Sep 18 2011

Live Viewing event reports + Friend Rice reminder

I am having a massively busy day today (how I wish I could devote the entire Sunday for Tiger & Bunny), but I thought I’d toss some links up before the other stuff consumes my time.

The reports say that final episode had over 100,000 viewers. 77,000 on Ustream, 22,000 in theaters plus everyone who watched it on MBS. Tiger & Bunny was also trending on Twitter in Japan all through the night.

Event report in English
Hiroaki Hirata’s blog entry of the event (in Japanese)
Subculture blog event report (in Japanese)
Gigazine event report – with pictures! (in Japanese)

Translated event tidbits from Subculture blog, courtesy of /a/:

  • Hi! I’m Kotetsu, the member of T&B who gets all sleepy after 12 o’clock!
  • Hi! I’m Kotetsu, the member of T&B who has short eyelashes!
  • Hirata had a pink bunny plush with him the whole time.
  • During the work on T&B people within the company kept telling the staff to give it up.
  • Katsura had the most fun drawing Ivan.
  • A character song album will be released on December 7, details to follow.
  • The other considered titles of the show were “Seekers” and B.B. (Busty and Bunny).
  • Rock Bison got a bit more spotlight because of his unexpected popularity after the first episode aired.
  • Compared to the planning stage, Ivan’s development got slightly expanded (at first they were planning to jump into the Jake’s arc straightaway).
  • Katsura grumbled about how the anime version of Kotetsu looks too young.
  • Barnaby was at first meant to have teleportation powers (quick and nimble like a bunny) but these powers however seemed utterly broken, so at first they added the restriction that he can’t phase through iron plates.
  • The Lunatic vs. Barnaby fight in ep7 took ten months to complete.
  • Lots of flags for the second season from the VA’s.
  • At the end there was a small play between Kotetsu and Barnaby talking over the phone with somebody and solving the idiocy of Karina and Antonio.
    K: Huh? Karina’s throwing a fit in the supermarket because they don’t have cucumbers?
    B: And Rock Bison-san ate too much burned meat and now collapsed?
    K: Right. Anyway, you take care of Bison and I’m going to check on Karina.
    B: I am on it.

Future Plans

NEXT PROJECT (Japanese)
ANN article of NEXT PROJECT

2nd season didn’t get confirmed yet, but I’ve no doubt it’ll happen soon. Maybe at the event? The series is practically printing money, so there’ll be something. It might be S2, it might be a movie or an OVA series, but not making a continuation at this point would be financial insanity.

Friend Rice Reminder

Deadline for Sternbild Friend Rice Event submissions is 12:00 CET
(Central European Time) on Monday, September 19.

You can submit photos through email and on Twitter, check out detailed event info here. We’ve already received over 20 times the amount of photos we expected, keep them coming! Please remember that cosplay photos aren’t accepted. Check the instructions in the event post!

Sep 17 2011

Artist list for Tiger & Bunny 4-koma Kings Anthology

Information about Tiger & Bunny 4-koma Kings anthology was posted at Natalie.mu. The anthology will be published by Ichijin-sha (like the first official comic anthology). Cover art will be by Takayama Shinobu (Amatsuki).

TIGER & BUNNY 4-koma Kings Anthology
Publisher: DNA Comics / Ichijin-sha
ISBN: 9784758006590
Price: 720 JPY
Release date: Oct. 25, 2011
Available at: [CDJapan] [Amazon.jp]

Cover art: Takayama Shinobu
Illustrations: Kyuugou, Kosumi Fujiko,
п-NEKO-R。
Manga: Aiko, Ari, Katou Michiru, Kari Erika, Kirai Yuu, Kuriyama Kiyoshi, Koutake Hiroyoshi, Sakazaki Mei, jam3, Setsurarima, Tokei, Nanten (?), Hazaki Yurika (?), Hama, Magami Kuriko, Kannagi Akira (?), Mikawa Beruno

Note: I did my best with romanizing the names but I am totally not familiar with the artists, so if you know correct romaji for the ones I’ve marked with a (?) please do let me know.

(I like the cover art so much more than for the first comic anthology. Less awkward poses for one thing.)

Sep 16 2011

Contents of Roman Album

Tiger & Bunny Roman Album
Publisher: Tokuma Shoten
ISBN: 9784197203390
Size: A4, 144 pages.
Price: 1200 JPY
Available at: [CDJapan] [Hobby Search] [Amazon.jp] [AmiAmi]

Features:

  • Kotetsu & Barnaby on the cover in civilian clothes.
  • Two posters, one of Kotetsu and one of Barnaby.
  • Character introductions.
  • Planning notes on Hero suits and more, with original pictures.
  • Illustration collection from Animage.
  • Story guide with comments from Masafumi Nishida & the other writers.
  • Cast interviews: Hiroaki Hirata (Kotetsu) & Masakazu Morita (Barnaby), Minako Kotobuki (Blue Rose), and Go Inoue (Sky High), and answers to questionnaire from the rest of the main cast.
  • Staff interviews: Keiichi Satou (director), Kazuhiko Tamura (producer), Chika Matsui (producer).
  • And more!

