Category T&B the Movie(s)

Mar 8 2012

Breaking The Radio Silence, And Some Movie Info

It’s been a while since the last post, though I admit not much has happened, apart from Hirata Hiroaki winning a seiyuu award for his role as Kotetsu (we’re still hoping for Morita to get an award for his role, because damn he was good). Also, Aki was busy with her studies and I was sick for almost two weeks so the time&energy haven’t been on our side.

My wallet started to feel a bit better and more supportive of my shopping habit when I got a full time job for two months starting this week. Then I celebrated my new job by ordering the limited edition of Katsura’s artbook and now my wallet has a nervous twitch. (I had been lusting for that book for months so it just couldn’t be helped.) The downside is that due to my new working hours, I may miss the preorder window of chibi-arts Kotetsu tomorrow.

Ok, enough personal blogging, and on to…

Movie Info

Some magazine spoilers are popping up on 2ch, here’s what we got so far via /a/:

  • The first movie is a partially a retelling of the TV series integrating Kotetsu’s past; the movie is centered on Kotetsu’s past and the unknown side of Barnaby, and provides a deeper look into the two of them. Directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani.
  • The second movie is an all-new story, which will also contain some new characters, though the old supporting cast will be explored too. The two movies are standalone.
  • The ticket sales start on March 24 and there will be a live programme on Ustream the same day.
  • Satou will not direct either of the movies due to schedule conflicts, but he is participating in the planning.
  • The first movie incorporates a different POV than the TV series and has a lot of “behind the scenes” happenings.
  • Two thirds of the movie is new material.
  • Heroes will have their moments.
  • Matsui: We will see a different side of closed and revenge-focused Barnaby. It wasn’t seen that much within the TV series, but it has been present the whole time. I think he will be shown as an even more fascinating individual.

SOLD OUT: The Tickets Edition

Nishida on the movies:

  • Q: What should we expect from Kotetsu and Barnaby? What about the two of them would you like to show?
    N: The two movies are set at different points chronologically, so writing about the different distance between them is very enjoyable. They are bound by a very close and firm bond, but I would like to write about how their different ages and circumstances will be causing trouble.

So I was right when I suspected Satou wouldn’t be directing, he’s just too busy. I hope Nishida won’t rewrite what doesn’t need rewriting. There’s no reason to retcon anything.

Update: More stuff from Animage.

  • The first movie’s script is completely done, but Nishida is still writing the second’s.
  • Nishida not only writes the story/script, but also checks the storyboards.
  • Tamura about the first movie: The events connect to one incident seen in the TV series as well. And as the events and memories unfold and are added, the character exploration takes place. We hope that even people who have never seen T&B before will be able to say “Oh, so this is what the story was about.”

Movie site is now open!

Feb 7 2012

First Tiger&Bunny Movie To Open In September (Updated)

Just as Ozaki promised – more information on the movies! The first Tiger & Bunny movie “TIGER & BUNNY – The Beginning” will hit theaters in September, as it was announced today. There isn’t much information about the movie itself yet, but a few things came to my mind when I glanced at the site.

  1. There’s no actual staff listed yet. I doubt Satou is directing this time, his Ashura movie is opening in August and he was just announced to be directing the new Saint Seiya CG movie. He must have several projects going on at the same time on this rate, but that he would also work on Tiger & Bunny movies seems improbable. Ozaki did spoil on Twitter earlier that producer Tamura Kazuhiko is working on the movies and that the same studio is animating them as the anime itself. Only cast listed so far are Hirata and Morita, which is pretty much given.
  2. The title is subject to change as it says on the movie site (that’s what “（仮）” means after the title). I hope they will change it because right now it has too much of a recap movie vibe. It could just be signifying it’s the first movie, though.

As much as I’d like the movie to be all new material, I’m about 99% certain that a portion of it will be recap. Why? From Ozaki’s recent tweets, it’s pretty clear he wants more people to get into Tiger & Bunny and to enjoy it. It would be counter-productive to make a movie that is hard for new audiences to approach. These guys seem very good at marketing their creation, and that’s just pure marketing logic.

I’m fine with some recap though, if it brings more success to Tiger & Bunny.

Update: Seems I was right in my recap thoughts, this article at Anime! Anime! calls the movie a “hybrid episode” with material they weren’t able to use in the series (timeskip stuff, maybe?). It also mentions that the second movie is planned for 2013.

Update 2: Some spoilers from Newtype seem to indicate that the second movie won’t be a direct continuation to the first one – they’ll be stand-alone stories. New character(s) will also be introduced in the movies.

