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  • And You Thought It Would Fail: The creators have expressed their surprise at the show's success—because everyone was sure it would be a complete bust.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Keith doesn't seem to care that the girl he was crushing on just disappears, forever unaware the robot he destroyed and the woman he pined for were one in the same.
  • Awesomeness Withdrawal: Despite the show's popularity, it took seven years for a second season to be announced.
  • Base-Breaking Character: Fire Emblem. Some viewers see him as an unflattering stereotype of gay men, which wasn't helped by his tendency to sexually harass the male heroes. However, some feel he was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in The Rising after his backstory was revealed. Season 2 further helps by removing the sexual harassment gag, which has helped him gain more fans, but still remains somewhat divisive.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In "Spare The Rod And Spoil The Child" Barnaby rescues Agnes, who begins crushing on him as a result. This never comes up again.
  • Captain Obvious Reveal:
    • Yuri is Lunatic. You could tell that he's on the wrong side just by looking at him, and it's not helped by his voice actor making no effort to disguise his voice.
    • Fake-Tiger turning out to be a robot. He was introduced just after an episode devoted to a character who turned out to be a robot and was strong and fast enough to fight Tiger and Barnaby.
  • Cargo Ship: The stuffed bunny from Episode 5 has apparently been getting as much action as Kotetsu and Barnaby. Also popular is Kotetsu/Bandages.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Albert Maverick is seemingly the kind and friendly benefactor of superheroes and the founder of Hero TV. In fact, he was the secret leader of the crime syndicate Ouroboros and was involved in their criminal activities. To make things easier for himself, Maverick presented NEXT as marketable to gain them fans and create a superhero legacy, all the while hiding the fact that he is a NEXT himself whose power was Mind Rape. Maverick would murder the parents of future hero Barnaby Brooks to mold the boy into his perfect pawn, rewriting his memories every time Barnaby got too close to the truth. When Maverick realized Barnaby's partner Kotetsu was too close to the truth, he had Barnaby's mother figure Samantha murdered and framed Kotetsu, wiping the memories of everyone who knew his superhero identity. After this failed, Maverick decides to wipe out his own kind and replace them with more easily controllable robots created by Rotwang. Once the doctor has outlived his usefulness to him, Maverick decides to murder Rotwang after revealing himself as a NEXT. Finally, Maverick puts a gun to Kaede's head and tries to use her as a hostage.
    • Dr. Rotwang, a robot engineer and former college of Barnaby's parents, was first introduced in episode 15 as a one-shot villain who creates Cis and unleashes her to wreak chaos upon Sternberg, and he expresses nothing but admiration at his creation's carnage. He later appears in the last 3 episodes working for the Big Bad, building robots for him to replace the NEXT heroes. Rotwang also kidnaps said heroes, puts explosive leashes on them, and forces them to go through a series of sadistic choices for his amusement. Should Kotetsu and Barnaby fail to defeat his latest creation, H-01, the others leashes would explode. Rotwang later admits that he was going to activate the leashes whether or not they did his tasks, and attempts to do so after the duo manages to defeat H-01. Though lacking any power of his own, Rotwang was a cruel and hateful human being solely motivated by his Fantastic Racism against the NEXT, managing to rival his boss in sheer depravity.
    • "Truth Lies at the Bottom of a Well": Benoit Depardieu has earned himself the title of "the Lady Killer" thanks to his history of sexually assaulting and murdering women, usually after viciously whipping and torturing them with his electrified bullwhip. Having already claimed nine victims, Benoit's latest attempt at killing a woman is thwarted by the arrival of Kotetsu. In response, Benoit flings his intended target off a rooftop to distract Kotetsu while Benoit flees, immediately hunting for another woman to torture and kill.
    • Season 2: Gregory Sunshine is a two-bit criminal NEXT with a special power: to make other NEXT lose control of their abilities. Having used it on Golden Ryan in the past as with other heroes and NEXT, the resulting horrible damage and threat to civilians has left Ryan with deep trauma years later. Murdering sympathetic villains to cover his tracks, Gregory teams up with Ouroboros and uses his abilities to create the dangerous "X," uncaring of the countless lives at risk. Unleashing mad villains to completely wipe out the heroes, Gregory repeatedly demonstrates his only loyalties are to profit and his own warped amusement.
