The robbers in the first episode reeked of professionalism, and Agnes Joubert knew when there would be a gap long enough for a commercial during a high speed chase, with superheroes.

• It certainly seemed a little fishy that the leader of the three, even beyond not wanting to get caught, seemed to ESPECIALLY not want to get caught by Wild Tiger.
• Furthermore, in episode 3 we get a lingering shot of Agnes anxiously looking at her watch. Doesn't that action make more sense if she knows exactly when the time bomb is supposed to explode?
• This is in fact a common trope for stories with corporate superheroes: their "owners" are always involved in something bad. Also, Agnes is getting way more airtime than her character should be getting...
  • Unless, of course, she's meant to be Tiger's Love Interest.
  • Additionally she's the only character in the entire series who can fulfill the "adult woman fanservice" quota. Because the lady heroes are a teenage girl, a tomboy tween (?), and an, ahem, flaming Camp Gay.
• Something is definitely up with this company. They obviously have plenty of reason to do it, and based on what we've seen they've got the money to arrange it all too. Besides, other than the villains just being retarded what else could their motivations be? Everyone on the planet knows that the city is infested with supers who are literally getting paid to beat the crap out of thugs like that, so why do people every try to commit crimes there? Unless someone was giving them a very compelling reason to do so.
• Also a lot of the crimes seem to involve the same exact woman (a girl with short brown hair wearing a purple dress and blue jacket). Hmmm...
• Why there were no records of Jake's fight with Mr. Legend? Or no info about his powers? What if Hero TV helped in freeing Jake and erased all intel about him, to make ratings skyrocket?
  • They were erased in order to keep the public from knowing Legend was doing crappy.
• Agnes may be partialy into the conspiration. She may be aware what is going on, but she seems geniquely suprised several times, so she probably knows that all crimes are staged, but don't know what is supposed to be happening.
• Confirmed. Maverick reveals that he's been setting up flashier crimes through Ouroboros in episode 19.
  • At least when Maverick was in charge of Hero TV twenty-one years ago. Now that Heroes are mainstream it is more honest than its earlier incarnation.
    • That's to be seen; in episode 20, it's shown that Maverick still has no problem setting up crimes, blatantly staging a "terrorist attack" and framing a certain someone for the murder.
    • By the season finale the only part of this that isn't confirmed is Agnes' involvement; that's been Jossed. She helps take Maverick down and records his Evil Confession

Needless to say, it'll go horribly right.

• Confirmed, only not will, but already did - Maverick has created supervillains during Hero TV early days to make show more marketable

But for Me, It Was Tuesday aside, why would Jake use a gun and not his NEXT powers to kill them? And why Barbaby seems to remember more and more from that that day after each session in regeneration chamber?

• And now he's dead and reasons behind the murder are still unknown. Either he will turn out to be not so quite dead or there is something sticky here
  • Confirmed. He had an alibi for the day Barnaby's parents were killed.

Nobody can land a hit, and during his fight with Tiger, he says "I can hear everything." Tiger gets his hit in because it was unintentional.

• Sounds very possible. And he migh be picking heroes one after another because he isn't good enough to read more than one mind at time.
  • And his "force fields" could be telekinetic shields.
• As of Episode 13 this has been confirmed.

It will be either Kotetsu, making Big Damn Heroes moment to make up for his previous screw-up And possibly granting victory if WMG about Jake being mind-reader and not being able to read more than one mind is true or Lunatic, making Big Damn Villains entrance and killing Jake. It depends on the direction writers want to take the story - if it will be Lunatic, they may go with him trying to persuade Barnaby into joining him, which may be important subplot in second part of the series.

• Partially confirmed. Kotetsu shows up for a Big Damn Heroes moment, but instead of fighting himself he pulls a Batman Gambit by handing Barnaby an "ultrasonic grenade" to counter Jake's "super-hearing." Since Barnaby doesn't know it's actually a flashbang, neither does Jake, who gets distracted by the explosion long enough for Barnaby to break his ribs and take him out.

• The characters' names sound like the face cards:
  • Jake=Jack (or Joker)
  • Kriem=Queen
  • King=???
  • Ace=???
• Well, we certainly know who is Holding All The Cards.
• Confirmed: Kriem said they were only small fraction of Ouroboros

No two flashbacks of his parents' murders have ever been exactly the same. The memory changes noticeably every time it's shown, particularly after an "oxygen chamber" session. Even in the episode (the 6th) when it's first introduced, the memory is inconsistent. The second time the memory comes up that episode, the tattoo of Ouroboros on the gunman's hand disappears as he turns to face the only other living person in the vicinity.

Assuming that the missing tattoo isn't just some mistake on the artists' part, it can be argued that Barnaby's recollection of the event has not been reliable at all, and that the Ouroboros tattoo had never been there in the first place. Maybe it was projected or edited into his memories, or suggested to him as a possible suspect, at an earlier point in the series' timeline.

Why Ouroboros? Assuming, again, that it is indeed some kind of syndicate out to make trouble, it gives him something else to target instead of the parties actually responsible for the deaths, and removes Ouroboros as a threat to them.

• Semi-confirmed. Maverick DID implant a memory of the killer having an Ouroboros tattoo into Barnaby, but he wasn't setting them up completely. He is presumed to be in league with them, setting up crimes.

Think about it. Who is the only person that knows Kotetsu's secret and wasn't mind whiped by Maverick?.

• Kotetsu's mother, his brother, and Lunatic.
  • Okay, only person in Sternbild that knows it and is not Lunatic.
• Confirmed, He picks-up Kotetsu and gives him his old suit.

I have a suspicion that Kotetsu will start gaining his allies back by using his own memories to convince them that they're friends. Remember, the other heroes maintain secret identities, which the average Sternbild civilian wouldn't know... All except for one: Barnaby. His entire personal life is out in the open, so Kotetsu really doesn't have much to use on him that the general public doesn't already know. I'd imagine that until he can figure out some way to reach out, it'd be all of the heroes versus Barnaby.

