Hero of the Weak: Tiger and Bunny 08 (Also Why I Should Be Part of the Writing Team For This Show, Para-text Section)

I didn’t expect to be writing about this show this often, and so soon since my last post on it. This is even made more remarkable because I thought I had just read the best insight on Tiger and Bunny. Nonetheless, I think there’s a few interesting things to talk about. Especially given the study in character provided by Origami Cyclone/Ivan Karelin. I mean, what a strange character!

Origami Cyclone is possibly the harbinger of the apocalypse. He is an industrial corporate gaijin weaboo whose public existence is to market to otaku. I mean, holy smokes! This has got to be some kind of signpost of post-post-postmodernity.

If the makers of this show are doing this right, Origami Cyclone should have a blog on the Bandai site. This blog needs to be wholly official and canon. I fricking volunteer to write it. They don’t have to pay me! It only makes sense that the blog be in English don’t it? It’s not like Sternbild City is in Japan! Unfortunately, neither official site has any semblance of an Origami Cyclone blog.

Now I know I’m neither White, nor Russian. I’m Southeast Asian and part-Weaboo. I write an anime and manga appreciation blog, which should count. But perhaps what makes me most qualified is how I understand the three forces that pull at the ‘heroic’ blogger:

• The desire to do hit the stats, represented by Barnaby.
• The desire to do what’s right, represented by Kotetsu.
• The desire to please one’s fanbase/sponsors/community, represented by Ivan.

Like Ivan, I get bashed in the comments. Some legit, some trolling, some calling me a hack in the comments in other blogs. I remember this group of people who intended to purge the internet of ‘fake’ otaku passed me “just to have fodder for the next round” or some nonsense. So yes, Ivan I get you.

Here’s my entry as Ivan Karelin doing a blog post as Origami Cyclone (as if I’m auditioning for the job):

Yesterday I went back to the Hero Academy. To be honest with you all I have rather painful memories there. You see I had a good friend, my best friend. He was powerful and confident in the ways I am not. He was so much more qualified to be a hero than I was.

But one time he tried to play the hero, and I couldn’t keep up with him. This resulted in someone getting killed. Everybody blamed him, but I really thought it was my fault. He thought so as well.

Yesterday he appeared to me in the spot where so many times he gave me advice. But this time he wanted to exact revenge upon me, holding me responsible for what happened to him. But having escaped prison, he attracted the attention of a dangerous vigilante. I don’t really know him and what he’s about, but he was going to kill my best friend.

For the first time, I took a stand for something. I wasn’t going to allow it.

It’s not like I could stop Lunatic from killing us both, but for the first time, I really felt this deep need to save someone else. It’s a hundred years too early for me to call this a victory, but in my heart I feel that it is. I have to thank Wild Tiger for two things: he encouraged me to be the kind of hero he is, and (along with Barnaby) for saving both my friend and myself.

I don’t know if my friend has forgiven me now, but he thanked me for saving him. If he’s thankful for being alive, and perhaps having the chance to make something of his life, then maybe I did something heroic after all.

I thank .ANIME for giving me the chance to be a hero!

To the powers that lie behind this show, its marketing and merchandising, you know you want to do this with me. I grew up reading Western comic books and watching Japanese anime. I’m 3rd-world cheap. Hell I said I’d do it free of charge! You know where to find me.