  • Continuity Lockout: Season 2 is a sequel to Tiger & Bunny: The Rising movie meaning those who haven't watch it would be confused with the appearance of Golden Ryan, who used to be Barnaby's partner in the movie and is currently Blue Rose's partner in the show. Fortunately, Netflix streamed the movies a week before Season 2 started in preparation.
  • Crack Pairing:
    • Antonio/Ivan is pretty popular on Pixiv. They have never been seen talking together even once.
    • Keith/Ivan is becoming pretty popular as well.
      • Drama CD 4 is basically Keith/Ivan pandering at its finest.
      • Then The Rising came in and gave Ivan prominent screentime with both Antonio and Keith.
    • As well as Yuri/Ivan. And then, recently, Pao-Lin/Ivan and Karina/Ivan have also been gaining some popularity. Then there's fanart of him on there with Barnaby too... seeing a pattern here?
    • Kaede/Lunatic.
    • Yuri/Scarf-tan thanks to an image from the Hero Awards pamphlet.
  • Epileptic Trees: There have been a few people suggesting Scarf Girl keeps turning up everywhere because she is either the Big Bad, involved with Ouroboros, a Fangirl for the heroes or she's just cursed with awful luck.
  • Fashion-Victim Villain: Jake Martinez: He's as evil as he is fabulous. It seems to be Invoked to a degree, as one of his speeches implies that he finds the super heroes' uniforms ridiculous, and he dresses up to mock them.
  • Fan Nickname: Several.
    • "Scarf-tan" for the Recurring Extra who is frequently rescued by the heroes.
    • "The Girls' Team" for the trio of Blue Rose, Dragon Kid, and Fire Emblem.
    • "Palmface" for Lunatic thanks to the design of his mask and Kotetsu's in-series joke. Unfortunately it turns out to not be as funny a nickname as it initially started out as.
    • "Moe Oyaji" for Kotetsu, in reference to his Adorkable One of the Kids tendencies (as well as constantly being called "Oji-san" in canon).
    • "The catbeard" for Kotetsu's beard, which is shaped like a cat's head.
    • And the "crapsuit" for Kotetsu's first outfit (which is actually called a crappy suit in the second episode, and literally a "crap-suit" in the English dubbed version of the same scene).
  • Fanon: The fandom has concluded that HeroTV has a forum filled with dirty fanfic... that some of the heroes (mostly Ivan/Origami Cyclone) participate in writing.
  • Friendly Fandoms: It has one with My Hero Academia, due to both being anime series about Western-style superheroes.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Kotetsu's idol worship of Mr. Legend in general, but in particular his consumption of Mr. Legend's Hero Beer becomes rather less cute and funny come Episode 16, where it's revealed that Mr. Legend became an abusive alcoholic towards the end of his life.
    • Many fans had a habit of joking that Ivan would be the first to die... until Episode 11 rolled along, at which point the fandom changed its tune to, "OH FUCK IVAN BETTER NOT HAVE DIED." He didn't, but it certainly was a close one.
    • Along the same lines, Kotetsu's smartass remark about Lunatic having a glove on his face (and the fandom's subsequent adoption of "Palm-Face" as a Fan Nickname for him) has become really unfunny following the revelation in Episode 16 that the design is based on the handprint burn scar on Yuri's face, left there by his father when Yuri burned him to death.
    • In Episode 19, Barnaby says Kotetsu was among those people who the murderer in his memory changed into; Kotetsu jokingly replies that he didn't do it. Then one episode later, Kotetsu is framed for the murder of Barnaby's housekeeper, who is the closest thing Barnaby has to a family.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Barnaby nearly delivers a spinning kick to Kotetsu in Episode 23. It used to be a heartbreaking moment... until it was announced Yuri Lowenthal, aka Spinzaku himself, would be voicing Barnaby. Now it's hilarious.