• Confirmed, but not for the reasons stated: Episode 22, all the heroes on the roof and everyone watching the broadcast got their memories back thanks to Kaede use of Maverick's powers. Barnaby, however, was not watching the broadcast at the time and still thinks Kotetsu is a killer
  • Kotetsu does try to convince them with his own memories. It just doesn't work.

Unlike everyone else, Yuri wasn't mindwiped by Maverick to forget that Kotetsu is Wild Tiger — So when Kotetsu is implicated in Samantha's murder on the same day that Kotetsu's been unpersoned, he's probably thinking the whole thing smells fishy. Yuri might be a little too keen on punishing criminals, but he's not going to kill an innocent man if he knows he's been framed.

• I was thinking the exact same thing. I also thought that Ben Jackson would make an appearance to help him out as well.
• The preview features lots of shots of Yuri, plus Kotetsu exclaiming, "Who's this guy?" I'd wager the odds are pretty good on this one.
• Not exactly confirmed but as of Episode 21, Lunatic does save Kotetsu from being captured by the heroes; however he doesn't hang around afterwards

If you notice, in episode 21 Maverick patted Kaede on the head. And how does her powers work?

• And following from that, she'll be responsible for restoring everyone's memories
  • Almost, she uses Maverick's power to Combined Energy Attack most of the heroes, but Barnaby got there afterwards and Kaede was touched on the shoulder by Sky High in between times so Kotetsu had to resort to a "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight to restore his memories..

Maverick used the Brooks' robotics he stole to create it in order to help his cover-up.

• Confirmed in episode 23. "Black Suit Wild Tiger" is an android created by Rotwang, a former colleague of the Brooks, who created Cis. Maverick was impressed with Cis' battle with Tiger and Barnaby he gave Rotwang a lab to create a new android. That new android is H-01, the "Black Suit Wild Tiger"

Only next he will not have his suit or Hundred power active.

• Alternatively: Tiger Taking the Bullet for Barnaby is foreshadowing, and next time either he won't have his Hundred Power active, or their roles will be reversed and Barnaby will take a shot for Kotetsu.
  • Episode 24 in a way without the not paying attention part. He was holding H-01 in-place for Barnaby to shoot it with it's own gun. He said to Barnaby not to worry because he said he could dodge it. It was a bluff because his powers already ended and he got shot along with the android.

Maverick said himself that he only teamed up with an organization presumed to be Ouroborous meaning his connections with them can't be all that deep. At the very least it isn't very likely that any actions he may take up to episode 25 will actually bring the entire organization out of hiding. They will instead be the main focus of season 2, where we will learn more about their overall goals(assuming the whole organization doesn't share Jake's mentality)and origins, since the director has stated that he would like to do a second season, and the show has done well above Sunrise's expectations making it pretty likely.

• Confirmed: The last image of episode 25 is the Sternbild dollar showing the Ouroborous symbol

Have you seen all the crap he had to deal with that day? Anyone would pretty much fall into a coma-like state of sleep after all of that, even without taking that laser. Too bad everyone's too panicked to check for a heartbeat.

• Confirmed. He passed out from the pain, and is a little annoyed that nobody bothered to check his pulse before concluding he was dead.

Do you really expect that he's going to let him live after all the shit he's been pulling in the last few episodes?

• I'd bet money on this. Only problem is that it kinda takes away from Barnaby's revenge. One more person who's definitely on the chopping block as well would be Rotwang.
  • Confirmed. Lunatic kills Maverick as he's being transported for imprisonment.

... But still continue his work as a hero. This is a guy who'd spend his free time in high school delivering street justice — often without using his powers — and trying to come up with his future superhero name. Now combine this with Kotetsu himself motivating Ivan into heroism despite the perceived uselessness of his powers, and you've got someone who's very unlikely to accept retirement, willing or forced. Besides, it's not like we've never heard of unpowered heroes before...

• Confirmed. Kotetsu returns to do hero work after a 10-Minute Retirement, making the decline of his powers public and deciding that he's going to continue even after he loses his powers completely.

• All the buildup with his powers fluctuating? His taking the bullet for Bunny earlier in the series? The title of the next episode? It's all foreshadowing the fact that part of his power set is either nigh-immortality or a more phoenix-style resurrection power.
• Confirmed, though not nearly as dramatically as described above.

It has to be of some importance, given its prominence. Assuming the series takes place in 2011, the "1978" in the inscription is a time during Kotetsu's childhood. It could be a memento from Mr. Legend, or a medal awarded to him. Both Kotetsu and Barnaby are shown reaching for it, the former frantically, the other with a sense of wonder. It could have a symbolic meaning, representing the old, true heroic spirit Mr. Legend stood for, to which Kotetsu clings despite the current commercialisation and to which Barnaby will eventually aspire.

• In the first episode, when Sky High is announced King of Heroes, the video wall shows his image with a "NC 1977" in a crown...
• Freeze Frame Bonus in The Stinger of episode 8 confirms that the first episode of the series (at the end of a Hero TV season) took place in the year NC 1977 by naming that as the year that Barnaby made his debut as a hero. This means that the medal in the end sequence is most likely the King of Heroes medal for the current season, although presumably it's being used to symbolize a good bit more than that.
• In episode 19, the medal is actually a matching pair of pins that Kotetsu bought and ends up helping to set off the events for episode 20 when Kotetsu finds the in Maverick's office and his car.

He will return from apparent death (or wherever he's been) in time to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment; alternatively, he'll die to reinforce Wild Tiger's idealism and/or Barnaby's. Either way, by the end all the heroes will drop the whole corporate mascot thing and become true heroes.

