Review for Tiger & Bunny Part 2 Blu-ray & DVD Combo Pack

Introduction

We got it first! Brilliant! Tiger & Bunny before the rest of the English speaking world! Kazé dished up their volume 1 of episodes before Viz could do it in the US, and Siren Visual could do it in Australia. We shouldn’t have celebrated though, as while we are getting Tiger & Bunny in 4 quarters, Siren and Viz release their respective discs in two halves. Kazé haven’t even set a date for the third part as yet, and by the time we get it, both Australia and US will have released the series in its entirety, and most likely started in on the Tiger & Bunny movies as well. Still, teeny-tiny instalments of anime dished out piecemeal in multiple volumes over a long period at extravagant prices. It almost makes you feel nostalgic...

The future has arrived, and with it the superheroes. Some forty years previously, genetic mutations started appearing in people, resulting in them developing strange powers. They were called NEXT, and some of them began using their powers to help people. They became the heroes that stopped crime and kept people safe. Today, in Stern Bild city, heroes are big business and indeed entertainment. Sponsored by major companies, they compete in a game show called Hero TV, trying to rack up as many points as possible as they go about their hero business to be crowned King of the Heroes each year. Of course being telegenic, and knowing just how to make an entrance are important as well.


Not so important to Wild Tiger, a.k.a. Kotetsu Kaburagi who got into the hero business for the old fashioned reason, to help people. He uses his ‘Hundred Power’, an ability that boosts his strengths 100-fold, but only for five minutes, to try and do good, but his enthusiasm usually leaves a lot of property damage in his wake. As a result he tends to slip down the rankings. It gets to the point where his sponsors pull out, and his manager quits. He’s got just one chance to redeem himself, and join a new corporation that is trying something new in the hero game. They’re establishing a hero team, a first for Hero TV, and Kotetsu will be sidekick to the hottest young thing on the block. Barnaby Brooks Jr. has the same powers as Wild Tiger, but that’s where the similarity ends. His approach to the superhero business is diametrically opposed to Kotetsu’s and he’s a lot more business-like and pragmatic in his attitudes. He’s also got a very personal and not at all altruistic reason for becoming a hero. Naturally they wind up butting heads on the first day on the job. They may not be much of a team, but at least the new suits look cool, and as long as Hero TV’s ratings go up, Wild Tiger may just hold onto his job. Previously on Tiger & Bunny, a new super-powered vigilante named Lunatic had appeared on the scene dispensing his own lethal form of justice. What’s more, his modus operandi was remarkably similar to the suspect behind the murders of Barnaby’s parents.

The next six episodes of Tiger & Bunny are presented in this combo collection from Kazé via Manga Entertainment. For your money, you get one Blu-ray disc, two DVD discs (splitting the episodes three-three), and some interesting physical extras in the box. For the purposes of this review, I watched the Blu-ray in Japanese, and the DVD in English.

8. There is always a next time.
9. Spare the rod and spoil the child.
10. The calm before the storm.
11. The die is cast.
12. Take heed of the snake in the grass.
13. Confidence is a plant of slow growth

The Blu-Ray

Six episodes are presented on this Blu-ray disc, at 1.78:1 aspect ratio at 1080p resolution, with the choice between PCM 2.0 Stereo Japanese accompanied by player forced subtitles and signs and PCM 2.0 stereo English with player forced text translations, but only on those episodes that require it. You can change the audio options from within an episode using the pop-up menu. The image is clear and sharp throughout, and is indicative of an HD show animated at lower than full HD resolution, and up-scaled to 1080p, as is the situation with most modern television anime. Colours are strong, the animation comes across with vibrancy at the intended frame rate, and detail levels are high, especially in the cityscape backgrounds. The audio also comes across with no issue, although once again we have an action-oriented show which really ought to have a surround audio track, but doesn’t. Digital banding is minimal, and you’ll have to actively seek it out if you want to nitpick about it.