    • There was a superhero called "Pepsiman" created by Pepsi in the 90s, and here we have a superheroine Blue Rose who advertises Pepsi.
    • In Episode 8, Kotetsu tells Ivan his power is great because he can just copy what someone looks like and use their power, though Ivan quickly clarifies that it doesn't work that way, he can only copy people's appearances. Later on in the series, Kaede is shown to be able to Power Copy.
    • This isn't the first time Steve Blum has voiced a supremacist who has an arsenal of robotic suits.
    • The heavily commercialized and superficial nature of HeroTV would drive people like "Hero Killer" Stain up the wall.
    • In light of Ivan's near brush with death in Episode 11's cliffhanger when Martinez outed him during his undercover bit, it can be darkly amusing that Michael Sinterniklaas, who often does voice characters with short lifespans, ended up being his voice actor in the dub and ended up being a full aversion to his usual status since Ivan survived the entire series.
      • Also related to Ivan's English VA is the fact that he voices a blonde-haired character who impersonates a member of an organization called Ouroboros. Flash forward a few years later and he voices another blonde-haired character who actually joins an organization also called Ouroboros.
    • Patrick Seitz plays Sky High, who is the Number 1 ranked superhero, and goes through a period of angst when he gets bumped down to 2nd play. A few years later, Seitz will play Endeavor, a superhero who is bitter about being the Number 2 ranked hero before All-Might retires, allowing him to become Number 1.
  • Ho Yay: Take a look at this page.
  • I Knew It!:
    • Early on, many fans hypothesized that Kaede would turn out to be a NEXT. Episode 17 proved them right.
    • Another very popular theory that turned out to be chillingly accurate come Episode 19 was that Maverick was behind Barnaby's parents' deaths, and that he was the show's Big Bad.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
    • So far, Ivan has been paired with almost all significant characters. And Scarf-tan.
    • Kotetsu is also often shipped with most of the heroes, and the occasional villain.
  • LGBT Fanbase: The show is really popular among fans of the Bara Genre. Heaven only knows why!
  • Magnificent Bastard: Yuri Petrov, "Lunatic," is a vigilante NEXT who forgoes any attempts at fame or upholding of morality, to instead dish out justice as he sees fit. Raised by an abusive superhero father, Lunatic came to despise all forms of evil in the world, believing the most sure path to safety and peace was the extermination of those who do wrong, and goes about executing and assassinating countless rapists and murderers, all while keeping up the guise of the charming judge of the city of Sternbild. As Lunatic, he gains immense popularity for his effectiveness, and his code of honor leads to him going so far as to save the life of his enemy Kotetsu, noting it wouldn't be just for a hero like him to be killed. Lunatic walks away from the story as dangerous and powerful as ever, showing no signs of being stopped by anyone in his self-perceived righteous crusade.
  • Memetic Bystander: Scarf-tan.
  • Memetic Loser:
    • In-universe, Origami Cyclone is the lowest ranked hero due to his Shapeshifting powers being completely useless for Hero TV. Of course, he wised up and used other means to fight.
    • Rock Bison is treated as a Butt-Monkey despite his powers. Before his fight with Jake Martinez, you could see that he's really ready to rumble and then, the scene cuts him to being utterly defeated.
    • A downplayed example (see Unpopular Popular Character) but Abridged Series edits of the series will often highlight how the universe is determined to tell Kotetsu he sucks and imply that people are in more danger with him there because of his habit of breaking things.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • For the fans not trying to turn everything Kotetsu and Barnaby say in the end credits into a slash prompt, the main pastime seems to be photoshopping Origami Cyclone into the background of everything.
    • Similarly, Barnaby wearing five pairs of the same glasses after he mentioned he owns that many in the end credits.
    • Fans have now officially commandeered MY PARENTS ARE DEEEEEEEAAAAAAAD from Batman.
    • Fans have taken a great liking to the pink plush bunny that was meant to be Barnaby's birthday present.
    • Episode 9 has given us HANDSOME ESCAPE!
