Tiger and Bunny 13 – 100 powah

With Tiger, Origami, Sky High, and Bison hospitalized, and an army of mecha-suited teddy bears terrorizing the city, things are looking pretty grim.

Episode 13 ends the first half of Tiger & Bunny, and seemingly resolves at least some of the issues facing Barnaby Brooks.

Barnaby (AKA Bunny) fights an almost hopeless battle against Jake Martinez.

At first Bunny is incapable of landing a single blow on Jake, the man whom Bunny thinks murdered his parents. Like the review at Days Past Our Megaten Lives, I was bothered by the flashback. Knowing what we now know of Jake Martinez, the details just don’t seem right. In particular, why is the killer shown using a gun? Why continue to obscure the killer’s face?

Jake never truly acknowledges killing Bunny's parents.

Jake doesn’t mind taking blame for the murder, but has no memory of actually committing it. Does that make him an arrogant psychopath, or a tool, being used to manipulate Bunny? Perhaps a little of both. Either way, Bunny is in a pinch.

I don't think they ever showed Blue Rose's ride before. It seems to be some sort of snow mobile.

Blue Rose, Fire Emblem and Dragon Kid, the three remaining heroes, are dispatched to take out the mecha-teddies.

Yes! 'Fro-man gets another line.

Meanwhile a “jamming signal” is spread across the city, which prevents Kriem from actively controlling the teddy bears she uses to pilot the mecha-suits. I’m willing to set aside the question of whether a TV station would have “jamming signal” devices they could spread throughout the city overnight. I mean at least it took them some time to get it ready. I don’t understand why the “jamming signal” was able to selectively disable the teddy bear comm frequency, but not Hero Ouroboros TV, or their wrist communicators. Oh well.

Even wounded, they fight as a team.

Well, as some had guessed last week, Jake has two super powers. To help Bunny defeat Jake, his team mates try to divine what his second power could be.

Magical Tiger Transformation ... RELEASE!

Tiger, who believes he has figured it out, uses his 100 power to heal faster, if not completely. Thus (with the help of Hero TV’s gadget creator, and the ability to move inexplicably fast when the plot dictates it), Tiger arrives just as Bunny’s 100 power is running out. He hands Bunny a bomb, and says that Jake’s second power is super hearing, and that this sonic blast will take care of it. At this point, I honestly thought, “What? Super hearing? I thought it was the ability to read minds?” So that wily Tiger put one over on me, as well as Jake, who set off  the stun grenade, thinking he was immune.

Kriem turned out to be useless.

When Bunny defeats Jake, Kriem attempts to extort him back, only to discover that her teddy bears have all been removed from their mecha-suits by the three remaining heroes. A last ditch attempt to escape by Jake seemingly results in the deaths of the two villains. This seemingly pleases Lunatic, who says, “The destiny of Evil is to be annihilated.”

Mr. Maverick makes a public announcement that the whole operation was masterminded by the Mayor, which still makes Maverick suspicious, as far as I am concerned. Although I have to admit that Jake’s second power means Maverick is unlikely to have tipped Jake off to Origami’s identity. I still think it is possible, at the very least, that the whole Jake prison break was a gamble to pump up the ratings for Hero TV.

At the half-way point, Tiger and Bunny seem to finally be working as a team, Barnaby might have avenged his parents (although I have some lingering doubts, which could mean clever writing or bad direction), and Lunatic seems to be settling into the background. The show continues to take liberties that flagrantly defy commonsense, but are useful to the plot, or simply look cool. One such example in this episode was Kotetsu catching Bunny on the roof top, where he could not possibly know Bunny would end up. Some of the characters are hardly filled out, notably Rock Bison, while others, especially Wild Tiger, are quite well developed. On the whole this show is fun, with great visuals, but it is mostly empty calories. The social criticism is a thin veneer, the personal dramas are pretty silly, but the show can be entertaining fluff. I’m sure I’ll continue to watch it, but I’ll probably cut back on blogging it, so I can comment on some new shows that will be airing next month.