for the wider cast, as well as the central duo. Continuity-wise there’s nothing important to miss if all you have access to is the television show, but if you’ve the option, watch the movie instead of the first two episodes.
Season one is split into two main story arcs, the first culminating in episode 13 with Wild Tiger and Barnaby’s fight against the apparent main antagonist, while the second arc builds upon and upends everything established in the first. Despite a few seemingly standalone episodes at the outset, Tiger & Bunny is a highly serialised show, and the final few episodes in particular make for a very tense and compulsive watch.
Notwithstanding frequent flashy (at least for anime, and for the time) CGI action sequences, Tiger & Bunny is first and foremost a character study, albeit a buddy-cop/superhero one. Kotetsu and Barnaby are two very flawed, very relatable characters who make stupid mistakes and selfish decisions, utterly fail to communicate at critical times, sometimes deliberately and sometimes inadvertently hurt each others feelings, yet in other ways are perfectly matched and complementary to one another.
There’s very little in the way of romance in the show — Kotetsu has a tween daughter by his sadly deceased wife, and the thought of settling down with another woman seems like the last thing on his mind — his strong moral compulsions mean he’s married to his work, sometimes to the detriment of his family relationships. Likewise Barnaby shows zero interest in romance — he’s consumed by seeking revenge for the murder of his parents, singleminded to a fault. This is likely what attracted the Fujoshi audience — two attractive, powerful men, romantically unattached to any extraneous female characters, and whose most prominent emotional attachments are to each other.
It’s not that there’s any overt homosexual attraction between them either, though perhaps this is playfully teased multiple times especially towards the end of the season, especially in a scene where Barnaby cradles Kotetsu’s injured body in his arms, his partner’s bare, bruised chest, nipple and chiselled abs prominently displayed where his suit is torn away. I never once felt that any kind of sexual relationship between them would be remotely probable, however. Any BL-baiting remains merely bait.
Quite noticeable by their absence are any realistic female love interests for either Kotetsu or Barnaby. Barnaby has legions of adoring female fans (including Kotetsu’s daughter Kaede, much to her father’s chagrin), yet he never engages with any of them over and above polite smiles and brief, chaste conversation. The only adult female of note in their lives is Agnes Joubert, Hero TV’s formidable producer who’s like a terrifying cross between Lois Lane and J. Jonah Jameson.
Kotetsu does have an admirer in his extremely attractive fellow hero Karina Lyle (Blue Rose), though he’s far too dumb to notice, and she’s too shy and flustered to tell him face-to-face. The fact that she’s still in school, is only seventeen years old, and therefore almost twenty years his junior makes me more than a little hesitant to cheer them on! Her crush on an older man is kind of adorable, but I don’t think I can support it progressing any further in season two…
Blue rose herself is probably my favourite character, not least because she is very cute, while also being a strong, formidable hero. She rails against her employer making her say stupid catchphrases that make her sound like a dominatrix, but ever the professional , she gets on with it anyway. As an idol singer in addition to being a hero, she does seem like the sort of cross-media icon that’s likely to emerge in Japanese media should superpowers ever emerge in the real world. You know it’s going to happen like this. The show lampshades her overly skimpy uniform by having her father comment on it, but Blue Rose herself seems confident and unashamed of her body, even if her costume essentially pads her bust out multiple sizes.
Of the other “feminine” characters, Dragon kid is an even younger teenage girl who prefers a boyish look, rebelling against her more traditional Chinese parents’ ideas about her appearance. Of all the hero characters, she receives the least character development. Black, musclebound hero Fire Emblem treads a fine line between irritating and inspiring. Outrageously camp, Fire Emblem seems to identify with both “masculine strength” and “feminine love”, which depending on how you look at it is either very inclusive or troublingly reductive.
I’m not sure if we’re meant to view Fire Emblem as an effeminate gay man (as he calls himself in the second movie) or non-binary. I believe in the original Japanese, Fire Emblem tends to use either feminine or gender neutral pronouns, but considering the show is over a decade old now and was broadcast before much current thought about this subject was codified into the wider culture, we can forgive a bit of mixed messaging. In general I find his character to be a mixed bag — in his initial appearances he appears much like a stereotypical predatory gay character, essentially sexually assaulting and harrassing male characters, while later on his personality softens considerably to the point where sometimes he becomes the de facto voice of reason. I’m not really a fan, though.
Each hero has their own, mostly well-developed idea of justice and motivation for doing hero work. In addition to the eight main heroes, the “dark hero” and unsanctioned vigilante Lunatic provides an interesting counterpoint. Appearing from nowhere to impart brutal judgment on wrongdoers, he’s a dark mirror to the more soft-hearted Kotetsu. Though no less principled, Lunatic’s beliefs drive him to horribly murder criminals, bringing him into conflict with the other heroes. Tiger & Bunny reveals his secret identity early on, and Lunatic becomes one of the most fascinating characters, his Judge Dredd-like ideology conflicting with Kotetsu’s. His suit’s bloody creepy too. Of course he has a tragic backstory that delves deep into the origin of this world’s superheroes.
