Full disclosure: I may be slightly hooked on that new Tiger and Bunny thing

[rallamajoop]

Five Things About Superheros that would Make More Sense if they were all contestants in a Corporate-Sponsored Reality TV Program

1. The brightly coloured spandex
("They need to show up on camera! They need to be recognisable, especially when they're moving at superspeed and all the camera gets is a red blur crashing into a brown blur! Think about how much more money we'll make if we can splash corporate logos and company colours all over their costumes!")


2. The ridiculously skimpy bathing suits ("Sex sells. Why would you even question an idiom that gets you 2.5 million results on google?")
   
   
3. The dangling question of who pays for all the damage (This being the other reason why it is vitally important every registered superhero has a well-funded corporate sponsor.)
   
   
4. Why they're never allowed to kill anyone. Not even dangerously violent multiple murderers, and not even in self defence. ("Don't you realise this is supposed to be family entertainment? Do you want us to lose our prime-time timeslot?")
   
   
5. The posing, the dramatic speeches about justice, the revolving doors installed in the prison cells of every single notable villain ("It's sad how the Joker keeps killing all those people, but every time someone catches him our ratings go through the roof!"), DID I MENTION THE COSTUMES?
   
   
6. Barnaby Brooks Jr is Batman.

Okay, that last one's not technically relevant, but in evidence, I provide you with the following picture of the same Barnaby Brooks Jr in menacing silhouette.



See? Is the resemblance not uncanny?

Granted, it might be a little more convincing if Batman wore pink and occasionally had to endorse cleaning products as part of his heroic duties.



But as anyone familiar with the classics of the Golden Age would know, that may be more likely than you'd think.



Look, let's be realistic about this one, would you walk up to a guy like Barnaby and tell him he's not Batman? Don't you realise his parents are DEEEAAAAADDD?

Comments

[sansele.livejournal.com]

I don't have enough YES in my vocab to describe how much I agree with this entry.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Like everyone in fandom hasn't made the Barnaby=Batman jokes already by this point. ;) But what the hey, I jumped the bandwagon late, I am entitled to my share of making fun of the obvious stuff. >D

[sansele.livejournal.com]

Barnaby = Batman jokes will never get old, trufax. XD

[miconazole.livejournal.com]

Re: skimpy swimsuit costumes, I saw this the other day: Male superheroes in Wonder Woman's pose.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I totally had an intelligent comment to make about that and then I got to Cable and lost it completely for some reason. BAHAHAHAHAHA! XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a pretty amazing reconstruction show :)

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

It's been vaguely bugging me since the first episodes that there are so many things! that they could be doing with the premise that would make it much more of an outright commentary on/parody of all the traditional superhero tropes - only they're not, because that's clearly not the direction they want to go with the idea. Which is cool, but it doesn't stop me having ideas all the damn time. ^^;

But mostly, I'm just really enjoying seeing something so new and different come out of the anime market for a change, y'know? And all those unexpected developments that have come up just in the last few episodes sure don't hurt.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

only they're not, because that's clearly not the direction they want to go with the idea.
actually I find that pretty refreshing, because there are so many parodies, commentaries & deconstruction of superheroes out there, in a whole variety of media, and some of them are very good, but a lot of them feel very... like, rote criticism by now? So the whole PoV of "okay, we know about those stuff, but how do we make a fun, heart-warming show out of them?" feels kind of original and nice.
Though having ideas to explore the setting is also great for fanfics, which cannot be a bad thing ^^

But mostly, I'm just really enjoying seeing something so new and different come out of the anime market for a change, y'know?
God yes. Especially after the pretty drab seasons we've been having recently -_-;

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Well, mostly I just really want to hear more about the history of heros and hero TV, you know? There's such fantastic scope for a scenario where heros started off as the traditional masked vigilantes who only gained widespread public acceptance and popularity when someone came up with the idea of putting their whole careers on national TV and getting the sponsors in on the act. Doesn't seem so likely now since we've seen everyone treating a character like Lunatic as something scary and new, and considering all we've learnt about Mr Legend's true legacy they're certainly not shying away from introducing a few darker themes and deconstructing parts of their own mythos, but overall I think there's plenty of space to explore that kind of stuff without losing the whimsical tone. As they would seem to be in the process of doing. And that in itself does make a very refreshing change. :)

[celadonite.livejournal.com]

I really need to catch up on that show. It's like Watchmen on crack meets American consumer culture or something.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's a pretty good description. You've got to admire their balls in taking all that sponsorship money and turning it into a feature rather than just a bug. IMO, definitely worth catching up right now. It may have took a little while to grab me initially, but lately it's just been getting more and more engrossing with every episode. =D

why do I not have a bunny icon

[velithya]

my parents are deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeead

I cannot imagine, you should really do something about that

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

http://zer0graves.tumblr.com/post/7043519384

Re: I cannot imagine, you should really do something about that

[velithya]

heh, I already saw that one a while ago ;P

Fine then

[velithya]

Re: Fine then

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

May I commend you on your choice of keywords!

Re: Fine then

[velithya]

I'll think of better ones for this one later

Re: Fine then

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

This is probably not helpful, but is it bad that, even knowing where you took those photos, my first thought on seeing that icon was that it was a picture from a "locked in a dark, enclosed space together and unable to get out until they have spent sufficient time bonding while simmering in UST someone finds them" scene?

Unrelated: I AM STARTING TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU MEANT ABOUT THE FANART IN THIS FANDOM.

Re: Fine then

[velithya]

oh, for that fic that you're not writing? ;P DON'T MIND IF YOU DO~

THE FANART IS AMAZING. Min has been bookmarking things she likes, if you find her profile and check her bookmarks they will be filled with amazing things.

Re: Fine then

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I AM STILL GOING ON THAT OTHER FIC I'M NOT WRITING, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. and seriously it is only a few hundred words and won't get much longer, I'm just not really in the swing of writing for these guys yet

if you find her profile

Um. How would I go about doing that?

Myself, I am finding the best strategy is to skip pixiv and go straight for the tumblers. I have been enjoying this one particularly :3 (http://fuckyeahbunnytiger.tumblr.com/), and everything on the relevant tag on this one too (http://room801.tumblr.com/tagged/tiger_and_bunny)

[kitsoru.livejournal.com]

/again, coming upon your old posts to comment, haha

I'M SO GLAD SOMEONE ELSE REMEMBERED PINK SUIT BATMAN!