• Almost certainly jossed, as Mr. Legend has not only been confirmed dead, but the nature of his death confirms that he wasn't exactly a shining paragon Kotetsu remembers him as in his later years.
  • To clarify, we see him consumed by Yuri's blue-white flames, whose flames were, 1.) previously shown burning people alive so fast that anything other than immediate help is futile, if even that, and 2.) not even controllable at that age, especially assuming that this was the first time his rnaby's parents were going to report him for staging crimes so as to raise Hero TV's ratings during its early years. Thus-far Barnaby seems to be a normal human being with NEXT powers, though subjected to the powers of another NEXT.

She'd rather make it as a singer, but she's only marketable when in her Blue Rose persona.

• Close but jossed, she would rather make it as a singer but loves helping people too much.

That would make a nice twist, putting him on Not So Different level with Barnaby. And he already seems to be strongly inspired by The Punisher anyway.

• Likely Jossed. Lunatic's father taught him that evil must be punished... and then Lunatic is forced to kill him to stop his dad from beating his mother.

This may or may not end well.

• Jossed. Ivan disguises as Kriem's henchman Chuckman instead.
  • It still may or may not end well.
  • Although Ivan gets hospitalized, he still is able to help make a plan to get rid of the mechs.

Alternatively, those YMMV creepy vibes might serve their purpose in foreshadowing that their relationship was not a good one, or turned sour. But come on—Mr. Maverick? Mr. Legend? There's gotta be some sort of connection.

• Jossed - Maverick was in charge of Hero TV while Mr. Legend was active

He retired and wanted to encourage NEXT to protect ordinary citizens.

• Jossed. Mr Legend was killed by his son some time ago.

This (possible Brain Bleach required).

• Probably jossed in episode 19, as although they weren't in the same room, Barnaby was on a video phone with Samantha while in the same room as Mr Mavrick.
• Definitely jossed in episode 20. Samantha and Maverick are shown in the same room, shortly before Maverick orders his goons to dispose of her.

He'll be brainwashed into working for Ourobouros instead.

• Partially jossed. Jake briefly forces him to act as a decoy for a bit, but Ivan manages to get back home brainwash-free and in one piece - albeit a very raggedy one.

The show is already setting up a contrast between Wild Tiger's old-fashioned idealism and deep committment to the value of human life versus Lunatic's Knight Templar vigilantism. Barnaby, with his personal vendetta against Ouroboros and emotional baggage regarding his parents' murder, is somewhere in the middle, and it'll be up to Kotetsu to talk him down from making the wrong decision.

• Jossed, sort of. While Lunatic simply watches the fight, Jake possibly dies after he crashes the helicopter on himself.

• This is why the files related to Jake's arrest were unavailable to the heroes when they wanted to do research on him. Jake, the non-powered son of Sternbild's first superhero, develops a complex regarding heroes and ends up severely deranged. Eventually ending up working as a mercenary and killer-for-hire, Jake is approached by Ouroboros who offer to artificially empower him (resulting in his differently colored NEXT aura and multiple powers). Jake, now convinced he's superior to everyone else, becomes a full-blown serial killer and NEXT supremacist, and Mr. Legend is the only one who can take him on. To avoid the scandal that would come about if this was revealed, the authorities lock Jake away in the most secure cell they can, and quietly sweep it under the rug.
  • Additionally, considering he used a gun to kill Barnaby's parents, he didn't have powers at that time. His murder of the Brooks couple was his initiation into Ouroboros.
    • Jossed. Legend, however, IS Lunatic's father.

• Since Barnaby's visage of the killer keeps changing from episode to episode, and since Jake didn't really seem to give a crap or recollection towards Barnaby or his parents' deaths, and also since, even though it could be an animation flaw, Jake's ungloved hands are seen buckling up his pants and are totally bare of the apparent Ourobouros tattoo◊ that Barnaby remembered being on the killer's right hand in the first place, it's possible that, as it was Kotetsu standing in the midst of the warehouse fire in episode 8 that triggered something in Barnaby's memory concerning the killer, Kotetsu's rumored brother, who might look like him, is the one who killed Barnaby's parents instead.
  • Half confirmed, half jossed. Jake had an alibi on the day of the murder (he was kidnapping Kriem), and Kotetsu confirmed through archive footage that he doesn't have a tattoo. However, given that Kotetsu's brother is entirely normal and tattooless himself, it's highly unlikely that he's the culprit either
  • Jossed. Maverick is the murderer.

C'mon, it'd be an interesting plot twist wouldn't it? Get the secrets of how Bunny really is an artificial human who had Kotetsu's powers transplanted onto him.

• Jossed. He did the deed himself, and only because Barnaby's parents were going to report him for staging crimes so as to raise Hero TV's ratings during its early years. Thus-far Barnaby seems to be a normal human being with NEXT powers, though subjected to the powers of another NEXT.

He could have transformed into Jake to conceal his real identity, but couldn't hide the Ouroboros tattoo for some reason. He might even be related to Ivan (possibly his father or mother). It also explains why Jake had a shotgun in Barnaby's memories.

• Jossed. Maverick's got memory altering powers.

Kaede will then realize that Maverick was acting pretty suspiciously and, under the pretension of going to him to beg for help in clearing her father's name, will touch him to prove that his power is altering memories, then use it to cancel out the Heroes' false memories.

• Jossed. He stays in the city and calls out the other heroes. Kaede learns from her grandmother. Kaede then goes to the city to find someone to help her father. On her way, Kaede is patted on the head by Maverick when they unknowingly met on the steps.

After episode 17 it's likely to assume she is aware that she copied Hundred Power from her dad. It's rare to have two NEXTs with the same power, not to mention three and he have the same power as Barnaby and Wild Tiger. She is smart enough to do the math. Right now she might be faking being mad to persuade him into telling her the truth.

• She learns from her grandmother in episode 21.

Besides the fact that this was a terrible planned, plan, Maverick has no idea's about Kaede's copy powers, making it a nice set up for her to be a spanner. Karina still has the towel, which might jog her memory (and crush) about Kotetsu, prompting her to help out. And Antonio has a lot of backstory with him, to the point of knowing about Kaede and not being surprised about Tomoe being dead.

