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US Premiere: Tiger & Bunny 4: Fear is often greater than the danger.




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Maur



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 55
Location: SLC - Not Quite NYC
PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 4:57 pm Reply with quote
The last episode lagged behind a little but this episode picked up the slack. The steady parallels between the duo are endearing and their different takes on things (like the purpose of 'heroes' and 'hope') make for masterful sprinklings of humor. I can't emphasize enough the deft and tact needed to not get too heavy handed with drama or comedy, but I feel this show really pulls it off. The culmination of the episode with that last shot of Blue Rose was uplifting and meaningful, not just for the character but for the audience as well.

P.S. - I also really love their choices for episode titles, though I'm not sure they necessarily have anything to do with the episodes they're attached to.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 5:16 pm Reply with quote
Anybody else notice how all the characters suddenly went off-model in the wide shots at the gym? That must be some awful lightning they have there. Wink

I'm still enjoying this show a lot. I think the episode titles do have something to do with each episode, particularly for episode 3, where it refers to the line they made Kotestu say about how he and Barnaby make a good team... which is shaping up to be true. I'm not sure whose fears this episode refers to (Karina's? her father's?) but I did find it interesting that the equivalent Japanese saying they give with this episode literally means something like "giving birth is easier than worrying."
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Maur



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
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Location: SLC - Not Quite NYC
PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 11:07 pm Reply with quote
Well I'd definitely be interested in seeing some more interpretations of how the titles play into the developments of the episodes. You know, from the father's perspective the title makes more sense so who knows, you might be right.
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Saturn



Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 513
PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:38 am Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
Anybody else notice how all the characters suddenly went off-model in the wide shots at the gym? That must be some awful lightning they have there. Wink


yeah, I noticed that too! Actually I noticed a pretty significant slip in animation quality for this ep-- but apparently a lot of people noticed it in the last ep too, and I never did. Anyway this ep was a little dull in my opinion-- not enough Kotetsu, and he's the life of the party! Anyway next week's looks like it's gonna be good Very Happy
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Echo_City



Joined: 03 Apr 2011
Posts: 1236
PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 3:17 pm Reply with quote
Wow, that episode was ridiculously boring. You could predict the ending a mile away Sad

The gym shot showing the heroes fraternizing without their disguises should have been shown in ep 3, to fully establish that the heroes all knew each other in their personal lives.

Though why do the heroes fraternize, it wouldn't seem like something their sponsors would want (Hero cabal, perhaps?), and they don't seem to encourage it, as seen in this episode?

What was up with the civilian armored car having a turret? They say that the civilian car had to arm itself because "that's how dangerous this town has become", which makes no sense as a city full of crime-fighting superheroes should be safer by all accounts. Though a safer city is a city that doesn't watch Hero TV as religiously, which is bad for ratings. Will it be revealed that the TV company is responsible for this illogical uptick in crime? That'd be a nice twist, but I doubt it will happen in a show like this Crying or Very sad

Also, Hero TV must be a PITA to watch, as all the major events (live crime reporting) happen at unpredictable hours. It must be hellish being another TV channel, as you never know when your program will suddenly be competing against the rating monolith Hero TV.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:12 am Reply with quote
Saturn wrote:
yeah, I noticed that too! Actually I noticed a pretty significant slip in animation quality for this ep-- but apparently a lot of people noticed it in the last ep too, and I never did.

It sort of goes off and on; they seem to focus on close-ups and action scenes for the high-quality animation (budgets to keep and all that), but that scene was particularly noticeable.
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Saturn



Joined: 08 Aug 2002
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 2:47 pm Reply with quote
Echo_City wrote:
Wow, that episode was ridiculously boring. You could predict the ending a mile away Sad

The gym shot showing the heroes fraternizing without their disguises should have been shown in ep 3, to fully establish that the heroes all knew each other in their personal lives.

Though why do the heroes fraternize, it wouldn't seem like something their sponsors would want (Hero cabal, perhaps?), and they don't seem to encourage it, as seen in this episode?

