Thursday, May 19, 2011

Tiger & Bunny - ''The Wolf Knows What the Ill Beast Thinks''

Spoiler Level: High

We learn more about the strange new NEXT as he continues his killing spree, and the heroes of Hero TV try out figure out who he is and why he's doing it.

Who he is is Lunatic.  And why he's doing it is that question that has faced comic book super-heroes since the 80's and especially during the 90's-- Lunatic believes in his own brand of justice, where the bad guys deserve to die.

In that aspect this show has definitely turned into more of a straight-forward super hero show, with the reality TV show factor as more of an add-on. Although it is refreshing to note that, as a rogue "hero," Lunatic has no corporate sponsors.  This could be great material for a future episode, but I'm suspecting it won't even be mentioned.

The thing is, even before he's made himself public, Lunatic's attitude has already begun resonating with the people, as a young kid scoffs at Kotetsu for just arresting bad guys when he has the chance to kill them.  Kotetsu, ever the old school hero, balks at the concept, but it's one I've run into with comic fans plenty of times.  (For example, I used to work with a guy who also a comics fan.  We got along really well but liked completely different things.  He kept insisting that the Superman comics needed to have Lois Lane be murdered so that Superman could become darker and grimmer.  I always argued back that there's a zillion other characters out there for that already; the point of Superman is that he's the eternal role model, the one to look up to and aspire to be like.) While the attitude isn't as prevalent as it was in the 90's, it made enough of an impact on the comic book world that the argument will probably never go away, and I feel its becoming a part of the main story here reflects that.

As always, this episode is available to watch for free at http://www.vizanime.com/tiger-and-bunny.

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