- It certainly seemed a little fishy that the leader of the three, even beyond not wanting to get caught, seemed to ESPECIALLY not want to get caught by Wild Tiger.
- Furthermore, in episode 3 we get a lingering shot of Agnes anxiously looking at her watch. Doesn't that action make more sense if she knows exactly when the time bomb is supposed to explode?
- This is in fact a common trope for stories with corporate superheroes: their "owners" are always involved in something bad. Also, Agnes is getting way more airtime than her character should be getting...
- Unless, of course, she's meant to be Tiger's Love Interest.
- Additionally she's the only character in the entire series who can fulfill the "adult woman fanservice" quota. Because the lady heroes are a teenage girl, a tomboy tween (?), and an, ahem, flaming Camp Gay.
- Something is definitely up with this company. They obviously have plenty of reason to do it, and based on what we've seen they've got the money to arrange it all too. Besides, other than the villains just being retarded what else could their motivations be? Everyone on the planet knows that the city is infested with supers who are literally getting paid to beat the crap out of thugs like that, so why do people every try to commit crimes there? Unless someone was giving them a very compelling reason to do so.
- Also a lot of the crimes seem to involve the same exact woman (a girl with short brown hair wearing a purple dress and blue jacket). Hmmm...
- Why there were no records of Jake's fight with Mr. Legend? Or no info about his powers? What if Hero TV helped in freeing Jake and erased all intel about him, to make ratings skyrocket?
- They were erased in order to keep the public from knowing Legend was doing crappy.
- Agnes may be partialy into the conspiration. She may be aware what is going on, but she seems geniquely suprised several times, so she probably knows that all crimes are staged, but don't know what is supposed to be happening.
- Confirmed. Maverick reveals that he's been setting up flashier crimes through Ouroboros in episode 19.
- At least when Maverick was in charge of Hero TV twenty-one years ago. Now that Heroes are mainstream it is more honest than its earlier incarnation.
- That's to be seen; in episode 20, it's shown that Maverick still has no problem setting up crimes, blatantly staging a "terrorist attack" and framing a certain someone for the murder.
- By the season finale the only part of this that isn't confirmed is Agnes' involvement; that's been Jossed. She helps take Maverick down and records his Evil Confession
- At least when Maverick was in charge of Hero TV twenty-one years ago. Now that Heroes are mainstream it is more honest than its earlier incarnation.
- Confirmed, only not will, but already did - Maverick has created supervillains during Hero TV early days to make show more marketable
- And now he's dead and reasons behind the murder are still unknown. Either he will turn out to be not so quite dead or there is something sticky here
- Confirmed. He had an alibi for the day Barnaby's parents were killed.
- Sounds very possible. And he migh be picking heroes one after another because he isn't good enough to read more than one mind at time.
- And his "force fields" could be telekinetic shields.
- As of Episode 13 this has been confirmed.
- Sounds very possible. And he migh be picking heroes one after another because he isn't good enough to read more than one mind at time.
- Partially confirmed. Kotetsu shows up for a Big Damn Heroes moment, but instead of fighting himself he pulls a Batman Gambit by handing Barnaby an "ultrasonic grenade" to counter Jake's "super-hearing." Since Barnaby doesn't know it's actually a flashbang, neither does Jake, who gets distracted by the explosion long enough for Barnaby to break his ribs and take him out.
- The characters' names sound like the face cards:
- Jake=Jack (or Joker)
- Kriem=Queen
- King=???
- Ace=???
- Well, we certainly know who is Holding All The Cards.
- Confirmed: Kriem said they were only small fraction of Ouroboros
Assuming that the missing tattoo isn't just some mistake on the artists' part, it can be argued that Barnaby's recollection of the event has not been reliable at all, and that the Ouroboros tattoo had never been there in the first place. Maybe it was projected or edited into his memories, or suggested to him as a possible suspect, at an earlier point in the series' timeline.
Why Ouroboros? Assuming, again, that it is indeed some kind of syndicate out to make trouble, it gives him something else to target instead of the parties actually responsible for the deaths, and removes Ouroboros as a threat to them.
