Tiger & Bunny

Episodes 17-19

Other episodes have focused on hero or another and the personal matters that they have to deal with related to being a hero, but episode 17 marks the first episode devoted entirely to Kotetsu's personal life. (Bits and pieces of his have been shown before in other episodes, but not a concentrated amount.) In other words, Kotetsu leaves Stern Bild City for his hometown: a place out in the boondocks called Orient Town, where his daughter Kaede lives with Kotetsu's mother.

Kaede did, of course, appear in person back in episode 2, where, ironically, she became a fan of Barnaby, but this time she's as much as the center of what's going on as Kotetsu is. Kotetsu is considering quitting the hero business since he cannot deny anymore that his powers are fading, and this episode finally shows why he's been reluctant to do so even though it means being separated from Kaede: his wife specifically told him before she died to not stop being a hero. That puts Kotetsu in an even more difficult position than he's ever been in; Kaede is acting out against him and panicking over a relatively minor health issue by her grandmother because she worries about being left behind, so he has strong impetus to go against his wife's wishes and retire. Even though he's been flaky about keeping his promises, he clearly values his relationship with his daughter.

The problem is that Kotetsu is too wishy-washy about all of this. Some of the tension with Kaede is her being childishly unfair, but his reluctance to share and show as little hesitation on his personal issues as he does when being Wild Tiger are bringing a lot of the grief upon himself. An additional complication also arises: Kaede is starting to manifest her own NEXT powers, and while she initially seems to have inherited her father's, she can actually copy the powers of other next she encounters. The trigger conditions are as-yet unclear – does it require just proximity, or physical contact? – but copy powers always wind up being important, so this will likely have some impact in the big picture down the line.

When Kotetsu returns to Stern Bild in episode 18, the “big picture” is starting to firm up. Karina's crush on Kotetsu is now evident to everyone but Kotetsu (and Barnaby, who's not around to witness it), but that's a minor factor compared to what is going on with Barnaby. In fact, after the first few minutes of episode 18, the other heroes entirely disappear into the background for both episodes 18 and 19. Jake's girlfriend Kriem finally wakes up, explains her tragic backstory and how she hooked up with Jake, and provides the pivotal revelation that Jake couldn't have been the one to kill Barnaby's parents because he was busy kidnapping and trying to ransom her on that exact day. File footage proves that Jake didn't have the Ouroboros tattoo, and thus Barnaby's memories become a mess – all at the same time that Kotetsu is looking for the right time to tell Barnaby that he's retiring. Though Kotetsu resolves that he cannot retire until he helps Barnaby through this, Barnaby of course finds out about Kotetsu's intentions the wrong way, and suddenly the two are on the outs again. Kotetsu may be a screw-up, but Barnaby is such a drama queen himself! Unfortunately, that leaves Barnaby even more vulnerable to what comes next.

That leads to the real truth of the matter finally being revealed in episode 19 in grand super-villain reveal fashion: the real mastermind here is Maverick. He's really a NEXT with memory-altering powers, and was responsible for killing Barnaby's parents because they were getting wise to his plans about staging crimes for his heroes to resolve to legitimize the heroes – and thus, of course, build ratings for his newly-founded Hero TV. In other words, the whole current system is founded on unscrupulous actions.

That's a doozy of a plot twist, but still pretty much par for the course for super-hero-based titles. It also means that manipulative trouble of some kind is coming Kotetsu's way, as Barnaby is about to have his memory messed with again. The way a lot of this is paced and stage, especially in the climactic final scene of episode 19 where Maverick reveals his ability and how he's going to use it again, is some of the series' finest content, with both music and visuals setting the ominous tone very effectively. This also delivers the series' biggest episode-ending cliffhanger to date. The Jake Martinez terrorism was a more straightforward case, but now the enemy is a lot more insidious.

Rating (episodes 17 and 18): 4
Rating (episode 19): 4.5

Tiger & Bunny is currently streaming on Viz.com and Hulu.