The Rise, Fall, and Return of Tiger & Bunny

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Tiger & Bunny: What happened

The Tiger & Bunny franchise began as a 2011 anime from Sunrise that mixed superhero action with corporate sponsorship and reality‑TV framing, quickly earning a dedicated fanbase for its characters Kotetsu “Wild Tiger” Kaburagi and Barnaby Brooks Jr. The show ran for 25 episodes in 2011, and its success led to two theatrical films that expanded the story and kept interest alive through the early 2010s. These early entries established the franchise’s tone: a blend of buddy drama, media satire, and stylized action, which made it a natural candidate for cross‑media adaptations and later revivals.

After the films, the franchise returned in different forms rather than as a continuous weekly TV series. A notable revival came with Tiger & Bunny 2, an original net animation released in 2022 that revisited the world with new episodes and updated production under Bandai Namco Pictures. Alongside the animated projects, multiple manga adaptations and comic tie‑ins were serialized by different creators and publishers, offering alternate perspectives and side stories that kept the property visible in print. Over time those manga runs reached their conclusions; most recently, one of the franchise’s manga serializations wrapped up in June 2025, and related comic adaptations released final compiled volumes in mid‑2025, signaling the end of several ongoing print threads.

The reasons for these endings are a mix of normal franchise lifecycle and shifting industry priorities. Franchises often cycle through peaks of activity (anime, films, sequels) and quieter periods, and creators or publishers may choose to conclude a manga when its narrative arc is complete or when sales and scheduling make continuation impractical. Production changes — including studio reorganizations and the move from traditional TV broadcast to streaming and ONA formats — also affect how and when new material is produced. For Tiger & Bunny, the pattern has been revival through targeted projects rather than a continuous, long‑running series, which explains gaps between major releases and the staggered endings of various manga adaptations.

Fans have responded with a mix of gratitude and nostalgia: many appreciate the completed storylines and collected volumes, while others hope for future projects that revisit the characters. The franchise remains accessible through its original anime, the two films, and the 2022 sequel, and completed manga volumes now serve as a tidy archive of the property’s extended storytelling. Although serialized manga have ended, the brand’s presence in animation and home video means Tiger & Bunny is far from forgotten and could return in new forms if creators and demand align.