You want a non-cliché male (shounen) protagonist? I got it!
Something that I literally can’t get out of my head recently is how I constantly see discourse about the staleness of male MCs - especially shounen manga protagonists - always so ready and accepting of being the Chosen One. Always so ready to discard their “mundane” life and embark on some dangerous mission. Outspoken, fiery and with unbeatable charisma.
And while we are beginning to see (minimal) change with recent books/manga, do you know who was literally the antithesis of this a lot of years ago?
Tsuna.
Tsuna who was literally the last choice for everything, whose nickname was Loser-Tsuna, constantly bullied and harassed and whom nobody thought he would ever amount to anything. 0 friends, 0 abilities, 0 accomplishments.
And when some guy to tell him “You can become the head of a mafia family. You’re gonna be respected, sought after.”, when Reborn serves him POWER on a silver platter... Tsuna says “oh hell no, fOck all that”, turns tail and RUNS.
He won’t manage to escape forever, but that’s beside the point. Tsuna is a coward, a plain nobody, so boringly normal that in any other anime he would be for sure one of the background filler characters. He isn’t cut to be a protagonist. He’s wimpy, weak and whiny, sometimes to the point of being annoying ever for me - and I love KHR.
But what fascinates me is this. A character so weak and bullied, usually would be elated to have that much power offered to him. I knew that he was the protagonist, so the first time I watched the series I was expecting him to accept the power and better himself, become a different person, a hero. (Or, if he was in another manga, a villain.)
Instead, not only Tsuna refuses - again and again, until the very end - to become who he was destined to be, who everyone around him wants him to be; but the only time he uses the power he was gifted with is strictly to protect himself, his friends and family. And then he quickly steps away immediately after, like when you move a scalding pot without mittens.
His guardians have become... his guardians, in order, because: 1) he saved his life, so he thinks he’s cool 2) mostly head empty, only vibes (also he saved his life) 3) a literal child bribed with candy 4) somebody else asked him and he just went with the flow 5) one crumb of kindness got them hooked (actually 2 psycopaths in one body and it’s not a metaphor) 6) doesn’t give a shit as long as you give him a good fight.
Sure, at some point they all recognize his strenght, but apart from Gokudera’s blind idolization, for everybody Tsuna is just A Guy. He might be their “boss”, and they might come to respect him, but he gets treated nothing like a cliché male MC.
It’s really a shame that Katekyo Hitman Reborn, as a series, was managed badly as it did. Even though it’s one of my favorite shows, it’s weakened by a lot of factors... but an uninteresting MC? It ain’t one!
I smell a reboot in the air. I really hope they will to the series justice.
429 notes
·
View notes
Tsuna’s wardrobe
-i believe that he would have the most colorful wardrobe among other boys
-LOTS of t-shirts and sweaters with silly prints(silly in the best way possible!) (also nana helps him to pick them)
-has bracelets that futa and ipin made for him (he wears them as often as possible)
-100% has a bucket hat
-constantly wears sneakers that don’t match the outfit
105 notes
·
View notes
ok so like. Hear me out. Tsuna gets stuck in an in-between of hyper dying will mode and normal tsuna and he has to just do shit like going to school like that.
More detailed headcanons under the cut :)
1: tsuna has hyper intuition in daily life but is unable to handle it which makes him constantly scared/anxious/nervous. Hyper dying will makes him able to respond to his hyper intuition which is why he is much more calm during this mode.
2: tsuna’s not necessarily smart academically even in hyper dying will mode. Tsuna’s grades suck so bad because he cannot focus (refer to hc 1) so when he takes tests/does assignments in this in-between mode he does significantly better but still sucks/is incredibly average at best.
3: He is still super duper awkward in hyper dying will mode but due to being able to retain a more calm demeanor, it comes out as seeming more silent and unable to hold a conversation than being scared (altho he is plenty scared on the inside)
4: Tsuna feels INCREDIBLY awkward being like this outside of battle/tense situations so to combat this awkwardness, he wears stuff that feels closer to his normal battle attire (would depend on the time of this but I chose his jacket underneath his blazer and just some gloves he might have found hanging around idk)
I rlly wish the show/manga explored more of the weirdness of tsuna being so different in hyper dying will mode. Like how that must feel to tsuna mentally and how it affects him in more than just fighting. Tsuna and hyper dying will tsuna feel like almost two completely different characters but like… they aren’t. They’re the same person.
1K notes
·
View notes