• I had a feeling that Antonio would be one of the first because of his childhood with Kotetsu. He'd at least give him a chance to explain himself. As for Karina and Kaede, good ideas. I figured that Kotetsu would also try to talk to his friends by using his memories of them. IE: Referring to them by their real names might give them a clue that something's up.
  • Seems that Maverick even erased Kotetsu from Antonio's childhood memories. Karina almost recovered her true memories but the appearance of "Black Suit Wild Tiger" prevented that. Partially jossed; Kaede was the one who saved the day.

He was just Trolling him. He figured it out somehow the first time he was about to drink it- him asking for cream was something he thought of at the last moment as an excuse.

• Jossed; he had no idea that Maverick was responsible until he heard that Barnaby was staying in the former's mansion.

"Black Suit Wild Tiger" does not talk or at least is inaudible.

• It would mean Maverick cured Saito's claustrophobia.
  • It could also mean he did so by altering his memory to take away any memory of any time he ever felt scared in tight places. Which means if he gets his memory back...
• Jossed; his memory was returned; Black Suit Tiger still showed up later.

...In the form of Tiger beating the hell out of the heroes, and Kaede restoring their memories. Lunatic might help, too.

• Kotetsu didn't throw a punch and Lunatic didn't show up.

Saito's memories came back from watching it on television, so it makes sense.

• Jossed. It was from Kotetsu calling him Bunny.

Judging by the fact that they appeared in the ending before they even appeared in the series they're going to at least play a pretty important role- more so than the one in episode 20- so it's very likely that this is where it will go. The ending itself implies something like this, too. It's possible that they're a Red Herring instead of course but not likely.

• Jossed. See above.

Because that would be a wonderfull irony.

• Jossed. It's an android.

• Jossed. Kaede does.

Origami Cyclone dies first, calling it.

• Unless Black Dude Dies First that is...
• Lately many people have been pointing at Sky High for having the cheapest advertising.
  • Considering Episode 15's title is "The Sky's the Limit"...
• The preview for Episode 13 doesn't look good for Wild Tiger. This one's jossed, thankfully.
  • But then Episode 24 happens... This one's jossed too.

Out of respect for his fallen comrade, Barnaby will take on the mantle of Wild Tiger in his stead.

• Maybe for the main point if you take account the events in Episode 24.
• Jossed. At least for the first season of the show.

In relation to the WMG of them setting up disasters to increase ratings, they might find that people see this as the same old, same old. What the viewers wouldn't expect is a hero getting killed. Someone at Hero TV will pick up on this, and during one of the disasters, a hero with low ratings will either be killed or fatally injured. Kotetsu and Barnaby, despite Kotetsu's lower ratings, won't be on the chopping block due to their new status as a big superhero team. However, each of the other heroes are up for grabs...

• Going by episode 24, Maverick prepared an alibi that the heroes were fighting a terrorist organization but were killed.
• Jossed: All the heroes live through the finale (at least for the first season)

• He's already losing his powers. Assuming it keeps up, it would be fitting for him todecide to quit being a superhero so he can finally spend more time with Kaede. Him accepting that he's no longer fit for superheroing would make for a good conclusion to his character arc seeing as it means that he'd prevent making the same mistake Mr. Legend did.
• Briefly confirmed then jossed. Kotetsu retires to be with his family, but a year later he's back at being a hero

The final show will have Kotetsu, powerless, leaping into battle to save Barnaby, despite being a normal human. He will succeed at the cost of his own life... But he will go with a smile on his face, as he trusts in Barnaby to continue watching the city (and his daughter).

• Events of Episode 24 are close to this WMG, though the death part is still ambiguous though implied.
• This will be aired on Hero TV, permanently cementing Kotetsu as one of the greats in Hero TV history. (The next generation of Heroes may even reject corporate sponsorship as a result.)
  • Alternately, Barnaby will go vigilante after this, rejecting any work with Hero TV in lieu of helping the city directly.
• This... may have to be moved to the confirmed set of theories. Still, let's wait for the next episode to be sure.
  • it wasn't. Kotetsu lives, so theory jossed.

Because we've seen this setup before, Genre Savvy viewers are likely to assume right off the bat that Maverick is a Corrupt Corporate Executive Villain with Good Publicity. Therefore, a bigger twist would be that Maverick actually is a kindly paternal surrogate for Barnaby who uses his power and connections for the benefit of the city. Oh, so completely jossed.

• Well maybe not COMPLETELY jossed. In episode 19, Maverick admits to making a deal with an organization to crimes in order to improve ratings (and then murdering Barnaby's parents to cover it up) but he never actually NAMES the group he made the deal with. Consider also that the false memory he implanted in Barnaby's head implicated Orobouros in the murder, which would be an odd thing to do if he was working with them.
  • scratch that. Maverick admits he works for Orobouros in the final episode before lobotomizing himself, so jossed.

In honor of his sacrifice, a monument will be built in his honor, as one of Stern Bild's greatest heroes.

• Jossed He lives and starts being a hero again after a brief retirement.

will set up Rotwang as a scapegoat. It bugged me why he even deals with this NEXT-hating psycho, before I realized that if their plan will fall, he can easily make Rotwang take all the blame and put out Karma Houdini on himself. Heroes doesn't have any hard evidence against him and even if they do, it might be not wise to tell people in Sternbild that all shit they went through for years was caused by one greedy NEXT, which sets up things for next seson - Maverick steps out of his position but avoids punishment and heroes try to undercover his shady dealings.

• Jossed

Theory inspired by (spoiler link) how many times Barnaby's memories seems to have been altered by Maverick (read: more than once; high likely even more than four times).