The other book that’s coming out at the same time is Hero Gossips from Kadokawa Shoten, the contents are listed here.

Sep 16 2011

Tiger & Bunny at Tamashii Nation 2011

Tamashii Nation 2011 site has some Tiger & Bunny items as exlusives only available at the event. The blue and purple see-through Sky High superdeformed figures are items given away with the tickets; blue ones when you buy your ticket in advance through e+ and purple ones with tickets bought at the event.

In addition to the Sky High figures, there is also event exclusive, commemorative Deformeister Rubber Collection charm set with Tiger’s crapsuit & Bunny plushie. I’m guessing that “crapsuit” is now an official name for Tiger’s original blue suit since the official tweet announcing them also used it.

And Go Inoue (aka. Go-chan aka. the Real-Life Keith) mentioned on his Twitter that he would like to get those straps too, and that Director Satou was the one to design Tiger’s crapsuit and Mr. Legend’s hero suit. (He also said that Satou is probably grinning widely every time he sees “crapsuit” written somewhere.)

http://twitter.com/#!/_Gou_/status/114612756761677824

Sep 14 2011

Hey, do you remember?

Hello, this is derpchan, the member of This is Sternbild who’s been rewatching the series from the beginning with Aki! Seeing all those early episodes – when the series was a happy-fun-cute-superheroes-doing-cute-superhero-stuff kinda thing – feels a bit nostalgic. It also made me think of how I started watching Tiger & Bunny in the first place…

Remember this anime chart for Spring season? In March/April, I made lists of stuff I was going to check out when the new season would start, and here’s what I said back then:

  • Not terribly excited about the anime this spring, but there’s still stuff to watch.
  • [Tiger & Bunny] …sounds so preposterous it’s bound to be amusing.
  • What the hell kind of a name is “Tiger & Bunny”? Seriously?

A good beginning makes a good ending.

Then the 1st episode of Tiger & Bunny came out, and I realized I had watched it at least three times before the 2nd aired. I remember thinking that Sky High was pretty cool and that Kotetsu was kind of a derp. And Bunny? Oh boy, he rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. I thought he was acting like a huge dick (although he did get some points for that first Princess Carry).

The following I wrote in June:

  • When I started watching Tiger&Bunny my initial thought was that the whole premise of sponsored superheroes was utterly laughable. But I was sold after the first episode. The cast is excellent, and all the characters are amazingly lovable.

Little did I know that just a few weeks after I typed those sentences, I’d be starting this blog with Aki. I think that teaming up with her made me like the show even more – and we’ve had a ton of fun talking about it. In fact, whenever we talk about something else it doesn’t take long before the topic somehow gravitates back to Tiger & Bunny. (The tagline in the main page sidebar is not a lie!)

whatismylife.png

Then came the 2nd cour, and Summer season started. By this time I had – at first a bit reluctantly – started liking Bunny. This time I didn’t even bother to make a list for the new season, because of this:

While shopping for all that lovely merchandise that had finally started appearing, I realized that “Damn it, Barnaby is my favourite character. When did that happen?” I had also thought that Nathan was awesome pretty early on, but around that time I realized that he was my 2nd favourite character. I love all the characters (except Maverick), so ranking them is pretty hard beyond the Top Three. Kotetsu is 3rd by the way.

I’ll take the risk of sounding like a sad no-life and confess that the graph above is still accurate. I haven’t been this invested in an anime (or any series/movie/book/manga for that matter) before, despite being active follower of many of them over the years. It is kinda scary to think that in just a few days, the series will be over (save for possible plans for continuation of some sort). Granted, there’s the reruns, manga publications, lots of merchandise, BDs coming out… So it won’t really be “over” over. But the weekly wait for new episode won’t be there anymore.

These feelings I’m feeling

Another thing is how Tiger & Bunny has made all other anime seem bland in comparison. I’ve been an avid reader all my life reading novels from different genres, so I guess it’s not surprising that what I find most enjoyable in Tiger & Bunny is the human drama and how it’s written. The characters feel so real and their behaviour and reactions so natural. I have to agree with the voice actors that it’s a good thing to have an older protagonist. Looking at the Autumn season that’s about to start, I’m just not feeling much towards any series. Everything seems so generic, though it’s possible there’s a pleasant surprise hiding among them to fill some of the void. It’s too early for Tiger & Bunny’s possible influence to show in other shows, but there’s a lot more that you can do with anime series than just tell stories about high school kids.

The staff&cast of Tiger & Bunny kept believing in it even when the studio didn’t. They have earned their praise and I hope they’re proud of what they’ve created. The end result may not be perfect in every aspect, but in my opinion those imperfections (like QUALITY gym) give the series a kind of unique character.

Last but not least… Thank you, and again thank you to all T&Bros around the world for being an awesome bunch of people. It’s a pleasure to watch the show with you. ＼|宜|