Tiger & Bunny blathering; mostly inane "oops ang fell down the rabbit hole" stuff, I'm sure

[ang]

1. Things I need in my life right now. Tiger & Bunny fanart a la Sad Christmas Batman. BARNABY'S PARENTS ARE DEEEEEEAD. (Alternate version: also hilarious, although in a completely different way, with Lunatic as Batman.)

2. Have been blathering back and forth with some_stars about how I am in love with how T&B is a love story to the Bronze Age, and how so much of the structure reflects the changes in comics storytelling in the late 70s (the turn from stand-alone stories to arcs, the darker tone of the storylines/less black & white morality, giving a character in the story the ability to alter memories and the power to alter digital information (Ie a walking retcon machine, and surprise surprise who avoids those retcons but kotetsu. that's meaningful on a meta level, I'm sure.) &c &c.

Someone on TVTropes tried to link first appearance of Lunatic to first appearance of Judge Dredd (apparently issue date matches in-show first appearance), which is slightly stretching it, but he is obviously meant to reflect those beginning anti-hero protagonists. (Except for how in-show he's more of an anti-villain?)

Anyway, that made me look up dates, since clearly Kotetsu is a bit reminiscent of Spider-man (with great power comes great responsibility, the wires/webs, etc), and I am pretty sure, although my in-show dating might be off, that the death of Tomoe would fall pretty closely to the Death of Gwen Stacy issue. (Ie. one of the big "end of the silver age" landmarks). I'm not sure what to make of that, but I don't think it's an accident.

3. Similarly, have been discussing with LC how BARNABY'S PARENTS ARE DEEEEAD Barnaby is clearly Batman.

And I actually made notes on this at work today and I have written:
Jake & Kriem set up to seemingly = Joker & Harley Quinn
BUT
Maverick = card theme?
Albert Maverick = THEN ALFRED WAS PHONE DDDDDD:
Which I think sort of sums up that. (ALFRED SHOULD NEVER BE PHONE.)

Anyway, I think my point here is that I guess Kotetsu is simultaneously Spider-Man and Robin, and that I pretty much just appreciate that the creators of this show feel like a Batman Bunny without a Robin Tiger would be BROKEN FOREVER.

4. I was gonna type up this whole thing, but it's boring, so here's the Reader's Digest version:
- LUNATIC DO YOU EVEN GO TO THIS SCHOOL
- NO I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS

5. LC and I both found that we were oddly reminded of Watchmen (albeit by someone who has a largely more optimistic view of human nature, so generally more palatable to me) at parts while watching it. And some of it was the reveals about Mr. Legend doing similar deconstructive to the Golden Age superhero that Watchmen did, but I think moreso for me it was the theme of supervillains being superheroes' fault, really.

Both in the sense of the "I know what's good for you better than you do" mad with power Face Heel turns/reveals, but also in the sense that superheroes existing caused the existence of supervillains, even though in Watchmen it's more "Superheroes raised the stakes first" and in T&B it's more of "Supervillains were invented to make Superheroes good TV."

I don't know. I haven't written any sort of thoughtful comparative analysis of things in a while, so I'm just sort of "SO HERE ARE MY FEELINGS." And my feelings are that that is the school Lunatic goes to.

6. "When is Stern Bild?" is a question that puzzles me even more than "Where is Stern Bild?" let's be honest.



I need to make/find more T&B icons, i think.

Comments

[some_stars]

1. All your meta is awesome, although I am not feeling smart enough to make my own yet.

2. Lunatic being in THE WRONG ANIME and NOT EVEN KNOWING will never not be the best thing ever.

3. I find myself oddly craving really intensely detailed worldbuilding meta about the three-tiered city structure. Like, do they tend to divide along class lines, with richer people on top? Does the bottom get any natural light at all? Who on earth came up with this anyway? Also I am interested in other geographical questions mainly because TVTropes pointed out to me that at least four of the heroes aren't from Sternbild, and also "Oriental Town" out in the country WTF. So I have questions. Not like, "which city is it Really Supposed to Be" but just how the whole world is organized.

[ang]

1. I am not either! I am doing the mental equivalent of turning my purse upside down and dumping the contents on the table.

2. Seriously. His (out of costume) character design DOESN'T EVEN GO.

3. Well, I mean, he takes the train to Oriental town, right? I always assumed it was sort of like... assume Sternbild is Manhattan and Oriental Town is like... vaguely upstate. [Edit! Although that is weird because you'd think it would just be like... a neighborhood in the city, but WHATEVER, SHOW. IDEK.]

SPEAKING OF ORGANIZATION OF STERNBILD every time they talk about the "Gold Stage" or the "Bronze Stage" I am like SO WAS MAKING ME THINK OF COMIC BOOK ERAS WITH THOSE NAMES ON PURPOSE, OH WRITERS/TRANSLATORS? (I don't remember if the city levels are named in English or Japanese actually in the text. and yes, I'm apparently already planning a rewatch)