Whatever you call it, this is apparently the last Tiger & Bunny we’re going to get for a while.  Now, that “while” could be six months but it could be six hours for all I know – AFAIK Netflix hasn’t made any announcements about when the second batch of episodes will drop.  I’m going to treat this as a split cour until given reason to do otherwise, which makes this a finale of sorts.  And it certainly acted like one, Netflix or no Netflix.

As I guessed in my last write-up, Fugan and Mugan were indeed the first cour big bads, and not the series as a whole.  Of course, they were literally and figuratively pawns.  And their patron, Brahe, was a pawn too – in the Ouroboros system it seems like everyone is.  And Brahe is a square peg, too, in that his personal regard for his twin charges clouds his loyalty to the organization in very obvious ways.  He didn’t even want them to be drafted for this superhero-defeating plan – it was forced on him by the organization.  The larger question that raises is what Ouroboros’ motivation is for wanting to make the public afraid of NEXT.

As things stand there are only five superheroes still standing – and that includes Barnaby, who can barely do that after just waking from a 10-day coma.  Rather than let themselves be picked off individually they call out the twins to fight them via video message.  That’s a smart move of course, even if their plan is a bit of a hail Mary.  Subaru has noticed that Mugan seems to look wherever he’s teleporting to (the useless kids being useful is kind of a theme here).  TBH I’m not exactly sure how that works, since Mugan repeatedly warps to places quite obviously beyond his field of vision, but the plan is to blind him using a hidden Bunny and focus their attacks on Fugan.

No question about it, these two are formidable, especially goosed by Mattia’s wonder drug.  Their NEXT abilities complement each other very well indeed, and even if the heroes have a Plan B they’re still really no match for the twins.  Plan B (and A) relying on Magical Cat under pressure was not a great choice, but I guess beggars couldn’t be choosers.  Eventually the battle winds up outdoors next to a cathedral (you just knew that was going to factor in somehow) and it’s Barnaby who decides to try and overload Fugan’s body with power until it breaks down (though it requires him to be a sacrificial bunny in the process).

The headline from this battle for me is not so much that Cat finally manages to bring it when it counts, but that in doing so she winds up killing Mugan.  Maybe not technically but it was pretty clear that wound was fatal, and even if it wasn’t her intention it was her attack that impaled him on that fence.  There’s no blame to place here – it was pure self-defense – but that’s a lot for a 14 year-old to deal with.  We’ve rarely (ever?) seen even the adult heroes in T&B actually kill somebody.  If the story ignores this element I admit I’ll be pretty disappointed, both because it has major dramatic potential and because it would be totally unrealistic to think that wouldn’t mess Cat up big-time.

In addition to our climax (so just what was the paralysis thing in the end, anyway – it was Brahe’s power, apparently?  And why did he release is at the end – out of the goodness of his heart?), we also get the expected split cour cliffhanger.  Gregory steals the drug and escapes (Rosicky is sadly only wounded, it seems), indicating he’s going to be a major problem in the second cour.  The main plot though, I assume, will be tied into that book and whatever the reason is why Ouroboros is trying to discredit NEXT.  In terms of the buddy system it seems Yuri was on the verge of abandoning it but changes his mind.  As for Tiger and Bunny, I hope we get to see them actually go on a bro-date and not just clink their IVs together.