The DVDs

Here you get two discs, with three episodes plus extras on one, and three episodes on the other. The image comes in PAL 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format, with the requisite 4% speed up due to differing frame rates. The image is clear and sharp throughout, and it’s a strong presentation from Kazé, with bold colours, well defined lines, and smooth animation that is visually free of compression signs. It’s as good as an SD anime disc can be assumed to look. The audio comes in DD 2.0 Surround English and Japanese, with player forced subtitles and signs. It’s here that the presentation takes a bit of a knock, as I heard some distinct clipping in the background music as associated with pitch correction. It’s enough to make the Blu-ray the preferred option, before even considering the higher resolution.

Picture

At first acquaintance, Tiger & Bunny is a very appealing visual experience. They’ve got the character designs just right, memorable and evocative of the genre. Should Sunrise wish to develop this world further, I could see this as an upstart challenger to the worlds of DC and Marvel, such are the varieties of superhero and supervillain in this show, so well portrayed are their abilities. Also Stern Bild is a suitably impressive Metropolis for this series, large scale and futuristic. The colours are impressive, the action sequences are brilliantly animated, and the way that corporate sponsorship is incorporated into the show is very well done. In this collection of episodes, there were fewer moments where characters drifted off model, or static scenes became obvious. There’s much greater consistency of production value across these episodes.

The images in this review are sourced from the PR materials, and aren’t necessarily representative of the final retail release.

Sound

While 5.1 audio would have been nice, the stereo does a great job in conveying the show’s action sequences, and makes the most of the music soundtrack which calls to mind classic superhero cartoons and TV shows. The dialogue is clear in both versions, and for the first time in quite a while, I gave equal attention to both English and Japanese audio, watching the show twice. Personally I prefer the Japanese audio, as for me Hiroaki Hirata, the Japanese voice actor behind Kotetsu puts a lot more dimension and nuance to the role. He delivers many different shades of sarcasm. In comparison Wally Wingert plays the role a lot more broadly. I’m also not too convinced by Barnaby’s pronunciation of Ouroboros in the English dub, as it fails to be consistent from one utterance to the next. However with this second collection of episodes, Steven Blum debuts as guest villain Jake Martinez, and he absolutely nails the role making it his own. He gives the playful flamboyance of the character an added layer of menace, and by doing so blows the original Japanese performance out of the water. I find my preference beginning to shift to the English dub.

It’s no surprise that for me Tiger and Bunny gets the best English dub an anime has seen in many a year. It’s as if they got the lee-way to do a proper adaptation for the US market, rather than sticking closely to Japanese expectations, which can scupper a dub. As a result the adaptation is looser, flows more easily and references 60 plus years of US comic book superhero heritage. Watch the dub version and you forget that you’re watching an anime, and it comes across as a US superhero cartoon.

Back to normal for Kazé’s subtitling! Episode 8 and we have Japanese text on screen, which are translated in the captions accompanying the English audio, but are left out of the subtitle stream accompanying the Japanese audio. And no subtitles for the theme songs once more.

Extras

Both the Blu-ray and DVDs present their content with animated menus. As always with Kazé, they are locked away from the user. If you are a hard of hearing English dub fan, who needs subtitles to back up the audio, you’re out of luck here, but given that the English dub translation is looser than usual for anime, it wouldn’t really help. The Blu-ray disc autoplays with a trailer for Bleach The Movie 4: Hellverse. DVD disc one autoplays Persona 4: The Animation and Code Geass trailers, while disc 2 autoplays trailers for the Bleach movie again and Persona 4.

Once more, the extra features are on the DVD only, so if you were thinking of buying the combo set for the Blu-ray, and selling on the DVDs as some people are apt to, think again.

What you get on DVD disc 1 is the UStream Mini Corner: Volume 1. A couple of soft toys, Usa and Tora present little segments that were extras released between the episodes, most lasting just 5 minutes, and offering brief soundbite interviews with the cast and crew. There are ten of the featurettes here running to a total of 53 minutes. Only the first five are chaptered if you are thinking of skipping through, the last five play as one big chunk. Also, Kazé’s subtitling suckitude really shines here, with none of the on-screen text or captions translated. Good luck guessing just who is speaking. Also white subtitles against white kanji are nigh on impossible to read.