• Jossed - The Stinger from the last episode suggest clearly that Ouroboros is real organization and in control of Sternbild

will lose control over his powers whipping memories of the entire city. Forty years later Jake will return being brought back to life by Union as a cybrg, to fight another Batman-like protagonist, under the nickname Alan Gabriel.

• Jossed

At the press conference Albert Maverick mentions that Barnaby took his father's name when he decided to become a superhero in order to honor his late parents' memory, which suggests that it was not originally his name to begin with. Also, he is never actually referred to as Barnaby in any of his flashbacks, and the newspaper article reporting his father's death simply refers to his father as "Mr. Barnaby Brooks" without a "Sr." following.

• I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he was saying in the episode. You can't really "take your father's name" to fight crime under if it's already your real given name.
• Jossed by the Brooks family photo in Episode 25.

Episode 11 has Maverick announcing to the public that Barnaby took his father's name. Bunny is never called Barnaby in any of the flashbacks. Without the subtitles, Samantha calls him "young master", and never by name.

Maverick could have made him adopt the name to add more drama to his Hero persona.

• Jossed by the Brooks family photo in Episode 25.

Because the whole Alliterative Name gag wouldn't be lost. Dibs on Brian, Bernard, Benjamin, Bradley... Or, you know, Bunny.

• Jossed by the Brooks family photo

Not my theory, but after a fanfic suggested it, it's very plausible. It would also explain why Kaede hates it so much.

Long-lost brothers, cousins, clones, whatever- having the exact same power seems too much of a coincidence to me. Plus, it fits well with the "strangers who can't stand each other but must" theme.

If you can't beat them, join them- and then corrupt them! It would explain how the old-style heroes were replaced by a less-caring generation; the villains bought all the big companies and then lured the younger heroes with offers of fame and fortune. As their 'sponsors' they can keep track of them and keep them busy and off their true affairs (the robbers are mooks paid to take a dive.) Of course this will be discovered by the end of the series, a big battle ensues and then all will be well. Note that each company that owns a hero has a name out of Greek Mythology; the Uroboros symbol is *also* of classical origins. This leads to my next WMG:

• Confirmed in a way. It's presumed that they are the group Mr. Maverick allied himself with when HERO TV's ratings were down.
  • What's more, Maverick insists that Ouroboros does not end with him, leaving Barnaby with more loose ends to tie up (second season, please). Then the Sequel Hook reveals an Ouroboros logo on a Stern Bild bank-note, rather neatly indicating (or perhaps confirming, given the hold the media seems to have over the Mayor) that its influence goes far beyond Maverick's corporate-sponsored method of promoting NeXT.

Who'd expect the Camp Gay hero to be the Big Bad? Think: he owns his own company and sort of looks like the evil silhouette in the opening credits. Having a villain as part of the main cast all along would be a neat twist on their part!

• He could be related to/have hired the bomber in episode three.
• The silhouette was shown to be another NEXT with a similar power to FE.

Let's take a look at the facts: Barnaby 1) has the exact superpowers as Wild Tiger, 2) wants justice/revenge for the murder of his parents, and 3) has some sort of deal with important folk that has something to do with fact #2. Plausible conclusion: Barnaby was talked into participating in some experiment to give him superpowers so that he can bring in his parents' killers himself.

Why did they give him Wild Tiger's powers? Who knows? His were the easiest to replicate; whoever was in charge of the superpower engineering project had motivations of replacing Wild Tiger with Barnaby; the project was actually headed by Kotetsu's no-longer-present wife; the company Tiger and Barnaby work for was planning this whole Superhero Duo thing for a long time; Barnaby is a closet Wild Tiger fanboy and specifically requested his powers...

• That important folk Barnaby has a "deal" with is Albert Maverick, the CEO of Apollon Media. (It's shown in episode 3 that it was him who picked little Barnaby up after his parents' death.) AM is also the company that bought out Top Mag, Tiger's original sponsors.

The sponsors have the technology to make their heroes much more powerful, but instead of providing the heroes with these upgrades, they are intentionally holding them back with Awesome, but Impractical additions to their suits. The reason is that Hero TV wouldn't be exciting anymore when the heroes would be invincible. Nobody would watch it anymore and nobody would see the sponsors logos.

This would explain how Sternbild has its own Almost-But-Not-Quite-US currency, for starters.

It seems likely that Fire Emblem would employ only fabulous, fierce people, but it may be possible that his secretary is a very convincing cross-dresser rather than a woman.

Why else would he has such a hot secretary?

• Maybe she's just really competent. Sexy people can be good at their jobs, too.

When Barnaby saved her in episode 9, she was looking into his eyes for a pretty good while...

Episode 9 had a moment of romantic tension between the two.

That's why in episode 4 he subtly seemed even more anxious than other parents seen reacting to such situations, knowing of the inherent dangers of being a superhero, how it could affect his daughter, and what could come out of not taking it seriously. Of course Karina herself might not be aware of it even now, as even retired superheroes would have their reasons to keep their identities secret from their family and friends.

• Taking in consideration superpowers are genetic mutations, this might be pretty spot-on.

How else she would always appear in danger or close of the Heroes of Sternbild?

After episode 8, Lunatic seems to have taken a personal interest in Wild Tiger, probably as a result of the dramatic contrast between their ideas about what constitutes "justice." At some point he's going to try to test Tiger and prove him wrong by trying to make him act against his ideals: Sadistic Choice, anyone?

In episode 9, he reveals that she died of illness five years previously. His purple bead bracelet looks strikingly like a pancreatic cancer awareness bracelet, potentially indicating the nature of her illness.

• It's most likely a Buddhist bracelet for praying to/remembering the dead.
  • Perhaps, but their wedding picture indicates that Kotetsu is Christian.
    • Not necessarily.
  • Episode 17 shows it being worn while Tomoe was still alive

...Tokusentai.

• Or a Visual Pun on the Japanese emoticon for tiger: =・T・=

• With his powers he could easily survive helicopter crashing on him and escape.

