This episode is about our dear Blue Rose, a.k.a. Karina Lyle. Karina Lyle? Serina… Selina Kyle?

Anyway, she’s having problems concentrating on her job as a hero. In fact, she’s just a high schooler. Sure, she looks older than that Dragon Kid, but isn’t it a bit much to send someone so young out there against dangerous criminals? Even civilian cars are armored and loaded with machine guns — it really is goddamn Robocop out there.

Blue Rose’s attention wavers for a second in the field and Barnaby has to save her. Her company chastises her for the bad image resulting from her carelessness, and finally, we understand why her appearances in the anime are always so glitzy and idol-ish compared to the other heroes. Karina Lyle only got into this hero business to be a singer. As a result, her heart’s just not a hundred percent in it.

Ultimately, being a hero is a thankless job; people adore your image and persona, but not the real you. Karina laments at one point that she can’t even tell her friends that she’s Blue Rose. This puts her somewhat at odds with Tiger, who really believes in the ideals of heroism. He doesn’t do it for the attention or recognition; he just wants to save people.

And even though Barnaby tries to act cool and pretend that he’s only in it for the points,

I suspect even he’s coming around a bit, grudgingly forming a bit of respect for Tiger.

I wonder if there’s anything to Blue Rose’s real name being so similar to Catwoman’s real name or if this is just a wink and a nod to comic book fans. I don’t know anything about Catwoman so I can’t really compare the two women. We already have Barnaby who shares a past quite similar to Batman, but then again, he doesn’t really resemble Bruce Wayne.

This wasn’t a bad episode per se… but the weakest one yet. It just felt off. The odds are very good that you’re required to sing if you’re an anime female. Maybe I just feel that way after Star Driver… Plus, it is a little peculiar to me that the men all get to be adults while the heroines in the anime are children. Is it even important to make Blue Rose a student who has to put on a uniform every morning? Up until now, I had no idea she was that young. Her main issue is whether to be a singer or a hero — the schoolgirl thing feels as if it was shoehorned in because she’s the main heroine of the show and, well, we only want to watch schoolgirls and not grown women.