Tiger & Bunny – 14

Someone decided this show was sorely lacking in bananas up until now.

Tiger & Bunny is hitting off its second season starting now. That means a new OP, a new ED and a new arc. However, you’ll have to hold on a bit longer for that actual arc to start. I’m quite liking the new songs, although I’m a bit sad the animation to go with them is essentially just still pictures with a bit of posing here and there. Ah well, GOTTA SHOW OFF THE SPONSORS.

Barnaby and Kotetsu appear on a special Hero TV interview a few months after the battle with Jake, talking about their massive success as a team. Barnaby won 1st place for the Hero TV rankings and Kotetsu miraculously finished at 4th place. Now it’s the start of a new season for Hero TV, and they’ll be going through this all over again. As the two of them act like affectionate newly-weds on worldwide television, Karina lets out her frustration on a training dummy for not getting to spend enough time with Kotetsu.

So, did I miss the wedding…?

Karina doesn’t have to feel lonely for long, as Agnes gives her new orders: to teach Barnaby and Kotetsu to dance for an upcoming concert with the three of them. As the stereotypical tsun, annoying teenager, she teaches them without really being enthusiastic about the whole ordeal. If anything, it just makes her suppressed feelings for Kotetsu grow stronger. She freaks out when Kotetsu gives her a towel to replace the one he spilled coffee on, so I think it’s safe to say she’s a wee bit obsessed.

Karina asks her school friends if she might be in love and they give her quite a polarized response, one saying yay and the other saying nay. Maybe she should have included that the man has a dead wife, a kid, and is a good deal older. Maybe then they would have tried harder to snap her out of it. Anyways, at the end of the day, Karina is still denying her love as much as she possibly can.

What is love? Baby don’t hurt me..don’t hurt me…NO MORE.

The dance training is going well, and the boys have all the moves down…although Kotetsu is still one beat behind the count. Barnaby assures Karina that he’s absolutely sure Kotetsu will be ready before the concert, because he actually always thinks about others. Karina seems more creeped out by Barnaby’s sudden devotion to the older man than his actual assurances. The boys pack up to leave, but Kotetsu asks if Karina has some free time to spend with him after the practice. Ohohohoho~

I feel a bit bad for Karina, who was expecting something a little more romantic than extra practice sessions, perhaps. Kotetsu nails the dance routine, but Karina is still acting sour. HMM, I WONDER WHY? On the actual day of the concert, the B.T.B. trio are introduced to the new division of B league heroes, who look exactly like 2-bit characters who will never see any more than 10 seconds of screentime in their entire lifespan. Or at least I hope, lest they wish to constantly expose my retinas to gaudy, neon rainbows. ANYWAYS, the heroes are there to catch a backstage thief who has been slinking around to steal personal belongings of famous people.

It’s quite disappointing that we only get to see a very quick concert, with not quite as much dancing as I’d like. D: As they’re performing, the backstage thief, clad in a Blue Rose outfit, sneaks into her change room and rummages through her stuff. Why is he in a disguise if he can turn invisible? Not sure. But he steals Blue Rose’s bag and then hides in the corner when she returns to her room after the show. He has to hold his breath to turn invisible, exactly like Meleoron’s powers (the chameleon dude from Hunter x Hunter).

Blue Rose starts to cry when she realizes her precious Kotetsu-scented towel is gone and she can no longer sniff it before she sleeps every night. The horror! Barnaby and Kotetsu promise to catch the thief…except they don’t know where he is. As they contemplate what sort of of NEXT he might be, Kotetsu tosses a banana peel haphazaradly over his shoulder, only to land on the thief in question. Since banana peels don’t usually stop in midair, they come to the conclusion that the thief must be able to turn invisible.

Blue Rose, you’ve…changed!

The three of them give chase, following the obsessive fan out of the studio, where he tries to make his getaway on a motorbike. Turning invisible doesn’t help much given the exhaust fumes of the bike, so he’s a sitting duck in a straight tunnel. Kotetsu activates his powers first and chases down the villain, only to suddenly pull a Sonic GOTTA GO FAST moment and overtake him. Since when did Kotetsu start glowing red and having way more powers?