Sternbild is prison-city for NEXT and people who can have children with NEXT genes. Their memories are alerted so they won't remember real world and they were conditioned to never want to leave the city. Certain people may be actors, keeping The Masquerade for everybody else.

• Some people like Maverick and Agnes may be working for those that imprisoned them. Reality show is really brodcasted on the world.
• Barnaby is most recent prisoner and Saito's chamber is relly strenghtening memory-alerting process.

They will either become his army or will act like bunch of Nineties Anti Heroes, leading to Lunatic having Even Evil Has Standards, when he will kill them.

Just imagine the strain any body have to go through in order to do what Tiger does. Might result in rapid aging as well.

• Maybe that's why Hundred Power has a time limit — staying powered up for too long might be dangerous. That may also be why increasing the power boost lowers the time limit.
• Could have triggered the sapping of Kotetsu's powers.

What, you think Apollon Media would pay for those just for the benefit of Kotetsu and Barnaby? They're using them to administer a drug that they hope will enhance their NEXT abilities over time. Barnaby's either the control (because they don't see him as expendable as they do Kotetsu), or the effects simply haven't manifested yet.

• That actually seems very possible and gives a good explanation for why they have the same power.

In episode 6 there are two well timed lunar eclipses two nights in a row this is completely impossible in our world so something or someone must have changed the orbit of the moon itself.

• Eclipse is when you can't see the moon (simplified, of course). In episode 6 there's a full moon. And since the story happens on two consecutive nights that's perfectly all right: after a full moon it takes a day until it starts visibly waning.
  • That's wrong a Solar Eclipse is when the moon blocks the sun this occurs on a new moon, but the Lunar Eclipse is when the EARTH is perfectly between the Sun and the moon causing it to glow red for a few minuets, please fact check wiki if you have any doubts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse
    • To be fair, a red moon in fiction doesn't always signify an eclipse, especially in anime. It's just as if not more frequently used simply as an indicator of weird things afoot, which is probably the reason for its use in episode 6, heralding the debut of Lunatic. Even in real life, the moon can look orange or red while it's close to the horizon.

• This is the only way he'll have a normal life with his daughter, since he's not the kind of hero to quit while he can help people. Of course he'll save the day one last time before he retires.
  • Probably not; even without his powers Kotetsu is still a complete Badass Normal and suit upgrades could easily make him better than that. At the very least he may end up working for Hero Academy.

• They heroes are not aware of it, of course; it was a plan by the corporations who own them (and the city, for all practical purposes.) These were only pretending to be worried about Jake's attack on the city, they knew it would fail all along (possibly they already knew how to deactivate their robots, and they likely *provided* them in the first place.) Lunatic knew this about this all along, which is why he didn't interfere.
• The fact Tiger & Bunny are being kept too busy with PR work to see much action probably means their masters are getting afraid they might be coming TOO close to the truth.
• And to that end, [[spoiler: Maverick deliberately caused Barnaby to 'remember' Jake's face, knowing that when Jake 'escaped' that a) Jake would do something significant and b) Barnaby would be around to find the killer he has been after. The result was massive public support for the heroes' victory.

This will cause him to lash out at the other heroes for not letting him know-while they will try to argue back that they didn't know, which is true. Sky High won't have any of that, though, in his grief and rage, and turn on his former friends (possibly joining with Lunatic, perhaps?). This WOULD be somewhat against his character, but he seemed to really care for Cis, so it's highly possible this will be the straw to break the nice, friendly camel's back.

With the information revealed in Episode 15 regarding the fact that the Brooks' company was working with androids in particular, it is entirely possible that Barnaby was actually a secret experiment to combine NEXT powers with android technology that they kept to themselves or only amongst a select group of people. Whoever is actually in charge of Ouroboros (possibly a former employee) knew of the experiment and attempted to claim Barnaby for themselves, which would explain why Barnaby himself was spared when Jake killed his parents: it was Barnaby he was supposed to be after the whole time.

• Alternatively, he didn't have parents at all. His memories are fake and implanted, in order to give him motivation to become and remain a hero, as well as to give a "hook" for the public. That would keep him under Maverick's thumb, too, since the memories would conveniently make Barnaby dependent on him.
  • While the fake memories aspect is real, it's not for this reason. Thus far, Barnaby is a perfectly human NEXT-but with altered memories via Maverick. His parents worked on robotic suits for the heroes.
    • he might be very human robot

Which explains why it's so rare that the only other case Ben found was Mr. Legend and that took some digging. Might even be used to remove "troublesome" (read: too noble and/or free thinking for their own good) heroes without arousing suspicion.

• This makes even more sense after episode 19, when we learn that Maverick is the real murderer of Barnaby's parents. Mr. Legend was the one who caught Jake, who Maverick intended to set up as the murderer. If Mr. Legend had suspected what might be going on, well... cue the elimination.

This would explain how both Yuri and Kaede gain their powers, and how Legend and Tiger lose theirs.

• Jake's both parents may be NEXT, explaining why he has two powers.
  • ...Hello, Fridge Brilliance! Though on the other hand, it's clear that, from episode 18, neither of Kriem's parents had powers- maybe one of them was born powerless despite having a NEXT in their family and not being aware of it, which is where she got hers from? Something like that.
  • Or One of them was NEXT but, for some reason, his or her poweres never awakened?
• According to a magazine article, "NEXT powers do not seem to run in families; anyone can become a NEXT". Still, it hasn't been completley Jossed yet- there's still the possibility that, while it's not necessary to have a NEXT in the family to become one, NEXT who have children pass on their powers to them- not to mention that this works very, very well as it's too much of a coincidence that both Kotetsu and Legend lost their powers, both of them had a child who was also a NEXT, and that in both their cases, the awakening of their child's powers and the progressive loss of theirs was around the same time. Not to mention the theory of Karina's dad being a retired superhero...

