Tiger & Bunny – 03

All in all, a nice easygoing episode. Except for the bomb. There was kind of a bomb there.

I was fully aware that episode 3 would release right after I was going to post about episode 1 and 2, but I couldn’t bear the thought of having 3 episodes in one post. I just felt like I would be cramming way too many thoughts together. Hopefully you’re not sick of me after near back-to-back T&B posts. Meh. I REGRET NOTHINGGGGG.

Episode 3 opens up right in the middle of an intense battle for Tiger and Bunny, as they hide behind a huge piece of rubble. Instead of fighting, they waste their time arguing until Kotetsu gets so fed up he blows his cover and gets shot in the forehead. Lucky for him (not so much for Barnaby) it’s just a simulation and Kotetsu is fine. Looks like simulations aren’t the key to getting these two to adopt some semblance of friendship.

I…uh…thought they were heal bullets..Yeah.

Hero TV is still all over their rating-boosting blondie, filming him every time he so much as scratches his ass. Barnaby seems to actually be amused by the fact that a camera crew is filming every corner of his living quarters and invading his personal space. The icing on top of the Barnaby marathon cake is in the form of clips of the other heroes saying a few words about Barnaby and how OMG AWESOME he is. Just as you start to really hate the guy, he has to 1. reveal he had a tragic past where his parents were killed and 2. lay there wearing only underwear after coming out from the shower. Great, now I’m conflicted. How do I choose between sweet abs or a rotten personality?!? Which one will win out!?

Hero TV still wants to fill their timeslots with more Barnaby than ever, this time filming his private time with Kotetsu how it “naturally” would be. If you said this sounded like a date to me last week, I’d raise my eyebrow at you questionably. But now…NOW. I mean, come on. Two guys spending the entire day together and then going to a romantic restaurant for dinner? Fire Emblem looks straight next to this sort of thing.

The candlelit dinner for two is interrupted by a bomb threat and an evacuation of the entire building. Recalling a shifty elevator worker from earlier who claimed to have been greasing up the cables despite wearing a clean suit, Kotetsu runs off to find the bomb. Barnaby also senses something is amiss, so he lies to the civilians to keep them calm and evacuate them efficiently while Kotetsu scouts ahead.

Once Kotetsu finds said bomb, which is big enough to bring down the entire building, he goes back to get Barnaby to help him dismantle it. The annoying Hero TV crew insists that they stay to film whatever hot action Tiger and Bunny are going to do on their lonesome (..not like that) and settles for giving the camera to Kotetsu to film it as they escape. They seem far too concerned with making a good show than staying alive…

He would film it, but I’m afraid it’s not appropriate for everyday television…

Barnaby just so happens to know how to defuse a bomb, and starts snipping wires. Cliche as hell, yes, but I’ll be damned if that scene wasn’t interesting because of Kotetsu fooling around with the camera. Although they’re not even close to being comrades or even liking each other, Kotetsu doesn’t leave Barnaby as he does his thing and Barnaby can’t cover up a slight smile. So they went from -10 teamwork points to -5.

There’s not a lot of time left when Barnaby breaks some awful news to Kotetsu: he has a 50% chance of making the bomb spontaneously blow up if he chooses the wrong wire. At the last second Kotetsu screams “go top!” which Barnaby instantly understands as meaning “I will make a hole in the roof for you to hit the bomb through so that it harmlessly explodes in the sky.” Wow, you sure you guys won’t work well together?

Kotetsu actually gets his moment of glory on TV, as Hero TV used the footage of their amazing teamwork to get rid of the bomb. YES. Afterwards, Kotetsu has a few drinks with his buddy while a girl named Karina performs on stage. She turns away in disgust when she sees Kotetsu clapping. Which doesn’t make sense until you see the preview and realize she is actually Blue Rose.

 

Behind the Scenes Hero Footage:

*ahem* N..nyaa…?

I can only imagine what he plans to watch after; all alone in his briefs.

PHOTOBOMB WIN

So…are you gonna do anything sexy for the camera, or what?

You really don’t want it? Not even as a drink coaster? Bookmark? Afro pick?

End Thoughts: I have a ludicrous amount of fun watching Tiger & Bunny. It’s well-paced, consistently funny and entertaining. It’s the show I always look forward to watching because it puts a grin on my face, and that’s what a good anime should do. It doesn’t try to be a stern-faced, critical look about how corporate companies and the media control everything. That is simply one thread that is weaved into the grand scheme of thing.  The clever aspects are there as a secondary aspect if you want to dissect it, and the wise-cracking is there for your main entertainment.

This episode itself was really, really giving fodder to the fujoshi out there. At first I was blind to any TigerxBunny pairings, not seeing any spark in the slightest. That was before I had a little romp through pixiv and had my mind blown. Much like Eyeshield 21, it took me time to see the yaoi. And once you don those yaoi goggles, everything is tinted from now until the end of time. To me, this episode was about  filming a date between Kotetsu and his precious bunny. I didn’t want to see it before but when there’s two men sitting in a romantic restaurant overlooking the city…Yep, it’s inevitable. You’ve flipped a switch on for fujoshi and there WILL be fanfics. (Not that I mind. Send them to me)

I don’t get how T&B took a bomb threat scenario as typical as typical can be and still kept me thoroughly engaged. It’s like no matter how simple the actual action parts are, the little things like Kotetsu’s remarks and the dashes of social commentary make it riveting. Somewhere in there is a message of how the media risk everything to get a good story and can alter the news however they see fit to make a more interesting news segment. There’s a lot going on beneath the surface considering what kind of show this is.

I don’t like Barnaby much, but I think he’s actually a well-designed character. I’ve already spoken my peace about how charming Kotetsu is, but Barnaby is very well constructed in that you’re probably supposed to dislike him. He has too much of a big ego and always has to be the one on top and the one in control. He’s not content unless his performance is perfect and he’s in the spotlight. Ugh, I hate that. But this episode revealed a snippet of his past: his parents were assassinated. He’s just a neglected child craving attention. He’d probably even enjoy having a stalker, he’s so deprived of love. That’s just….really sad. Once I found out that his narcissism actually had an origin, I started to feel bad for him. (He’s still an ass though.)

Preview: Time for more superhero backstories! The Blue Rose has her identity revealed as the singer from the end of episode 2, Karina, as well as her intentions of quitting being a superhero. But then what will the guys have for fanservice…? D: