Category Tiger&Bunny

Mar 12 2022

Event Summary – Tiger & Bunny 2: Precious EVE

Well, I think I need to lie down after all the news that we’ve had today.

The evening showing for the Precious EVE event has just finished and my goodness we have a lot of TIGER & BUNNY 2 related news to unpack. To anyone unfamiliar, Precious EVE is a celebratory public event for the fans to come together and celebrate the upcoming release of TIGER & BUNNY 2, out on 8th April 2022 exclusively over on Netflix. This was hosted by the seiyuu cast, behind the scenes staff and held at Makuhari Messe Event Hall in Japan, as well as being live streamed into Japanese homes and theatres around the country. The event was split into a day and an evening showings, revealing all exclusive news including new heroes, new sponsorships, collaborations, the opening theme song, merchandise and much more! And we’re here to give you the highlights of both showings.

The event began with a reintroduction of our familiar and loved cast, Hiroaki Hirata (Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger) and Masakazu Morita (Barnaby Brooks Jr.) taking centre stage, being backed up by their live action Hero suit actors and the rest of the wonderful returning cast, Gou Inoue (Sky High), Minako Kotobuki (Blue Rose), Mariya Ise (Dragon Kid), Taiten Kusunoki (Rock Bison) and Shinichirou Oota (Mario). Unfortunately Nobuhiko Okamoto (Origami Cyclone) and Kenjiro Tsuda (Fire Emblem) could not participate due to other work commitments, but recorded special messages, expressing how glad they are that the show has returned. The main cast were full of never-ending high spirits throughout both showings, with playful bickering and bantering exchanged between them all, making it hard to believe that so much time has passed since the show’s initial debut all the way back in April 2011, just because of how enthusiastic and wholesome they were.

We were then introduced to 3 new Heroes that will be starring in TIGER & BUNNY 2. From the left:

Hero Name: He Is Thomas (yes this is really his Hero name!)
Civilian name: Thomas Taurus
V.A.: Nobunaga Shimazaki
Powers: Psychokinesis

Hero Name: Mr. Black
Civilian Name: Subaru Sengoku
V.A.: Shoya Chiba
Powers: Creating barriers

Hero Name: Magical Cat
Civilian Name: Lara Tchaikoskaya
V.A.: Tomori Kusunoki
Powers: Manipulating water

(Disclaimer: to our knowledge there are no official romanizations for Thomas and Lara’s names and these are our best guesses based on the katakana.) Update: Character profiles have been added to the official site and spelling has been corrected to match!

We’ve currently got a poll running over on our This is Sternbild twitter, where you can decide which new hero is your favourite, so get involved before it’s too late! Although if you have not already fallen in love with the Hero “He is Thomas” just by his name alone, then I’m sorry you may need to reexamine your choices.

The new cast expressed how they were slightly nervous being apart of T&B just because of how loved this 10-year-old franchise is, but felt very welcomed by the existing cast, quickly becoming a part of the “Tiger & Bunny family”.

The initial introductions were then followed by a Seiyuu Talk section, as the cast answered questions about their experiences when recording for TIGER & BUNNY 2. Due to the pandemic, the cast weren’t able to record all together this time for safety precautions. Minako Kotobuki (Blue Rose) also recorded for her role whilst being aboard during her 1-year study in the United Kingdom, so they were all very glad to be back together again.

There was a special Q&A section dedicated to the series’ behind the scenes staff, featuring Mitsuko Kase, Director for TIGER & BUNNY 2, and series’ returning Main Script Writer/Series Composition, Masafumi Nishida, along with Character/Hero Suits Designer, Masakazu Katsura. They were being very tight lipped about the new plot, joking that Katsura may be the most likely person to accidently spoil it, resulting in him getting scolded by Netflix. Kase was already a fan of the series and was initially overwhelmed to have been chosen as director for TIGER & BUNNY 2, but was grateful to have been given the position. Nishida also confirmed that he wrote the plot for TIGER & BUNNY 2 back in 2015, stopped, brought it back 3 years later to then rewrite the plot from scratch. The 2015 version of the plot was primarily set outside Stern Bild and still featured the main cast.

Another video interview with the behind the scenes staff will be made available to ticket holders, releasing on the 26th March 2022.

The next segment focused on the new chosen sponsors for all the Hero suits! Around 300 applications were submitted by companies wanting to become a potential sponsor and was rounded down to 54 in the end. Some returning sponsors are back like Bandai, LAWSON, S.H. Figuarts, Tanita, Tamashii Nations. We say goodbye to the memorable Pepsi NEX, but welcome a whole band wagon of new sponsors like Coolish, PAC-MAN, Line, BUFFALO, Don Quijote, Passlogy, Yostar, Zoff, Sunshine City, Kleenex, JP Post, even Bandai Namco Pictures themselves, just to name a very small selection! Even the Double Chaser has sponsors of its own now!

You can see all the new sponsors over on the TIGER & BUNNY website! We can’t wait to see what merchandise and collaborations come out these partnerships.

Speaking of merchandise and collaborations, we had a huge number of announcements throughout the show, from Golfing collabs, to a PAC-MAN collab, to mobile gaming collabs, to new S.H. Figuarts, it was never ending! Most importantly, it has been confirmed that we will be seeing two new manga serializations, starting in April, that are being drawn and written by familiar names to the series. Mizuki Sakakibara will be returning to adapt TIGER & BUNNY 2 into manga with Comic Newtype, which will be readable online. Whilst series’ scripter writer, Erika Yoshida and illustrator, Hiroshi Ueda, team up once again to start TIGER & BUNNY 2 The Comic, from April 15th 2022.

The next section debuted several newly written and performed mini drama shorts which were acted out by the seiyuu cast, featuring fun stories such; as Wild Tiger and Barnaby becoming a video game! Cooking with Blue Rose and a very last minute substitute in the form of Rock Bison; Tongue Twisters with Sky High and Dragon Kid and finding out who was awarded the King or Queen of Heroes after The Rising.


Finally the show slowly winded down with a musical section by the returning band, UNISON SQUARE GARDEN, who performed all the theme songs that they have written for the series and movies, along with performing the song “I wanna Believe” and the new opening theme for TIGER & BUNNY 2 “kaleido proud fiesta”.

It was also confirmed that singer, Ano, will be making her debut with their new ending theme song for the series, titled “Aida”.

The show ended with a humble thanks from all the cast and staff, who expressed their appreciation of the never ending love from the fans of the show, even after all these years and leaving us with a brand new trailer that can be seen here:

So what did you think of the trailer and the new heroes? You can join the conversation also on our Twitter and Discord, links are in the sidebar!

We can’t even begin to express how excited we are for Tiger & Bunny 2 and how heart warming it was to see the ongoing support from the fans and staff alike during the Precious EVE event, proving how eternal the series really is.

– text by jazzy, editing by derpchan

Nov 10 2021

TIGER & BUNNY S2 – The Social Aspect and the Netflix Treatment

It’s been a while since we’ve been blogging, and blogging again. And right now we’re not so sure about how much blogging we’ll do about season 2. It’s not just about how much our lives have changed since the first season (it’ll be 11 years when S2 airs – we’re no longer students, we have day jobs and commitments) but also the fact that it’ll be on Netflix and the first cour will be released in one go.

A large part of the experience for first season, probably for most of the people who got into TIGER & BUNNY while it was still airing, was waiting for the next episode to come out. Waiting, discussing, theorizing, talking about the plot and the characters. The wait for the final episode was both excruciating (and filled with carbs) and a lot of fun. We literally talked about TIGER & BUNNY every day for months. This social aspect is really important and I’m not sure if the series would have gathered the following it did if it had been released in one go for streaming. It might have been fast forgotten if it hadn’t been for the fans talking about it so much throughout the entire first season as it aired.

Times change, and binging a series can be fun – we’ve probably all been there with “just one more episode”. A binged series has to be great to make it memorable, it’s just too easy to zone out mentally when you’re on a full day marathon through the season. There’s no time to digest what you just watched when the next episode is already queued. Streaming platforms dedicated to anime (Crunchyroll, Wakanim, etc.) still do weekly releases, and Disney+ has been successful releasing an episode per week for their MCU series – although some of them actually work better when binged, and they feel like they were made for binging despite the weekly releases. Netflix is the outlier here and we sort of wish S2 would be streamed somewhere else.

The first season is currently available on Netflix in my country. They have removed all sponsor logos from the hero suits (which makes the opening sequences very awkward without nothing to zoom to) and the episodes lack the C-part. Not including the C-part (the stinger after the ending and before next episode preview) is like walking out of a Marvel movie the moment the credits start rolling. Many episodes had vital plot points in the C-part. So, if any of you have watched the first season only on Netflix, we urge you to find another version and check it out. This is the biggest problem with the Netflix release, parts of the episodes missing without good reason, and it raises a worry if S2 will have these mindless edits.

Lastly, there’s the QUALITY GYM. Parts of S1 production were rushed which shows in animation quality – something that is very common in anime as new episodes are produced while the show is already airing. Having half of the season released in one go means more even and higher quality… but the QUALITY of S1 had its own charm. If you haven’t seen the TV versions of the episodes, you might not realize how big the differences were.

