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Definitely agree that one of the good things about this series is that "heroes but realistic" doesn't mean something sinister, like the heroes being secretly terrible or the real villains. They're just regular people whose jobs happen to be heroing. The sponsor thing is also very believable since they couldn't do it full-time without being independently wealthy, getting paid by the people they help, or having some sort of outside funding.

I like Kotetsu and Barnaby's relationship but I think Blue Rose's feelings for Wild Tiger are genuinely cute...although I never really thought about it before how the female heroes are all young compared to the guys, other than Origami Cyclone (who I think is in his 20's?) and the season 2 newbies (I haven't watched yet so I'm assuming from trailers) I guess.

Well, unless you count Fire Emblem as one of the girls like Fire Emblem does...

I haven't seen any Tiger & Bunny since the first season—what have they done about the Pepsi NEX sponsorship, given that Pepsi NEX hasn't existed since 2015?

(Being a man who hates his own body, I actually regularly drink zero-calorie Pepsi products, but keeping track of them in Japan makes me feel weirdly unhinged:
—in 2015 Pepsi NEX was replaced by Pepsi STRONG ZERO
—in 2018 Pepsi STRONG ZERO was gradually phased out in favor of Pepsi J-COLA Zero
—sometime in 2019 Pepsi J-COLA Zero was renamed "Pepsi JAPAN Cola ZERO"
—and last year Pepsi JAPAN Cola Zero was replaced by "Pepsi 生 ZERO" (pronounced "Pepsi NAMA Zero")
—...until just this year Pepsi 生 ZERO was relabeled based on its bottle size, so for example the 1,500ml bottle is "Pepsi 〈MEGA生ZERO〉"
Also this entire time there has been the zero-calorie "Pepsi SPECIAL" floating around, which is supposed to be healthier somehow and tastes like medicine. Also, some movie theaters, restaurants, and bars serve a fountain drink branded as simply, "Pepsi Zero," and I have no idea whether it's actually different or whether it's the same as whatever their current zero-calorie beverage is. I've never seen a company so adamantly opposed to consistent branding.)

Watching The Rising in a theater and seeing Fire Emblem's story play out was certainly a shock but in the best way possible.

The other fun toku note is that Kotetsu and Barnaby's CG suits are voiced by the same guy (Mark Ohkita) who voiced the tech for Kamen Rider Decade. Because anything tangentially related to Masahiro Inoue is Net Good

The Beginning does bother me sometimes with the way Kotetsu tries to get work for Barnaby without any proper resolution, something which was the point of Jake's weakpoint from the first tv series. I wouldn't recommend skipping the first tv series in favor of the movies because unlike almost every Gundam or Code Geass movies, they aren't retellings but an "extra arc". I really have no idea if the duo of Kotetsu and Barnaby are meant to be a gay couple but season 2 sure gives them such impression which I'm not gonna spoil (although the ending vid is just them staring at each other smiling). Did Sunrise ever reveal the characters' ages though? Barnaby appears to be older than what I thought. Then again, the entire second season focuses more on relationships than everything combined due to the whole new area.

Still, it was nice from the Rising to focus more on Fire Emblem. I feared the character would not age good something other famous Persona (especially 4) don't do. Even YuYu Hakusho aged kinda a bit poor with their jokes and one fighter.

The reason why Blue Rose and the rest are teenagers is because if any of the female heroes were age appropriate - or in one case an actual spoiler[human female instead of a robot] - they would be legitimate romantic interests for the male heroes. But the show obviously doesn't want to go that direction as it prefers to cultivate a yaoi fanbase that will endlessly do guy ships. An actual female romantic option would get in the way of that so none will ever appear on this show, just as no teen male is going to be in a yuri show like The Executioner and Her Way of Life (at least not for very long) just males too young or too old to be options.

