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Digital
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Friday, 23 September 2011 14:26 |
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It's been a while since I watched a series that featured a middle-aged guy as its lead, but her we are. Meet Kotetsu Kaburagi, who leads an undercover life as Wild Tiger, the Crusher for Justice and one of the stars of HeroTV - and who's about to find himself landed with a new partner that he really doesn't want...
The city of Stern Bild is protected by corporate superheroes known as NEXT, who fight crime while promoting their sponsors on the popular show HeroTV. Veteran hero Wild Tiger relies on his years of experience and instincts to fight crime, but his tendency to destroy public property for the sake of protecting the lives of the innocent has earned him the nickname "Crusher for Justice". Now, under orders from his new employer, Wild Tiger finds himself forced to team up with another hero, something he'd rather not do.
That new partner is Barnaby - unique amongst HeroTV's heroes in fighting under his real name, and making no secret of his aim: to find the person responsible for killing his parents while he was still a child, and to bring them to justice. Noble motives, to be sure, but while Kotetsu is the sort of hero who tends to just wing it, Barnaby is more one for playing by the rules - and their wildly different personalities mean that they really just don't get on.
And while they're trying to learn the meaning of the word "teamwork", there are two emerging threats that the heroes are going to have to deal with - rogue NEXT Lunatic, who dispenses his own brand of rather terminal justice to criminals, instead of bothering with waiting for the courts; and criminal underworld organisation Ouroboros, whose influence on Stern Bild turns out to be far greater than anyone imagined...
So, middle aged male leads. Last shows I saw that had them were Zone of the Ender: Dolores, i and Legend of Black Heaven, and they're both going back a few years, so out of the block Tiger and Bunny gives the impression that it's trying to buck some recent trends. It's also jumped eagerly on the sponsorship bandwagon, with the outfits that the show's heroes were all festooned with the logos of real companies that have payed real money for the privilege - and with the animation sequences making sure that those logos get a good amount of airtime (still not going to make me buy Pepsi, though). Let's just say it'll never get on UK TV, as Ofcom would have 10 sorts of kittens.
Just as well there aren't the same advertising restrictions on advertising on streamed shows, then, as it's really rather good. Tiger and Bunny make an interesting pair, and the series takes the time to create quite a lot of mystery around Ouroboros that paint it as a real threat, not just a bogeyman under the stairs. The way the relationship between Kotetsu and Barnaby develops, from hostility through grudging acceptance and trust to true friendship, feels right - time is taken over it, it doesn't feel as though it "just happened" because the story required it. And when the series gets into the important stuff, it throws in enough believable plot twists to keep to glues to the screen, never certain as to what will happen next.
The other heroes are a decent bunch, too. There's Blue Rose, mistress of ice and a high-school wannabe pop star; Sky High, bests of the bunch in the air; Dragon Kid, a young martial arts expert; Origami Cyclone, with impressive powers of disguise; and more. All interesting to watch, all with their own episode in the early season to help you get to know them... but then all sadly neglected for most of the series, which is a bit of a shame, they're a promising enough group that I wanted to see more of them.
There's also the feeling that the show's popularity caught it on the hop and, with plans for a second season currently being cobbled together, some storylines that probably could have been tied up in this season were instead put on hold to keep over for a second season - most noticeably Lunatic, who at the series mid-point seems set to be the Big Bad, but who is then disappointingly relegated to bit-player for the second half. That's my impression, rather than a statement of fact, but I'll be very surprised if Lunatic doesn't feature heavily in a second season.
But while there are flaws here, there's really not a hell of a lot to gripe about. The characters are likeable and enjoyable to watch, the world of the series is well-realised and, while dealing with a subject that you'd expect to see more from the pages of an American comic than a Japanese anime, still manages to keep its appeal amongst anime fans who normally shun such 'crossover' ideas. When it first appeared, I wasn't at all convinced that it was going to be my sort of thing (the daft name and bad CG animation not helping first impressions), but it didn't take long to get its hooks into me, and kept them securely in for the full run. One of this year's real surprises, and well worth seeing.
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