Anime Review: Tiger & Bunny

Thanks to Ace Irenea for submitting this review about the anime "Tiger and Bunny."

The dictionary defines superhero as a fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers. We have seen such loads of superheroes not just in comic books and animated series like Avengers, Fantastic 4, W.I.L.D.Cats, X-Men, but anime also had a share of superheroes like Gatchaman, Casshern, 8-Man to name a few. But what happens when superheroes are stars in a reality/game show type program? That’s how you can describe Tiger & Bunny.


Tiger and Bunny Opening Theme


Tiger & Bunny is set in a fictional and futuristic New York-type city named Sternbild City. 45 years before, the city saw the appearance of “NEXT”, individuals with superpowers, some of them became superheroes.

Moving 45 years forward, the series is mainly focused on two different superheroes, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi who is known as “Wild Tiger”, an old-fashioned veteran superhero who is past his prime, always rely on his instincts and traditional ideals which sometimes end up in unusual consequences. The other superhero is Barnaby Brooks Jr. which is nicknamed “Bunny” by Kotetsu. Barnaby, on the other hand is more of a strategist who sometimes opposes Kotetsu’s plans. One of the main differences between the two is that Barnaby is more into the idea that superheroes should reveal their identity as he did in the first episode. But the irony here is that they have to work together as a team under the same company and learn a lot of different views in being a hero.

Both Kotetsu and Barnaby have the same powers: The power to increase their stronghold but for a limited time of 5 minutes. Both of them, alongside a wild cast of characters like Sky High (yup, he has the same name as the Disney superhero movie) who has the unusual catchphrase: “Thanks, and again, Thanks.”; Blue Rose who uses her hero abilities to boost her singing career; Rock Bison, Kotetsu’s closest friend and “drinking buddy”; Dragon Kid, one of the youngest heroes; Origami Cyclone, a superhero who engages more into advertising than crime-fighting and Fire Emblem, a superhero with fire-element abilities composes the main cast of the series.

A while back, I said that they are in a reality/game show type program. Well, all of their fights, rescue missions, and other superhero stuff are broadcast in a program named (and I was even shocked to see the name of the program) Hero TV [Not the Hero TV anime channel that we know here in the Philippines]. Their heroic activities accumulates points and the one with the most points at the end of the season is crowned as “King of Heroes”, not bad for a reality-game show with superheroes as stars. And one other thing about the series is that each superhero works for a sponsor company but their uniforms have advertising for different real-life companies, some of them you may know like USTREAM.TV on Sky High and BANDAI on Barnaby, just to name some.

I just started watching the series when I was surfing the net for something to watch for this year when I came across the Spring 2011 Anime Guide from Anime News Network.

As of writing this anime review, The anime has so far only 4 episodes, with a new episode every Sunday.

The series tells about teamwork, acknowledging each other’s differences and looking life from a different perspective.

If you’re looking for an anime that will give you some comic relief and teach you life lessons, then I recommend Tiger & Bunny.



Tiger and Bunny Ending Theme




Also Visit My Other Blogs | The News Around Us | Ordinary People, Ordinary Day |