- Semi-confirmed. Maverick DID implant a memory of the killer having an Ouroboros tattoo into Barnaby, but he wasn't setting them up completely. He is presumed to be in league with them, setting up crimes.
- Kotetsu's mother, his brother, and Lunatic.
- Okay, only person in Sternbild that knows it and is not Lunatic.
- Confirmed, He picks-up Kotetsu and gives him his old suit.
- Confirmed, but not for the reasons stated: Episode 22, all the heroes on the roof and everyone watching the broadcast got their memories back thanks to Kaede use of Maverick's powers. Barnaby, however, was not watching the broadcast at the time and still thinks Kotetsu is a killer
- Kotetsu does try to convince them with his own memories. It just doesn't work.
- I was thinking the exact same thing. I also thought that Ben Jackson would make an appearance to help him out as well.
- The preview features lots of shots of Yuri, plus Kotetsu exclaiming, "Who's this guy?" I'd wager the odds are pretty good on this one.
- Not exactly confirmed but as of Episode 21, Lunatic does save Kotetsu from being captured by the heroes; however he doesn't hang around afterwards
- And following from that, she'll be responsible for restoring everyone's memories
- Almost, she uses Maverick's power to Combined Energy Attack most of the heroes, but Barnaby got there afterwards and Kaede was touched on the shoulder by Sky High in between times so Kotetsu had to resort to a "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight to restore his memories..
- Confirmed in episode 23. "Black Suit Wild Tiger" is an android created by Rotwang, a former colleague of the Brooks, who created Cis. Maverick was impressed with Cis' battle with Tiger and Barnaby he gave Rotwang a lab to create a new android. That new android is H-01, the "Black Suit Wild Tiger"
- Alternatively: Tiger Taking the Bullet for Barnaby is foreshadowing, and next time either he won't have his Hundred Power active, or their roles will be reversed and Barnaby will take a shot for Kotetsu.
- Episode 24 in a way without the not paying attention part. He was holding H-01 in-place for Barnaby to shoot it with it's own gun. He said to Barnaby not to worry because he said he could dodge it. It was a bluff because his powers already ended and he got shot along with the android.
Maverick said himself that he only teamed up with an organization presumed to be Ouroborous meaning his connections with them can't be all that deep. At the very least it isn't very likely that any actions he may take up to episode 25 will actually bring the entire organization out of hiding. They will instead be the main focus of season 2, where we will learn more about their overall goals(assuming the whole organization doesn't share Jake's mentality)and origins, since the director has stated that he would like to do a second season, and the show has done well above Sunrise's expectations making it pretty likely.
- Confirmed: The last image of episode 25 is the Sternbild dollar showing the Ouroborous symbol
- Confirmed. He passed out from the pain, and is a little annoyed that nobody bothered to check his pulse before concluding he was dead.
- I'd bet money on this. Only problem is that it kinda takes away from Barnaby's revenge. One more person who's definitely on the chopping block as well would be Rotwang.
- Confirmed. Lunatic kills Maverick as he's being transported for imprisonment.
- Confirmed. Kotetsu returns to do hero work after a 10-Minute Retirement, making the decline of his powers public and deciding that he's going to continue even after he loses his powers completely.
- All the buildup with his powers fluctuating? His taking the bullet for Bunny earlier in the series? The title of the next episode? It's all foreshadowing the fact that part of his power set is either nigh-immortality or a more phoenix-style resurrection power.
- Confirmed, though not nearly as dramatically as described above.
- In the first episode, when Sky High is announced King of Heroes, the video wall shows his image with a "NC 1977" in a crown...
- Freeze-Frame Bonus in The Stinger of episode 8 confirms that the first episode of the series (at the end of a Hero TV season) took place in the year NC 1977 by naming that as the year that Barnaby made his debut as a hero. This means that the medal in the end sequence is most likely the King of Heroes medal for the current season, although presumably it's being used to symbolize a good bit more than that.
- In episode 19, the medal is actually a matching pair of pins that Kotetsu bought and ends up helping to set off the events for episode 20 when Kotetsu finds the in Maverick's office and his car.
- The Mr. Legend part became confirmed in episode 20, with Yuri himself revealing what happened to Mr. Legend to Kotetsu as a warning about putting too much stock in his role as a hero.