Update 3: I’m seeing lots of comments that maybe the movie will be a prequel. That sounds far fetched to me. Why? Because they’re called Tiger & Bunny movies. They met in the first episode of the series, and before that there was no “Tiger & Bunny”. A prequel would most likely be about Tiger’s early heroing days. I think it’d be fun to watch but it’d just be a Tiger movie, not a Tiger & Bunny movie (I’d totally watch an OVA about Wild Tiger’s early days). Barnaby’s early search for Ouroboros wouldn’t make a very interesting movie, and I doubt his academy days would either, since he seems to have mostly kept to himself and not bonded with anyone.

Nov 13 2011

Opinion: Movie Musings

So, two movies. There’s no news yet on what they’ll be about, nor have I seen who’s in the staff (but I hope Satou will be directing again, and Nishida writing). I have a bit mixed feelings about that it’s going to be movies instead of S2 or OVAs, because I haven’t seen that many good movies based on TV anime.

My biggest worry is that the movies will be a recap – or even worse, recap that retcons the story. Recap movies tend to be boring since I’ve already seen the anime and I know what’ll happen, better graphics doesn’t really make it that much more interesting for me. The retcon movies on the other hand make me rage. Let’s take the Macross Frontier movies as an example; I saw the anime and I enjoyed it even though it had flaws and my favourite character got killed. The movies retconned so much of the story and characterization that I wasn’t even sure what I was watching – and I just couldn’t like them even though my favourite character survived in them. I really, really do not want to see retcon happen to Tiger & Bunny and its characters.

(To clarify: I don’t believe they’d take the recap/retcon route, especially if S2 is in the works behind the scenes; it makes more sense to do a proper lead up to it with the movies. It’s just something I wanted to note because many anime movies pick the easy way and recap the story.)

The new footage that was shown at the Hero Awards 2011 event may indicate that we’ll get a new story. The staff have stated on more than one occasion that they have a lot of material they couldn’t fit into the anime, so the possibility of all that being used for the movies is pretty high. They could do a lot of stuff with just the 10 month timeskip, but if I’d have to make bets I’d say at least one of the movies will be set after the anime ending because of what Ozaki mentioned in a recent interview. It’s also more than likely that the movies will get new sponsors since the sample pictures had the hero suits blank of advertisements. New project, new sponsors.

The other major gripe I have with anime movies is that I’m not in Japan and have no chance to go there just to see a movie. They can take up to a year to be released on BD/DVD, and the wait is going to be agonizing. The likelihood of getting spoiled for plot is pretty high, too, since I know many Japanese fans and I doubt I can avoid all the spoilers… I don’t know if I even want to avoid them because I’m dying for more Tiger & Bunny. I’ve seen some speculations about the movies making it to the USA pretty fast because the streams were so popular, which is great for the American fans. I’m European so I’ll probably get the Japanese version faster, though.

I’m pretty hopeful we’ll eventually get S2, and the movies’ job is to tide us over until then. Ozaki wanted to do a continuation fast, and a S2 wouldn’t have been ready until 2013. It’s understandable they want to make more when Tiger & Bunny is so popular. Too long wait would be bad in business sense, and Sunrise (and Bandai) are doing this for business after all. The movies are only step 2 in NEXT Project (Hero Awards was step 1) so who knows what we’ll get… I’ve heard there should be four steps in it.

Nov 13 2011

Two Tiger & Bunny movies confirmed for 2012

Hero Awards 2011 is over, and the big news is out! People had been requested to hold off posting information from the daytime show out of consideration for those who are going to the evening show so we don’t know much yet, but the movies were announced at the event with planned release in 2012. From what I could follow on Twitter, seems like the events were a lot of fun and many people were hoping they would be released on BD/DVD later. I’m hoping for that, too, because I really want to see what went on there. Also – in true TaiBani style – the official pamphlet that was sold at the main venue and the live viewing theaters actually sold out before the evening show at many of the theaters.

More on this, and also our thoughts on the movie project later!

Update: Hero Awards 2011 will be released on BD/DVD in April 2012 and it’ll also include the last episode event recording as an extra.

King of Catchphrases poll winners (full list in Japanese here):

  • Wild Tiger: “Wild Roar!”
  • Barnaby Brooks Jr.: “I’ve been learning how to make fried rice, so you have to try it someday!”
  • Sky High: “Thank you! And again, thank you!”
  • Rock Bison: “Ushi!”
  • Origami Cyclone: “All right! I made it into the background!”
  • Blue Rose: “My ice is a bit cold, but your crime has been put completely on hold!”
  • Dragon Kid: “Sorry, is it because I’m a tomboy?”
  • Fire Emblem: “Let’s show them some girl power!”
  • Lunatic: “Hear the voice of Thanatos.”

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