*SPOILERS*
Tiger & Bunny has always had a special place in my heart, so when a Netflix sequel was released 11 years after the original, of course I was skeptical. Honestly, my hopes weren’t super high and maybe it’s because I didn’t expect anything that I actually didn’t mind the first part of season 2. Overall, it didn’t click perfectly and I don’t think it measured up to the original at all, but I didn’t hate it, and that’s just about all I can hope for.
But then we get to part 2… eeeuuugh.
After episode 3, I literally said to myself: “If they do something like banish the Next, I’m going to stop watching.” Then episode 4 happened and what do you know? I paused it mid-episode to start writing this review. The only reason I finished the season was so I could talk about how much I hate it.
I didn’t like anything about the first few episodes. With Gregory Sunshine escaping at the end of part 1, I knew the direction the show was going to go cuz duh. But dude. Did they have to do it in such a STUPID way?
In what world would they think the root of the problem was an infectious disease? Addressing it as a theory is one thing, but, I’m sorry??? Outbreaks happen systematically every day almost simultaneously at different corners of the city, and they think it’s a natural spread? And the heroes who are constantly there and in contact with them show no signs of the condition?? They have literally said that there is no evidence to suggest it’s a disease??? And yet they treat it like it’s fact and actively ship all Next to what are essentially baby’s first concentration camps???? It’s only been like ten days????? And they SERIOUSLY think it’s a good idea to suspend the heroes when there is LITERALLY NO WORLD WHERE THAT IS A GOOD IDEA?????? Oh, crime is running rampant, the riots aren’t magically stopping, and police can’t do sh*t against rampaging Next? HELLO CAPTAIN OBVIOUS WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?????
Sorry, but my suspension of disbelief ran out a long time ago. I know it’s always been a joke that the Mayor is a dumb coward who can’t do his job, but this goes way beyond that bit. Every other character in the show has also become incredibly dumb. They just go along with everything like “oH wELl wHaT CaN yOu dO?” They never, not even once, consider that these riots might be intentional acts of terrorism caused by a Next ability. Even if they could logically brush it off like “No way there’s a Next ability strong enough to do that,” they literally already know about the enhancing drug because they JUST faced two villains using it not that long ago and they KNOW somebody ran off with it. I may be nitpicking now, but man. They really needed a random old man to conventiently appear and spell it out for them??? The heroes were never so dumb before, especially not Barnaby. Also, the scene where they’re piecing things together feels like an actualy comedy skit:
“It might have been Gregory!”
“Yayyy!”
“But then again maybe not…”
“Awww…”
“No, it was definitely Gregory!”
“Yayyy!”
“But then again maybe not…”
“Awww…”
Just about every plotpoint feels equally dumb, but I don’t want to end up with multiple paragraphs of nitpicking.
But here’s a few things I guess:
The beef between the police and the superheroes really came out of nowhere and accomplished less than nothing. The show sure wants to say the police sabotaged the final battle, but they didn’t actually affect anything so what was the point? And there was never anything in the show previously in the show that suggested there was tension between the police and heroes, then this chief character just appears and cops start treating the heroes terribly. Then the guy changes his mind on a dime, so why did they even include this plotpoint? I understand the police being against the heroes when they go rogue since that would be natural, but they act as if the heroes are common criminals trying to do whatever they want and not genuine professionals that have been entrusted with the city’s safety for years already. This is a problem with the whole show though. It hasn’t even been 2 weeks since the rampages started. That is WAY too fast for public opinion to change so drastically.
Also, so glad that the universe has this super ultra important figure whose life or death could determine the fate of all Next but who literally wasn’t mentioned once until she was immediately plot-relevant. Like yeah, Little Aurora didn’t come exactly out of nowhere since her book was being advertised in the background constantly in both parts 1 and 2. But there wasn’t a single mention of her until right when she became important??? No offhanded conversations or interviews about who this supposedly amazing person is? It would be easy to drop in one or two mentions with all the dumb book promos getting shoved in our face. Side note: If you actually look at the timeline, part 1 starts in October, NC 1980, while part 2 ends in September, NC 1981. Meaning they have been advertising this same stupid book on every blimp and billboard in the city for almost an ENTIRE YEAR. So dumb… Not to mention how everyone made a big deal about how she was going to fix everything, then the second things get dangerous, she opens her eyes and never does a or says a single important thing. For how much they tried to convince us she was an important character, she could have easily been replaced with one of Barnaby’s house plants and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
The original first season did a pretty decent job building up mystery and suspense around Ouroboros, but boy did this season succeed at making me not care at all.
I won’t say the more emotional moments between Tiger and Barnaby didn’t give me feels, but they definitely didn’t hit as hard as they were probably meant to because I stopped viewing the season as canon.
Lastly, could the moment Tiger lost his powers permanently have BEEN any more underwhelming???? What a joke.
Honestly, the story as a whole feels more like a first draft than a final product. Everything just feels so poorly executed, like they jotted down ideas but never bothered to develop them or make them work cohesively. But this is Netflix we’re talking about, so should I really be surprised? It’s just a huge mess.
The original Tiger & Bunny wasn’t a masterpiece or anything, but it had so much charm and personality that it earned its own level of success and attracted many loving fans. So much of the appeal came from the fun campy setting and the chemistry between the main characters. It feels like part 1 of season 2 did at least try to build on the source material, even if it didn’t work out perfectly, but saying part 2 feels detached would be an understatement. And with the way it ended, it doesn’t seem like they’re planning to continue the story further (to me at least), so I guess that’s what they’re trying to pass off as a finale.
I would say it was disappointing, but that would imply that I expected anything to begin with.
Edit:
Something else I would like to add—both parts of season 2 made the massive mistake of neglecting one of the core aspects of the original show’s identity: Hero TV.
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Hero TV MADE Tiger & Bunny. It was the first thing we were introduced to in episode 1, and it was the very thing that saved the day in episode 25. The entire intrigue of the show was built on the absurdity of superheroes with corporate sponsors, who earned points as they made a spectacle of beating bad guys on live television. It was the wild idea of superheroes being commercial celebrities before BNHA.
But in season 2, it really seems like Hero TV was an afterthought. There were so many times during battles where I was literally sitting there like, “Where are the cameras? Is Agnes getting this? She’s missing all the action!” But they just never really addressed it.
Even when Hero TV was clearly happening, it wasn’t very involved. They’d just be in the middle of the action and cut away to occassionally remind us, “oh yeah, everyone in the city is watching the action too.” There was hardly any dialogue between the heroes and Agnes. She used to direct them constantly, trying to control things like pacing, excitement, and suspense in order to make the action more satisfying for viewers. Her entire job and character revolved around making an entertaining show and boosting ratings, but the second season treats her like a glorified police dispatcher. She was essentially just telling heroes what crimes to fight, but she’s not a cop or a member of the justice bureau. She’s a TV PRODUCER. It really seems like they forgot that.
Without the element of Hero TV being constantly present in the background, the second season feels hollow. No wonder it felt like it was trying too hard. They didn’t understand how important Hero TV was to the energy of the show, and they tried to make up for it by piling on more and more serious plot elements, when Tiger & Bunny was never meant to be that serious in the first place.