- 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.
- 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.
- Close but jossed, she would rather make it as a singer but loves helping people too much.
- Likely Jossed. Lunatic's father taught him that evil must be punished... and then Lunatic is forced to kill him to stop his dad from beating his mother.
- Jossed. Ivan disguises as Kriem's henchman Chuckman instead.
- It still may or may not end well.
- Although Ivan gets hospitalized, he still is able to help make a plan to get rid of the mechs.
- Jossed - Maverick was in charge of Hero TV while Mr. Legend was active
- Jossed. Mr Legend was killed by his son some time ago.
- Probably jossed in episode 19, as although they weren't in the same room, Barnaby was on a video phone with Samantha while in the same room as Mr Mavrick.
- Definitely jossed in episode 20. Samantha and Maverick are shown in the same room, shortly before Maverick orders his goons to dispose of her.
- Partially jossed. Jake briefly forces him to act as a decoy for a bit, but Ivan manages to get back home brainwash-free and in one piece - albeit a very raggedy one.
- Jossed, sort of. While Lunatic simply watches the fight, Jake possibly dies after he crashes the helicopter on himself.
- This is why the files related to Jake's arrest were unavailable to the heroes when they wanted to do research on him. Jake, the non-powered son of Sternbild's first superhero, develops a complex regarding heroes and ends up severely deranged. Eventually ending up working as a mercenary and killer-for-hire, Jake is approached by Ouroboros who offer to artificially empower him (resulting in his differently colored NEXT aura and multiple powers). Jake, now convinced he's superior to everyone else, becomes a full-blown serial killer and NEXT supremacist, and Mr. Legend is the only one who can take him on. To avoid the scandal that would come about if this was revealed, the authorities lock Jake away in the most secure cell they can, and quietly sweep it under the rug.
- Additionally, considering he used a gun to kill Barnaby's parents, he didn't have powers at that time. His murder of the Brooks couple was his initiation into Ouroboros.
- Jossed. Legend, however, IS Lunatic's father.
- Additionally, considering he used a gun to kill Barnaby's parents, he didn't have powers at that time. His murder of the Brooks couple was his initiation into Ouroboros.
- 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), and Kotetsu confirmed through archive footage that he doesn't have a tattoo. However, given that Kotetsu's brother is entirely normal and tattooless himself, it's highly unlikely that he's the culprit either
- Jossed. Maverick is the murderer.
- Jossed. He did the deed himself, and only because Barnaby'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.
- Jossed. Maverick's got memory altering powers.
- Jossed. He stays in the city and calls out the other heroes. Kaede learns from her grandmother. Kaede then goes to the city to find someone to help her father. On her way, Kaede is patted on the head by Maverick when they unknowingly met on the steps.
- She learns from her grandmother in episode 21.
- I had a feeling that Antonio would be one of the first because of his childhood with Kotetsu. He'd at least give him a chance to explain himself. As for Karina and Kaede, good ideas. I figured that Kotetsu would also try to talk to his friends by using his memories of them. IE: Referring to them by their real names might give them a clue that something's up.
- Seems that Maverick even erased Kotetsu from Antonio's childhood memories. Karina almost recovered her true memories but the appearance of "Black Suit Wild Tiger" prevented that. Partially jossed; Kaede was the one who saved the day.
- Jossed; he had no idea that Maverick was responsible until he heard that Barnaby was staying in the former's mansion.
- It would mean Maverick cured Saito's claustrophobia.
- It could also mean he did so by altering his memory to take away any memory of any time he ever felt scared in tight places. Which means if he gets his memory back...
- Jossed; his memory was returned; Black Suit Tiger still showed up later.
- It would mean Maverick cured Saito's claustrophobia.
- Kotetsu didn't throw a punch and Lunatic didn't show up.
- Jossed. It was from Kotetsu calling him Bunny.
- Jossed. See above.
- Jossed. It's an android.
- Jossed. Kaede does.
- Unless Black Dude Dies First that is...
- Lately many people have been pointing at Sky High for having the cheapest advertising.
- Considering Episode 15's title is "The Sky's the Limit"...
- The preview for Episode 13 doesn't look good for Wild Tiger. This one's jossed, thankfully.
