andraste

After one of the longest hiatuses of all time - not quite Doctor Who levels, but after eleven years they were certainly getting there - superhero anime Tiger & Bunny finally gets a second season thanks to Netflix! After the first thirteen episodes, I am delighted to report that it remains my favourite anime.

In the first season, veteran hero Wild Tiger and talented rookie Barnaby Brooks Jr. were forced to team up whether they liked it or not, and in the way of buddy comedies they eventually bonded and became fast friends. By the time Season Two rolls around, they've been through everything the hero life can throw at them and come through it with a rock solid partnership. It's such a good idea that now the people who organise the local superheroes have decided that everyone should have a buddy!

Kotetsu and Barnaby are both excellent characters and their relationship is the heart of the show, but the thing that pushed me over the line to declaring it my favourite anime in the first place is the care and attention it gives to its great supporting cast, as well as the interesting world-building. In Season Two, the writers take advantage of the fact that the audience already know the leads well to focus on other characters, to the benefit of the story as a whole. I'm also very pleased that everyone came back, because I love everyone in this bar and believe they all have more stories in them.

I was initially surprised by some of the team-ups for this season of SuperHeroTV, but after some thought they all make sense both in and out of universe. To start at the top - Sky High was king of the rankings before Barnaby arrived and Fire Emblem is a popular and consistent performer, plus their powers compliment each other well. Off the field, Nathan covers Keith's weaknesses perfectly (i.e. he dumpstated both Wisdom and Intelligence) while Keith is both genuinely sweet and good in a way Nathan eminently deserves and the perfect arm-candy for a CEO. Golden Ryan and Blue Rose are both flashy heroes who are very focused on public image, and again have great power synergy. Pairing Dragon Kid with the new baby of the team means that Magical Cat can be mentored by someone close to her own age, and also the possibilities for soaking people with water and then striking them with lightning are endless. The pair of newcomers He Is Thomas and Mr. Black are playing out Tiger and Bunny's early partnership teething problems only younger and somehow even dumber.

Rock Bison and Origami Cyclone initially feels very 'pair the spares' ... which makes sense, since it probably came about exactly like that. They're at the bottom of the rankings so presumably their management didn't have much leverage to get them teamed up with more popular people, but despite that, the two of them are making it work because they are both great heroes in their own right no matter what the ratings say. And it's not like Ivan doesn't need a wall to crouch behind and a shoulder to climb on!

Tiger and Bunny doing some impromptu couples couples counselling for most of these people provides a lot of comedy, but it's also a good way of contrasting the different partnerships. They've got little idea of how to help Nathan and Keith because 'oh no we're both pretending too hard to be perfect around each other' is one problem they've never had, and they don't have much to contribute to Pao-Lin and Lara because neither of them has a terrible stage mother to worry about. (Well, I guess Maverick was his own kind of awful stage parent, but, uh, not like that.) By contrast, it's both funny and heart-warming to watch the interaction between Ryan who is instantly convinced that Karina is going to throw him over for Kotetsu and Barnaby who has faith in his partner but is still adorably nervous when it seems like something is being kept from him. And they're actually quite useful when it comes to helping Antonio wrangle this sensitive, highly-strung twink that someone just handed him, since 'I offended my partner and it wasn't on purpose for once, what do?' is a problem they've had before. And all of Subaru and Thomas's problems could be solved if they'd just listen to their elders, but of course you can't tell two seventeen-year-olds that.

Meanwhile, we get the contrast of two villains who are in synch to a degree that is both obviously toxic and weirdly cute, and Tiger and Bunny even try to help them in the end, although without any success whatsoever. We're yet to see how the fallout from all of that is going to play out, although I guess that's what the second half is going to be about ...

Other scattered thoughts on this half of the season:

- I will never stop laughing at Barnaby's horror that he's now one of the 'old men', at least as far as the teens are concerned. Sorry, Bunny, but what goes around comes around.

- It's just like this show to start off theming their characters around the Chinese zodiac, get distracted and briefly switch to the Western zodiac for Golden Ryan and Thomas Taurus, then add a character whose constellation namesake isn't even in a zodiac at all to the best of my knowledge - Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades - AND THEN add a third zodiac via Magical Cat. (The Vietnamese zodiac has a cat in place of the rat.)

- This show has always had an interesting take on the 'how do people in general feel about powers?' question, with the public seemingly enthusiastic only as long as it's the heroes with carefully-managed images that have them. There seems to be a lot less acceptance for Next when they're not safely contained on the TV. It looks like the second half of this season might dig into that tension even more - I certainly hope so. (I feel like Nathan in particular could have a lot to say about the 'people think you're cool as long as they don't actually have to shake your hand or live next door to you' situation, although who knows if that will be brought up.)

- Antonio is my favourite among the supporting cast - almost entirely due to the drama CDs - and I'm delighted that he's finally getting his due in terms of screen time. (He was originally meant to be killed off by Jake, and by the time the writers changed their minds about that the back half of the first season was too crowded with other storylines to give him much to do.) It's so nice to see him learning to be a good partner to Ivan, continuing to be a great friend to Kotetsu and looking after the newbies. Whether that means making sure they eat lunch or heroically flinging them out a window :D.

- I'll be interested to see where Lara's story goes from here. I wonder if her mother will have second thoughts about her being a superhero after she was beaten up on television and also graphically impaled a man on a fence. My guess is that Lara herself is going to be more determined to become a great hero after overcoming her almost-fatal case of nerves, although I'm not sure everyone else will feel the same. (I feel like the older heroes got so used to Pao-Lin being more sensible and mature than most of them that they expect the same from other fourteen-year-old kids and Lara is ... not quite there yet.)

- ... and speaking of teen girls, Kaede's conflict with her dad is handled really well here, as it was back in the first season before she knew about his job. It makes sense that she wants to follow in his footsteps and that Kotetsu simultaneously understands how hypocritical it is for him to oppose her and is terrified of her facing the same dangers he does on a daily basis. Looking forward to more of this later, hopefully.

- Yuri is lucky everyone in Stern Bild is slightly stupid, otherwise someone would surely have noticed him making that face when Lunatic is mentioned and/or setting stuff on fire in his office before now. I continue to love the tension of the team having a super sekrit thirteenth member even they don't know about, who is also sort of their enemy and also sort of their boss.

All in all, if you've got a Netflix account and like superheroes and/or buddy comedies where the supporting cast are more than window dressing, Tiger & Bunny is very much worth checking out. You've got plenty of time between now and October, when the rest of Season Two arrives ...