At first, it seems like Kotetsu has this one in the bag. At the last second, his powers run out unexpectantly and he crashes. The weird thing is, he still technically had 30 seconds left for his hundred power. It’s Rock Bison who ends up stopping the thief, finally bringing up his rock bottom ratings (no pun intended. kind of). Barnaby commends Kotetsu for letting the poor chap get a few points in there before Kotetsu can tell them anything about his strange powers. Also, Blue Rose finally accepts her love of older men and runs off squealing. Yet another fangirl has been born.

This Week on So You Think You Can Dance!:

Seduction: failed.

You know Barnaby secretly wanted to choke a bitch to get his hands on that towel.

Blue Rose scented deodorant! Gets rid of stink and replaces it with a superfluous amount of rainbow bubbles!

Bananas? Rock Bison is a sausage kind of man.

End Thoughts: Well, that was…okay. I was kind of expecting this to be a “meh” episode since I don’t like Karina all too much (too tsundere). The jokes weren’t as funny this episode due to the skewed focus on romance, which generally isn’t my cup of tea. Another disappointment was the concert. I’m amazed they wasted an opportunity to have a nice, high definition dance sequence and show off some sort of B.T.B. song! I’m a huge sucker for those, and it’s part of the reason I was so enchanted by Kanon’s arc in The World God Only Knows. CRAZYASS ANIME DANCES SELL. I demand more dancing and less of Karina pretending she isn’t obsessed with a certain older man. Luckily, Karina’s love for Kotetsu was entirely one-sided, so it was just cute. I liked seeing her fawn over Kotetsu, although her denial got annoying pretty fast. Goddamned, tsunderes, CAN YOU BE ANY MORE DENSE? Interestingly enough, I assumed she was mad because Kotetsu and Barnaby were shooting each other all sorts of glances during that television interview. I guess if they did that, things would get a little TOO suggestive for that undeniable BL element of the show.

Taigs & Buns is pretty good with continuity, so I wonder if Karina will have more moments where she openly fangirls over Kotetsu like a lovestruck puppy. I wouldn’t mind it, especially since Kotetsu is so “bwuh?” about any sort of feelings the young lass might have for him. Heck, this show even brought back the guy who replaced Barnaby for a grand total of 5 seconds worth of screentime. The next thing you know it, one of the loser heroes from the academy is going to use their sweat powers to catch a bank robber.

It’s really surprising to me how Barnaby and Kotetsu have pretty much hit the ceiling in terms of how close they’re gonna be. At first I thought they were just acting for the interview, but they were all buddy-buddy for the entirety of the episode. We’re halfway through and they’re pretty much married now. I almost miss the edginess in Barnaby’s personality!I really hope this means more awesome moments, and not that I’m going to be bored without any more of their amazing development. They’re great characters though, so I have faith in T&B to keep things fresh.

What I’m really interested in from this episode was Kotetsu losing control of his powers. Instead of spreading out his hundred power over 5 minutes, it seems he had more like 150x power for 30 seconds less than usual. This could be a potentially useful trade-off for certain situations if he can control it. However, it seems like he can’t. If this gets worse and he has 300x, or even 500x of his strength for maybe only a minute he might end up accidentally hurting a lot of people. I don’t know how his “evolution of power” will progress, but that’s just one of my theories. My other theory is that NEXT glow red when they develop a secondary power, much like Jake who also had the same reddish-orange glow as Kotetsu did. What do you guys think will become of Kotetsu and his NEXT abilities? I want to hear your thoughts!

Preview: ANOTHER LOVEY-DOVEY EPISODE?! YOU’RE KILLING ME!!! Sky High falls for some NEXT chick (she has white hair, therefore she must have super powers) and hi-jinx ensue. This looks like a tearjerker episode (i.e. dat bitch is gonna die) so keep your tissues ready. It’s Keith’s time to shine.

And Sky High likes nice, long baguettes…okay I get it, I’ll stop.

About Overcooled

A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.