    • Sky High's "X. And X again". Is also turned up to eleven in the fanworks.
    • All shall be awed by Kotetsu's amazing catbeard.
    • "Origami Cyclone = First Hero To Die. Fucking Calling It!"
    • The animatronic tiger Kotetsu rode in the mall in Episode 19 is also slowly making its way here.
    • "Is it Saturday yet?"
    • Or the time Barnaby appeared wearing nothing more than a tiny speedo for a photoshoot, which has been edited into every scene with a screen imaginable.
    • Fans have become incredibly preoccupied with fried rice after they learned Barnaby had been practicing making it just for Kotetsu.
    • After learning that not only Barnaby and Karina, but even his own wife had a tsundere side that was revealed only towards him, the fandom has concluded that Kotetsu has a second NEXT power - drawing out the tsundere in those who're fond of him.
  • Memetic Molester:
    • Lunatic. It doesn't help that he has a dungeon.
    • After Episode 19, Maverick. In his case, what doesn't help is the date rape allegory from that episode.
    • Jake Martinez, whose outfit can charitably be described as looking like a male hooker's. His creepy interactions with... everyone and generally creepy behavior, complete with tongue-wagging, giggling and perverse enjoyment of violence don't help.
    • Also Barnaby himself, who's often portrayed in fanart as being a raging Kotetsu fanboy in a manner similar to "Perverted Homura" from Puella Magi Madoka Magica (whom he is sometimes drawn as being dressed like).
  • Moral Event Horizon: For Maverick, it's having Samantha murdered. Of course he actually passed it twenty years ago when he killed Barnaby's parents, but the former is the first time we see his evil side for ourselves.
  • Narm:
    • Barnaby's breakdown scream in the stinger of Episode 18 is more than a little hard to not laugh at, with facial distortion to rival anything seen in Code Geass.
    • When Gregory Sunshine escapes his containment, Brahe chases after him in... what could be no better described as a power walk, which just looks ridiculous when taking into account how dangerous and tense a scene it's supposed to be.
  • Narm Charm: T&Bros are sincerely quite fond of Kotetsu's "crapsuit", particularly after Episode 21. It even got its own fan anthology.
  • No Yay: Maverick is really possessive of Barnaby; to the point of drugging him, mind-raping him several times and isolating him in his private mansion. Add in the Power Perversion Potential of having memory-altering NEXT powers and no amount of industrial strength Brain Bleach is ever gonna be enough.
  • O.C. Stand-in: Despite only appearing in a few episodes, H-01 has inspired the fandom to create a more humanized version called Ebitetsu. Sporting Palette Swap versions of Kotetsu's outfit and his hat pulled down to obscure his eyes he appears in truckloads of fanart, fancreated MMDs and even doujinshi.
  • Paranoia Fuel: What Maverick did to Barnaby may serve as this for anyone who has been raised by foster parents. The people who (apparently) loved and cared for you? They're Manipulative Bastards who only ever saw you as a tool to fulfill their own agendas. And while people in real life probably don't have Psychic Powers that enable them to rewrite memories, there are still plenty of ways to manipulate someone ever since childhood.
  • Periphery Demographic: It's seinen, yet has a massive contingent of female fans (at least in the English-speaking fanbase). How mysterious.
  • Recurring Fanon Character:
    • Following this fanmade MMD, fandom exploded with Dark Tiger (called Ebi in Japan) fanart.
    • And to go with Ebi, there's Ouro-Bunny - same idea, really - it's Barnaby's evil version, sometimes a Villainous Crossdresser.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: For a time until The Rising, Fire Emblem was the least popular hero of the main cast due to his harassment of male heroes and his antics could very easily push them into Queer People Are Funny, making many people (especially those that are LGBT themselves) feel as if the character was nothing more than an offensive stereotype. It wasn't until The Rising where his popularity took a massive boost as his Dark and Troubled Past was taken in both a rather realistic and sympathetic look into gender and sexual identity for Nathan, which caused many to rethink their opinion and view his character more positively. Nowadays, he is a Base-Breaking Character instead.
