In case you were curious if I'd stopped my manic rush to make my little stern bild directory: how's this for a New Year's blorbo posting?
Did you ever notice that Stern Bild actually has four stages?
Counting up from the ground layer, that little bit in the top right is definitely number four—it is most certainly built atop the third layer!
Which begs the question: is that the Gold Stage? Or is the third layer the Gold Stage, and that's a secret super billionaire stage? If it is the Gold Stage, what is the ground layer called? There are clearly buildings down there, too!
Taibani mutuals & fandom, I summon you!!! 🫵 Do YOU know what the heck is going on??? Is this something explained in the manga, an interview, or a written media somewhere?? Help!!!
oh boy oh jeez oh man i hope you guys are ready for kura's tiger and bunny thought of the evening bc i ran across two-year-old comments on the Blue Rose page of the T&B fan wiki and i have OPINIONS
its actually a really benign old comment chain about USD versus Stern Dollars, but everyone pretty much says "yeah but it's still in the USA" and BUDDY BOY NO IT AIN'T. NO. IT. AIN'T.
I'VE GOT SOMETHIN' TO SAY ABOUT STERN BILD AND I'LL FIGHT ANYONE (but like in a silly way)
"But Kura, the creators literally said it's in New York and—" yes they did, this part is very much true and the aerial shot we see of Stern Bild is always around Tribeca/Manhatten area with a really nice shot of the Hudson, but that's not the point (though it does make it much easier to chart the various districts, more on that coming soon)
Something we know about Tiger & Bunny is that it is set in an alternate universe New York, and never once is the United States mentioned by name. In fact, there isn't much about world nations mentioned in general in T&B—the one time I can think of off the top of my head where "country" is even mentioned is in Dragon Kid's flashback of her parents sending her off to Stern Bild, where they tearfully say she is going to become "the pride of [their] country," so I guess we at least know the concept of countries exists. But is Stern Bild in a country? Is Stern Bild a country?
Actually, all evidence points toward Stern Bild being a city-state. It meets all three qualifications of being such: it's an independent, sovereign city that is "the center of political, economic, and cultural life" over its surrounding territories. We see these qualifications met across all three seasons, first and foremost starting with something you've heard characters talk about pretty dang often but probably never thought too much about: the Stern Dollar.
The Stern Dollar (SBD from here on out) has to get its name from somewhere, and the most likely candidate is Stern Bild itself, which means that Stern Bild mints its own currency. Often shortened to "dollars" by the characters, it's used even in neighboring towns like Kotetsu's hometown (i.e., Muramasa charging him "two dollars" for a whiskey in season 1.)
We also know Stern Bild has a very localized culture based on the events of The Rising and a few character scenes in S2. In The Rising, the backdrop to the story is the time leading up to and the day of the Stern Bild holiday of Justice Day, which celebrates the time our lord and savior Jesus Christ appearedunto man in crab form and was unfortunately eaten, resulting in the Goddess bringing her wrath down on the ancient people of Stern Bild. (hello mutuals who haven't seen Tiger & Bunny and are reading this anyways, THIS IS CANON I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP THIS FUCKING HAPPENED, CRAB JESUS) This is a holiday that is, again, celebrated outside of Stern Bild, as Kotetsu's family celebrates Justice Day despite hailing from his hometown. By extension, it's likely the same goddess is worshipped in the territories surrounding Stern Bild.
We also know based on S2 that other cities have their own hero programs, all of them ran wildly differently. However, again, we look to Kotetsu's home town—no mention of other heroes. Just Hero TV heroes. Both the religious and secular mainsteam culture are exported from Stern Bild to its outlying territories.
And finally, political life: the politics of Stern Bild are interesting af because we know basically that we have the mayor and the mayor's cabinet, which includes prominent industry figures and judges from the Justice Bureau. We typically only see them making decisions about the governance of Stern Bild, and it's true that politics exist at all levels in a nation, but the reason why it seems to me that Stern Bild is a center of political life is (SEASON 2 SPOILERS LOOK AWAY LOOK AWAY NOOOWWWW)
Well, mostly it's because of the concentration camps, which seem to exist decidedly outside of Stern Bild's city limits. Stern Bild proper is always shown to be a bustling megalopolis. It's very dense and doesn't have a lot of extra wide-open spaces laying around. However, the mayor of Stern Bild was able to have these NEXT concentration camps set up on short notice in seemingly the middle of nowhere.... Which would very likely be an outlying territory, again, like Kotetsu's very rural hometown. This one's a little bit tricky because we can't be absolutely certain, but for all intents and purposes it seems to me that Stern Bild has some political relevance to its surrounding territories.
So, is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that Stern Bild is in the United States? Yeah, sure, it could be I guess. But it's much more likely that it's an independent city-state, especially since it mints its own currency.
anyways that's my tiger & bunny thought of the night, dont mind me, i just wanted an excuse to rant about this bc the stern dollar's been on my mind for a few days
Based on the location of the Fortress Tower building, seen in S1E3, the most likely location of the Stern Medaille district is the Silver Stage in the inner ring of the city!
Maverick indicates that the Fortress Tower building will "change Stern Bild's skyline," which means it must be visible in relation to other buildings at the top of the city from at least one angle. However, when we consider the aerial view of Stern Bild, we know there is only one internal ring, right in the middle of the downtown/city proper, and the Fortress Building is very close to the curve of the Gold Stage. Based on the landmarks in the background of this image—most notably, the shape of the lane merge, the green wedge of trees in the median, and the short and squat building partially obstructed by the fortress building, I have marked the side of the city Stern Medaille appears close to:
From the angle we see, this is the only section of the Gold Stage that has these landmarks. Moreover, we can see parts of the Fortress Building shot from a helicopter during the scenes where Hero TV broadcast Barnaby and Kotetsu working to defuse the bomb:
While it might still be possible the Fortress Tower is tall enough to be on the Bronze Stage, based on the angle of the shots and the presence of only one platform layer it more likely than not is it built on the Silver Stage, which places Stern Medaille there as well.
Watching T&B the beginning again, a little.update on my crusade to map Stern Bild
Laying in bed, forgive image quality
The industrial district of Stern Bild correlates to Brooklyn. Unsure what that big round thing down there is tho. Cant imagine it would be the ice rinm
