…with Kotetsu as, uh, one of the participants. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It’s not as if Kotetsu is too dumb to give Maverick a fair fight or anything. After all, what could he have done against an opponent who’s ahead of him every step of the way? Maverick holds all the cards (Barnaby, Aunt Samantha, control of “Hero TV”), and Kotetsu’s just a goofball superhero on his way to retirement.
That’s the thing, though — Kotetsu is such a goofball. Even with the sinister music in the background and multiple close-ups of Maverick’s eyes during the coffee scene, you can’t help but laugh at Kotetsu’s antics. Unlike with “Sacred Seven,” Sunrise knows what it’s doing here. The semi-comic relief here works as a gradual build-up to the episode’s horrifying conclusion.
Kotetsu has been such a bro all season long, it’s hard for anyone not to be emotionally invested in his welfare. So we should be gasping with horror every single time he raises his coffee cup, but each time Kotetsu worms his way out of drinking the spiked drink, he just makes me laugh. Had the episode been one block of seriousness to another block of seriousness, I’m not sure the episode’s conclusion would have been as effective. Speaking of which….
Maverick’s “brilliant” plan
Well, Maverick’s really gone off the deep end now. He won’t just edit Barnaby’s memories, but everyone else’s memories too. To top it all off, he’s framed Kotetsu for Aunt Samantha’s murder. We didn’t see her death onscreen though and I can’t imagine that “Tiger & Bunny” is a type of show to off a sweet, old woman at this juncture. But who knows — maybe Maverick really is that evil. I’m just not so sure Maverick’s plans are as airtight as it comes across during my initial viewing of the episode.
Everyone’s on the lookout for the “renegade” Kotetsu.
Won’t the viewers who often tune into “Hero TV” start to clamor about Wild Tiger’s sudden disappearance and whereabouts? Even if the heroes do capture Kotetsu, doesn’t he get a fair trial? Or is the entire legal system under Maverick’s thumb as well? Regardless of whether they recognize Kotetsu or not, wouldn’t any of the heroes have a sense of justice and want to investigate the murder, i.e. Kotetsu’s motive, how he killed her, etc? Obviously, Maverick’s web of lies is meant to fall apart eventually, but I dunno, I have a hard time buying his latest gambit in the first place.
He’s not all bad, is he?
Maverick killed Barnaby’s parents, manipulated heroes and crooks into a perpetual conflict for ratings and money, and has toyed with people’s memories. Nevertheless, I recall a certain line from last week’s episode that has parts of Maverick’s character in doubt:
“When I first started HERO TV, your parents were the only ones who supported me. … But, despite our efforts, Hero TV’s ratings floundered.”
We know from Kriem’s backstory that her generation of NEXTs were often ostracized and picked on; even her own parents didn’t love her. That wasn’t really too long ago, to be honest — about fifteen to twenty years ago? The proliferation of heroism through Maverick’s admittedly nefarious plans thus helped to create a world where NEXTs were not only seen as equals but sources of inspiration as well. Look at how people reacted to Barnaby’s victory over Jake. Even if people only believe in the heroes because they are fighting an artificial conflict, this still gives the masses something of worthiness to believe in.
I think back to that NEXT academy in one of the older episodes — would it have existed without Maverick’s sudden rise to power? Certainly, people would have warmed up to the NEXTs without “Hero TV” eventually, but how long would it have taken? How many more NEXTs would have ended up in Jake or Kriem’s shoes? There’s no doubt that Maverick’s an immoral person, but can we really deny that he’s been a catalyst for NEXT acceptance? Couldn’t we imagine that there’d be more NEXTs like Jake in a world where their social acceptance wasn’t fueled by the commercialization of the heroes?
Victory! …now what?
We know the heroes are going to prevail, but how can they just out Maverick to the public? Maverick is the patriarch of “Hero TV.” If word gets out that “Hero TV” has been a sham all this time, won’t the public’s confidence in the heroes be shattered? Why would anyone continue to believe in “Hero TV” after this debacle? It wouldn’t be entirely out of the question either to imagine that human-NEXT relations may also deteriorate as a result.
Isn’t it sad though? Mr. Legend is an alcoholic wife-beater and Mr. Maverick has played everyone for chumps. What exactly isn’t a lie about “Hero TV?”
Everything else
• The animation has been holding up rather well lately, but Origami Cyclone has seen better days:
Not so moe now, huh?
• Karina’s latest direction is a disappointment.
When she isn’t on “Hero TV,” all she does is act flustered around Kotetsu nowadays. I suppose she gets more lines than folks like Dragon Kid or Rock Bison, but as the saying goes, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
• These are the fastest cooking prawns I have ever seen:
• Here, have some more gender-bending Kotetsu:
Yea I also noticed that the success of Maverick’s plan depends upon the Heroes having no outside contact with people who have not has their memories altered i.e. the entire citizenship of the city. Surely when the heroes go home and have a little pillow talk about this latest development their significant other will mention that Tiger is Barnaby’s parter, hell im sure that there are going to be loads of video recordings of them working together (also the news stations would be all over Barnaby asking for a reaction on his renegade partner). This really was a poorly thought out plan that completely pulled me out of the episode, I do hope that they explain this plot hole next episode without resorting to some deus ex machina (or worse ignoring it).
