If you’ve kept your eyes on Tiger & Bunny before the series even started, you probably noticed that Karina Lyle a.k.a. Blue Rose was featured a lot in the promos, from posters to even the two minute pilot that was as an extra on the first BD. But along the way to the actual series, something happened and she’s sunk to the background, standing out no more than the rest of the heroes. She’s still fairly popular, scoring 9th place in the recent BIGLOBE poll though nowhere near the popularity the leading men of the series have reached.

The pilot was obviously made pretty early. It features a lot of things that were changed to the actual series, like the setting being in the future instead of the alternate timeline, and Blue Rose’s design being different from the final. Still, she’s the first hero to be presented and named on it (although her name is misspelled) even before the actual main characters. The titular characters aren’t given names even though they put on quite a show to display where the sponsors can have their logos pasted. Seeing this, you’d probably think that Blue Rose would be the main character. But instead of being the teenage idol star of the show, she’s ended up as “just one of the heroes”. Maybe the series concept went through changes after this stage, and Blue Rose was set aside in favor of the main duo. Maybe she was there just to appeal to possible sponsors. Whatever caused her to turn into a wallflower, it’s been severe enough that even the TvTropes recap page for Tiger & Bunny feels it necessary to point out that “the woman in the corner [of the poster] is Blue Rose”. That’s pretty sad.

The logical reasoning why she’s plastered on all the promos is that she’s the only female hero that fits the bill of bringing some fanservice to a show with an otherwise powerful male cast. Pao-Lin is a bit too young and a tomboy, and Nathan is well… not really well endowed in the areas you’d need for the kind of fanservice Blue Rose can provide. We think that they could have been smarter about how to go about using her in advertising the series. If you look at one of the promo pictures (to the right) she seems out of place lounging on top of the series logo, as if she was added there as an afterthought. Wild Tiger and Barnaby’s color schemes were designed to compliment each other, she makes the picture clash. Even as a fanservice character she’s not utilized as much as you would expect. Her outfit is pretty revealing, but where many other anime would have a field trip with a character design like hers, Tiger & Bunny shows a remarkable lack of pantyshots and other camera angle play. And it seems that her chest has actually shrunk a little during the progress of the series, when it wasn’t that huge to begin with.

Karina appears several times on the preview for episode 14 but looking at the treatment she’s gotten so far, we’re betting on this being just a gimmick and a reminder that “hey guyse, there’s a female hero, too!” We feel kind of bad for her since she really is a great character. She has a good attitude, she’s no damsel in distress (despite her favourite getaway of Cutie Escape), and she does well as a hero (in the first episode when they announce the MVP she’s shown on second place after Sky High) although she has had some doubts whether or not she wants to continue. She’s also almost surprisingly level-headed for a girl of her age (which is still unknown but she’s probably around 17-18), lecturing Kotetsu a few times. It’s hinted in the series and made clear on the drama CD that shipped with the second BD that her sponsors are responsible for her image as a hero. She doesn’t enjoy her public image as a dominatrix, and gets flustered by some of the questions the listeners have sent to her in the radio show she does on the drama CD. If anything, the lack of in-your-face fanservice and presenting her private image as a normal girl with dreams has made her even more likeable to a wide range of viewers. Her characterization makes her feel more real and she’s pleasing to the eye of the male audience without annoying the female audience at the same time.

As for the possibility of her being promoted as a romantic interest on the second half of the series goes… we think it’s pretty slim. She’s got a crush on Kotetsu (and so does 99% of the fandom so she has good taste) but to us it seems more like puppy love than anything serious. Kotetsu is old enough to be her father and he seems to consider her just a fellow hero. (And if she absolutely has to be paired up with someone, we have a better suggestion than Kotetsu – but that’s just our opinion!) We’re sure that some people are feeling that the series lacks romance, but it’s perfectly possible to tell a great story without adding a grand American style “man meets woman” love story. Romance doesn’t automatically make a series better, and in this case we think it might drag the plot down.

It’d be awesome if she got a bit bigger part in the upcoming episodes. The impromptu “Girls’ Team” from episode 13 has a lot of potential for fun scenes and it would at the same time bring out the other girls more. Kotetsu and Barnaby’s popularity is already so overwhelming that the other characters need some love, too!

Where there’s a superhero, there’s a supervillain. If you watch American superhero movies or read comics, the superhero always has a nemesis (or several) and there’s a big focus on fighting the villains. Although there’s a share of villains in Tiger&Bunny to stay true to the genre, the role of a supervillain seems less important than in the American counterparts.

So far we’ve seen several NEXT criminals, but only three had any impact worth mentioning. Lunatic is more like a rogue hero, following his own code of justice. Jake Martinez was really only Barnaby’s nemesis but he and Kriem had a good shot at being the arch nemesis for the rest of the story. At first I was a bit surprised to see how quickly they were dealt with. I didn’t really get to Jake’s demise in my post about episode 13, partially because I hadn’t had enough time to think about just what exactly happened to him. It’s still possible the Ouroboros story continues on the second half of the series to keep the plot moving, and I really doubt we’ve heard the last of Jake. He uses barriers, so somehow he could have survived. It’s unclear if he really even was the man Barnaby had been after for 20 years, because there are several hints that speak against Jake being involved in the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Brooks.

