Get a room, fly boys.

Fair warning: I’m going to nitpick. The snarky reader will surely ask, “But dude, when don’t you nitpick?” Yes, yes, but believe me, when an anime falls just short of hitting the mark, that’s when I really feel the need to nitpick. Think of it like venting.

The boss wants Tiger to go on a paid vacation and although Tiger clearly doesn’t want to take a break from being a superhero, he decides to use this time to see his daughter. Barnaby, on the other hand, is oh so close to finding his parents’ murderer. For about a good ten or so minutes, this week really felt like another low-key, slice-of-lifey episode.

Then the army of mechas powered by teddy bears show up. Then explosions start rocking the city all over. Against Tiger’s urgings, Barnaby ultimately decides to put his revenge mission on hold to save his new BFF Tiger. How sweet~

Unfortunately, their tender reunion is short-lived as Ouroboros, the mysterious crime syndicate, reveals itself. They have bombs planted all over the city and they won’t hesitate to detonate them if the city doesn’t give into their demands: free a certain prisoner: Master… Jake Martinez! Wait, that’s his name? Master Jake? This is barely a step above Master Chief as an epic name for a hero!

Here’s Tiger & Bunny‘s dilemma…. This episode is definitely one of the better episodes all series long, but it’s bogged down by such lazy writing and I’m not just talking about the ‘Master Jake’ thing. I’ve repeatedly written all season that many anime lack tension because the characters are never put under any pressure. In this episode, the heroes are seemingly in trouble, “overwhelmed,” and the villains appear to have the upper-hand. So why, then, does this episode still fall short of hitting the mark?

Because everything is so contrived. Quick, Tiger, grab the bear!

But no, he kicks a piece of debris that just happens to be in his path and…

…really? Yes, really. A single moment like this can be easily forgotten, but the entire episode is full of stuff like this. Fire Emblem hurls a fireball at one of the enemy mechas.

It stumbles backward and, well, what do you know — there’s a car just sitting there for the mecha to use as a weapon. Even better, there’s a helpless civilian in it.

While the rest of the street is empty because most people tend to run at the first sign of danger, our civilian knows he has a very important role to play: a cheap and easy way to suddenly turn the tables on our heroes.

We cut back to Tiger and he’s surrounded by mechas as well. All of a sudden, a cry for “Help me!” rings out. Tiger looks toward the cry’s direction and guess what!

Another helpless civilian sitting in a car, this time teetering over the edge of a broken bridge. Of course, Tiger has to go save her, leaving himself helpless against enemy fire. But as easily as the heroes are put into danger, the heroes are clearly not in danger as the teddy bears can’t aim worth a damn:

Practically point blank range and Tiger doesn’t look any worse for wear. Maybe Tiger’s being hit but his suit is protecting him. In that case, it’d be nice to see the bullets glance off his armor or something. Regardless… as interesting as the unveiling of Ouroboros and its oddly named Master Jake are, the rest of the episode has more eye-rolling moments than heart-pumping ones. The writers are faking danger instead of actually putting the heroes in danger — a half-hearted facsimile of the real thing.

Up until this point, I always figured Tiger’s limitations were for humor, i.e. ‘Hey, his power just ran out at an unfortunate situation — oh that silly Tiger!’ But now, it’s more apparent than ever that instead of having a real weakness, Tiger runs out of juice just so the writers can create “dilemmas.”

Stray Observations

• After Barnaby saves Tiger, the action pauses for a minute so that Barnaby could explain why he decided to join the heroes after all. He shows a piece of paper to Tiger, then sticks it back into… his back?

I want a paper-storing compartment in my suit’s ass too!

• As silly as the name ‘Master Jake’ is, they probably should have held back on his appearance until the end of the episode. It was even harder to take Master Jake seriously when, for most of the episode, he was nothing more than a naked Rip Van Winkle until Ouroboros proved itself to be a true threat.

• So a city of 20 million people only have three major routes?

• A random building blows up and all Agnes can say is:

That’s heartless, lady.