After displaying Hundred Power like her dad, Kaede then displays magnetic powers. Later when talking to her dad on the phone, she says her uncle concluded her power was to copy the power of the last NEXT she touched. So... where did the magnetism come from and how did he come to this conclusion?

The reason his powers are wigging out isn't because they're fading, it's because they're changing to something he doesn't have control over yet.

• Kaede copies powers. She's shown flying in front of Kotetsu at the end of episode 17. The only way she could have done that is if Kotetsu can fly, and just doesn't realize it yet.
• They could be evolving because he's catching up to his powers. Remember that time Kotetsu threw a downed tree after his powers gave out in order to save Kaede? Now, that could be written off as adrenaline, but that's a bit much. It could be that, for whatever reason, Kotetsu has suddenly become a lot stronger in his everyday life, so his hundred power is starting to not do anything. Because of this, whatever causes his powers is going to wig out for a bit and then jump ahead again.

Featuring adult Kaede becoming new hero, possibly under the nickname Wild Bunny, because why not?

• Probably jossed, Word Of God said that Kaede won't become a hero because her powers are difficult to control and her father disapproves of it.

As opposed to normal evolution, which works fine without any control from above, there is being or organization that grants people NEXT powers and is controlling what powers they get, trying to create most powerfull NEXT in existence. Barnaby and Lunatic are from first generation after that being/organization stopped experimenting and started granting people stronger varieties of NEXT powers already proved to be usefull. Kid from episode 2 and kaede are from generation in which he\they started granting even more powerfull or extreme abilities or upgraded varieties of powers that proved to be useless. When you think about it, those two might be the strongest NEXT in the entire show. Jake is result of an experiment to give one person two powers.

Kaede copied flying and magnetic powers from somebody, it might be she copied it from Kotetsu. Maybye he is gonan get Magneto's powerset?

Who do we know who's lost and is losing their powers? And who do we know out of the named cast who have been hit with Lunatic's fire?

I got this from a theory on /a/-namely, that Maverick killed Legend, and altered both Lunatic's memory and his mother's in order to make it seem like Legend was abusing his wife. Now, that wouldn't explain the whole palmface thing. But, this may-Legend wasn't assaulting his wife, but Maverick, who may have revealed to him his plan with the intent to wipe his memory, if Legend had caught on. Lunatic saw this, assumed Maverick was being unjustly hurt by his dad, and jumped in to save him with his powers. Legend put his hand on Lunatic's face in order to move him out of the way while he took care of Maverick, but was killed by the fire. Seeing this as an opportunity, Maverick may have altered the memories of those who witnessed/were involved in this, which is why Lunatic sees the hallucination of Legend in front of him-it's trying to get him to remember.

• Having re-watched the scene of Mr. Legend inspiring young Kotetsu, I really hope that some version of this is true. An alternate way it could go is that Maverick had his hand over Yuri's head to re-write his memories, when Yuri's powers flare up, setting Maverick's hand on fire and burning Yuri's face. Granted, Maverick's hand doesn't look burned, but he may have discreetly had reconstructive surgery, being so wealthy. Also, the re-written memories could help explain why Yuri's mother is clearly in poor mental health. There was some contradiction between the implanted memories and reality that her mind picked up on which caused her to have a breakdown much like Barnaby's after discovering Jake's alibi, but without any solid evidence to help her clear up her conflicting thoughts.

In episode 14 what do we see Tiger do several times before his power went berserk? And its a well known fact that they contain the chemical K.

I'm sure what Maverick's goons did to her wasn't shown for this very reason.

She is everywhere in the series◊, and her design is rather pretty and slightly unusual, considering the two moles (or dotted make-up?) underneath her eyes. She might be important in some way by the end of the series, even if she isn't a part of Ouroboros.

Legend has found out truth about Maverick's shady business and ran away, before he could get his memory erased. Because of that Marverick has changed Yuri's and his mother's memories into what we seen in episode 16.

• So Maverick created not only Stern Bild's media-friendly new hero Barnaby, but in effect its first (notable, at least) Supervillain/Anti-Hero? I like. It would fit nicely into the charade Maverick has built up around Ouroboros, and seeming to leave Yuri to his own devices as Lunatic gives an authenticity that manipulating him as consistently as he did Barnaby would not allow.

She's an alien who was responsible for seeding NEXT powers into the human genome, and is now watching to see how humans deal with gaining incredible power. This will determine whether or not they consider us responsible enough to handle the technological leaps that would come from making contact with them, and is why she's always nearby when the heroes are around.

They're considering a second season, right? If they wrap up enough plot elements by the end of this one, moving on to the next generation (please pardon the awful pun) would make sense from a storytelling perspective. If Kotetsu does indeed lose all his powers, then he could serve as her mentor figure.

• Probably jossed, Word Of God said that Kaede won't become a hero because her powers are difficult to control and her father disapproves of it.

Regardless of how things are being set up for this kind of confrontation, it's all and always been about the ratings. Murder by one of the Heroes will hurt the ratings and possibly stir up more prejudice against the NEXT, so the most any Hero can do to Kotetsu is catch him. Of course, letting him stay alive will probably cause problems down the road.

Maverick will arrange for Kotetsu to be arrested by Barnaby for drama, but is expecting Lunatic, who's in the habit of killing criminals, to swoop down and do the actual dirty work. This way, good ratings AND a potential wrench in the plans are both taken care of.

• Partially jossed. He's sent to do so after the other heroes fail to do it themselves. Uncertain whether or not Maverick will let him kill Kotetsu.

Heroes are a pain who don't always deliver good ratings, and there's always the danger they'll find out you've been supplying their enemies. So why not replace them all? Hence why Maverick chose the option he did in episode 20 instead of something less...complicated. He was going to do this in the future anyway, Kotetsu just moved the schedule up.

