HomeAnimeTiger & Bunny: The Beginning - Anime Review

Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning – Anime Review

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Tiger & Bunny was one of the first anime in Siren Visual’s short lived simulcast line of titles, and in my First Impressions review I described the series as showing me that there was still more for the Super Hero genre to offer. This carried over to my review of the full series earlier this year which walked away with a coveted S-Grade review and to date still has a pretty high chance of walking away as my Australian Anime Release of the Year 2013.

Storyline

While animation studio Sunrise seem hesitant about committing themselves to another TV series despite leaving a considerable opening for a second one, they have in the near future decided to release a couple of feature length OVA episodes to fill in the void. While the second film is set to contain an all new plot, the first one which has just been released on DVD and Blu-ray internationally contains a mixture of recapping events and a brand new “case” added to the end of it.

Unfortunately the first half of the hour and a half long OVA episode is dedicated to only the first two episodes of the TV series, meaning that very little of the original episodes were cut in the process. To make up for this decision, they do throw in a few new scenes focusing on content that was delved into during the later episodes of the series including the traumatic events of Barnaby’s childhood and a scene involving Kotetsu and his wife. While it does actually serve as a solid introduction to the series for those who want a sampler before diving into the full Tiger & Bunny experience, if you are familiar with the series then there is nothing much of note to say about this episode.

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Things begin to pick up when they move on to the new case where Sternbild City has befallen under attack by another notorious villain named Robin Baxter, who has been involved in a string of thefts around the world and has evaded capture every time. With a mysterious NEXT ability, the super heroes are forced to not only work against each other to win points, but with each other to ensure that he doesn’t make away with a particularly treasured icon of the city. This extra case plays to the true strength of the series, that the super heroes with their different niche abilities are not always able to work as lone wolves and that there is a lot more ground work then just nabbing the perp.

While the first half of this OVA episode isn’t necessary for those who have already watched the TV series, the latter half focusing on the new case was pretty well done in terms of storyline even if it didn’t directly contribute to the overarching plotline. If anything it could be considered simple fun and allowed them to show a little bit more of what captivated the attention of myself and I am sure others in the first place – which was lost to some degree when they went down the Ouroboros storyline route.

Design / Music / Voice Acting

The biggest concern that I had when they decided to more or less copy and paste elements of the TV series into this OVA episode was that all the new content may not live up to the standards that studio Sunrise originally set. Fortunately the visual style remains consistent across the board, and once again the amalgamation of traditional anime style visuals and CGI animation complement each other very well.

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While a majority of the music in the episode has carried over from the TV series, there is a brand new opening and closing sequence as well as a new insert song “Promise” performed by Rihwa. The new themes “Earth Diver” and “Linear Blue wo Kikinagara” by NOVELS and UNISON SQUARE GARDEN respectively are solid, and are up to the average / above-average standards set by their four original counterparts.

While I will admit both dubs produced for Tiger & Bunny are excellent, as someone who grew up watching English-dubbed super hero cartoons I still feel that my preferences lie with the new English dub which Viz Media once again enlisted STUDIOPOLIS to produce. The entire cast reprises their voice roles and still go at their roles with gusto. While only having a couple of voice roles under his belt over the years, Jason Spisak did a solid performance of the eccentric new villain Robin Baxter.

Extra Content

While the North American release of Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning came with a wealth of extra on-disc content, Siren Visual’s Australian release contains none of the extra content – not even clean opening and ending sequences which you would expect are staples for any release. This is a shame considering what was up for grabs:

World Premiere Event, USTREAM Special Digest, Production Art, Special Pilot Trailer, Pilot Trailer Preview, Promotional Video, Commerical Collection, Theater Commericals, Weekly Hero Countdown, Clean Opening, Clean Ending.

[Source: Rightstuf]

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Final Words on Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning

While its content holds true to its title, at a price point of $34.95 AUD on DVD I would have been expecting at least a selection of extra content present in its North American release. This is in addition to half the OVA being dedicated to footage that was present in the full release which is now available for purchase as a complete collection from Siren Visual for $69.95 AUD. But putting that aside, Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning does serve as a strong entry point for newcomers to the series and its new content plays to what I think it the series’ greatest strength – their concept of super heroes being stars on a TV reality series while trying to rescue others.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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