Conclusion

We reach the halfway point of Tiger & Bunny with this collection, taking us up to episode 13. If there is one positive to come from Kazé’s release strategy in comparison to that of Viz and Siren, we do finish here at a logical point in the series. If you should feel so inclined, you could stop purchasing at volume 2 and leave it at that, although why you would want to after it gets so good is questionable. Pity the poor AU and US markets, whose Tiger & Bunny Part 1s ended at a cliff-hanger in episode 12. They were compelled to buy the second half just to see it resolved.

Once again, it’s obvious that this show really ought to be on television, it so caters for US and European sensibilities when it comes to animation. There’s very little of it that can be labelled as anime, especially in terms of style and localisation. You don’t need to know the anime shortcuts that years of experience of watching the stuff will have imbued in you. In fact you’d be better off with a healthy background in DC and Marvel comics to get you up to speed with the quirks and shortcuts of superheroes and supervillains.


The first part of Tiger & Bunny left us on quite a cliff-hanger, having introduced an ominous looking villain in the vengeful Lunatic, and also revealing Barnaby’s past, the murder of his parents and the whole reason behind him becoming a hero. The first episode in this collection continues that storyline, with the heroes having to do some serious PR to re-establish public trust. Wild Tiger and Barnaby are sent along with Origami Cyclone to the Hero Academy, a school for up and coming NEXT power users. This is an episode that looks at Origami Cyclone, a.k.a. Ivan and tells of his past, and his tendency to remain in the background. It turns out that he isn’t all that confident a hero, and that goes back to his own time at the Academy, and a fellow student who washed out. When that student shows up again, having escaped from prison, Lunatic appears as well.

At this point it looks as if Tiger & Bunny is beginning to stall. Certainly the whole Lunatic storyline is put on the backburner, and the subsequent two episodes look like the show is just spinning its wheels. The second episode on this set is the closest to typical anime that we get, following the staple of a baby being left in the charge of unsuspecting adults. Tiger & Bunny get to babysit, and when they don’t turn out to be very good at it, they recruit Dragon Kid, for whom this becomes something of a character episode. A kidnapping plot makes for the superhero storyline, but it is still something of a clichéd comedy episode.

The next episode is even more somnolent, in that it follows the heroes on their day off. Barnaby’s busy tracking down the killer of his parents, but Kotetsu gets the chance to actually go home and spend time with his daughter. First he has to go shopping for a cuddly toy as a gift, but it looks to be the slowest episode of the series so far. The clue’s in the title though, “The calm before the storm”, and this episode puts forth the most engaging, and entertaining storyline thus far. Barnaby spots the killer of his parents, Jake Martinez and learns that he’s been in prison for years. Kotetsu’s on his way home when a bridge blows up, heralding a concerted terrorist attack on the city. A group calling itself Ouroboros, the very same Ouroboros from Barnaby’s memories, is behind the terrorist attack, and they are holding the city hostage, demanding the release of their leader. That leader happens to be Jake Martinez.


Barnaby’s torn between his desire for revenge and his duty as a hero, Kotetsu’s trust in Barnaby begins to waver, and that uneasiness is reciprocated, the heroes are run ragged trying to deal with the attack, and when it becomes clear that Ouroboros hold the upper hand, the mayor has no choice but to capitulate to their demands. Of course Jake Martinez turns out to be an absolute psycho, a psycho with NEXT powers, and as soon as he’s out of prison, he has no intention of letting the hostages go. Instead he challenges all the heroes to fight him one on one, so that he can prove the superiority of genuine NEXT over government sponsored NEXT lackeys.

Jake Martinez is a great character, particularly in the English dub, and presents the toughest challenge yet for the heroes. It makes for a great climactic 3 episodes in this collection, a story that will keep you glued to the screen, especially given the rift that forms between Barnaby and Kotetsu during the story. It’s full of action, entertainment and excitement, as all good superhero stories should be. It comes down to the wire, and for the heroes to succeed, it will need Tiger & Bunny to move their partnership on to the next level.

This is a good enough spot to give up on Tiger & Bunny if you should feel so inclined. It’s the natural conclusion to the first half of the show, and the end of a very impressive story arc. But there are hints dropped for the second half, evidence of a conspiracy to destroy evidence when the heroes look for information on Jake Martinez that leaves enough of a question hanging to make you curious about whether it will be answered. But Part 3 will have to go some way to top that delicious and charismatic villainy of Jake Martinez.