Tag: Keiichi Sato

Tiger & Bunny

Tiger & Bunny (2011)

Ah, superheroes who have problems beyond saving the world.

This is an ‘old’ series now, (first airing back in 2011) featuring a lot of comedy and action, typical of the genre, and both things that are definitely pluses for me. Having said that, my knowledge of superhero texts is very much limited, and to decades past, so I won’t be trying to contextualise things here.

I ended up binge-watching large chunks of the show because the story beats were spot on, and I was quickly invested in the world and the human struggles of the leads.  

Kotetsu is my fav, not just because I like Hiroaki Hirata’s work or the buddy-cop arc with Barnaby, but because Kotetsu pushes back the hardest against the corporations and their vacuum of values.

And while half the time you watch the anime you’re shouting at Kotetsu to do the right thing by his daughter, he’s definitely the kind of guy who will live up to his own convictions.

If you haven’t seen Tiger & Bunny but are planning to, I think that if you’re like me, before you get invested with the characters you’ll be hooked on the world itself.

The superheroes are basically competing with each other to maintain their corporate sponsorship, and so there are constraints placed upon them beyond the scope of their powers.

Commercial pressures and obligations to their ‘owners’ weigh heavy and so you have the heroes doing product placement and side projects to generate revenue for the corporations. It’s a bit like Idol + Superhero, something I personally hadn’t seen a whole lot of before.

A few quick dot points before I wrap up the review:

  • I hope Lunatic gets some more time in the new season as he is an interesting antagonist
  • Transforming the word ‘Barnaby’ into ‘Bunny’ is pretty good 😀
  • The slow thaw between Kotetsu and Barnaby is another high-point in the storytelling
  • Great opening theme song
  • The CGI hasn’t aged too much
  • I really liked the sleek mech-costumes for our leads too

Tiger & Bunny isn’t flawless of course (very few things are, right?) and there are a few cheap shots at the expense of Fire Emblem’s homosexuality, even sort of painting him as a harasser, which sucked.

You’ve also got the typical anime/superhero costuming which is both a plus and a minus – thinking about Blue Rose or Barnaby here I guess, but neither are one-note characters and there is a kind of ‘equal opportunity’ approach to fan service at times, lol.

Overall, plenty to enjoy if you like the genre and I’m definitely seeking the films next.

4 Stars

Rage of Bahamut (Shingeki no Bahamut)

Rage of Bahamut (Shingeki no Bahamut) 2014

Okay, here’s a challenge for me – can I review a series in four paragraphs only? Let’s see.

Demons, Angels, Gods and Humans clash (and sometimes work together) in this supernatural fantasy, one that’s based on a card battling game from Cygames. You can expect a lot of modern, flashy animation (which is not a bad thing) and a memorable cast of characters too, along with a well-paced story. At the end, I was definitely left curious about the follow-up series, so I went away from Rage of Bahamut invested in the characters for sure.

Since I missed this show at the time of release, I did a bit of reading and apparently some folks were down on Naoyuki Onda’s character designs but for me that was a highlight – here they seem ‘off the wall’ for a fantasy setting, especially Favaro’s afro. The rest of the visuals are great, the settings and the creatures all memorable for me, evocative of what they represented with what felt like welcome modern touches – I’m thinking of the angels especially here.

I suspect at times folks might question a few character choices that suggest inconsistency but for me I was more thrown by a certain reveal that explained a sharp twist in one character. She started off kinda mysterious before transforming into tediously immature… but that was only a few times and it definitely makes sense considering the storyline.

In terms of audience, Rage of Bahamut is not so light-hearted as another Cygames/MAPPA collaboration (Granblue Fantasy). The tone here is at times closer to ‘Lupin’ only with more bounty-hunting, blood and demons too. If you’ve played the game you’d probably enjoy what seems like a proper fleshing out of the characters and if you like the genre, give this a look if it’s still streaming somewhere.

*I’m not counting this note as a paragraph – but since my discs for this series are not playing nice, I’ve had to source the images from online.