Quite a bit of this episode focuses on Blue Rose and her feelings for Kotetsu. Kotetsu is still dense about this and hasn’t picked up on her interest at all. Recently, she lent him a book that she read in college, and he wants to thank her by taking her out to eat. The place he wanted to go to is closed, but he takes her to another restaurant nearby. As they talk, Kotetsu mentions that he and his deceased wife had met at this location a lot after work before Kaede was born. Obviously, Blue Rose realizes that he still doesn’t notice her in that way, and this becomes important later in the episode.

At this point, it’s not known what caused the NEXT to rampage in the previous episode, even though they were arrested and are being evaluated. Gregory, the serial killer who was experimented on and stole the drug near the end of the first cour, unleashes another wave of NEXT, although at several different locations. But it turns out one NEXT started a riot of her own volition, and Barnaby picks up on the fact that this NEXT is lying about losing control of her power, since she’s not acting like the other rioting NEXT that they’ve apprehended over the past couple of episodes. It turns out that this NEXT was trying to gain the attention of someone she loved, which is brought to light when Blue Rose talks to them after they are apprehended. After this encounter, Blue Rose makes a realization about her feelings for Kotetsu.

Prior to all of this, we see Golden Ryan having a couple of dreams, which turn out to be memories of the accident he had before coming to Stern Bild. We get an explanation of this when Ryan takes Blue Rose to talk to her after her conversation with the NEXT. The way the conversation goes, you’re almost convinced that maybe Ryan has a thing for Blue Rose… but then he tells her not to fall for him because he’s into older women. Blue Rose claims she’d never fall for him, though. But I was glad to hear Blue Rose say that she’s actually kind of glad that Kotetsu doesn’t realize her feelings, because that would likely change what she likes about him. It’s also been interesting to realize that Blue Rose’s feelings for him really hadn’t been touched on earlier in the season after it was a major piece of character development for her back in the first season. It was kind of “the elephant in the room” that hasn’t been addressed this season, so I appreciated seeing it getting touched on. I’m glad that Blue Rose is dialing back her interest in Kotetsu, and it shows that she’s starting to gain some more maturity.

We also see Barnaby talking with Mattia about Kotetsu and complaining about how his partner is such a busybody. But as we talk, we see Barnaby subtly rubbing at his knee. We also see Barnaby react to his knee at one point while he’s taking on a NEXT. So far, I seem to be right that this is going to be a running thread in this cour of Tiger & Bunny 2. I’m suspecting that this is going to become important during a crucial encounter and potentially cause problems.

Near the end of the episode, we see Yuri returning home and taking care of his senile mother. She seems to believe that her husband is still alive and a superhero who is saving the city. As we see, Yuri isn’t taking this well. In the opening for Tiger & Bunny 2, we do see Lunatic make an appearance, so I’m expecting that Lunatic will be returning in this cour of the season. But how and in what capacity remains to be seen.

There are also a couple of scenes of He Is Thomas and Mr. Black still being as distant as ever. Right at the end of the episode, Mr. Black suddenly uses some vacation time and takes off… and we see him meeting up with a young woman. Why do I have a feeling that this mysterious young woman isn’t what she seems and is going to be trouble? I expect that she will be important in the next episode, since this one ended with Mr. Black just meeting up with her.

This episode showed us some character progression for Blue Rose, and to some extent, Golden Ryan as well. It also makes clear that Gregory is still out there, using the drug he stole to create NEXT to create havoc in Stern Bild. And it seems to be establishing something could potentially happen to Mr. Black. In a lot of ways, this episode is still establishing and building up the story for this cour, although not as much as Episode 14 did. I’m curious to see what direction the remaining 10 episodes of the season will be going in, and how this second season will end up being resolved.

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