Review: Tiger & Bunny

Tiger & Bunny

Mimi: Let’s be honest. After looking at the main cover and title, how many of us thought that this was going to be a mediocre superhero show featuring two bozos dressed in horrible CGI animated armored suits? Those suits were the most unappealing part to me, anyway. Little did I know that this show would rank in my top 15 anime before it even ended. Yeah. It’s just that surprisingly good.

Tiger & Bunny can be summed up perfectly in one word. FUN! As soon as it begins, you’re thrown into the middle of the action where superheroes called NEXT are chasing a criminal though the dazzlingly beautiful, night city of Sternbild. They’re being recorded on HERO TV Live and compete each other to earn points. I especially like the heavy use of media and to see how the heroes assimilate into pop culture. If that’s not entertaining enough, they’re funny, stylish, and bursting with personality. To describe a few, you’ve got a flamboyant gay guy, a sexy girl advertising pepsi, a tomboy, a mysterious anti-hero, and an old-fashioned veteran who hardly gets any points. I couldn’t stop laughing during the first few episodes. For once, the humor is so clever that it’s very refreshing. It doesn’t use typical comedy tropes, like girl falls on guy from tree, or guy accidently sees girl in shower. No, this stuff is much much better. Just seeing the heroes dressed formally at a dinner party with only their costume helmets still on is a funny sight.

In another post, I briefly mentioned that I attended the Tiger & Bunny panel at Otakon, where the producer & co-creator talked about the show. Interestingly, he said that the show was very risky and hard to pull off because it’s just so different from mainstream anime. For one thing, the superhero genre is not that popular in Japan. Perhaps more importantly, the main character, Wild Tiger, is an older man who has a daughter and wears a beard, which is considered unattractive there. Well, they obviously did something right, because the show became a success with the last episode shown in theaters. Tiger & Bunny is cleverly designed to reach out to the old and young anime fanbase by giving Tiger a young, handsome partner whom he calls “Lil’ Bunny.” What do you know, they go extremely well together. How can the fangirls resist when they have names like these?! Heck, even I’m a fangirl and bought these fab posters for my wall.

While Tiger & Bunny is largely fun and games, it also has its serious, dark segments. The main plot centers around a mysterious organization called Ouroboros that is somehow connected to the death of Bunny’s parents. More dangerous villains come out to play, bringing the series to all new heights. I like the story, but the characters impressed me more due to their shocking secrets and motives. They had exciting moments where I just had to jump up and say, “Well, that was a brilliant twist!” In the beginning, I never would have guessed what this series had in store for us.

There are a few things that the sequel could improve upon. Some of the CGI effects aren’t that great for the costumes, such as Fire Emblem’s costume. He’s always an eyesore because he just doesn’t fit in with the background or the other characters. Ironically, Tiger and Bunny’s armored suits look much better, so I never had any problem with those. Secondly, the series’ final moments aren’t as impressive as I had hoped them to be, due to the cliches and a certain character disappointingly not getting a big role. I hope that the sequel will pull off something better. Nevertheless, it is an action-packed finale, and the characters are always a blast. I can’t wait to see more of my favorite superheroes soon! *addicted* x3

Mimi’s Score: 9 Meeps out of 10 (Great)

Alex’s Score: 9 Meeps out of 10 (Great)

Dusk’s Score: 9.5 Meeps out of 10 (Great)