Kotetsu T. Kaburagi (Wild Tiger)
Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata (JP), Wally Wingert (EN)
Power: Hundred Power (increases physical abilities one-hundredfold for five minutes)
Affiliation: TopMag (former) / Apollon Media (current)
Suit Advertisements: S.H. Figurarts (Japanese toy line) / Softbank (Japanese media company) / FamilyMart (Japanese convenience store franchise) [in the first movie]
The primary protagonist and a veteran NEXT past his prime, whose total disregard for property damage when fighting earned him the nickname "Crusher for Justice". Currently he is the least popular hero in Sternbild City and his old company, TopMag has been taken over by Apollon Media, which is now forcing him to become Barnaby's partner against his will. He has a daughter, Kaede, who, like most people in the city, is unaware of his secret identity. He possesses the power to increase his physical abilities hundredfold for 5 minutes.
Action Dad
Adorkable
Adult Fear: He was a little too slow and would've lost Kaede had it not been for Barnaby.
A poor relationship with his daughter due to his job
Also, he gets another one in the second half of the show: the possibility of having a rare, progressive condition that will force him to give up doing what he loves.
In episode 17, Kotetsu has trouble getting on Kaede's good side. Their last interaction before Kaede goes to school that day was her saying, "I hate you, dad!" Later, she gets trapped in a temple during a severe rainstorm. Her cellular phone is out of calling range; no contact can be made and nobody has seen her since she left school, prompting Kotetsu and his brother to frantically comb the small town to find her. If not for Kotetsu's powers and a little luck, there is a good chance he would have lost his girl for good, since the temple was caught in a small mudslide.
All A Part Of The Job: A perfect embodiment of this trope.
Alliterative Name
Animal Motif: Guess...
Animal Themed Superbeing
Ascended Fanboy: Of Mr. Legend, Sternbild's first superhero.
Asskicking Pose: Kotetsu's
pose◊ in Episode 21 is impressive enough to warrant a Triple Take.
Batman-Gambit: Gives Barnaby an ultrasonic grenade to counter Jake's "super-hearing". Turns out it was a flash bang, and by not telling Barnaby, he managed to get around Jake's telepathy.
Badass
Badass Beard: And a pretty stylish one at that! Kaede thinks it's stupid, though.
Badass Normal: Even without using his Hundred Power, the combination of being in physical shape good enough to make professional athletes look lethargic, years of crimefighting experience, and very efficient wires that allow him to Building Swing means Kotetsu is pretty badass in his normal state. At the end of the series he's mostly this, as his power has dwindled to only a minute an hour.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: For a bumbling klutz with a near-endless supply of bad ideas, he's a surprisingly competent hero and one of the best of the Sternbild crowd at fighting unpowered.
Papa Wolf: Do not put his daughter in danger.
Bandage Babe: Twice so far he has lost his shirt in favor of covering up his upper body in bandages.
Big Heroic Run: In Episode 14. It didn't exactly go as planned, thanks to his powers deciding to fluctuate at the time.
Berserk Button: Show some disregard for human life — be it murder or speaking ill of the dead — and he'll make you pay dearly.
Big Brother Mentor: Plays this role where Karina, Ivan, Pao-Lin and (eventually) Barnaby are concerned.
The Confidant: Eventually becomes the only person Barnaby seems to be comfortable with, or even capable of, confiding in. The three younger heroes, Pao-Lin, Ivan and Karina also seem to be more open with him than with the other heroes. Ironically though, Kotetsu himself appears to have issues with confiding in others.
Break Out The Museum Piece: In episode 21, he receives his original costume from Ben and wears it when he calls out the heroes at the end.
Brought Down to Badass: He's still quite competent even with the gradual loss of his powers.
Broken Pedestal: When he discovers that Mr. Legend started to lose his powers at the end of his career, and that Hero TV started to fix arrests so that he would continue to earn publicity. However, he still doesn't know the depths to which his role model fell...