What was up with the civilian armored car having a turret? They say that the civilian car had to arm itself because "that's how dangerous this town has become", which makes no sense as a city full of crime-fighting superheroes should be safer by all accounts. Though a safer city is a city that doesn't watch Hero TV as religiously, which is bad for ratings. Will it be revealed that the TV company is responsible for this illogical uptick in crime? That'd be a nice twist, but I doubt it will happen in a show like this Crying or Very sad

Also, Hero TV must be a PITA to watch, as all the major events (live crime reporting) happen at unpredictable hours. It must be hellish being another TV channel, as you never know when your program will suddenly be competing against the rating monolith Hero TV.


The flippant answer about "how dangerous the city has become" really screams "this is a setup!" to me-- but then I've been with the camp of "the TV station is behind it all" since early on, and I won't be surprised if it's true. Especially since the heroes seem to get along, more or less, behind the scenes (I agree, the timing of this revelation is a little weird, but I'm going to trust that there's logic behind it before making a judgment). And ALSO especially since crime rarely happens in prime-time-- the station has to be scheduling this stuff, at least in part Wink
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Echo_City



Joined: 03 Apr 2011
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:18 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
And ALSO especially since crime rarely happens in prime-time-- the station has to be scheduling this stuff, at least in part
Though looking back at these 4 episodes, I'm not sure that all the crimes did happen during prime time. Episodes 1 & 3 had crimes at night, while the other episodes were during the day, or as evening started to fall. While the show has utterly failed to flesh out its world (Still!), they did hint that when crime is not occurring, Hero TV airs promo material, like the "Barnaby Behind the Scenes" footage, so there is plausible doubt that the TV show schedules crime.

A revelation that the TV show fosters crime for its own ends is what I want, but I still doubt it will happen. If it does happen, I predict they'll royally screw it up by trying to put a hammy "corporations are evil" spin on it. On this, if the show does try to say that Hero TV is pulling the strings on crime, then they need to get some foreshadowing in here so it doesn't feel like a cop-out.

As was mentioned before, I predict the "evolution" of the show will be for someone to sponsor a Super Villain. So far this is just a rebadging of the generic shounen formula (as are a fair number of shows this season), and a "super villain" is more in line with that then some sort of plot twist.

Perhaps we both want this show to be deeper, and better, than it actually is. Excellent & profound shows that didn't have to rely on pandering came out in prior seasons, why not this one? Sad
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sburstall



Joined: 02 Nov 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:14 am Reply with quote
Echo_City wrote:
Quote:
And ALSO especially since crime rarely happens in prime-time-- the station has to be scheduling this stuff, at least in part
Though looking back at these 4 episodes, I'm not sure that all the crimes did happen during prime time. Episodes 1 & 3 had crimes at night, while the other episodes were during the day, or as evening started to fall. While the show has utterly failed to flesh out its world (Still!), they did hint that when crime is not occurring, Hero TV airs promo material, like the "Barnaby Behind the Scenes" footage, so there is plausible doubt that the TV show schedules crime.

A revelation that the TV show fosters crime for its own ends is what I want, but I still doubt it will happen. If it does happen, I predict they'll royally screw it up by trying to put a hammy "corporations are evil" spin on it. On this, if the show does try to say that Hero TV is pulling the strings on crime, then they need to get some foreshadowing in here so it doesn't feel like a cop-out.

As was mentioned before, I predict the "evolution" of the show will be for someone to sponsor a Super Villain. So far this is just a rebadging of the generic shounen formula (as are a fair number of shows this season), and a "super villain" is more in line with that then some sort of plot twist.

Perhaps we both want this show to be deeper, and better, than it actually is. Excellent & profound shows that didn't have to rely on pandering came out in prior seasons, why not this one? Sad

It does seem more than convenient that the superheroes just happen to be close-by when the crimes occur. There is definately something going on in the background.

If you look except for the kid who can control inanimate objects, they supers haven't run into any supervillians. I hope there are some so it gives the impression that not all NEXTs are in it for the publicity.
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Echo_City



Joined: 03 Apr 2011
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:35 pm Reply with quote
Quote:

If you look except for the kid who can control inanimate objects, they supers haven't run into any supervillians. I hope there are some so it gives the impression that not all NEXTs are in it for the publicity.
We've already had over 60 minutes of show, and they haven't developed the world past normal shounen fare, I have doubts. I hope that they are unfounded, but I'm not holding my breath.

