Tsuna is a junior high failure (apparently "junior high" kids are a bit older in Japan). His life is turned upside down when he's saddled with a baby,
Reborn, who happens to be the reincarnation of a Mafia hitman (not quite so unbelievable to a Buddhist, I assume). Sounds fun, and there's a muscle hunk and no boobs on the promo, so I'm in. But I'm 99% sure that the baby is going to help Tsuna win the Girl of His Dreams.
I'll be reviewing Episode 7, "To the Limit, Passionate Brother!", because the icon looks like Tsuna is getting a boyfriend.
Scene 1: A poster of muscular boxers: "The Boxing Club awaits for strong man!" At the gym, a muscle hunk has just been pulverized. The other boxers cheer. "Ok, who's next?" the man-mountain asks.
"Me!" Another muscle-hunk stands in the doorway, this one with white hair: Ryohai, the captain of the junior high boxing team. They fight; Ryohai pulverizes him, then asks "Aren't there any stronger, extreme men?" Nope, no extreme men in sight.
Scene 2: Tsuna and his friends walk down the street, along with Lambo, a baby in a cow outfit, from the Bovino Family. Reborn and his chameleon familiar appear, explaining that they were camouflaged. He feeds the cow baby a piece of cake with a grenade in it, and blows him to bits (actually, into a tree.)
Uh-oh, Tsuna forgot his social science project with Kyoko, the Girl of His Dreams. Now he has no chance of spending his life gazing into her eyes. "What do I do now? I'll never make it, even if I run." Reborn changes his chameleon into a gun and points it at Tsuna: "Race like your life depends on it! It's Deathperation time!" Wow, I wonder what the Japanese term is.
Tsuna grows fire on his head and back, rips off his clothes, and leaps over the rooftops to the school.
"He's always so amazing when he strips down to his boxers," one of his male friends says. Is that deliberately dirty-sounding? Is he also amazing out of his boxers?
Scene 3: The white-haired muscle hunk Ryohei from Scene 1 and his boyfriend see Tsuna running. "Hey, wait up," Ryohei calls, but instead Tsuna grabs him by the hand and runs him to school.
At school, Ryohei piles on the complements: "You've got great power, strength, stamina..." (And you look good in boxers?). He grabs Tsuna's shoulders, but instead of asking him out on a date, he asks him to join the boxing club.
"How do you know my name?" Tsuna asks. Ryohei remembers an important volleyball match where Tsuna "sacrificed a man's most valuable part" to block the ball." So you're interested in Tsuna's parts? Tell me more. He then draws Tsuna close enough to kiss and tells him that they're going to go to the stars. Why, do you want to spend your life gazing into his eyes?
Tsuna isn't interested in this overblown rhetoric, but then Kyoko, the Girl of His Dreams, appears. "What are you doing with Tsuna, Big Brother? Don't tell me you grabbed him and..." Started flirting with him, like you always do with the cute boys? Ryohei protests that he's just inviting Tsuna to join his team.
He grabs Tsuna and brings their faces close, as if he wants to kiss him: "I'll see you in the locker room after school." Geez, at least buy him dinner first.
After Ryohei leaves, his sister Kyoko is ecstatic. "I haven't seen Ryohei so happy in a long time. You really made an impression on him!" Uh-oh, now Tsuna will have to date a boy he doesn't like to impress the Girl of His Dreams.
Meanwhile, the baby Reborn, spying on them from his hot-air balloon, says "Everything is going according to plan." So he wants Tsuna and Ryohei to date?
Scene 4: Tsuna appears at the Boxing Club door, nicely dressed, ready for his date. Ryohei drags him in. But he actually came to refuse. "I can't do this -- I'm not really interested in you!" But Ryohei doesn't listen. Besides, all of his friends and the Girl of His Dreams are there to cheer him on, so it's too late to back down.
"I got you a good coach, a veteran Muay Thai fighter," Ryohei continues. But it's really Reborn in an elephant costume! "Now let's box!"
Tsuna performs poorly until Reborn turns his chameleon into a gun again: "Fight like your life depends on it!" A fire burns on his head, and he pulverizes Ryohei. Now everyone is upset. "No fair! You really hurt him!" So Reborn shoots Ryohei with the "Deathperation Gun," and he turns into a dynamo.
But Tsuna now has the power to refuse the invitation: "Be my boyfriend!" "No!" "Let's go out for coffee!" "No!" "Let me carry your books home from school!" "No!" But with every refusal, Ryohei says "This makes me like you more!" No means no, Dude. Leave him alone.
Scene 5: Suddenly the Karate Club, a bevy of black-robed man-mountains, bursts in. "We want your sister Kyoko, Ryohei! Fight us! If we win, you give her permission to become our manager!" That's not at all what I thought they wanted.
Ryohei, Tsuna, and his crew fight them off using their special skills: a dust storm, poison pizza, firecrackers in their pants, and for Tsuna, boxing. After they scatter, Reborn suggests that Tsuna could use someone strong in "the family," so he asks Ryohei to join him. Aww, they become friends. The end.
Beefcake: Ryohei, Tsuna, and various hunks are shirtless throughout. I took 12 screenshots, but Chrome won't let me save screenshots.
Gay Characters: I don't think so. A google search on "Reborn," "anime," and "gay" revealed several lists of "The Top 10 Queer Anime Couples," but they are all mistaken: this series is actually not on any list.
Gay Subtexts: Endless. I'm not familiar with Japanese cultural conventions, but from an American point of view, the romantic tension was amazing. And the constant unintentional double-entendres.
My Grade: I loved this. A .