Bumbling Dad: Played very straight.
Butt Monkey
Cannot Spit It Out: That he's losing his powers, and plans to retire from being a superhero. He does come close a couple of times, but gets interrupted by Barnaby both times. Similarly, revealing his identity to his daughter would probably have improved their relationship significantly.
The Cape: Aspires to be this, albeit with questionable success.
Chest Insignia: On his original costume it was his original company's name, TopMag, and although not on his chest but on his mask, a W with a T in it. He also has a small tiger insignia on his belt buckle on his original costume; his current suit has the same small tiger insignia on the chest.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Suffers from this a good deal.
Clark Kenting: Kotetsu's means of hiding his identity out of his Powered Armor is to throw a Domino Mask in with his Limited Wardrobe.
Clear My Name: Made all the more difficult by the fact that he just got unpersoned.
Coat, Hat, Mask: In his civilian clothes.
Color-Coded Secret Identity
Comes Great Responsibility: Adheres to this ideal, which is why he didn't use his powers in his fight against Antonio when they first met.
Antonio: "I just want to know one thing — Why did you hide that you were a NEXT? You could have used those powers against me."
Kotetsu: "Because I only want to use my powers to save people."
Cool Loser: He has a super-cool robot suit, an ability beyond the ken of mortal men, not bad on the eyes, and saves people on a regular basis... but children, Barnaby and his sponsors show him no respect.
This does get better in the second half as he has a considerably better relationship with Barnaby and has risen up in the rankings and popularity.
Crusading Widower: His wife Tomoe passed away from an illness five years prior to the beginning of the series.
Destructive Savior: ...And fully advocates people following the same path.
Determinator: Kotetsu won't stop until justice is served. Highlighted in Episode 13 when he uses his "Hundred Power" to heal superficial wounds but the internal injuries are still pretty bad. He still fights through the pain to help Barnaby against Jake. Another example comes in the epilogue, where he comes out of retirement despite his Hundred Power dwindling down to 60 seconds, saying he plans to keep being a hero even if he loses it completely because he's there to help people.
Doesn't Like Guns: Specifically he won't use one if there are people around, including criminals, that could get caught in the crossfire. However, as demonstrated when the heroes were fighting Ouroboros mechs, he's got no problem using one of the disabled mech's guns to take them out once he discovers they are unmanned.
Domino Mask: Wears one while on duty, whether he's in his suit or not.
Dork Knight: More Dork than Knight, though.
Disney Death
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Pre-Time Skip, at least. This becomes glaringly obvious in episode 13, when all the citizens of Sternbild (including the other heroes, who knew full well the role Kotetsu played in their victory) praise Barnaby for saving the day... ignoring Kotetsu completely. Lampshaded when Barnaby notices Kotetsu's expression and teases him for wanting praise.
Post-Time Skip he's risen to fourth-place in the Hero Rankings, gets treated nicer by Alexander, and is even getting along with Barnaby.
Doting Parent: To Kaede, doubling as Parents as People.
Expressive Mask: The domino mask moves with his eyebrows.
Fatal Flaw: Kotetsu has a noted habit of lying and/or keeping secrets in a misguided attempt to not worry people.
The Fool
Fearless Fool: Most of the time. But he also has his fears.
Form-Fitting Wardrobe: When in casual clothing.
A Friend in Need
Friend To All Children
Gadget Watches: In civilian clothing, he has one that also serves as a Grappling-Hook Pistol.
Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: His default heroic pose.
Grappling-Hook Pistol: Has them in both his original TopMag and Apollon Media suit.
Healing Factor: Played with in Episode 13. His natural healing rate is one of the physical attributes affected by his powers, but even if you increase your regenerative speed by a hundredfold, there's only so much you can do in five minutes.
The Heart
The Messiah: Shows signs of this. He wants to do good and is genuinely upset upon failing to save lives, criminal or not.