It is also why Blue Rose is the only fanservice character. The target market wants to see handsome guys, not curvy girls. Blue Rose is an idol, which is not only a convenient reason for her only being a teen but her skimpy outfit is part of the "commercializing hero popularity" thing. Were the goal of her fanservice to actually draw viewers, Blue Rose's costume would be more akin to Momo in MHA or Darkness in KonoSuba than some garish skimpier Pretty Cure knockoff (not designed to appeal to guys) and instead of having a realistic teen girl body to the point of needing padding for her idol hero outfit she would look more like Yoko Littner of Gurren Lagaan or Jung Freud of Gunbuster.[/u]

thadec wrote:

The reason why Blue Rose and the rest are teenagers is because if any of the female heroes were age appropriate - or in one case an actual spoiler[human female instead of a robot] - they would be legitimate romantic interests for the male heroes. But the show obviously doesn't want to go that direction as it prefers to cultivate a yaoi fanbase that will endlessly do guy ships.

1. Blue Rose's canonically existing romantic feelings for Kotetsu already make her a "legitimate" romantic option as far as fandom goes. There are people who ship Blue Rose with Kotetsu, even though it's never going to happen in canon, so there's that.
2. Yes, she has a crush on an older man while being a teenager herself. When did this stop anyone from shipping - hell, when did this stop anime/manga writers? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3. Adult female characters are only "legitimate" (=canon) love interests for dudes if the writing treats them as such. Which is not necessarily the case. Even this show could have (and does, in fact, have) adult female characters who are not love interests for any of the male characters.
4. Even if Blue Rose was older and/or was treated as a canon love interest, you do realize that fans have been happily ignoring canon female love interests in favor of their preferred m/m ships since the beginning of time, right? Very Happy

I mean, obviously there's never going to be an actual female love interest for any of the two main characters, for obvious reasons (we're supposed to ship Barnaby & Kotetsu). But let's just keep things in perspective.

thadec wrote:

But the show obviously doesn't want to go that direction as it prefers to cultivate a yaoi fanbase that will endlessly do guy ships.

IIRC the creator has gone on record stating that he didn't intend for TxB to be a thing, but he understands why it's happening and isn't going to stop anyone, nor should he.

Curiously the writer is famous for tokusatsu, Masafumi Nishida, who remained for the entire franchise unlike the director Satou. The producer Masayuki Ozaki was interviewed by ANN once and was revealed to be a creator too. The staff never mentioned romance as far as I recalled but the merchandising they get away with is quite NSFW.

If I remember well Ozaki said that the series would be only aimed towards adults based on Kotetsu's character but the addition of multiple supporting characters seems to have been made to appeal to a wider audience. Season 2 even introduces a magic girl.

thadec wrote:

The reason why Blue Rose and the rest are teenagers is because if any of the female heroes were age appropriate - or in one case an actual spoiler[human female instead of a robot] - they would be legitimate romantic interests for the male heroes. But the show obviously doesn't want to go that direction as it prefers to cultivate a yaoi fanbase that will endlessly do guy ships. An actual female romantic option would get in the way of that so none will ever appear on this show, just as no teen male is going to be in a yuri show like The Executioner and Her Way of Life (at least not for very long) just males too young or too old to be options.

It is also why Blue Rose is the only fanservice character. The target market wants to see handsome guys, not curvy girls. Blue Rose is an idol, which is not only a convenient reason for her only being a teen but her skimpy outfit is part of the "commercializing hero popularity" thing. Were the goal of her fanservice to actually draw viewers, Blue Rose's costume would be more akin to Momo in MHA or Darkness in KonoSuba than some garish skimpier Pretty Cure knockoff (not designed to appeal to guys) and instead of having a realistic teen girl body to the point of needing padding for her idol hero outfit she would look more like Yoko Littner of Gurren Lagaan or Jung Freud of Gunbuster.[/u]

While I don't doubt that this is the reason why they will probably never go deep into female fanservice or pairing either of the leads with women now, it should be noted that this was never the original intention. It's been a long while now and some people just weren't there during the heyday of the T&B fandom, but it was a complete shock from both staff and audiences that this show became a huge hit with fujoshi. T&B was considered a risk to produce since it was being targeted to a niche audience (middle aged Japanese men who liked nerdy stuff, but wasn't into modern day anime tropes) and the fear that they'd be unable to attract a female secondary audience because back then, it was assumed women were not into older looking anime men (and specifically that they thought anime men with beards were gross, lol). Remember, S1 aired during a pre-Free! era when a lot of people in the industry believed in the sexist myth that female otaku did not spend as much money as men did, and no one was expecting women to be the ones carrying T&B's success on their backs. I believe the pivot to catering towards the fujoshi audience happened as the show was still airing, so there's really no way to tell what the original direction was at this point.

