In the fictional metropolitan city of Sternbild, superpowered humans known as "NEXT" have been appearing for the last forty-five years. Some of these "NEXT" have chosen to use their powers to become Corporate Sponsored Superheroes, fighting crime and saving lives while sporting logos on their suits and raising the profiles of their sponsors. Documenting all of this is the mega popular Reality TV show "HERO TV", which awards "Hero Points" for heroic deeds such as apprehending criminals and saving civilians, with the coveted title of "King of Heroes" going to the crimefighter with the most points at the end of the season. One such hero is Kotetsu T. Kaburagi (a.k.a "Wild Tiger"), a veteran superhero who relies on his gut instincts and years of experience to fight crime. Though obligated to work for the best interests of his sponsors, Kotetsu follows his own code of honour, putting his heroic responsibilities over showmanship and saving people regardless of collateral damage to public property, earning him the (begrudging) nickname of "Crusher for Justice". Due to his lack of popularity, Kotetsu is forced to team up with Barnaby Brooks Jr., a rookie hero who has the exact same power as him, and whose cynical and modern approach to crimefighting clashes horribly with Kotetsu's old-school sensibilities. Here are some theories on this anime, please enjoy! Thanks!
Kotetsu is Godot: Godot is a fictional character in the Ace Attorney series. He is a prosecutor, appearing only in the third game in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. He has tanned skin, white hair, and an electronic visor. He drinks a large quantity of coffee, often drinking up to 17 cups per trial, per his words. And judging by his outfits and tanned skin, there are some similarities to Kotetsu and Godot. Pretty strange huh.
Kotetsu is Spider Man: The Wallcrawler, The Webhead and The Webslinger. The King of Taunts and Snark. The Everyman Hero. The non-sidekick Teen Superhero. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man! Spider-Man is a Marvel Comics superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962. He is considered to be Marvel's most popular and famous superhero as well as one of the most famous superheroes of all time (along with Superman and Batman). The arachnid-powered Superhero was relatively new to the Marvel Universe when he made his TV animation debut in 1967. Peter Parker, a high school student and freelance news photographer, acquired his powers from a radioactive spider bite. As the web-slinging, wall-crawling Spider-Man, Peter fights crime while trying to keep his identity secret from his widowed Aunt May and from the public at large. Kotetsu and Spider Man are similar, where in some versions Spidey has become older and wiser. But the thing is that they both go through hardships, losses, and their reason to be a superhero.
Barnaby is Bruce Wayne AKA Batman: The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. The World's Greatest Detective. The Most Dangerous Man on Earth. One half of The Dynamic Duo. The iconic Cowl. The Badass Normal Superhero. He is vengeance, the night....The Batman. Created by Bob Kane and an un-credited Bill Finger, Batman is also one of the greatest Trope Makers and Trope Codifiers in not just comics, but all visual media; one of the oldest superheroes still in print — having debuted in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) — Batman is one of the three best known Superheroes ever (alongside Superman and Spider-Man), and one of the most popular comic book characters in history. The Batman mythos has expanded into virtually every medium in the decades since the character's debut, and there's a good argument to be made for Batman being the most critically and culturally successful superhero in history. When veterans such as Superman have taken beatings in the zeitgeist for perceived problems, Batman's legacy and relevancy have never truly faded in the public eye, and his popularity across multiple sections of the mainstream remains as strong — if not stronger — than it was back in the 1940s. He's pretty much the only superhero to date who could pull out a lightsaber with no explanation at all and get away with it,note and he's arguably the world's most popular superhero. At the age of eight, Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of his parents at the hands of a mugger. Swearing vengeance against all criminals, Bruce used his parents' vast fortune to travel the world and hone his fighting abilities and detective skills. When he felt he was ready, Bruce returned to his beloved Gotham City, intent on removing the criminal element that had overrun the city in his absence. Donning a costume with a bat motif to strike fear into criminals and armed with his keen intellect and arsenal of crime-fighting gadgetry, Bruce protects the streets of Gotham as "The Batman" at night while pretending to be a clueless playboy billionaire by day. Over time, Batman's swung between a bright, shiny Cape and a dark, nightmarish Shadow Archetype and the iconic Cowl; in modern times, it's usually the latter. A number of comic-book writers love the contrast between Superman and Batman — a symbol of hope for the innocent versus a symbol of fear for wrongdoers — and often play it up when the two are paired together. On top of all this is Batman's Rogues Gallery. Batman has arguably the single largest and most iconic Rogues Gallery in comic book history, as well as one of the most beloved. Many of them are up there with the Dark Knight himself in terms of pop culture relevance and recognition. While his Arch-Enemy, The Joker, is the most recognizable, villains such as Two-Face, The Riddler, Catwoman, The Penguin, Scarecrow, and Mr. Freeze are recognizable even to those with only the most basic knowledge of comics. Although both are similar, Barnaby and Batman are diverse: Batman keeps his identity a secret (Well, Arkham Knight video game--he is exposed) while Barnaby shows his face and doesn't have an identity. And Barnaby ain't that dark like Bruce/Batman! However he does go over the deep end in his post truamatic stress disorder moments but he got better.
