10 Essential Superhero Anime That Reinvent The Genre

The spiritual precursor to My Hero Academia's smart take on superheroes, Tiger and Bunny builds a world where heroes save people on live reality television, with ads on their suits and public opinion based on TV ratings. Unlike My Hero Academia, however, powered people are rarer, and their reality TV heroism is keeping them from being ostracised X-Men style.

Much of the anime takes inspiration from Western comic characters and tropes, with one of the two protagonists, Barnaby Brooks. Jr, having Batman's exact backstory, seeking revenge on Joker and Harley-esque villains in the first season.

Though much of the anime comments on the for-profit approach of superheroing through their idealistic main character - the older, "has-been" superhero Wild Tiger, aka Kotetsu Kaburagi, who still believes in heroism to save others rather than for money or fame - it still brings a lot of heart to the table, with individually interesting characters and arcs and Kotetsu and Barnaby's heartfelt relationship as partners rounding out a smartly, maturely written anime.

Also, the entire anime was funded because of the real life ads on the characters's suits justified by the anime's world-building, which is probably the smartest way anyone has ever funded an anime's production, ever.