Another one of those “I don’t even know where to start” -posts. We thought that episode 12 was painful to watch but this was even worse now that we’ve gotten even more invested to the characters and so many bad things are happening. This episode had two major points: Kotetsu and Barnaby’s unsteady partnership, and the revelation of what really happened on that day 21 years ago when Barnaby’s parents died.
19. There’s no way out.
–袋の鼠–
As I mentioned in the previous post, Kotetsu’s voice actor Hiroaki Hirata will be guest on the Hoshizora Sunrise radio show that airs on FM NACK5 this Sunday, August 7th. He’ll be talking about Tiger & Bunny, and executive producer Masayuki Ozaki mentioned on Twitter yesterday that Wild Tiger’s character song would get its radio debut. The radio show is scheduled from 23:00 to 24:00 JST, and according to Twitter Hirata’s segment should start at 23:22 JST. You can check what time that is on your timezone here.
People were asking me how to listen to this show to hear Tiger’s character song, so I decided to make a short guide. First, you’ll need to install KeyHole TV. Follow the instructions on the site on how to do it, it’s very simple. Once you have it set up and running, you need to search for the radio station on the channel list.
Type “NACK5” in the search box and hit enter. There should only be one listed.
Double-click on that to tune in. The video area will be empty, don’t let it bother you. And now you’re all set to listen to the show. (The audio quality may not be the most awesome, but it’s adequate in my experience.)
(You can also watch Japanese TV programs – such as Tiger & Bunny – using Keyhole TV!)
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!
The issue of Young Jump with Tiger & Bunny’s character designer Masakazu Katsura’s 39 page one-shot is hitting the shelves now. You can see storyboard samples and grab a fancy official wallpaper here.
Executive producer Masayuki Ozaki just announced on Twitter the contents of the Wild Tiger & Barnaby character song CD. There will be one duet by the voice actors Hiroaki Hirata and Masakazu Morita, and they’ll both perform a solo song each. There will also be a talk track with “Old Man and Bunny” mini skit. The CD is coming out on August 24 and you can preorder it for example on CDJapan. (If you don’t know how the voice actors sound when singing, you can find some samples here.)
Also, the 2nd opening song single, Missing Link by NOVELS is out today! [Buy!]
Time to note down some additional speculah from the jumble of our brains to add to the pancake mix.
This is Sternbild 