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Tiger & Bunny 2 Sequel Unveils Anime Character Designs, New Hero Suits

The live-streamed "HERO TV presents Anniversary Special Program" unveiled the final anime character designs and new hero suits from the Tiger & Bunny 2 sequel on Saturday. The event described the new hero suits, designed by original franchise designer Masakazu Katsura, as "Style 3."

To celebrate the franchise's 10th anniversary, BN Pictures' YouTube channel will stream the first television series for free, every Saturday at 8:00 p.m. (7:00 EDT) starting on April 10. The two main cast members Hiroaki Hirata and Masakazu Morita will appear in weekly interview segments after each episode.

The virtual community service V Residence will present a Sternbild City area in which users can "live" on Sunday. The service will offer an exclusive original story for its residents in Sternbild City, which will include Tiger, Barnaby, and other heroes.

The LAWSON chain of convenience store will begin offering a limited number of Tiger & Bunny Look Strawberry & Banana sweets and Tiger & Bunny Vanilla Latte ("for Adults") on Tuesday, and the online shops of LAWSON, the Loppi service, and HMV & Books will offer a set of three A4 clear file folders and four different acrylic stands. While supplies last, anyone who buys two of these items will receive one of three exclusive clear file folders.

Tokyo's indoor theme park NAMJATOWN will host a "Tiger & Bunny 10th Anniversary in NAMJATOWN" event, featuring exclusive illustrations of the characters in new outfits to be revealed later. Tokyo's Ginza Mitsukoshi department store will hold a collaboration event with exclusive art and limited goods in late August.

The new anime will premiere in 2022, and will tell a new story set after the events of the Tiger & Bunny The Movie -The Rising- anime film.

A full list of returning cast members so far includes:

• Hiroaki Hirata as Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger
• Masakazu Morita as Barnaby Brooks Jr.
• Minako Kotobuki as Karina Lyle/Blue Rose
• Taiten Kusunoki as Antonio Lopez/Rock Bison
• Mariya Ise as Pao-Lin Huang/Dragon Kid
• Kenjiro Tsuda as Nathan Seymour/Fire Emblem
• Gō Inoue as Keith Goodman/Sky High
• Nobuhiko Okamoto as Ivan Karelin/Origami Cyclone

Mitsuko Kase (Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory) is directing the new anime at Bandai Namco Pictures. Masafumi Nishida is returning to handle series composition, and Masakazu Katsura is returning to design the characters.

The original Tiger & Bunny television anime series centers around heroes for hire — super powered beings known as NEXT who wear sponsor logos while fighting crime on live television.

Keiichi Satou (Karas director, The Big O character/mechanical designer) directed the anime, and Masafumi Nishida (live-action Kaibutsu-kun) wrote and oversaw the scripts. Manga artist Masakazu Katsura (Video Girl Ai, DNA², I''s, Zetman), a well-known fan of Batman and other superhero comics, created the original character designs.

The 2011 anime series spawned two anime movies: Tiger & Bunny the Movie: The Beginning in 2012 and Tiger & Bunny The Movie -The Rising- in 2014. Viz released the television series, the films, and the tie-in manga in North America.

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment are producing a live-action Hollywood film adaptation of the anime. All Nippon Entertainment Works CEO Sandy Climan and Bandai Namco Pictures' Masayuki Ozaki are also producing the film project. Imagine Entertainment President Erica Huggins is overseeing the project. The producers have hired Ellen Shanman as a scriptwriter. The film's studio Global Road Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware in September 2018. The filing affects the company's film division, but its sales and television divisions will continue to operate.

Source: "HERO TV presents Anniversary Special Program" stream