The Paragon: Alternates between this and The Messiah.
Hero Protagonist
He's Got Legs: As has been pointed out in
magazines◊note , his legs are pretty darn long. How much so? They're about three inches longer than Barnaby's, despite Kotetsu being two inches shorter.
Toned down into more anatomically correct proportions in the
recent re-designs◊
Heterosexual Life Partner/Living Emotional Crutch/Only Friend: To Barnaby.
Hot Blooded: Passion is his highest stat —
literally◊.
Hot Dad
Hour of Power: Limited to five minutes per hour.
As of Episode 14, his powers have been going on the fritz. Ben says they're likely disappearing. In Episode 16, his journal reveals the rapid decline of his power's duration at a rate of 2-5 seconds per use.
And by the end of the series, it's down to a minute.
Humble Hero: While he complains every so often about the distinct lack of attention given to him as a hero compared to the others, at his core he's very much an example. He's not going to ever let unpopularity stop him from helping others.
"I’m a hero because I want to save people. Isn’t that enough? It really doesn’t matter if anyone acknowledges me or not."
I Am Not Left-Handed: In their high school days Kotetsu fought Antonio to a standstill without using his powers. It's not until Tomoe was in danger when he activated it. Needless to say, Antonio was rather shocked.
I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy: The reason why he Cannot Spit It Out
Idiot Hero
Ineffectual Loner: He's not a loner because he hates other people; he's a loner because he is almost totally incapable of cooperation unless forced into it. If someone says "go right" he will go left, damn the circumstances and damn the consequences. The consequences have a tendency of damning him right back, hence why he's considered an unpopular, ineffective fool despite having the strongest sense of justice of all the heroes.
Informed Flaw: Good Luck Mode is supposed to not actually increase his power, based on its later usages however, that may not be the case.
The Klutz: Only Kotetsu could accidentally kick a pen into a highway right in front of a passing car while trying to pick it up.
The Last DJ: A staunch proponent of good old-fashioned super-heroics in an age of ad-funded glitz.
Lightning Bruiser: Only when his Hundred Power is activated.
Limited Wardrobe: According to the movie Kotetsu owns several copies of his casual outfit.
Made of Iron: He is very resilient, even without his powers.
Ma'am Shock: Not fond of being reminded that he's "old" by the standards of the superhero business.
Mr. Fanservice
Mysterious Middle Initial: What makes it even more mysterious is the fact that it's the only English letter in his entire name.
Nice Hat
Not Quite Flight
Obfuscating Stupidity: Episode 13 — out of all the heroes, he's the only one who manages to figure out Jake's second superpower, and manages to pull off a Batman-Gambit to defeat Jake as well.
The manga oneshot shows that he actively encourages his reputation as an incompetent fool on occasion (i.e., telling everyone he was late to work because of a hangover when he was actually rushing a woman to the hospital). Word of God says he does it keep people from bothering with him (and thus not worry about him).
Oblivious to Love: Completely — at least when it comes to Karina.
Karina: "Listen... Uh... I'm going to treasure this forever!"
* Karina runs off, blushing to the roots of her hair*
Kotetsu: "...What's up with her?"
Word of God says he's like this with just about everyone attracted to him. His own seiyuu isn't sure how he managed to reproduce.
Odd Couple: With Barnaby.
Older Sidekick: He's being billed as this in-series.
One Of The Kids: Less mature than Barnaby despite being several years his senior, to the point of arguing with kids who don't like his trading cards.
Overshadowed by Awesome: Far cooler than your average non-superpowered person. Unfortunately for him, he's not being compared to normal people most of the time.
Powered Armor: His Apollon Media suit ensures that even without tapping into his powers, he's still inhumanly strong and durable - it even lets him hold a car in place when it's falling off a bridge.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: When his powers start going haywire in Episode 14.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Barnaby's blue, but in-series the suit he originally wore was blue.
Sarcasm Mode: Slips into this every so often, particularly in the English Dub:
Barnaby: So...nice view!