Lunatic is The Punisher: Possibly the most enduring Darker and Edgier Anti-Hero ever to appear in a comic, the Punisher is one of Marvel's most reliable cash cows, a Vigilante Man and Judge, Jury, and Executioner whose only passion is finding and executing criminals in the most brutal (and sometimes imaginative) ways possible. The Punisher first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (February, 1974), created by writer Gerry Conway, along with artists John Romita, Sr. and Ross Andru. For a while the Punisher appeared mostly in titles starring Spider-Man (see The Clone Saga). He received his first origin story in Marvel Preview #2 (April, 1975), again written by Conway. He received another solo story in Marvel Super Action #1 (January, 1976), a one-shot publication. After that Punisher returned to making appearances in titles featuring Spider-Man, Captain America, and Daredevil. In the 1980s, Steven Grant and Mike Zeck campaigned for a Punisher mini-series. But Marvel editors were reportedly reluctant. The series eventually did materialize: Punisher vol. 1 (January-May, 1986). It sold well and consequently Punisher gained his first ongoing series in 1987. The Punisher has since starred in various magazines over the years, even gaining four multi-part events that ran through various titles in the nineties, said events being Suicide Run, Countdown, and Over the Edge. Frank Castle is a Vietnam War veteran who saw his wife, son and daughter slaughtered in a Mafia hit gone wrong. So he got himself a black shirt with a scary white skull on the front and a whole lot of guns, and started a one-man war on crime (as you do). Lunatic shares an eerie similarity to Frank but while everyone knows Frank's name, nobody knows that the judge, Yuri Petrov, is actually the vigilante Luantic! Yuri doesn't have a wife or kids however he has a mother that is mentally illed and possibly scarred but managed to deny that her husband is dead. Tragic isn't it?
Kaede is Rogue: Rogue is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. She debuted in Avengers Annual #10 (November 1981) as a villain, but then soon after joined the X-Men. Rogue is part of a subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Rogue has the involuntary ability to absorb and sometimes also remove the memories, physical strength, and superpowers of anyone she touches. Therefore, Rogue considers her powers a curse. For most of her life, she limited her physical contact with others, including her on-off love interest, Gambit; but, after many years, Rogue finally gained full control over her mutant ability. Hailing from the fictional Caldecott County, Mississippi, Rogue is the X-Men's self-described southern belle. A runaway, she was adopted by Mystique of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and grew up as a villain. After Rogue permanently absorbs Ms. Marvel's psyche and Kree powers, she reforms and turns to the X-Men, fearing for her sanity. Rogue's real name and early history were not revealed until nearly 20 years after her introduction. Until the back story provided by Robert Rodi in the ongoing Rogue series, which began in September 2004, Rogue's background was only hinted at. Her name was revealed as Anna Marie, although her surname is still unknown. She has sometimes adopted the name Raven, which is the first name of her foster mother Mystique
Agnes is Lois Lane: Lois Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, the character first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). Lois is an award-winning journalist and the primary love interest of Superman. For fifteen years in DC Comics continuity, she was also his wife. Like Superman's alter ego Clark Kent, she is a reporter for the Metropolis newspaper, the Daily Planet. The character was created from many influences. Her physical appearance was originally based on Joanne Carter, a model hired by Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and Siegel's future wife. Siegel based Lois' personality on Torchy Blane—a gutsy, beautiful, and headline-hunting reporter, portrayed by Glenda Farrell in the 1930s Warner Bros. film series. Siegel took the character's name from actress Lola Lane, who played Torchy on one occasion. Agnes, the one who produces Hero TV, is similar to Lois Lane but she's more selfish and prissy...But she could have her good moments at times....Maybe.
After being betrayed by their sponsors, the heroes will be saved by- Mr. Legend: 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.
It isn't Jake who killed Barnaby's parents, but Kotetsu's supposed brother: 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).
Barnaby Brooks Jr." is not his real name: 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. 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.
Ouroboros (or whatever the bad guys are called) are behind the 'corporization' of superheroes: 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. It was 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.
Barnaby Jr.'s powers aren't natural — they're the result of project to engineer superpowers: 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.
Lunatic will try to test the limits of Wild Tiger's idealism: 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? He does specifically make a comment about Kotetsu's views on justice when saving him from the other heroes! Not quite but it's close; it could easily happen if the show gets another season.
Kotetsu's wife died of pancreatic cancer: 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.
The Moons orbit was somehow changed by the NEXT before the story begin: 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. 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.
Muramasa Kaburagi is a NEXT: 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? Muramasa never seems to have the problem with attracting random objects like Kaede did in the part where that's revealed, though. It could just be an example of Power Incontinence, but it seems unlikely. That doesn't completely rule out the possibility of Muramasa having some other NEXT power, though.
Kotetsu isn't losing his powers. They're evolving: 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.
Lunatic's memory has been tampered with by Maverick: 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.
Kaede will become a Hero in the future: 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.
Maverick is responsible for Kotetsu's power loss: 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.
Kaede will become a counselor for young NEXT: A youngster's developing NEXT powers can be a difficult experience, as seen with cases like Kotetsu and Tony (who used to hate their powers) or Yuri (who killed a man with them early on). Kaede's power could actually be well suited to helping kids with budding NEXT abilities. The nature of her power would likely require her to learn a lot about different powers for the simple reason that if she comes into contact with a NEXT she doesn't know she would have to be able to quickly get a handle on whatever power she gets to avoid collateral damage. Now present her with a young NEXT who may fear his own powers. Or one who can't entirely control them. Using her power, Kaede, combined with the necessary research mentioned above, could demonstrate that a power is controllable or nothing to fear. If a child has a power that potentially makes day-to-day life difficult, well, so does she. Her powers potentially make her an ideal counselor for NEXT youths by simple virtue of being able to show them You Are Not Alone.
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