- But then Episode 24 happens... This one's jossed too.
- Maybe for the main point if you take account the events in Episode 24.
- Jossed. At least for the first season of the show.
- Going by episode 24, Maverick prepared an alibi that the heroes were fighting a terrorist organization but were killed.
- Jossed: All the heroes live through the finale (at least for the first season)
- He's already losing his powers. Assuming it keeps up, it would be fitting for him todecide to quit being a superhero so he can finally spend more time with Kaede. Him accepting that he's no longer fit for superheroing would make for a good conclusion to his character arc seeing as it means that he'd prevent making the same mistake Mr. Legend did.
- Briefly confirmed then jossed. Kotetsu retires to be with his family, but a year later he's back at being a hero
- Events of Episode 24 are close to this WMG, though the death part is still ambiguous though implied.
- This will be aired on Hero TV, permanently cementing Kotetsu as one of the greats in Hero TV history. (The next generation of Heroes may even reject corporate sponsorship as a result.)
- Alternately, Barnaby will go vigilante after this, rejecting any work with Hero TV in lieu of helping the city directly.
- This... may have to be moved to the confirmed set of theories. Still, let's wait for the next episode to be sure.
- it wasn't. Kotetsu lives, so theory jossed.
- Well maybe not COMPLETELY jossed. In episode 19, Maverick admits to making a deal with an organization to crimes in order to improve ratings (and then murdering Barnaby's parents to cover it up) but he never actually NAMES the group he made the deal with. Consider also that the false memory he implanted in Barnaby's head implicated Orobouros in the murder, which would be an odd thing to do if he was working with them.
- scratch that. Maverick admits he works for Orobouros in the final episode before lobotomizing himself, so jossed.
- Jossed He lives and starts being a hero again after a brief retirement.
- Jossed
- Jossed - The Stinger from the last episode suggest clearly that Ouroboros is real organization and in control of Sternbild
- Jossed
- 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.
- Jossed by the Brooks family photo in Episode 25.
Maverick could have made him adopt the name to add more drama to his Hero persona.
- Jossed by the Brooks family photo in Episode 25.
- Jossed by the Brooks family photo
- 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.
- He could be related to/have hired the bomber in episode three.
- The silhouette was shown to be another NEXT with a similar power to FE.
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.
- Maybe she's just really competent. Sexy people can be good at their jobs, too.
- Taking in consideration superpowers are genetic mutations, this might be pretty spot-on.
- He does specifically make a comment about Kotetsu's views on justice when saving him from the other heroes! Not quite this WMG, but it's close; it could easily happen if the show gets another season.
- It's most likely a Buddhist bracelet for praying to/remembering the dead.
- Perhaps, but their wedding picture indicates that Kotetsu is Christian.
- Episode 17 shows it being worn while Tomoe was still alive
- Or a Visual Pun on the Japanese emoticon for tiger: =・T・=
- With his powers he could easily survive helicopter crashing on him and escape.
- Some people like Maverick and Agnes may be working for those that imprisoned them. Reality show is really broadcasted on the world.
- Barnaby is most recent prisoner and Saito's chamber is really strengthening memory-alerting process.
- Maybe that's why Hundred Power has a time limit — staying powered up for too long might be dangerous. That may also be why increasing the power boost lowers the time limit.
- Could have triggered the sapping of Kotetsu's powers.
- That actually seems very possible and gives a good explanation for why they have the same power.
- 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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse
- 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.
- 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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse
- This is the only way he'll have a normal life with his daughter, since he's not the kind of hero to quit while he can help people. Of course he'll save the day one last time before he retires.
- Probably not; even without his powers Kotetsu is still a complete Badass Normal and suit upgrades could easily make him better than that. At the very least he may end up working for Hero Academy.
- He is down to only a minute by the end of the show, so it's doubtful that his powers will last much longer after then, at least.
- They heroes are not aware of it, of course; it was a plan by the corporations who own them (and the city, for all practical purposes.) These were only pretending to be worried about Jake's attack on the city, they knew it would fail all along (possibly they already knew how to deactivate their robots, and they likely *provided* them in the first place.) Lunatic knew this about this all along, which is why he didn't interfere.