I know the show wanted to go with something grand for its finale so it might’ve bit off more than it could chew. Still, it didn’t quite take me out of the entire episode. After all, “Tiger & Bunny” was never really a serious show.
Maverick didn’t make the heroes forget the existence of Wild Tiger, they just forgot that Kotetsu=Wild Tiger.
This still doesn’t help all that much. This guy who really looks like Wild Tiger is a renegade NEXT! Wait, where is Wild Tiger anyway?
Remember the episode whith Blue Rose’s stalker? Renegate NEXT who looked like Blue Rose (from far way). The guard in episode 20 didn’t think Kotetsu looked like Tiger until he put that mask on (god that’s the most ridiculous thing in this series) and then only pointd out anyone with the mask could look like Wild Tiger. So really, they (Herotv) could just go:
“This renegade NEXT is trying to escape by impersonating Wild Tiger, since he’s away right now!”
Maverick’s reason for Wild Tiger’s absence is really hard to believe.
How could the heroes, especially Barnaby, not want to investigate the murder? Consider how obsessed he’s been with his parents’ murder, wouldn’t Barnaby want to understand why some random guy killed his grandmother?
Maverick isn’t powerful though. He has to drug you to actually alter your memories. I find it hard to believe he did that to the legal system.
We didn’t see Samantha’s body so until then, the jury’s still out there. You still have the whole motive problem which “renegade NEXT” hardly explains.
Kotetsu doesn’t just look like Tiger. He has the same measurements, voice and everything!
Anyway you slice it, the whole “frame Kotetsu” thing isn’t remotely believable.
@E Minor: Why can’t I reply to your last post?
(and I forgot to introduce myself: Hi! I’ve been stalking you blog for some time, reading your awesome No.6 posts ^^) Anyway…
Maverick’s absence excuse isn’t hard to believe if you think he’s just a nice old man that really cares about the ratings. As far as everyone is concerned, he has never done anything at all suspicious.
The heroes never care about motive, and they don’t know Samantha has a connection to Bunny, do they? Bunny might try to find a motive after capturing Tiger, but by then either Maverick wipes his memory again, or changes Kotetsu’s memories or gets Kotetsu killed somehow.
The tv announcement says the victim’s home was the scene of the crime and the poker looks to be the morder weapon, so i do believe Maverick put the body there.
Maverick most definately altered their memories of how Tiger looks like, else Lloyd (is that his name?) would have recognized him.
(ps: am I bothering you with this? I’ll stop…)
Nah, I’m not bothered by comments. Hell, I want comments. With that said, I think we’re just conjecturing now and the roundabout point I was trying to make in the post is that Maverick’s plan isn’t very elegant. Elegance isn’t necessarily a must-have, but like chris said, even if Maverick’s plan is plausible, it’s silly enough to take him out of the viewing experience and you never want that.
With that I agree; it’s not elegant and very very desperate.
Right now I’m trying to decide what’s going to make people remember Tiger: I’m thinking the Christmas pin (already forshadowed in the first ED) for Bunny and the towel with Kotetsu’s name on it for the rest of the heroes (thanks to Blue Rose).
Maybe they’ll go the way of friendship power. Barnaby will just remember what a bro Kotetsu is and wake up.
Maverick gave a reason for Tiger’s disappearence: his involved in a secret project that will make HeroTV ratings rise.
“Regardless of whether they recognize Kotetsu or not, wouldn’t any of the heroes have a sense of justice and want to investigate the murder, i.e. Kotetsu’s motive, how he killed her, etc?”
We have never seen the heroes care about investigation, they just focus on capture which = points. The rest is up to the legal system, which leads to…
“Even if the heroes do capture Kotetsu, doesn’t he get a fair trial?”
Considering how powerful Maverick is + his NEXT powers, it wouldn’t be too surprising if part of the legal system was under his thumb. Even if it wasn’t, Maverick probably made sure Samantha’s dead body was found in the house, which has Tiger’s fingerprints all over it AND since he spent the night there, he has no witness to say he didn’t do it.
Of course, the plan still have flaws, but Maverick ha dot come up with it in record time so that’s not too surprising.
It´s funny to think about how Mavericks plan couldn´t have worked if Kotetsu wouldn´t have been so secretive about his identity. Also what is with Antonio, he´s Kotetsus childhood friend. Shouldn´t he notice that something isn´t quite right ?
And Barnaby having his revenge trip now repeated once again is pretty tragic imo. Now that Samantha is dead he also lost yet another person he felt close to which makes him pretty much isolated ( at least I did not get the impression that he had much contact to the other heroes without Kotetsu ) , emotionally depending on Maverick …
And I really wonder now what is Barnabys real name, does he himself even remember it ? Reminds me a bit of “Spirited away” where Yubaba is stealing the names of her workers so they forget where they came from after a while and cannot leave … or so. I really have to rewatch this movie.
Anyway, Interesting episode and interesting review from you once again.
I´ll be dissapointed if Ben doesn´t show up in 21, he hasn´t been brainwashed yet I think… :D
Who’s Ben? Is this Lunatic? ‘Cause the only person who’s been MIA for a while is Lunatic. It’s about time he magically redeems himself as the good guy since it’s obvious now that Maverick’s the final antagonist.