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Tiger & Bunny

Tiger & Bunny (stylized in all caps) is a 2011 Japanese anime superhero television series produced by Sunrise and directed by Keiichi Sato. The screenplay was written by Masafumi Nishida with original character design by Masakazu Katsura. The series began its broadcast run in Japan on April 3, 2011, on Tokyo MX, followed by rebroadcasts on BS11 and MBS, and ended on September 17, 2011. Viz Media simulcast the series on Hulu and Anime News Network. It is set in a futuristic city where heroes fight crime while promoting corporate sponsors in a popular TV show, "Hero TV". The series focuses on the old-fashioned hero Kotetsu T. Kaburagi "Wild Tiger" and the rookie hero Barnaby Brooks Jr. "Bunny", who are forced to work together by their employers.

The series was mainly created by producer Masayuki Ozaki, who wanted to create a drama to appeal to several demographics by using several kinds of superheroes and balance the bond between the contrasting Kotetsu and Barnaby. Critical response to the anime praised its production values and portrayal of superheroes.

A one-shot manga drawn by Masakazu Katsura was published in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine on August 4, 2011 and the production of two films based on the series were announced during a special event in November 2011. The first film, entitled Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning was released on September 22, 2012. The second film, Tiger & Bunny: The Rising, was released on February 8, 2014.

As of 2015, the copyright for the work was transferred from Sunrise to Bandai Namco Pictures which led to them producing a second season titled Tiger & Bunny 2 which was released on Netflix on April 8, 2022, as an original net animation.

The series takes place in "NC 1978" in a re-imagined version of New York City called Stern Bild City, where 45 years before, superpowered individuals known as "NEXT" (an acronym standing for Noted Entities with eXtraordinary Talents) started appearing. Some of them became superheroes. Each of the city's most famous superheroes work for a sponsor company and their uniforms also contain advertising for real-life companies. Their heroic activity is broadcast on the popular television show "Hero TV", where they accumulate points for each heroic feat accomplished (arresting criminals or saving civilians, for example) and the best ranked hero of the season is crowned "King of Heroes".

The story mainly focuses on veteran hero Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, a.k.a. Wild Tiger, who is assigned a new partner: a young man with the same power named Barnaby Brooks Jr. However, Barnaby and Kotetsu have conflicting opinions on how a superhero should act as they investigate the murder of Barnaby's parents. In addition, the appearance of a homicidal vigilante NEXT named "Lunatic" makes the public question the place of heroes in the city.

While the story has a villain of the week structure, an overarching narrative focuses on the unsolved murder of Barnaby's parents. Although the series' first half sees Barnaby defeat the apparent murderer, thanks to Kotetsu, the second half reveals the true culprit is unknown. In the second half, Kotetsu becomes conflicted between his loyalty to Barnaby's quest and taking care of his young daughter Kaede. Kotetsu learns his powers will eventually disappear leading him to abandon his job. Barnaby feels betrayed by Kotetsu, who does not tell him the true reason he's retiring. One of Barnaby's caretakers plans to take over the hero system. He brainwashes all the heroes to kill Kotetsu and creates a series of robots to replace them. With Kaede's help, Kotetsu helps most of their allies recover their memories. After their eventual victory, Kotetsu confesses the real reason for his retirement to his allies. Finally, Kotetsu decides to remain as a superhero even though his powers will become more limited.

The series was co-created by producer Masayuki Ozaki and director Keiichi Sato. Sato wanted a story about heroes with mundane problems. Ozaki wanted to depict the "conflict and drama one sees when they've belonged to an organization for a while". The project idea came from watching a news item on the controversy over the competition swimsuits in the Beijing Olympics. He saw an interview that stated a specific swimsuit style would give swimmers a better chance at setting a record, but the athletes who had contracts with Japanese companies couldn't wear it. Taking the director's idea, they decided to make a story of heroes who have to bear the weight of sponsors and depict the conflict, drama, and cultures it entails.

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