OK KO, Let's Be Heroes! is a Cartoon Network series (2017-2019) set in a future world where there are many superheroes. K.O. is a young boy who hangs out at Lakewood Plaza where his mother works, interacting with other employees and honing his superhero powers. Sounds like a lot of noisy battles. But apparently six characters end up in same-sex relationships:
Enid, a teenager training to be a ninja, and Red Action, a cyborg teenager from the future (even farther in the future).
Main villain Lord Boxman, a corporate bigwig obsessed with destroying Lakewood Plaza and the even more evil Professor Venomous
Minor characters Joff Army and Nick The Shaolin Monk, who get married in the last episode.
I watched Volume 2, Episode 1, "We're Captured."
Lord Boxman has K.O, Enid, and Rad suspended over molten lava (Rad is a muscular surfer dude from Planet X; the top photo may be fan art, not canon).
As Boxman tries to explain his complicated evil plan, he keeps getting distracted by the dinner he is preparing.
Professor Venomous arrives, accompanied by his little girl sidekick; Lord Boxman is all flustered and nervous.
Apparently the dinner is to butter up Venomous, an important client of his robot factory. Boxman can't let Venomous know about the captured heroes, so he keeps trying to distract him and rushing back and forth.
"Double booking is so unprofessional," Rad complains, "As if we're not important enough to get tortured."
During dinner, Venomous is aloof and critical, Boxman nervous. Is he worried about keeping Venomous as a client, or is he interested in romance? Is this a business dinner or a date?
The trio escapes from the lava and gets even with Boxman by pretending to be chefs. They sabotage the dinner with slapstick routines, including sneezing pepper and pies in the face.
At first Boxman tries to convince them to leave; then he fights back with a pie-bazooka (buffed physique whle he is fighting; then he goes back to being fat).
Venomous seems to be staring at Boxman's muscles. Or maybe he's just interested in the fight. He says: "Dinner parties are so stuffy, but vanquishing heroes -- that's much more exciting."
He tweaks the pie bazooka to make it more powerful, and propels the heroes through the window. Then he confesses that he was planning to sever business relations, but now that he realizes that Boxman is into villainy, he'll double his robot order.
Boxman's eyes tear up. "You still want my robots? You still want me?" He rushes up and hugs Venomous, but the sidekick pushes him off.
Verdict: Ambiguous. Every expression of same-sex desire can be explained as something else - Boxman's interest in keeping Veonomous as a client; Venomous's interest in villainy. "You still want me" and the hug come close to overt, but if I didn't know that they were going to eventually spend the night together, then move in together, then get married, I'd still say "gay subtext," not text.