I talked about the popularity of Tiger&Bunny before and I think the reason why the villains don’t get such a huge spotlight has to do with some of the things I mentioned. Although Tiger&Bunny looks like a shonen anime and Viz profiled it for 14-25 male audience in the USA, you have to remember that it wasn’t aimed at your typical shonen demographic in Japan. The goal was to reach the 30+ audience who are more interested in Western media and may not have watched anime for a while. You do not reach that target group by going pure shonen, which is basically what the showdown against Jake was. To me it felt a bit out of place in the series after what’d I’d seen so far. Even though there’s action and other usual superhero elements, more than anything Tiger&Bunny is driven by characters and their relationships. Even the plot on the first half was overshadowed by the characters. I really do enjoy that aspect and I love all the characters but there were times when I wanted some more plot development. The fact that the entire Ouroboros attack only spanned for four episodes and at the same time had a major focus on character relationships and development proves this. It’s typical in shonen anime to drag on fight scenes and most of character development is actually “power development”. By doing that with Tiger&Bunny there’s a risk losing the interest of the more mature audience who don’t want to watch several month long battles.

I was watching the promotional video for episode 14 which is also the lead up to the second half of Tiger&Bunny, and I noticed the lack of a defined villain. Lunatic is shown briefly, but I really couldn’t tell what kind of encounter it’ll be. Instead of focusing on fighting the bad guys, the promo was mostly about the heroes themselves. We hear Barnaby talk about how his view on life has changed now that he doesn’t live for revenge, and Kotetsu asks if he’s being told to quit being a hero. The text blurbs briefly mention “new problems” as well as “despair” and “hope”. There’s not a word of new powerful adversary, which leaves me with a feeling that the second half will be just as focused on characters as the first – if not even more so. At this point, trying to turn the series into more action focused might actually cause a drop in viewers.

Does the series actually need a prominent villain and an arch nemesis? Not if it’ll cause it to turn into another shonen battle showdown, and I really hope they won’t do that. So far in Tiger&Bunny the character development has been natural and incredibly well written, and I think that’s what the people who are watching it find the most attractive about it. No doubt there will be new villains and some old ones will turn up again, but direct conflict with them is not what keeps the series afloat.

Instead of fretting about what’s going to happen to Ivan, I decided to channel my nervousness into something good while I wait for tonight’s episode to air. I saw some comments on Twitter dissing Nathan and thought “that’s totally not cool”. Because I think that he’s an awesome character in a lot of ways. But I ain’t gonna lie, the first time I saw Fire Emblem I thought “this guy can’t be for real”. He’s not the type of character you’d expect to see in a superhero show, but part of what makes him so amazing is how he breaks many stereotypes. (Someone might be mean and say he’s just there to divert attention from Kotetsu and Barnaby’s lovestory of the century. If so, he’s not doing a very good job at that.)

If I start with the obvious, Nathan is black. How many of you can name a black superhero without having to think about it for a while? (I couldn’t, I had to resort to googling it.) There are quite a few, but not many that have been titular characters in movies for example. Nathan is also a very successful man, he has his own company. Helios Energy sponsors him as a hero and at the same time, he owns it. Running a business is not very unusual among superheroes, everyone knows that Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Tony Stark (Iron Man) own big companies, too. But being a successful black man he breaks some stereotypes about how black people often are depicted in fiction. Speaking of Batman, Nathan has a lot of things in common with him. The suit designs are similar, he’s got a car that looks like a cross between F1 Ferrari and Batmobile and he’s a damn good driver as they comment in Hero TV.

Moving on, the second most obvious thing about Nathan is that he is gay. The view on homosexuality in Japan is different from the Western view, though it’s common for people to hide their sexuality if it differs from the norm. I’m not gonna go deeper into that issue right now, it’d turn out way tl;dr (and Aki’s reading a book about homosexuality in Japan throughout the history so it’s more her field). So called “okama characters” (men who dress up as women) aren’t uncommon in Japanese media. If I think of the American view, homosexuality is less accepted among the blacks but this has more to do with religion than anything else. Again, Nathan doesn’t fit the usual mold.

Those who don’t know Japanese may not have noticed it so early, but Nathan’s speech pattern is feminine. In Japanese there are big differences in how men and women speak, not just in what pronoun they use when talking about themselves. Nathan is biologically male for all we know, but his gender identity is female.

Fire Emblem: He’s a cute kid. He’s the perfect new hero. He’s got a pretty face, so he’s got to be popular with the ladies too. Especially with the ladies…

He’s not talking about just any woman in this scene, he’s talking about himself. And just watch the “pass the baby” scene in episode 9 where Barnaby suggests a woman try calming the crying baby. Nathan’s eyes literally lit up. The way he dresses is over the top and flamboyant (the vest he likes to wear on his free time sparkles more than Edward Cullen in direct sunlight!), but he doesn’t choose his clothes and makeup to show off he’s gay – although his clothes are gaudy and tacky, they’re also feminine and underline his identity that way.

But back to superheroes. If you have been paying attention, you’ve noticed that this guy is pretty damn BADASS. He can stop bullets with his fire. He can melt steel with his fire. Even his cape is on fire. (Stare at the cape for a while, it’s hypnotic like live fire.) He’s confident, and I think the only time he’s been truly taken by surprise was in episode 6 when his fire was overpowered. He’s also smart, and emotionally intelligent, which makes him possibly the best judge of character among all the heroes. Lately he seems to enjoy especially watching Kotetsu and Barnaby. It’s not hard to notice Kotetsu’s bluffs, but he seems to be the most tuned in to what goes on between those two. All the characters get their share of being a comedy relief, but the show makes very little fun of Nathan as a gay man – the joke’s more on others and Antonio seems to have ended as a butt of many of them. (“Your butt always feels nice.”)

Best part is, the other heroes do not mind the slightest how different he is. Kotetsu most of all is completely unfazed when Nathan suggests spending a night with him, and just makes a comment about his arm being too hard for a pillow. First and moremost, he is a hero and someone the other heroes value as a friend and a rival.

All the heroes have traits that break usual character stereotypes, but in Nathan they stand out the most and it makes him a truly awesome, unique character. I really hope people can see him as one, not just a gay black man who acts girly and dresses in red tights.