Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth

Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth is a comical Spin-Off of Naruto written by Kenji Taira. As the title suggests, the manga focuses on Rock Lee, the Hot-Blooded Ninja who solves problems using only his fists. Joining him are the other members of Team Guy: Neji Hyuga, the serious, intelligent prodigy; Tenten, the Chinese weapons user; and Might Guy, Rock Lee's incredibly boisterous sensei. Together, they solve problems and fight evil ninjas in incredibly hot-blooded and awesome ways.

The manga is found in Saikyo Jump, the little brother to Shonen Jump that features similar shonen spinoff manga like Gourmet Gakuen Toriko, Chopperman!, and Dragon Ball SD. It also has an anime adaptation, which premiered in Japan on April 3, 2012, replacing Bleach.

Those in the US who are interested can watch it on Crunchyroll, where it's titled Naruto Spin-Off: Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals.

Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth contains incredibly youthful tropes, such as...
  • The Ace: Naruto is sometimes depicted as this, although Kakashi and Gai are DEFINITELY this.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Tenten gets more character development and screentime here than she does in Naruto. Chapter 6 even has her as the main focus.
  • Ass Shove: The Thousand Years of Pain, Kakashi's ultimate attack. At one point, a Mook straps sheet metal to his behind so he can block this. Might Gai, Lee, and Kakashi use their combined fingers to defeat him anyway.
    • In chapter 6, Gai is in the wrong end of a massive blade swarm done by Tenten. In chapter 10, Neji does it to Lee to crash into Shikamaru.
  • Beach Episode: Chapter 5.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Temari towards Gaara.
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Incorporated into Neji's Eight Trigrams 64 palms attack from the original series as the Eight Trigrams: 64 Tsukkomi.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall
  • Butt Monkey:
    • Hinata for the entirety of chapter 9. Everyone has the best of intentions of helping her. Somehow, she ends up being peed on by a large dog, swarmed with insects and fainting upon seeing her crush.
    • Tsunade was one in Chapter 6 (and its equivalent in episode 8-A). That's right, the leader of Konoha was crushed by enemies, knocked unconscious, and made bald in the span of one chapter. She had to be rescued by Tenten, for Pete's sake. Although it seems like most of the characters in the series become butt monkeys at one point or another.
    • Yamato in quite a few Funny Background Events in the anime.
    • Orochimaru, of all people, during his attempt to infltrate and attack Konoha, is made the Butt Monkey, and ends with him nursing his injuries and cursing those meddling kids.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Naruto, Konohamaru, and Lee.
  • The Comically Serious:
  • Covert Pervert:
    • After Lee witnesses Naruto's Sexy Jutsu, Lee notes that he feels really excited.
    • Neji uses his Byakugan to peek at Kakashi's magazines.
  • Cranial Eruption: In episode 5, both Lee and Naruto invoke this on themselves to try to beat out each other in a height exam.
  • Dancing Theme: The anime's ending.
  • Don't Look At Me: Neji at the end of ch. 1.
  • Don't Try This At Home: Episode 2 has one appear after Lee decides to force a kiss on Sakura.
  • Doppelganger Spin: Lee does this to emulate Naruto's Shadow Clone Jutsu. Then he does it in a bikini.
  • Dung Fu: In the first couple of pages, Lee steps in a pile of crap and kicks an enemy ninja with it.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: No, not really.
  • Fan Disservice: Rock Lee and Might Guy in bikinis.
    • Brain Bleach: Tenten finds it is so horrifying that she tries to murder them.
    • That's nothing. Try Rock Lee and Might Guy version of Sexy: Boy on Boy Jutsu and Harem: Male Festival Jutsu Guy version.
  • Hot-Blooded: Lee and Might Guy.
    • Naruto, who is described by the narrator as being just as hot-blooded as the aforementioned two are.
  • Ignore the Fanservice: Double Subverted. Lee is distracted by Sakura's fanservice and ignores Tenten's.
  • Interactive Narrator: The preview for episode 9. Orochimaru also gives the camera a dirty look in episode 7 when the narrator mentions the Viewer Gender Confusion that sometimes comes up with him.
  • Korean Pop Music: Discussed in episode 2 when Lee is looking for tips on how to be cool. He, Tenten and Neji dress up as members of Not!AKB48 and fantasize over fictional K-pop idols.
    • Might Guy does the "butt dance" from KARA's "Mister" in episode 6.
    • The ending theme song "Twinkle Twinkle" is sung by the Korean girl group SECRET.
  • Man in a Bikini: Rock Lee and Might Guy.
  • Mega Manning: A recurring joke is that Lee does his best to imitate other ninjutsu, such as replicating Gaara's Sand Funeral by squeezing himself around the enemy or spinning his eyebrows around to make a Rasensuriken.
    • He even tops himself in Chapter 10 by using his eyebrows to imitate Shikamaru's Shadow Sewing.
  • Mundane Utility: At one point, when dueling Gai, Lee uses the Konoha Snack Takoyaki Flavor move (literally taking out a bag of snacks). Neji and Kakashi have to use their respective ocular powers to fully comprehend the snack's flavor and texture. It's that good.
  • Nice Gal: Tenten. Specially here.
  • Only Sane Woman: Tenten. Yes, even the normally serious Neji is quite silly here.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Orochimaru and Kabuto twice in episode 7.
  • Poor Communication Kills: After Lee overhears Guy saying that the only good ninjas are those who do ninjutsu, Lee decides to fake ninjutsu in an effort to please him. Another person was actually telling Guy this; Guy quickly beat him up for speaking such heresy.
  • Power Perversion Potential: "Konoha's Perverted Wind!".
  • Reaction Shot: Poor Tenten. As the Only Sane Woman, she gets subject to this one a lot.
  • Schizo-Tech: Always lampshaded.
  • Serial Escalation: After Lee sees Naruto prove himself to be better than Kakashi, he decides that he should strive to be better than Gai. So when Gai suggests running 500 laps around the village for training, Lee argues that they should run 500 million. Then 500,000,001. Then 500,000,002. And so on.
  • She's Got Legs: According to Lee, that is what drives a man.
  • Sick and Wrong: Naruto and Tenten say that about a certain technique in chapter 8.
  • Slapstick Knows No Gender: Often, but poor Hinata gets a special mention.
  • Spin-Off
  • Super-Deformed
  • Thanks for the Mammary: Lee accidentally does this to Sakura in chapter 2. It goes as well as you would think.
  • The Un-Reveal: Kakashi finally removes his mask in this series, but his chibi nature makes the point moot. We do, however, get an explanation for why he wears the mask: so nobody can see his nosebleeds while reading porn. He does say that that's a joke in the next panel, though.
  • Writing Around Trademarks: Lee, Neji and Tenten dress up as 'Idols', despite the uniform they wear being exactly like the one for AKB48.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Neji and Lee in episodes 1 (As a daughter/mother) and 2 (As members of Not!AKB48).
  • You Meddling Kids: Orochimaru, regarding Team Gai putting hurdles in his attempts to attack Konoha.
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