Kotetsu: Oh, yeah, it's breathtaking.
Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: "
Badabadabadabadabadabada..."◊
Meeeep. Meee-meeeep. Meep. Meep. Meep.◊
BYAAAAA BYUUUUU BYAAAAAAAScrew the Money, I Have Rules!
Shirtless Scenes: quite a few...
In episode 9, with his shoulder bandaged, holding a wine glass. In Barnaby's flat.
Another in episode 13, in a hospital, with bandages.
Episode 25 (and the end of ep 24), he takes a hit that destroys most of his armor and produces a tear in the suit he wears under it, conspicuously revealing his abs..
Shonen Hair
Stealth Pun: His eyes are the color of a Tiger's Eye stone.
Super Strength
Super Speed
Superhero Sobriquets: The Crusher of Justice.
Superheroes Wear Capes: His original costume.
Suspenders Are Sexy: His
new design◊ for the second movie.
Team Mom: With debatable levels of success. He even tries to makes sure that Barnaby eats properly, much to the latter's annoyance.
Though he was more successful when Ivan blamed himself for his friend Edward's descent into villainy.
Tears of Joy: Cries them in episode 23 when Barnaby finally remembers him.
10-Minute Retirement: Leaves the Hero business after the fight with Maverick, only to come out of retirement later because Kaede told him to find something to do besides sit around the house all day.
Technician Versus Performer: The Performer.
Theyre Called Personal Issues For A Reason: Once he learns of Barnaby's past, he makes a point about not prying into the whys and wherefores. This is not due to coldness, but because he knows (possibly from personal experience) that some things are best left as someone's own cross to carry.
There Was a Door: Kotetsu takes the most direct route when someone's life is at stake, walls be damned.
Throw the Dog a Bone: There are times when he does get recognition — the students at the Hero Academy, for instance, worship the ground he walks on.
Trademark Favorite Food: Mayonnaise... on everything.
According to Anju, a disproportionate number of his meals consist of fried rice. He likes it enough that he's never bothered to learn how to cook anything else.
Tsundere Magnet: All those who have affection for Kotetsu have shown Tsundere tendencies — Tomoe, Karina and even Barnaby.
Clueless Tsundere Magnet: It took a good deal of effort for Tomoe and Barnaby to get him to realize they were fond of him (while Karina has had no such luck). Word of God confirms that he's usually completely oblivious to when women are hitting on him.
Unflinching Walk: In episode 17.
Unperson: Finds himself as one in episode 20.
Vague Age: Any questions about Kotetsu's actual age are met with vague or contradictory answers by the staff and creators. The only confirmed, consistent information is that he's somewhere in his thirties.
Waistcoat of Style
Warrior Therapist: When the show started, three heroes among the eight didn't believe much in themselves and/or in heroism as a value. Kotetsu made sure it didn't continue. The final episode shows how his actions and words changed them: before, they were working separately, except when Hero TV asked them to work together; at the end, they willingly cooperate to catch criminals, barely thinking of fame, ranks and points.
"Well Done, Partner" Guy: In the latter half of the series he becomes this in Barnaby's eyes.
Barnaby: There's one man I feel I can never compare to, and my only wish is to become someone worthy of his trust.
Interestingly, he's both the "Father" in the straight example to Barnaby and the "Son" example to his own daughter in an inversion - one of his main wishes is that his daughter thinks he is cool. She eventually does.
When You Coming Home, Dad?: Superheroing really does take its toll on his relationship with his daughter.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Less concerned with sponsorship money, more concerned with saving people. Naturally, this is not a good attitude to have in Sternbild.
Workaholic: Lloyd actually has to order him to use some of his vacation days.
Of course, considering what happens when he does...
Yank the Dog's Chain: He finally starts getting some respect from his partner, climbs up in the rankings and the population doesn't consider him a joke anymore, then he starts losing his powers.
