As much as this is clearly drawing from American superhero tradition, this show also has an unfortunate sentai bend when it comes to the frankly nonsensical hero suit designs. Scratch that, almost all the suits---hero and villain---make no sense as super suits. (The rest of the character designs are no prize either.) The plot starts off really rocky and occurs mostly in the background, meaning you can skip around without missing much--if the pilot doesn't lose you completely. The early marriage of 2D animation and CGI is unfortunately clunky.

I have to believe that the franchise gets good at some later point, but the first series is not it. Again, you can see the tantalizing threads of inspiration, but the show neglects to touch on so many things that would make its take on superheroes interesting and fresh. I don't understand why the protagonist was not fired or quit given how it's continually emphasized how poorly he performs within the constraints of corporate heroism, and if this show made any sense with respect to the tradition it's referencing he would have just struck out as an independent vigilante. The idea of corporately backed superheroes treated basically like professional wrestling with a side of property damage is not a new one in subversive hero media, but . . . Tiger & Bunny is not really interested in subverting anything. The deuteragonist's Bruce Wayne backstory also fails to excite, in part because I already know who Batman is and, again, the show is not interested in doing anything subversive, just . . . different from typical superhero media in a way that presumably went over way better in Japan. It feels like this was created by somebody who loved superheroes, but actually made by people who were mostly familiar with sentai, had no access to Google or American superhero media of any kind, and a focus on other, unknowable priorities. The characters' relationships are one good thing, I guess, but this show has so many baffling black marks (poor character design, nonsensical priorities, a really underdeveloped exposition) that I could not in good conscience recommend it.

I will say, again: The character relationships are a plus. If you like homoeroticism, this anime has plenty without being an explicit BL. If you really like sentai and have absolutely no familiarity with American superheroism, you might enjoy this, but I doubt it. The voice acting for the dub is pretty good, and the protagonist is likeable even though he is a man against the world, being (apparently) the only one who thinks of superheroism as an altruistic service rather than a staged performance.

I cannot reiterate enough how ass these character and suit designs are. Just, so, so ass.