Check some examples below, comparison of TV version and the corrections made for blu-ray release:

TV vs. BD quality… or QUALITY vs quality.

Nov 9 2021

Season 2 Updates!

Hello guys, it’s time that we bring you up to speed with the current Taibani shenanigans in our world of 2021 (which is also the 10th anniversary of the series), as so much has happened, it’s absolutely surreal.

First and most importantly, TIGER & BUNNY 2, the sequel series to the original show, will be airing in April 2022! This will be a 25 episodes production, exclusively distributing on Netflix worldwide, split into 2 parts. Episodes 1-13 will be available immediately, whilst the latter part will be aired at a later date!/

Season 2 key visual.

TIGER & BUNNY 2 will follow the events after The Rising and will have the returning cast that we all know and love to voice our now senior Heroes! To be produced by Bandai Namco Pictures this time around and will be helmed by new director to the series, Mitsuko Kase. There is a small description of the series over on the main TIGER & BUNNY site:

“Stern Bild City is a place where various races, ethnic groups, and people with special abilities called NEXT coexist, and where there are heroes who use their NEXT abilities to protect the peace. The heroes, carrying the logos of their sponsors, are busy solving crimes and saving lives in order to improve the image of their companies and earn hero points. Their activities are broadcast on the popular TV program “Hero TV”, where they compete in the annual ranking to become the King of Heroes. Today as well, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi and Barnaby Brooks Jr. continue their hero activities for the sake of peace, and to improve the image of their company, Apollon Media. The Hero System that originated in Stern Bild has now been introduced in various parts of the world, the number of heroes is on the rise, and new heroes have entered Stern Bild too. Kotetsu and Barnaby are expected to play an active role as senior heroes, but will they?!”

And if that wasn’t enough for you, there’s more! Before April’s release, a public event will be held on Saturday 12th March 2022 at the Makuhari Messe Event Hall in Japan, titled “TIGER & BUNNY 2 Precious EVE”. Hirata Hiroaki (Kotetsu) & Morita Masakazu (Barnaby) will be appearing, along with more guest appearances (to be announced) to celebrate the upcoming release.

This event will be split into 2 sessions, a day time & evening session. The daytime session will focus on T&B2 info, which includes the reveal of new characters & new company sponsors for the suits. The evening session will include a stage reading by the cast and a look back on the history of the series & the future. There will be live streaming & pay-per-view options to watch the event. Not currently confirmed if it is region blocked or not, but more details will follow!

So plenty of Taibani content to look forward to in 2022! It’s so crazy to see something that we were obsessed over on a week to week basis all the way back in 2011, is returning in such a powerful stride, 11 years later. Excitement doesn’t even begin to describe the feeling, I don’t think any words really can! But what we can confidently say is that we’ll be watching in April and we hope that you will be too.

Stay up to date on all TIGER & BUNNY related news over on our Twitter or come chat with us on Discord!

– text by jazzy, editing by derpchan

Apr 4 2021

10th Anniversary Friend Rice Event Gallery

This_is_Sternbild_Gallery_banner_-_AKI_ver.1_4Thank you, and again thank you everyone for taking part in the 10th Anniversary Rice Event!

Some of you we recognized from the first event 10 years ago, so it was amazing to see you taking part once again, along with the new fans that have joined in for the 1st time. With season 2 slowly on the horizon, who knows what will come out from it, that maybe we’ll be able to celebrate it for the 20th anniversary…? Whatever happens, we can’t wait to see!

Without further ado, you can find all the pictures here in the gallery.

Submission form data will be saved until April 11th in case something needs fixing, after that it will be deleted.

Mar 13 2021

10th Anniversary Friend Rice Event

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of TIGER&BUNNY, we again invite you all to cook up some fried rice! To grab some inspiration, you can check out the original event gallery. If you’ve never cooked fried rice before, we have translated Kotetsu’s own fried rice recipe.

How to take part:

  1. Prepare some fried rice. (Practice first if needed, Barnaby practiced too!)
  2. Take a picture that includes both TIGER&BUNNY and your delicious fried rice.
    • You may use screencaps from anime, official merchandise, cosplay, and fan art of your own making for your picture.
  3. SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED. Thanks, and thanks again everyone!

The submission period will run from March 27th to April 3rd at 20:00 GMT. After the submission form closes, the pictures will be posted as a gallery for everyone to view. (We’ll have the gallery up as soon as possible, but it depends on how much rice you cooked!)

We can’t wait to see what you cook up this time!

(This post has been edited on April 3rd.)