Let's go back to the first 13 episodes for a bit and pretend that you're Maverick: hiring Kotetsu to be Barnaby's partner/sidekick isn't too bad of an idea. Thanks to his Big Brother Mentor tendencies and messianic urge to help everyone, he's pretty quick to give your star employee the emotional support he needs to overcome his past emotional trauma — you know, that pesky thing that keeps mulling over when he should be going to all those events and photoshoots you have him signed up for. Basically, he's doing two jobs (hero and therapist) for the price of one for you.

And you know what? It worked. Barnaby's not so preoccupied with revenge anymore. He's not at risk of brutalizing suspects who have links to Ouroboros. Now he wants to be the hero you've prepared him to be. Kotetsu basically took the kinks out of your tykebomb free of charge.

There's only one problem now: You don't need Kotetsu anymore. In fact, he's a bit of a liability now, since not only is he prone to wracking up damage costs and intolerant to the more commercialized and glitzy aspects of superherodom, but your top hero's getting a little too attached to him for your liking. You were thinking that maybe you could fire him at the end of the season on the basis of low rankings, but now he's also inconveniently jumped up to fourth place. Firing him now would be a bad business move, not to mention suspicious.

So, what do you do? The answer: get him to retire on his own. And you're going to do that by slipping something into the oxygen of those relaxation chambers to trigger the decline of his powers.

For bonus points, you did the same thing to Mr. Legend when he started catching on to what was going on behind the scenes.

If Kotetsu were to lose his powers permanently or die, it will be Kaede who steps up as Barnaby's new partner. She would still be able to have the Hundred Power by copying him.

Also, Rotwang uploaded Cis' memory from what remained of her into a new body, and now that Cis is out somewhere in Stern Bild, just waiting to be found by Keith. Because I want Keith to be happy dammit.

• Partly jossed as the official word says she is unable to feel emotions.

So long as Barnaby did what Maverick wanted, and the man was around to tweak his memories where necessary then everything fell into place where Maverick wanted and Barnaby knew no different. Now Maverick is gone and Barnaby is on his own without that 'guidance' (he has Kotetsu, naturally!) he will do things which wouldn't fit in with Maverick's ideas on how Barnaby should act and what his goals should be. We saw that Barnaby didn't know how to handle having the one goal in his life supposedly 'solved', but perhaps it goes further than that. That the more Barnaby acts without Maverick's influence and re-enforcement, the more he will become aware of the contradictions in his memory. Such as him apparently growing up in an orphanage?

Why did the NEXT suddenly appear forty five years ago? Because they were originally crafted by Ouroboros to create a superior human race, but many escaped forty five years ago and had children, and the mutation spread by passing down powers that way. Possibly, Kotetsu's father might have had something to do with Ouroboros.

• And it will be the first non-Hero TV scene of a second season.

• Yuri
• His costume is very celestial, he takes his name from a word meaning "moon-mad", and he often appears in moonlight; the moon motif is often associated with womanhood.

But because her power is kind of unstable she won't work in the field; instead she will test the suits.

Much like Tony Stark's Iron Man Bracelet, the black rings the titular duo are seen wearing are so that their suits are put on correctly by the automated system.

Not the flying bit - but when the powers activated. This might be closer to Fridge Logic here, but bear with me. We know that both Kotetsu and Yuri activated their powers when they were rather young. Kotetsu looks like he's about eight in the scene with Mr. Legend and Yuri appears to be a young teen. Pao-Lin is still only about twelve. Barnaby, Ivan, and Antonio have all had their powers at least since high-school. (Both Barnaby and Ivan attended the Hero Academy, meaning they were most likely in middle school or junior high when their powers activated. Antonio is shown to already be invulnerable during a fight with Kotetsu in high school in a Drama CD). Karina is only sixteen, and she's already an established Hero when the series starts, so there's no way of telling how long she's had them for - but still, sixteen. Kaede is the only NEXT whose powers we actually see activate for the first time and she's only ten. So the average age for powers to activate seems to be somewhere between, say, eight and fourteen. Sky High mentions in episode 15 that his powers didn't activate until he was eighteen. So in terms of powers...he's a late bloomer.

• What about the mayor's son? His powers have already activated and he's still just a baby.

The only difference been that the shows are set in different cities (Stern Bild and Champion City respectively) and while the cast of T&B found a marketable way of doing heroics jobs via Reality Show advertising, the only one cool enough to catch the sponsors eyes in Champion City was Captain Amazing.

• Copyrights aside, this would work.

C'mon, small child of wealthy important people watches his parents get murdered in front of his eyes and spends the rest of his life becoming a superhero and hunting them down? Amanda Waller wishes she could get results that good.

• Further WMG: Barnaby's true genetic father is Mr. Legend. Maverick obtained a sample of his DNA and implanted Barnaby Brooks Sr. with nanites that rewrote his DNA to those of Mr. Legend's.

Both involve super powered people that glow blue. Both are arguably deconstructions of the Superhero genre, or at least the reactions to people with super powers, whether its corporatism or just cold blooded espionage. However, Tiger and Bunny might be poking fun at how the latter is Darker and Edgier, and how it has mind boggling conclusions, by simply being fun. In other words, "You can still have a show that's comedic, idealistic, and still deconstructs/reconstructs a genre without needing a gut-wrenchingly huge body count and an increasingly incomprehensible plot."

C'mon, two guys that look that much alike can't just be Identical Strangers. They even wear the same goddamn clothes.

• Episode 12 DOES have Kotetsu drinking some coffee, so he may have picked the habit up from somewhere...

He stalks Alex to get 20 dollars he owes Kotetsu. Wiffin in da club is just an excuse.

• totheark is rest of heroes, who are trying to scare Jay, because they're afraid he will bust Antonio and get him into trouble. Masky and Blasky works for Maverick, who is responsible of all memory losess in the Marble Hornets.

Possibly in the future, maybe the past.... or just on the other side of the country.

Because when I see superheroes sponsored by companies, that just screams Booster Gold...plus they had to get the idea somehow.

Do I even have to explain this?