Though aren't all the "developed" NEXTs designed to show us that they aren't Heroes for the publicity? Tiger is a hero out of idealism and altruism, Barnaby is a hero to track down his parents killer (he accepts the publicity, but he doesn't embrace it, he's apathetic), and even Blue Rose had a change of heart at the end of the last episode.

I'd hope for a plot twist along the lines of the Hero TV program orchestrating crime for ratings, but we're 1/3rd of the way through the show IIRC, and there has been no foreshadowing. If they do decide to take the plot in that direction, it will end up feeling rushed and halfhearted (as so many one-season shows have). Maybe even employing a time skip, a horrible cop out. I saw Jyu Oh Sei and Naruto (shudder), and that's enough for me.

I'm betting on the cheesy supervillain, it'd fit. Come to think of it, even a super villain could be a device employed to make this show deeper, but I doubt it. This isn't Ergo Proxy, this is rebadged Bleach/Naruto.
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Saturn



Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 513
PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:58 pm Reply with quote
I dunno, sponsoring a superhero sounds like a bad idea from a corporate standpoint-- an antihero might work, those are always popular, so perhaps we'll see a "bad" good guy pop up, but no company would actually sponsor a bad guy. The only options in those scenarios would be 1) a company sponsors a good guy who later goes bad (in which case, wouldn't they drop him like a rock?) or 2) a puppet company is created solely for the purpose of sponsoring the bad guy.

I think if a super villain shows up s/he'd be more likely to be sponsored by the network (covertly) than a company.

Anyway, is this really only a 12 episode show? :\ damnit! But if they pace it correctly they could still work in an over-arching plot. And by "pace it correctly" I mean, "don't make any more eps like last week, which was predictable and added very little by way of important information about major characters". There are several heroes, so if they plan to devote an episode to each one, they're going to run out of time long before they can successfully build a story arc.
(Having said all that though, maybe there's not going to *be* one: it could be that the only ongoing story other than Barnaby and Kotetsu falling in love-- I mean, learning to get along-- is Barnaby's parents' deaths, and the rest of the show will be one-off stories about minor villains.)
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garfield15



Joined: 06 Apr 2009
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 5:55 pm Reply with quote
Echo_City wrote:

we're 1/3rd of the way through the show

No. This is a 2-cour series. 24/26 episodes

Echo_City wrote:
I'm betting on the cheesy supervillain, it'd fit. Come to think of it, even a super villain could be a device employed to make this show deeper, but I doubt it.

There's a supervillain in the opening song

Echo_City wrote:

This isn't Ergo Proxy, this is rebadged Bleach/Naruto.

It's none of those things and is not trying to be any of those things.
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:56 am Reply with quote
I've thought that the TV people were behind all (or most of) the crime from ep 1. Agnes (the main producer) is a very shady character. The way she checked her watch before the bomb went off in ep 3 seemed like plenty of foreshadowing to my eyes, but one can argue that I'm just finding clues because I'm looking for them, I suppose.

In any case, I take that as a given, and am just wondering if any of the heroes are working with the show to make sure that there is enough crime for good ratings. So far, it doesn't seem like it, but I have suspicions about weather Barnaby (AKA Bunny-chan, or "pretty-boy Batman," as far as his been-there, done-that backstory is concerned) is being manipulated in any way to make the crime "flow" better, weather he realizes it or not.

I like how much fun they are poking at American superheroes and celebrity culture in general, but I want it to be even more twisted. I hate that the endings have been both predictable and sappy so far.

This hasn't devolved into anything close to a super predictable shonen show so far, as far as I can tell. (Echo_City, where are you getting those vibes from?)

But even without a mind-bending twist, this show will be groundbreaking if it could keep any possible forms of shipping out of its plot for its whole run! When was the last time you saw a mainstream show without a love interest or HoYay? That, in and of itself, would be an accomplishment! Wink
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Saturn



Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 513
PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2011 2:29 am Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
When was the last time you saw a mainstream show without a love interest or HoYay? That, in and of itself, would be an accomplishment! Wink


this show is overflowing with so much hoyay that it's reached epic proportions by episode 5, friend :p
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