Tiger & Bunny: Set 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Tiger & Bunny: Set 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

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Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 16, 2013

Have you ever wondered why for example a star of a television sitcom sips a Pepsi and not a Coke or why for example Tom Hanks has a Wilson ball and not a Voit or some other brand in Cast Away? It’s the fine art of what is called “product placement”, and it is a multimillion (maybe even multibillion) dollar a year effort in the entertainment industry. It's not by mere chance that a film features a Chevy or a Ford or a Rolex or a Timex or any number of other competitors in a huge variety of products that end up on tv or in films. There’s a subliminal advertising gambit that’s at hand in many of these placements, where the product manufacturers hope for (and often realize) huge sales after their items are displayed in various media, sometimes not necessarily in prominent positions, and corporations are usually more than happy to fork over considerable dough to have their products featured in this or that television series or movie. There’s still marketing lore surrounding the product placement of Reese’s Pieces in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, which urban legend has it happened only after M&M’s decided to decline a product placement offer that had been made to them, a decision which made their competitor one very happy camper. Tiger & Bunny takes product placement to heretofore unimagined heights, at least within the somewhat rarified air of anime, for its glut of superheroes all have corporate sponsors, sponsors whose logos are prominently displayed on the heroes’ apparel. But this isn’t some make believe universe—well, at least not with regard to the corporate brands on display. These are real companies and products wafting through each and every episode of Tiger & Bunny, and as I mentioned in the Tiger & Bunny: Set 1 Blu-ray review, cynical minds may be prone to ask just how much money is flowing into Sunrise, the production house of the series, from offering so much “free” advertising.

The first volume of Tiger and Bunny had a couple of good things going for it. First, its general premise, while somewhat derivative (as described in the review of that set, still was cute in its own way and interesting insofar as so many real products were being featured. Furthermore, there was the developing relationship between the two putative lead superheroes, Tiger and Barnaby (also known as Bunny, a nickname he does not take to kindly). Then there was an important arc where Barnaby, a la Bruce Wayne in Batman, sought out the killers of his parents, something that revealed a huge criminal conspiracy called the Ouroboros.

Unfortunately the bloom is at least partially off the rose in this second half of episodes. With the Ouroboros situation ostensibly solved (emphasis on ostensibly), and the relationship between Tiger and Bunny is more or less settled, which leaves the bulk of these episodes to deal with the various internecine skirmishes between the various stars of Hero TV, as well as a couple of more developed arcs, including a nascent romance between two of the characters. What this tends to end up offering, at least in the early group of episodes, is lots of little bits where various heroes freak out when their ranking falls interspersed with short form battles with various bad guys.

Things improve markedly with a surprising revelation several episodes into this set, one which suddenly ties together some of Barnaby’s history as well as the ultimate connection between Ouroboros and NEXT. The other saving grace in this series continues to be its rather dry sense of humor. Nothing here is flat out hilarious, but there are quite a few humorous asides thrown into the mix, like a couple of episodes that feature a weird groupie who can become invisible and teleport by holding his breath, meaning everytime he “materializes”, he’s huffing and puffing in distress.

Tiger & Bunny also continues to be one of the more appealing anime from a visual standpoint. The series is incredibly bright and colorful and of course is stuffed full with recognizable logos. This is easily one of the most “Western” looking anime of all time, which may mean it will be dismissed by some die hard fans, but for those who don’t mind a slightly different animation style, Tiger & Bunny always offers a lot to look at, if not always a lot to engage.

Tiger & Bunny: Set 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My comments about Tiger & Bunny: Set 1 hold largely true for this second set. Tiger & Bunny is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Viz Media and Warner Home Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is an extremely engaging series from a purely visual angle, one which combines some nice looking CGI with more traditional elements. The bulk of the series features extremely sharp line detail, great clarity and very robust colors within a wide and varied palette. While there are still occasionally clunky looking missteps along the way with kind of "Hanna Barbera" minimalism in movement, it's much less prevalent in this second half than it was int he first. These occasional anomalies are fairly rare, and they're more than offset by a really nice variety of styles, including a lot of supposed television broadcasts of various Hero TV escapades that frequently have horizontal lines running through them as well as "crawls" along the bottom of the frame to differentiate them from the other footage (see screenshot 6 for a good example). Character designs are extremely well done and the ubiquitous use of real life logos adds to the feeling that there is in fact an actual resemblance to our contemporary world.

Tiger & Bunny: Set 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's really no appreciable difference between the audio mixes of the two Tiger & Bunny Blu-ray sets, so my comments on the first volume are equally a propos here. Tiger & Bunny features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both the original Japanese as well as an English dub. This is a series that really could have benefited from an immersive surround mix, and my hunch is a lot of audiophiles are going to be at least minimally disappointed that there is none on this Blu-ray set. That said, what's here works surprisingly well, and there is some occasionally wide splaying of stereo separation, especially in some of the action sequences. Fidelity is excellent, and voice work is always cleanly presented and offered well out in front of a sometimes quite busy mix. Dynamic range is also extremely wide.

Tiger & Bunny: Set 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Masakazu Katsura Illustration Gallery (1080p)


• Tamura & Katsura Exclusive Interview (1080p; 13:44) features the producer and original character designer of the series talking about their inspirations for the series and its production. In Japanese with English subtitles.


• Production Art (1080p)


• Japanese Trailers (1080p; 3:57)


• Clean Opening (1080p; 1:30)


• Clean Endings (1080p; 3:01)


• Trailers for other Viz Media Releases

Tiger & Bunny: Set 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The pure visual allure of Tiger & Bunny kept me interested enough in this series that I was pretty easily able to overlook some of its less appealing elements. The basic premise is undeniably derivative, as outlined in the review of the first volume of episodes, but perhaps more problematic in this second set is the kind of lackluster group of opening episodes we get before the endgame arc starts being introduced around episode 19. Things improve pretty markedly at that point, and Tiger & Bunny regains quite a bit of its mojo to end on an intriguing note. The series is almost always genially amusing if rarely laugh out loud hilarious, and the action elements are really nicely staged and animated. While there's a minor though noticeable dropoff in this second half, Tiger & Bunny still has enough going for it to come Recommended.