Tiger & Bunny wears its references on its armoured sleeve. Where Lunatic is like an insane version of Batman, terrorist Jake Martinez embodies a Joker-like role. He’s even got a young clown-themed female assistant who calls him “Mister J”. The down-to-Earth and local heroics of the show’s heroes recall more the golden age of US superhero comics than anything Hollywood has produced recently. Its strict location limitation to within Stern Bild keeps the story focused and grounded, and Kotetsu swinging around between skyscrapers, rescuing kids balloons brings old-style Spiderman to mind.
Almost three years following the first season, Tiger & Bunny: The Rising was released in 2014. Set around one year after episode 25’s conclusion, to talk too much about the plot here would spoil the entirety of the first season, and the culmination of all that careful character work. Suffice to say this is a fun sequel that acts as a bridge between first and second seasons. It introduces a new hero who sticks around in the second season, further develops Kotetsu and Barnaby’s partnership, features a bit more from Lunatic, yet does nothing to further the first season’s overarching “Ourobouros” arc. It looks like that’s being left to the second season to run with. If you can’t access The Rising for now, don’t worry, the introductory episodes of season 2 will get you up to speed.
The Rising features a much higher proportion of CGI work than the TV show, and the higher budget shows in significantly smoother, more detailed motion. Tiger & Bunny’s CGI isn’t spectacular, but it’s functional, and much easier for corporate logos to be pasted on or off depending on local licensing laws. The CGI tends to be limited to the hero suits and action scenes, it’s only really Blue Rose and Dragon kid that get away with traditional 2D animation most of the time.
With character designs by Video Girl Ai’s Masakazu Katsura, every character looks no less than great. When I first watched this I had no idea he did the designs, I used to enjoy reading Video Girl Ai back when it was published in Viz Comics’ Animerica Extra. His designs were always distinctive and attractive back then too, so I really should have noticed. His heroes look plausible, functional and engaging. Barnaby in particular with his serious but vulnerable expression, immaculate hair and stylish glasses seems calculated to entice women (not traditionally big merchandise-consumers) to spend their money on multiple plastic effigies.
I can’t finish writing about this excellent series without mentioning the bombastic and exciting score by composer Yoshihiro Ike. His distinctive themes and motifs add a great deal to the atmosphere, I especially like the baleful wind instrumentation that accompanies every appearance by Lunatic. Both OPs and EDs from season one are fantastically evocative of the show’s themes of heroism, friendship and forgiveness. I’m especially fond of the first ED, Hoshi no Sumika by Aobozu.
As I watched it with my son, we listened to the English dub in its entirety. I am confident in reporting that Tiger & Bunny has one of the best English dub productions I have ever heard. The voice actors suit their characters perfectly, and the overly-excited Hero TV announcer sounds exactly like what one would expect from American reality TV. I could almost believe the English dub was the original, so excellent is its quality. I’m delighted that many of the original cast return for season two.
Even without the new second season, Tiger & Bunny tells a thematically complete, satisfying story about two seemingly mismatched, flawed and emotionally broken men who find in each other the strength to fight for justice and truth, and in doing so forge a heartwarming, unbreakable bond of friendship and trust. It’s a show that’s unafraid to expose its characters human vulnerabilities, even the strongest, most apparently macho heroes have wounded human hearts. And sometimes heroes are goofy idiots who run like plastic action figures. Yes, there multitudes of bumps and mistakes along the way to mutual understanding, but no friendship is perfect, and some, like this one, are worth fighting tooth and nail for.
I’ll be back soon to talk about my impressions of Tiger &Bunny Season 2!
Tiger & Bunny Season 1
Directed by: Keiichi Sato, Kunihiro Mori
Written by: Masafumi Nishida
Character designs by: Masakazu Katsura
Music by: Yoshihiro Ike
Studio: Sunrise
Original Japanese TV broadcast: April 3rd— September 18th 2011
UK Blu-ray/DVD combo release: Feb 4th — Sept 2nd 2013 (in 4 volumes)
Languages: English audio, Japanese audio with English subtitles
UK Distributor: Kaze
BBFC Rating: 12
Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning
Directed by: Yoshitomo Yonetani
Written by: Masafumi Nishida
Character designs by: Masakazu Katsura
Music by: Yoshihiro Ike
Studio: Sunrise
Original Japanese cinematic release: September 22nd 2012
UK Blu-ray/DVD combo release: March 24th 2015
Languages: English audio, Japanese audio with English subtitles
UK Distributor: Anime Limited
BBFC Rating: 12
Runtime: 90 minutes
Tiger & Bunny: The Rising
Directed by: Yoshitomo Yonetani
Written by: Masafumi Nishida
Character designs by: Masakazu Katsura
Music by: Yoshihiro Ike
Studio: Sunrise
Original Japanese cinematic release: February 8th 2014
UK Blu-ray/DVD combo release: June 29th 2015
Languages: English audio, Japanese audio with English subtitles
UK Distributor: Anime Limited
BBFC Rating: 12
Runtime: 108 minutes
