Tiger & Bunny - Episode 13

Having taken out three of the city's heroes, it's finally Barnaby's turn to take on Jake and try to avenge his parents... oh, and to save a few million people from certain death, of course.

While Barnaby takes to the stage as the latest opponent to the maniacal Jake, behind the scenes a plan is in action to disable the radio link to the mechanised robots which are in place to destroy the pillars that hold up Stern Bild at the drop of a hat - as the scrambling mechanism for this signal is activated so the remaining fit and healthy heroes set out to do their part to destroy these machines - except, of course, things aren't that simple, as said machines all have a self-defence mechanism in place if their signal to the "boss" of the operation is lost.

With this option seemingly exhausted, attention returns to Barnaby, who is having just as much of a torrid time trying to take on Jake as his counterparts, finding himself unable to land a blow on his rival.  However, as those watching learn that Jake has not one but two special powers, Kotetsu starts to put the pieces together as to what that second power might be, and despite his injuries he sets out to help his partner turn the tide via some subterfuge and the provision of just the weapon required to for Barnaby to win the day.  This he duly does, landing all-important blows upon his nemesis to set off a sequence of events which sees Ouroboros' plans left in tatters, the city safe once more and our group of heroes lauded yet again as Stren Bild's true protectors.

Although aspects of this episode and the way it progressed were blindingly obvious long before they happened, that doesn't stop this instalment from being an eminently satisfying one that delivered a good, old fashioned finale to this story arc which saw the bad guys comprehensively defeated in a slightly rushed but ultimately hugely satisfying manner.  Much like a lot of what Tiger & Bunny has succeeded in doing from the start, it "just works" via a mixture of characters, concepts and plots which are undemanding as they entertain and presented slickly enough to be thoroughly enjoyable.  Overall, this first half of Tiger & Bunny has barely put a foot wrong, and I can only hope that its second half manages to keep things moving along in a similar fashion now that its first major story arc is over and a lot of the immediate tensions surrounding it have dispersed.