While presenting one of my panels at KumoriCon this past weekend, I dedicated some time to singing the praises of Tiger and Bunny. First airing back in the magical year of 2011, this series is the superhero series that broke the mold long before My Hero Academia could even approach the genre.
In this series, the setting is a city filled with professional superheroes who all have their own powers and corporate sponsors. Why sponsors? Because these heroes compete on live reality television for points. One such hero, Wild Tiger, is well past his prime in terms of age and popularity. With his sponsor being bought out by a larger company, Wild Tiger is left with a difficult choice: either serve as the new sidekick to a younger hero who has the same power as him or retire entirely from the superhero game.
Over the years, the original series from studio Sunrise spawned a manga spinoff and two movies which, honestly, felt like enough. Then, out of nowhere, we learned that a second season had been green-lit and now we have all the details regarding its release.
On Tuesday, November 9th, Netflix revealed the series will run for 25 episodes with the first thirteen appearing exclusively on Netflix in one batch in April 2022. Additionally, while the voice cast will all be returning to reprise their roles (in Japan at least), the crew this time around is a bit different.
Taking over as animation producers will be Bandai Namco Pictures with Atsuko Kase sitting in the director’s chair. The good news is that the original series writer and character designer are returning to their previous roles.
I have to admit that I’m having reservations about this second Tiger and Bunny season. Taking place after the events of the second movie, this sequel series almost feels like it could fall into the ‘too little, too late’ category. The series itself had a strong ending and didn’t even really need the movies. If a sequel series was going to be greenlit, I almost feel like it should have happened years ago rather than in an anniversary year, which could be cynically seen as a cash grab.
Source: Anime News Network