  • Robo Ship: Keith unwittingly falls for an android in Episode 15.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: The Karina x Kotetsu versus Barnaby x Kotetsu battles can get pretty dirty, so be careful what you say on any forum devoted to the topic!
  • Squick: Blue Rose, a 16-year-old, falls in love with Tiger, a man in his thirties. It is, however, suggested in side material that she has a general fetish for older men. It's also lessened somewhat by the fact that Kotetsu himself is completely oblivious to her crush on him.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: When the series became available on Netflix, the corporate sponsor logos on the heroes' costumes were nixed. Fans were less than pleased. Part this is because the sponsor logos are plot relevant, and removing them creates a number of inconsistencies. This however was fixed when Season 2 came out, eliminating the complaint completely.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Despite setting up Lunatic as a very good rival to the main body of heroes, and giving him a sympathetic background... he never really does a whole lot. His clashes with the heroes are very rare over the course of the series, and it's easy to forget he ever existed by the time the series ends.
    • Antonio Lopez aka Rock Bison is the only hero who doesn't have much focus throughout the entire show. Asides from being Kotetsu's friend and being the Butt-Monkey, you know nothing about the guy unless you read the supplementary materials. Even when Season 2 comes around and gives him more of a spotlight to shine in, there's still not much information provided on him.
    • Mr. Legend was Sternbild's first superhero, Kotetsu's inspiration, Yuri's father and that's all we know about him. We don't know why he became a hero in the first place, his real name, how he dealt with discrimination against NEXTs and helped change it or if anyone knows the truth of his death or how it was covered up.
    • Nicolai Brahe. While Fugan and Mugan get fleshed out, shown backstories to establish their motivations, and are very effective and eccentric versions of The Heavy, Brahe is mainly used as a plot point, both to flesh out the twins and to show Ouroboros is still an active threat despite the setbacks in Season 1. As such, he's mainly in the shadows until the last few episodes of the first half of the second season, after which he dies in an undoubtedly very tragic scene, there's very little known about him.
    • The Second League Heroes do not appear at all in Season 2. We don't even see them out of costume.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Episode 15 features Keith dealing with both a crush and personal insecurities stemming from his drop in the hero rankings. He doesn't get a Kotetsu lecture/pep talk why exactly?
    • When Lunatic first debuts, a lot of people support his killing of criminals. It's then almost immediately forgotten.
    • After Ben tells Kotetsu of how Mr. Legend fell from grace, he doesn't really dwell on how the man he idolized and inspired him to be a hero became a sham in his later years.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Edward, seemingly meant to be seen as a Tragic Villain who let hatred consume him, becomes really hard to feel sorry for when his hatred is far from justifiable, blaming (and even trying to kill) his only friend for something that's almost entirely his fault. The fact is, Ivan's actions were perfectly understandable. Neither of them had ever seen real combat in their entire lives and now Edward is jumping into an extremely dangerous situation with total abandon. Most anyone in the man's position would have a hard time leaping into action, let alone when dealing with armed thugs.
  • Unpopular Popular Character:
    • Kotetsu. The least popular superhero on HeroTV is the most popular character in the fandom.
    • Antonio to a lesser extent.
  • Vocal Minority: Minor fan reactions to post-timeskip Barnaby compose of We Want Our Jerk Back!, which doubles as a Misaimed Fandom as Barnaby's nicer attitude is a sign of him becoming happier and more content with his life and becoming better partners with Kotetsu.
  • The Woobie:
    • Kotetsu goes through tons of crap in the later episodes. Ivan has low self-esteem and rarely-useful powers. Barnaby, who wavers between Jerk Ass Woobie and Stoic Woobie, thanks to his childhood and manipulation by Maverick.
    • After learning about Kriem's childhood it's hard not to feel sorry for her.
    • Yuri Petrov aka Lunatic is a cross of Stoic Woobie and Iron Woobie after we found out that his dad is Mr. Legend himself who slowly lose his powers and started abusing his wife and son instead. Then, Yuri had to kill his own dad in self-defense and his mom hated him for it, eventually slipping into insanity.

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