Many people have probably already read the one-shot that was in Young Jump’s this week’s issue. Although it didn’t really bring anything new, it sure was a lot of fun with Bunny being tsun to the maximum and a lot of Heartwarming Hero Hijinks.

The story by Masafumi Nishida is pretty simple and seems to take place between episodes 7 and 8, after Lunatic’s appearance but before the whole “Let’s Believe HEROES” campaign and the heroes have to find new ways to increase their sagging popularity – or else face the wrath of Agnes if the ratings drop. Despite the simplicity, the manga is very in-character (and I wouldn’t expect anything less when it’s the series’ screenwriter scripting it). I thought the story was pretty easy to approach even for someone who doesn’t watch the anime, so it’ll probably draw some new fans in as was planned.

The art is of course excellent, drawn by the original character designer Masakazu Katsura. Personally, I don’t really like how he draws the female faces but the male characters look awesome. There’s an abundance of great expressions in the 39 pages of the manga, just see Keith above. And I think Katsura really really likes Barnaby’s pose that was on the cover of the 3rd Limited Edition BD. He uses it repeatedly from different angles, one example to the left. (Actually, and this is just my own opinion, this whole story was written just as an excuse for Katsura to draw Bunny in these poses. I’m not complaining, though!) After reading the manga I wish Kotetsu would look a bit older in the anime, too. Katsura’s version of Kotetsu looks even better than the one we’re used to seeing on TV. All the heroes got an appearance in this story, so no matter whose fan you are you’ll get something. Focus is still on Kotetsu and Barnaby, just like in the anime.

If you want some of those early series hero hijinks, definitely pick up this manga. I also saw that the description for the limited edition of Katsura’s Tiger & Bunny artbook mentioned this one-shot would be included too. I hope it’ll be also in the regular edition, since I totally missed my chance to order it.

EDIT: Since people are asking about Bunny and bread fanarts, here’s the explanation. This one-shot had a typo in Bunny’s character description, spelling his Hundred Power as 「ハンドブレッド・パワー」 “hunbread power”. Even director Satou joked about it on Twitter.

And some music news: Wild Tiger & Barnaby Brooks Jr. character song CD has a name now: “Seigi no Koe ga kikoerukai”. Wild Tiger’s character song will be played during Hoshizora Sunrise radio show on FM NACK5 on August 7th.

Tomorrow is Superhero Saturday again, if you want to join Sternbilders on waiting for the episode, hop on the IRC channel. Links to webchat and for IRC clients are in the top navigation!