境界のRINNE ep 27
Kyoukai no RINNE 27

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The high school tennis club brings a case to Rinne regarding tennis balls that just go missing. Rinne discovers the male ghost of a second year student who’d been a ball boy for the tennis club during his first year, but who’d died before he was able to play in his second year. The ghost is up for a game of doubles and is teamed up with Sakura against Rinne and Tsubasa, but he sucks. Rinne gives him a racket with at Tsukumogami sticker to make it alive, but when Tsubasa tries to interfere, the racket becomes enraged and beats Tsubasa to ash. Meanwhile, the ghost becomes content just practicing tennis with Sakura.

Tsubasa takes a case of parents who’s teen son is haunted. Tsubasa frees the son, but the ghost, a beauty from the past named Yayoi, has a request that since she died with an unrequited love, that he pretend to be her boyfriend for a while. He agrees, but is worried about what Sakura will say. Rinne is suspicious of the ghost’s intentions, but since Tsubasa insists, he leaves Tsubasa to it. Tsubasa and Yayoi do all sorts of things that nearly cause Tsubasa’s death. Further, Tsubasa has tons of freak accidents. Rokumon finds Yayoi’s love letters to the poor scholar who’d married an ugly, rich girl. Rinne figures out that Yayoi wants to send Tsubasa to the afterlife to be with her. Rinne tries to warn him, but he already knows and just wants to help Yayoi. Rinne tells Yayoi that her plan won’t work as she’ll be cast into hell and Tsubasa will be reborn. As such, she gives up and passes on, asking Tsubasa to go out with her when she’s reborn.

Thoughts/Review:

I’m so glad that this series is so much fun. The manga had been a disappointment to me, but the anime certainly hasn’t. Certainly, Kyoukai no RINNE 27 is no exception to this.

The first story was the weaker story, but it was still fun. I enjoyed seeing Tsubasa taking a beating for being stupid. However, Tsubasa’s stupidity here made his role in the second story have more meaning. More on that in a bit.

Although I’ve never watched it, I am well aware of the classic anime title Ashita no Joe. More specifically, I’m aware of its infamous ending. Kyoukai no RINNE 27 parodies that moment when Tsubasa goes down, complete with the cross-counter punches and Tsubasa quoting Joe’s words from the final episode of Ashita no Joe, citing Joe’s prediction that he’d burn out and turn into pure white ash. It was a great moment and made me wish I had watched Ashita no Joe, even though a boxing anime wouldn’t be my thing.

The second story was funnier, but also more touching. On the humor side, the slapstick comedy elements of Tsubasa coming into near death situations kept making me laugh out loud. Yayoi getting embarrassed and giving Rinne a beating amused me as well.

I think this moment with Tsubasa’s and Yayoi’s date to the zoo was the funnies of those moments. The second I saw the lions, I knew what was in store. The looks on the lion’s faces as they open the cage let me know the production team knew we knew and were just having fun with the whole thing. I loved it.

On the sweet and touching side, I liked how Tsubasa understood that Yayoi had a bad, ulterior moment in that she wanted to send him to hell. However, he was determined to see her through until then end by continuing to date the ghost. As Rinne stated at the end of the episode, without Tsubasa’s efforts here, Yayoi wouldn’t have peacefully passed on as she did.

I’d like to see this episode start to make Tsubasa handle spirits differently from now on. He’s always had a “throw the holy ash first, ask questions later” mentality, whereas Rinne has always wanted a peaceful resolution if possible. Because of Tsubasa’s efforts with with Yayoi, it would be a shame for that character development to be lost for the sake of stupid or tired gag jokes.

In the end, Kyoukai no RINNE 27 was a fun episode who’s second half was better than its first half.