The poor girl really is in love with Tiger.
And for no good reason too. Let’s just ignore the age gap between the two for a second. Other than way back in the fourth episode, when has Karina, a.k.a. Blue Rose, ever really had so much as a conversation with Kotetsu? All of a sudden, she’s angry and irritable whenever he isn’t around, thinks of him when she’s at school, and cherishes the crappy towel he gave her. To top it all off, Karina is annoyingly tsuntsun for a good 90% of the episode.
Maybe Karina just wants what she can’t have, because if she’s tsuntsun, then Barnaby is sickeningly deredere for Kotetsu. He defends Kotetsu at every turn in this episode — sometimes, to humorous extent like when he credits Kotetsu for allowing the thief to escape. But y’know what, at least Barnaby actually has a history with Kotet– oh who cares, Karina’s (comparatively) a child and this is a ridiculous turn of events.
Speaking of the thief, we definitely didn’t get an A- or a B-plot this week. We didn’t even get a C-plot. They must have dug this plot out of some poor sap’s fanfiction ’cause that’s what it feels like.
The executives drag Kotetsu and Barnaby into doing a lousy song and dance with Karina. As the trio are performing on stage, some weirdo with the power of invisibility decides to steal Karina’s handbag. The perfunctory chase sequence hints at Kotetsu’s growing power… at the extent of his stamina. How, uh, useful. Other than that, the entire storyline was a bore.
And God, this is some of the derpiest animation T&B has had all season long:
The last pic would be something I’d expect out of CLAMP’s book on how to draw human figures.
Stray observations:
• Derpy animation aside, look at that beautifully rendered banana!
Oooh, macaroons.
• The second half of T&B also includes both a new OP and ED. I don’t like either one of them over the originals.
• Kotetsu was still a beat late in the final performance.
• Steak on a ginormous bed of onions and (what looks like) hot dog sausages?
That’s nutty.
• Did I see Barnaby blush during his time on the talk show?
• Who tilts their drinks forward when they’re falling backward?
• Behold! — the infinitely long hallway:
To be fair, Karina’s been in love with Kotetsu since episode 4. She truly is textbook tsundere. Bunny on the other hand seems to have done a 180 in the ten month gap and joined the Kotetsu cult. And unbelievably, the animation quality has managed to drop further…
I always hate when stories misuse the concept of love. We barely see the two on screen. They’ve barely had any interaction. Essentially, she’s just infatuated with him — not “in love.” Even if we claim that the romancing occurred offscreen, that only begs the following question: why? If this is such an important development, why devote no time in the narrative to Karina’s gradual “love” for Kotetsu? That’s just lazy storytelling.
That’s true. I probably should have said “crush”. I don’t think it’s a particularly important bit of development that’s going to go anywhere, just some more characterization (it makes her seem more high-schoolerish) and fanservice for any older men watching this. Maybe I’m not remembering this correctly but I thought she falls for him on-screen when he changes her mind about being a hero.
Well, either Kotetsu reciprocates or he rejects her. Either way, it’ll be an awkward conclusion.
Or… the anime could just plain forget about the whole thing, but that seems unlikely.
It’s just a one-sided crush on Karina’s part and Tiger doesn’t even realize it. It’s supposed to be cute, don’t fret too much over it.
Naw, it’s gross.
I completely agree with everything you wrote. I was really disappointed with this ep, like wtf
BLUE ROSEXDRAGON KID 4 LYFE
LEGEND X JAKE MARTINEZ
…OH MY LORD YOU ARE SO RIGHT