Category News

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.”

Links:

Nov 6 2011

Advertising for 13 million yen – but what does it mean?

My internet was down for most of the day yesterday so the commotion this caused almost slipped past me. Yesterday, November 5th, a huge wall ad of Tiger & Bunny appeared on Shibuya’s landmark building, Shibuya 109. What’s remarkable about the ad isn’t that Blue Rose isn’t getting a bigger spotlight than she should anymore, but that it costs 13 million yen + tax for two weeks. The series is over, and although it’s currently on rerun on several channels, an advertisement like this is a bit too expensive to promote a rerun. The advertisement will stay in place until November 19th, so this might be a sign that whatever they are planning to announce at Hero Awards on November 13th is something big.

Something big, but what? We were expecting a continuation announcement already by final episode. Instead they announced NEXT Project – which by the way is a pretty brilliant way to keep up the hype while the continuation is planned, and whoever is handling the marketing for Tiger & Bunny at the moment is doing a pretty good job. They could be planning a movie, or a second season, or OVAS… Though if I had to bet, I’d put my money on NEXT Project Stage 2 – whatever it is – because I don’t think they are ready to put a S2 into production yet. I could be wrong though, but I remember Ozaki talking about “three steps” in NEXT Project somewhere – I just can’t find the quote for it right now, it could have been in some of the Japanese webcasts he’s appeared in.

By the way, the second set of official books (Official Hero Book 2 and Hero TV Fan vol.2) got pushed back three weeks from October 25th to November 16th. They’ll come out after Hero Awards 2011 event, possibly so they could include some promotion for what they’re announcing there. Even if we don’t get a confirmed continuation to the series yet, if they play their cards well they can keep us interested in Tiger & Bunny for a long time. After all, Hero Awards 2011 sold out in minutes and the live viewing event for it had even more theaters added recently.

We want more and Bandai wants our cash, so they’ll give us more… eventually.

Oct 8 2011

Hero Awards live viewing event to be held (Updated 2011/10/21)

http://twitter.com/#!/TIGERandBUNNY/status/122496640505487360

The official Twitter of Tiger & Bunny announced earlier today that a live viewing event would be held together with the first part of NEXT PROJECT, the Hero Awards 2011 event on November 13th. Executive producer Ozaki Masayuki just posted a series of tweets, explaining more details about the event. Due to issues with scheduling and other events, they couldn’t get a bigger venue for the Hero Awards but because the interest for the event tickets was so great, a nationwide live viewing event was decided. The tickets will be available for preorder on 10/13 and as I understood there won’t be a raffle for them this time – scratch that, the official Twitter just announced they will be raffled. There’s a live viewing planned for both the daytime and the evening show of Hero Awards.

The other week, Aki told me that she’d heard the amount of people who wanted tickets for the Hero Awards event was 150 times the amount of available tickets. Kanagawa Kenmin Hall seats 2488 people, and with two shows that day… Well, the number just felt too huge, way too huge even for Tiger & Bunny, and I couldn’t find a source to confirm it anywhere so I just shrugged it off. Now, with the live viewing events planned it doesn’t seem all that far fetched anymore.

I really hope they record these events and release them on BD or DVD later. I want to see them!

Update #1: This tweet seems to confirm that the amount of applicants for the Hero Awards tickets was indeed 750,000. (2011/10/08)

Update #2: Official Twitter announced that the tickets will be raffled. (2011/10/10)

Update #3: e-plus has listed the theaters where Hero Awards 2011 live viewing is available. Aki counted over 100, I got mixed up with my count before I got very far so I’ll just take her word for it. (2011/10/11)

Update #4: Otanews has compiled a more manageable list of the theaters from e-plus. The event will be broadcast to 103 theaters, of which 61 will show both the daytime and the evening show. (2011/10/12)

Update #5: Ozaki is currently visiting New York Comic Con, and he said there that “the studio is hoping to announce the “next step” for Tiger & Bunny at the November 13 event”. Also, English dub for Tiger & Bunny was announced in the same news post at ANN. (2011/10/16)

Update #6: More theaters have been added for the live viewing event, total number is now 107. It’ll be the biggest live viewing event in Japan so far. (2011/10/21)

Oct 7 2011

Hero Gossips and Roman Album on Oricon’s weekly book ranking

Both Hero Gossips and Roman Album made it to Oricon’s weekly general book ranking (this list excludes manga, it has an own list). The figures only include the retailers that Oricon tracks so the actual amount of sold books is probably higher.

23. Tiger & Bunny Official Guide Book Hero Gossips … 13,200 (estimated)
26. Tiger & Bunny Roman Album … 11,757 (estimated)

The first Official Hero Book sold really well, and judging from how fast Hero Gossips seems to be selling it’ll probably reach a similar number, depending on how many copies they’ve printed.

I’m actually having a hard time finding Hero Gossips in stock at the usual outlets where I shop, and Aki was wondering how many of those books have been bought by non-Japanese fans of T&B.

Oct 6 2011

Tidbits from new PASH!

There’s a feature on Tiger & Bunny in the new issue of PASH! Some information from it has started to appear. I’ll update more if/when I find it.

  • During the early stages of development there was an idea to kill Rock Bison in action.
  • During the planning stage Barnaby had teleportation powers, while Kotetsu had memory manipulation.
  • Matsui wants to see Barnaby cook fried rice. Girls in swimsuits are would be nice too.
  • Jake has two powers, but only glows when using his barriers. Mind-reading is an automatic process of receiving, so the glow doesn’t activate, unlike when using active abilities.
  • There are many questions about whether some other supernatural phenomena other than the usual NEXT powers exist in their world. Mind-reading could be one of them.
  • NEXT powers are poorly understood. Their origin is unknown, they don’t seem to be genetic and there are no solid rules as far as their manifestations are concerned.
  • The story was considerably darker during the initial planning stage.
  • Matsui (about the story from episode 25 onwards): Barnaby is slightly tsun (it’s his nature), but they understand and trust each other so thoroughly that sometimes words aren’t even needed.
  • There was a proposition about making Kotetsu the one who scarred Lunatic (the idea was that they had some kind of a confrontation in the past).
  • Hirata sighs that after mere 6 months he lost his 10 year long reputation as the “pirate seiyuu” and has become the “ojisan seiyuu”. Morita on the other hand is now known for tsunderes and glasses.

This is just my opinion, but if they had gone with the teleportation and memory manipulation powers they had in mind first, I think T&B would have turned out a completely different series. As for the story being darker, we grew so attached to the characters because the 1st cour was light-hearted. If there had been the possibility that someone would have died then, I at least would have avoided attachment. (I seem to end up with my favourite characters always dying.)

Morita probably won’t shake off his years as Ichigo that easily, but to me he will forever be Barnaby. He’s done other great roles (my other favourite of his is Rail Tracer from Baccano!) but I think Barnaby is his best performance up to date.

(Also, Matsui should see to that fried rice scene becoming a reality. We need it.)