Well, I think I need to lie down after all the news that we’ve had today.
The evening showing for the Precious EVE event has just finished and my goodness we have a lot of TIGER & BUNNY 2 related news to unpack. To anyone unfamiliar, Precious EVE is a celebratory public event for the fans to come together and celebrate the upcoming release of TIGER & BUNNY 2, out on 8th April 2022 exclusively over on Netflix. This was hosted by the seiyuu cast, behind the scenes staff and held at Makuhari Messe Event Hall in Japan, as well as being live streamed into Japanese homes and theatres around the country. The event was split into a day and an evening showings, revealing all exclusive news including new heroes, new sponsorships, collaborations, the opening theme song, merchandise and much more! And we’re here to give you the highlights of both showings.
The event began with a reintroduction of our familiar and loved cast, Hiroaki Hirata (Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger) and Masakazu Morita (Barnaby Brooks Jr.) taking centre stage, being backed up by their live action Hero suit actors and the rest of the wonderful returning cast, Gou Inoue (Sky High), Minako Kotobuki (Blue Rose), Mariya Ise (Dragon Kid), Taiten Kusunoki (Rock Bison) and Shinichirou Oota (Mario). Unfortunately Nobuhiko Okamoto (Origami Cyclone) and Kenjiro Tsuda (Fire Emblem) could not participate due to other work commitments, but recorded special messages, expressing how glad they are that the show has returned. The main cast were full of never-ending high spirits throughout both showings, with playful bickering and bantering exchanged between them all, making it hard to believe that so much time has passed since the show’s initial debut all the way back in April 2011, just because of how enthusiastic and wholesome they were.
We were then introduced to 3 new Heroes that will be starring in TIGER & BUNNY 2. From the left:
Hero Name: He Is Thomas (yes this is really his Hero name!)
Civilian name: Thomas Taurus
V.A.: Nobunaga Shimazaki
Powers: Psychokinesis
Hero Name: Mr. Black
Civilian Name: Subaru Sengoku
V.A.: Shoya Chiba
Powers: Creating barriers
Hero Name: Magical Cat
Civilian Name: Lara Tchaikoskaya
V.A.: Tomori Kusunoki
Powers: Manipulating water
(Disclaimer: to our knowledge there are no official romanizations for Thomas and Lara’s names and these are our best guesses based on the katakana.) Update: Character profiles have been added to the official site and spelling has been corrected to match!
We’ve currently got a poll running over on our This is Sternbild twitter, where you can decide which new hero is your favourite, so get involved before it’s too late! Although if you have not already fallen in love with the Hero “He is Thomas” just by his name alone, then I’m sorry you may need to reexamine your choices.
The new cast expressed how they were slightly nervous being apart of T&B just because of how loved this 10-year-old franchise is, but felt very welcomed by the existing cast, quickly becoming a part of the “Tiger & Bunny family”.
The initial introductions were then followed by a Seiyuu Talk section, as the cast answered questions about their experiences when recording for TIGER & BUNNY 2. Due to the pandemic, the cast weren’t able to record all together this time for safety precautions. Minako Kotobuki (Blue Rose) also recorded for her role whilst being aboard during her 1-year study in the United Kingdom, so they were all very glad to be back together again.
There was a special Q&A section dedicated to the series’ behind the scenes staff, featuring Mitsuko Kase, Director for TIGER & BUNNY 2, and series’ returning Main Script Writer/Series Composition, Masafumi Nishida, along with Character/Hero Suits Designer, Masakazu Katsura. They were being very tight lipped about the new plot, joking that Katsura may be the most likely person to accidently spoil it, resulting in him getting scolded by Netflix. Kase was already a fan of the series and was initially overwhelmed to have been chosen as director for TIGER & BUNNY 2, but was grateful to have been given the position. Nishida also confirmed that he wrote the plot for TIGER & BUNNY 2 back in 2015, stopped, brought it back 3 years later to then rewrite the plot from scratch. The 2015 version of the plot was primarily set outside Stern Bild and still featured the main cast.
Another video interview with the behind the scenes staff will be made available to ticket holders, releasing on the 26th March 2022.
The next segment focused on the new chosen sponsors for all the Hero suits! Around 300 applications were submitted by companies wanting to become a potential sponsor and was rounded down to 54 in the end. Some returning sponsors are back like Bandai, LAWSON, S.H. Figuarts, Tanita, Tamashii Nations. We say goodbye to the memorable Pepsi NEX, but welcome a whole band wagon of new sponsors like Coolish, PAC-MAN, Line, BUFFALO, Don Quijote, Passlogy, Yostar, Zoff, Sunshine City, Kleenex, JP Post, even Bandai Namco Pictures themselves, just to name a very small selection! Even the Double Chaser has sponsors of its own now!
You can see all the new sponsors over on the TIGER & BUNNY website! We can’t wait to see what merchandise and collaborations come out these partnerships.
Speaking of merchandise and collaborations, we had a huge number of announcements throughout the show, from Golfing collabs, to a PAC-MAN collab, to mobile gaming collabs, to new S.H. Figuarts, it was never ending! Most importantly, it has been confirmed that we will be seeing two new manga serializations, starting in April, that are being drawn and written by familiar names to the series. Mizuki Sakakibara will be returning to adapt TIGER & BUNNY 2 into manga with Comic Newtype, which will be readable online. Whilst series’ scripter writer, Erika Yoshida and illustrator, Hiroshi Ueda, team up once again to start TIGER & BUNNY 2 The Comic, from April 15th 2022.
The next section debuted several newly written and performed mini drama shorts which were acted out by the seiyuu cast, featuring fun stories such; as Wild Tiger and Barnaby becoming a video game! Cooking with Blue Rose and a very last minute substitute in the form of Rock Bison; Tongue Twisters with Sky High and Dragon Kid and finding out who was awarded the King or Queen of Heroes after The Rising.
Finally the show slowly winded down with a musical section by the returning band, UNISON SQUARE GARDEN, who performed all the theme songs that they have written for the series and movies, along with performing the song “I wanna Believe” and the new opening theme for TIGER & BUNNY 2 “kaleido proud fiesta”.
It was also confirmed that singer, Ano, will be making her debut with their new ending theme song for the series, titled “Aida”.
The show ended with a humble thanks from all the cast and staff, who expressed their appreciation of the never ending love from the fans of the show, even after all these years and leaving us with a brand new trailer that can be seen here:
So what did you think of the trailer and the new heroes? You can join the conversation also on our Twitter and Discord, links are in the sidebar!
We can’t even begin to express how excited we are for Tiger & Bunny 2 and how heart warming it was to see the ongoing support from the fans and staff alike during the Precious EVE event, proving how eternal the series really is.
– text by jazzy, editing by derpchan
This is Sternbild 
omggggg i’m sooooo hyped AAAAA thanks for the awesome write up! so ready to get back in the saddle!
im honestly so happy this fandom is still alive after all this time 🙂