- The fact Tiger & Bunny are being kept too busy with PR work to see much action probably means their masters are getting afraid they might be coming TOO close to the truth.
- And to that end, Maverick deliberately caused Barnaby to 'remember' Jake's face, knowing that when Jake 'escaped' that a) Jake would do something significant and b) Barnaby would be around to find the killer he has been after. The result was massive public support for the heroes' victory.
With the information revealed in Episode 15 regarding the fact that the Brooks' company was working with androids in particular, it is entirely possible that Barnaby was actually a secret experiment to combine NEXT powers with android technology that they kept to themselves or only amongst a select group of people. Whoever is actually in charge of Ouroboros (possibly a former employee) knew of the experiment and attempted to claim Barnaby for themselves, which would explain why Barnaby himself was spared when Jake killed his parents: it was Barnaby he was supposed to be after the whole time.
- Alternatively, he didn't have parents at all. His memories are fake and implanted, in order to give him motivation to become and remain a hero, as well as to give a "hook" for the public. That would keep him under Maverick's thumb, too, since the memories would conveniently make Barnaby dependent on him.
- While the fake memories aspect is real, it's not for this reason. Thus far, Barnaby is a perfectly human NEXT-but with altered memories via Maverick. His parents worked on robotic suits for the heroes.
- he might be very human robot
- While the fake memories aspect is real, it's not for this reason. Thus far, Barnaby is a perfectly human NEXT-but with altered memories via Maverick. His parents worked on robotic suits for the heroes.
- This makes even more sense after episode 19, when we learn that Maverick is the real murderer of Barnaby's parents. Mr. Legend was the one who caught Jake, who Maverick intended to set up as the murderer. If Mr. Legend had suspected what might be going on, well... cue the elimination.
- Jake's both parents may be NEXT, explaining why he has two powers.
- ...Hello, Fridge Brilliance! Though on the other hand, it's clear that, from episode 18, neither of Kriem's parents had powers- maybe one of them was born powerless despite having a NEXT in their family and not being aware of it, which is where she got hers from? Something like that.
- Or One of them was NEXT but, for some reason, his or her poweres never awakened?
- According to a magazine article, "NEXT powers do not seem to run in families; anyone can become a NEXT". Still, it hasn't been completley Jossed yet- there's still the possibility that, while it's not necessary to have a NEXT in the family to become one, NEXT who have children pass on their powers to them- not to mention that this works very, very well as it's too much of a coincidence that both Kotetsu and Legend lost their powers, both of them had a child who was also a NEXT, and that in both their cases, the awakening of their child's powers and the progressive loss of theirs was around the same time. Not to mention the theory of Karina's dad being a retired superhero...
- Jake's both parents may be NEXT, explaining why he has two powers.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Who do we know who's lost and is losing their powers? And who do we know out of the named cast who have been hit with Lunatic's fire?
- There isn't much evidence for this. After all, his Freudian Excuse involved someone who had already lost his power.
I got this from a theory on /a/-namely, that 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.
- So Maverick created not only Stern Bild's media-friendly new hero Barnaby, but in effect its first (notable, at least) Supervillain/Anti-Hero? I like. It would fit nicely into the charade Maverick has built up around Ouroboros, and seeming to leave Yuri to his own devices as Lunatic gives an authenticity that manipulating him as consistently as he did Barnaby would not allow.
- 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.
Regardless of how things are being set up for this kind of confrontation, it's all and always been about the ratings. Murder by one of the Heroes will hurt the ratings and possibly stir up more prejudice against the NEXT, so the most any Hero can do to Kotetsu is catch him. Of course, letting him stay alive will probably cause problems down the road.
Maverick will arrange for Kotetsu to be arrested by Barnaby for drama, but is expecting Lunatic, who's in the habit of killing criminals, to swoop down and do the actual dirty work. This way, good ratings AND a potential wrench in the plans are both taken care of.
- Partially jossed. He's sent to do so after the other heroes fail to do it themselves. Uncertain whether or not Maverick will let him kill Kotetsu.
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.
- Partly jossed as the official word says she is unable to feel emotions.
