Tiger & Bunny - Episode 15

The recently born media and marketing juggernaut that is Wild Tiger and Barnaby continues unabated as we enter this latest episode of Tiger & Bunny - in fact, between modelling and interviews and recording advertisements for cleaning products, our dynamic duo really aren't getting much time to do the whole "superhero" thing.

If only the same could be said for Sky High, who is having a tough time having seen himself usurped as both the king of heroes and the king of marketing opportunities to leave him rather out in the cold as he has to look on and view his friends enjoying (in Barnaby's case at least) their success.  Still, it isn't all bad news, as he finds himself falling in love, albeit rather bizarrely, with a woman who does a rather good impression of an automaton...

...or is it an impression?  As an android with a deep-seated hatred for heroes thanks to a malfunction goes on the loose, Sky High is oblivious to the true identity of this robot - probably a good thing too as it would have made slicing it into little bits with his power that much more difficult.  So, the day is saved and Sky High finds new inspiration as a hero, but in the meantime it seems as if it might be Kotetsu's turn to find something rather important to fret about.

In a way, this was rather a tale of two episodes - while some aspects of this week's plot managed to avoid too many huge clichés (I expected Sky High's meeting with the out of control android to be one of those cheesy "I loved you, but now I have to destroy you" moments), other segments felt horribly forced; namely Barnaby's sudden revelation that his parents worked in robotics, which considering he had such a complex about them you would have expected him to mention at least once in the preceding fourteen episodes rather than suddenly bring it up in an interview with some kids about ten minutes before finding himself face to face with an evolution of his parent's work.  Still, it's this odd juxtaposition of old school plot ideas given a fresh lick of paint that often works so well for Tiger & Bunny, and this wasn't a bad episode as it went about wringing a little excitement and humour out of its circumstances.  There are, however, bigger fish to fry in Stern Bild, and it looks as though we're going to be getting back to such important matters in short order thankfully.