Okay, as someone who is complete villain trash for this series, how much does the condensed version of the plot in The Beginning go into Lunatik's backstory?

vashfanatic wrote:

Okay, as someone who is complete villain trash for this series, how much does the condensed version of the plot in The Beginning go into Lunatik's backstory?

No. That character is not explored in the Beginning. This movie is an alternate first story arc about how the cast met.

I don't remember well Lunatic's episodes but in season 1 but in season 2 spoiler[he kinda feels underused sometimes or just used for comedic purposes.]

Quote:

I prefer to see it as a "hero crush" rather than just being hot for a single dad

It is 100% Single Dad Thirst.

thadec wrote:

The reason why Blue Rose and the rest are teenagers is because if any of the female heroes were age appropriate - or in one case an actual spoiler[human female instead of a robot] - they would be legitimate romantic interests for the male heroes. But the show obviously doesn't want to go that direction as it prefers to cultivate a yaoi fanbase that will endlessly do guy ships. An actual female romantic option would get in the way of that so none will ever appear on this show, just as no teen male is going to be in a yuri show like The Executioner and Her Way of Life (at least not for very long) just males too young or too old to be options.

It is also why Blue Rose is the only fanservice character. The target market wants to see handsome guys, not curvy girls. Blue Rose is an idol, which is not only a convenient reason for her only being a teen but her skimpy outfit is part of the "commercializing hero popularity" thing. Were the goal of her fanservice to actually draw viewers, Blue Rose's costume would be more akin to Momo in MHA or Darkness in KonoSuba than some garish skimpier Pretty Cure knockoff (not designed to appeal to guys) and instead of having a realistic teen girl body to the point of needing padding for her idol hero outfit she would look more like Yoko Littner of Gurren Lagaan or Jung Freud of Gunbuster.[/u]

Oh no! There isn't an endless parade of female characters with big boobs and short skirts screaming the MC's name + kun every five minutes, what is this tragedy that has befallen us??? This is clearly a plot to appeal to the evil fujoshi and deprive us of all of our favorite manly stuff! ...Even though if Barnaby or Kotetsu were female you'd be shipping the living daylights out of them and wouldn't even think to complain about it. After all, you just equaled the mere existence of an age appropriate female character with a default love interest.

Seriously now, there are like a dozen isekais every season with girls hanging from the MC like grapes on a vine, and some people can't even let us enjoy watching a healthy relationship between two male leads in peace that's not even outright romantic without screaming "fujoshi bait!", because the mere thought that some of the audience would have legitimate reasons to ship it drives them nuts. Let's not kid ourselves, Kotetsu and Barnaby will never canonically be a thing. And even if we consider their relationship bait-y, I'd rather have just that and not combined with a forced female love interest on the side who is planted there only to provide comfort to insecure men and assure them that no, really, it's straight, the bad fujoshis don't know what they're talking about, they can't hurt you with their... thoughts. Rolling Eyes

Which is largely the main reason why Blue Rose is depicted as having a crush on Kotetsu at all. It serves nothing else narratively other than 'pretty girl of the series has the obligatory crush on MC'. Otherwise, it's completely unnecessary.

Because someone else asked about ages, Kotetsu is 36-38, Barnaby is 26-28 and Blue Rose is 16-18. (source: Tiger & Bunny wikia)

vashfanatic wrote:

Okay, as someone who is complete villain trash for this series, how much does the condensed version of the plot in The Beginning go into Lunatik's backstory?

The Beginning is the first two episodes with tiny bit of extra scenes + a new scenario for the rest of the movie. We see him as spoiler[Judge Yuri Petrov] but Lunatic didn't appear until episode 6 of season 1.