So long as Barnaby did what Maverick wanted, and the man was around to tweak his memories where necessary then everything fell into place where Maverick wanted and Barnaby knew no different. Now Maverick is gone and Barnaby is on his own without that 'guidance' (he has Kotetsu, naturally!) he will do things which wouldn't fit in with Maverick's ideas on how Barnaby should act and what his goals should be. We saw that Barnaby didn't know how to handle having the one goal in his life supposedly 'solved', but perhaps it goes further than that. That the more Barnaby acts without Maverick's influence and re-enforcement, the more he will become aware of the contradictions in his memory. Such as him apparently growing up in an orphanage?
- Quite plausible, considering that the whole reason that Maverick needed to tweak Barnaby's memory in Episode 19 was because Samantha showed him the contradictory photo. This basically confirms that Barnaby could regain his memories without enough of Maverick's influence. Then his memory of Kotetsu is later regained simply by Kotetsu calling him "Bunny" instead of needing actual reversal like the other heroes got (likely because this was another "unexpected" thing). Maverick's powers obviously aren't full proof.
Why did the NEXT suddenly appear forty five years ago? Because they were originally crafted by Ouroboros to create a superior human race, but many escaped forty five years ago and had children, and the mutation spread by passing down powers that way. Possibly, Kotetsu's father might have had something to do with Ouroboros.
- And it will be the first non-Hero TV scene of a second season.
- Yuri
- His costume is very celestial, he takes his name from a word meaning "moon-mad", and he often appears in moonlight; the moon motif is often associated with womanhood.
Much like Tony Stark's Iron Man Bracelet, the black rings the titular duo are seen wearing are so that their suits are put on correctly by the automated system.
Not the flying bit - but when the powers activated. This might be closer to Fridge Logic here, but bear with me. We know that both Kotetsu and Yuri activated their powers when they were rather young. Kotetsu looks like he's about eight in the scene with Mr. Legend and Yuri appears to be a young teen. Pao-Lin is still only about twelve. Barnaby, Ivan, and Antonio have all had their powers at least since high-school. (Both Barnaby and Ivan attended the Hero Academy, meaning they were most likely in middle school or junior high when their powers activated. Antonio is shown to already be invulnerable during a fight with Kotetsu in high school in a Drama CD). Karina is only sixteen, and she's already an established Hero when the series starts, so there's no way of telling how long she's had them for - but still, sixteen. Kaede is the only NEXT whose powers we actually see activate for the first time and she's only ten. So the average age for powers to activate seems to be somewhere between, say, eight and fourteen. Sky High mentions in episode 15 that his powers didn't activate until he was eighteen. So in terms of powers...he's a late bloomer.
- What about the mayor's son? His powers have already activated and he's still just a baby.
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.
- Copyrights aside, this would work.
- Further WMG: Barnaby's true genetic father is Mr. Legend. Maverick obtained a sample of his DNA and implanted Barnaby Brooks Sr. with nanites that rewrote his DNA to those of Mr. Legend's.
- Episode 12 DOES have Kotetsu drinking some coffee, so he may have picked the habit up from somewhere...
- Are we forgetting the scene in episode 20 where Kotetsu almost drinks drugged coffee?
- The fact that Kotetsu occasionally wears a mask while in his Godot-like outfit just adds to the series of coincidences with the two.
He stalks Alex to get 20 dollars he owes Kotetsu. Wiffin in da club is just an excuse.
- totheark is rest of heroes, who are trying to scare Jay, because they're afraid he will bust Antonio and get him into trouble. Masky and Blasky works for Maverick, who is responsible of all memory losess in the Marble Hornets.
- Funnily enough the second movie introduces a new character, Ryan Goldsmith◊, whose super hero identity is Golden Ryan. His costume even has Booster's colour motif.◊
- Would also explain Ouroboros' nebulous goals: they work for All for One, and their real goal is to find Quirks he'd like to use.
- Season 2 shows the development of a drug that increases a NEXT's powers and is administered through injections to the neck - just like Trigger does for Quirks. Sure, the drug that augments a NEXT's powers doesn't impair the user's reason, but Trigger has many variants (including at least one manufactured and distributed legally, if heavily regulated), illegal distributors could easily favor ones with mental side effects or cut it with reason-impairing substances to make more money.