Hello! This is derpchan, the member of This is Sternbild who can’t stop blogging! More episode titles were posted today.
16話「Truth lies at the bottom of a well.-真実は井戸の底にある-」
17話「Blood is thicker than water.-血は水よりも濃い-」
18話「lgnorance is bliss.-知らぬが仏-」
No speculation from me at this stage. I’ll watch at least episode 14 first to see where things are going. See ya!
Hello and hello again! I’m the other part part of the “we” you’ve probably seen in Derpchan’s posts, in case you’re confused who I am.
Anyway. There was a sweet little interview in the July issue of Animage with Tamura Kazuhiko, Tiger & Bunny’s producer – and since he said a few interesting things, I decided to translate it.
Disclaimer: not a professional translator, doing this for fun, etc. Standard fantranslation rules apply.
Without further ado –
Q: How did you come up with the idea for a story featuring two characters from two different generations? It’s a pretty rare combination.
A: Well, in this day and age, you can easily notice there is a generation gap between youngsters and their elders. (laughs) We wanted to show that, we wanted to show how they begin to understand each other, how the bond between them grows strong.
Q: So basically, you based it on your personal experiences? (laughs)
A: Ah, yeah. This generation gap we experience daily – we wanted to show how the different generations mix. I thought it would allow the viewers to sympathize with the events more easily, which, in turn, would make the show more exciting. First we had this idea of a duo that always bickers, then we tried to add this difference in age to them. We have different character episodes, and during them, Tiger and Barnaby’s bond and mutural trust grow stronger. It’s one of the elements of the whole storytelling process. In the series’ ED, you can see them as if the strong bond was already in there, but you’ll watch the story and think, “When exactly they will reach this point?”. It makes me happy. (laugh)
Q: In the show, the story progresses through subtle hints, right.
A: Yes, while we reveal subtle hints, you slowly become aware of the progress, of how their trust grows stronger. Again, for example, the criminal behind the bomb incident appears again in the episode in which the convicts die, so even the characters considered criminals are not easily used and then thrown away by us. In the future, a character that is probably thought unlikely to reappear will do so, and here and there we’ll be planting small “traps”, so that even the events of the first episode are not going to get lost in the progress.
Q: Besides Kotetsu and Barnaby, other characters’ designs and abilities are also very unique.
A: The design was created for us by Katsura Masakazu-sensei, for which we are grateful. He created characters that attract attention with their charm, and accompanied us through the stage direction and scenario creating parts. We were inspired by his drawings, and adjusted the characters’ personalities and positions to them. The screenwriter, Nishida (Nishida Masafumi, the series’ creator) first asked every person on staff for ideas and then tweaked the charas a bit. [he proceeds to say something about Sky High’s airhead-ness, but the article scans I got are slightly cut so I can’t really read it]
Q: The series will now continue to feature serious battles, yes?
A: Episodes 10-13 are the climax of the first half, so the battles are also reaching it’s first peak. I think you can see them as a part that works as an extra edge for the series. Again, these eps are not only about Barnaby and Kotetsu, they also feature Origami Cyclone, Sky High and Rock Bison’s performances, so their fans should be satisfied, too. Again, in episode 10, Jake and Kriem and other new characters appeared, and they are connected to the Ouroboros Barnaby is pursuing. I think everything I mentioned will probably gather a lot of attention.
Q: What’s in next for Kotetsu and Barnaby?
A: Kotetsu will be doing well as Wild Tiger, and through all the incidents, their relationship will change. Barnaby… Well, not only some scenes, but rather, the whole story can be thought as a story of his growth. He had nothing but revenge, but since he met Tiger, the man started influencing him. Barnaby will make up for some things he lost, and will still be growing emotionally. He experiences Kotetsu’s sympathy, and communicates with him as a fellow human being, and will be learning from him what does it mean to “be a hero”. I’ll be happy if you will be there to watch it!
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 w
ith. 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.
(Thanks to kingandjoker for the screencap collage!)
The 3rd PV for Tiger&Bunny went up today on Bandai Channel! Looks like we’re in for a fun ride in the next episode. Seems that Wild Tiger and Barnaby will appear together in a talk show, Lunatic is making his return and our dynamic duo kick some ass. And Keith appears to be in trouble… while Blue Rose doesn’t seem very happy about something.
The text blurbs read:
And so, the new story of the two heroes who became the best of partners is about to begin! New problems will stand on their way! The birth of despair! The awakening of hope!
ETA: Found another set of screencaps on 4chan. This set has a piece of text that was missing from the first collage, so seems that we do get a 10 month timeskip. Click on the pictures for bigger view!
Hey guyse? You remember last week when I predicted that this week all our carefully made predictions would be nothing but marsh gas? Well guess what? I was absolutely right about that.
This isn’t a complaint though. A week of suffering was totally worth what episode 13 served us and then some. If you want to prove us wrong, this is the right way to do it. We’ve seen this episode three times so far and I still don’t quite know how to reach a high enough level of coherency in my writing so I don’t embarrass myself. So, apologies in advance…
13. Confidence is a plant of slow growth
「信頼という木は大きくなるのが遅い木である」
This is Sternbild 