Reborn!, known in Japan as KatekyÅ Hitman Reborn! (Japanese: 家åºæ•™å¸«ãƒ'ットマンリボーン!, Hepburn: KatekyÅ Hittoman RibÅn!, "KatekyÅ" being a portmanteau of Katei KyÅshi and translated as Home Tutor), is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Akira Amano. The plot revolves around the life of a young boy named Tsunayoshi Sawada, who finds out that he is next in line to become the boss of the most powerful Mafia organization, the Vongola Family. As such, the Vongola's most powerful hitman, a gun-toting infant named Reborn, is sent to tutor Tsuna on how to become a respectable boss.
The individual manga chapters were serialized in Japan in Shueisha's Weekly ShÅnen Jump from May 4, 2004 to November 12, 2012. They have been published into forty-two tankÅbon volumes between October 4, 2004 and March 4, 2013. Viz Media licensed the series for an English-language release in North America, shortening the series name to Reborn!. An anime adaptation of the series by Artland aired on TV Tokyo between October 7, 2006 and September 25, 2010. There have also been various video games based on the series, as well as two light novels by Hideaki Koyasu.
Reborn! has become one of the best-selling Weekly ShÅnen Jump manga with several of its volumes becoming top-sellers in Japan. Reviewers from the series praised its use of comedy as well as the designs used for the infant characters. They also mentioned that though it has become more violent since volume 8, it has turned into a more typical shÅnen series, praising the storylines and the fights.
Plot
The Reborn! story revolves around a boy named Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, who is chosen to become the Vongola Family's boss due to him being the great-great-great-great grandson of the first Vongola boss, who had moved to Japan from Italy during his own time. He is told by Reborn that he will become the tenth Vongola boss. Also, the other candidates for the position of the head of the Vongola Family have died. For these reasons, Tsuna is the only remaining heir. As such, Timoteo a.k.a. "Vongola IX", the current head of the family, sends Reborn, an infant hitman from Italy, to train Tsuna. Tsuna then unwillingly undergoes training from Reborn. Reborn's main method of teaching Tsuna is the "Deathperate Bullet" (æ»ã¬æ°—å¼¾, Shinukidan), which will make the person be "reborn" with a stronger self intent on fulfilling his dying will. Through his experiences, the initially clumsy and underachieving Tsuna unconsciously becomes stronger, more confident, and willing, which ultimately makes him better suited as the Vongola Family's boss despite continuing to reject his Mafia inheritance. He also starts making several friendships such as his crush Kyoko Sasagawa.
Tsuna goes through many predicaments in his progress of becoming the Vongola boss including fighting against escaped Mafia convicts posing as Kokuyo Junior High students. Later, The Varia, Vongola assassin squad, claim the right for their boss, Xanxus, to be the true Vongola boss, and starts a competition with Tsuna to decide who would be the Vongola boss. To defeat the Varia, Reborn recruits most of Tsuna's schoolmates to become the Vongola guardians: Hayato Gokudera, an expert on dynamite who wishes to be Tsuna's right-hand man, Takeshi Yamamoto, an athlete who likes baseball and thinks that the Mafia is a game, Ryohei Sasagawa, the captain of the school boxing club and always goes to the most extreme, and Kyoya Hibari, the head prefect. Lambo, a weak infant hitman who wants to kill Reborn, and Chrome Dokuro, a girl who has a mental and physical link with the criminal Mukuro Rokudo, joins them as well.
Later, after defeating the Varia, Tsuna and his friends are transported to the future where they must face the Millefiore Family, who are annihilating the Vongola. They also find that all the Arcobaleno, the group of the seven strongest infants, are dead except for Lal Mirch. As Tsuna and the Vongola Guardians from his time fight the Millefiore they learn that Shoichi Irie, a comrade of Tsuna's future self, was the one who sent them to the future as the future Tsuna said they were the only ones who can defeat the Millefiore leader Byakuran. It is later revealed that Byakuran has gained knowledge from parallel worlds and that he wants to obtain all the Mafia rings in order to obtain a power similar to omniscience.
After defeating Byakuran, Tsuna and company return to the present where they learn that Tsuna is to undergo the inheritance ceremony to officially become Vongola X. However, the ceremony is attacked by the Shimon Family, who have sworn revenge on Vongola Primo, the founder of Vongola, for supposedly betraying the first Shimon boss. Tsuna confronts the Shimon family on a secluded island. The Mafia family, Vindice, are involved in the battle and imprison the losers of the feud. After several battles, it is revealed, Daemon Spade, an illusionist and guardian of the first generation of Vongola, was manipulating Shimon. He uses the conflict to take control of Mukuro's body and intends to conquer Vongola to remodel it to his image, but the combined strength of Tsuna and Simon's leader, Enma Kozato, manages to defeat Daemon once and for all.
Afterwards, Reborn and the other Arcobaleno are offered a chance to compete against one another in order to undo the curse inflicted upon them. Each Arcobaleno chooses a representative to fight for them, and the winner will have a chance to undo the curse. However, the Vindice enter the fight and reveal to Reborn and Tsuna that the tournament is actually a front for the selection of a new Arcobaleno, while the previous Arcobaleno are discarded to either die, or become Vindice themselves. Unable to accept the method, Tsuna formed alliance with the entire remaining teams to defeat Bermuda, a former Arcobaleno, and the Vindice. During the last day of the Representative Battle of the Rainbow, Tsuna defeats Bermuda and his team, making his team won the Representative Battle. Checker Face, the ringleader behind the Curse of the Rainbow that inflicted upon the Arcobaleno, reveals his true identity as Kawahira, the one who administrates the Tri-ni-set, the humankind's ultimate power. Finally finding another solution to keep the Tri-ni-set safe, Kawahira agreed to remove the curse inflict upon the Arcobaleno and entrust the safety of the Tri-ni-set to the future generations.
After the events in the Arcobaleno Battle, Reborn asks Tsuna to make a decision and become the tenth head of the Vongola Family, which Tsuna refuses. Reborn leaves since he has no business again with Tsuna. A week after Reborn's departure, Tsuna realises that he is still No-Good Tsuna and states that nothing has changed. However, Reborn then comes back, declaring that he will train Tsuna into Neo-Vongola Primo, which is similar to becoming Vongola Decimo. Remembering that now he has friends that he could rely on and finally understood that he did change from everything that he has experienced, he realised that everything was all thanks to his tutor and partner, The Home Tutor Hitman Reborn.
Media
Manga
Reborn! '​s first prototypes by Akira Amano were published in seinen magazines until an one-shot released on November 17, 2003 on Shueisha's Weekly ShÅnen Jump. The Reborn! manga began serialization in the 26th issue of Weekly ShÅnen Jump on May 4, 2004, ending its run on November 12, 2012. The individual chapters are also published in collected volumes by Shueisha, from October 4, 2004, to in March 4, 2013. The series is licensed in North America by Viz Media, which serialize the chapters in their monthly manga anthology ShÅnen Jump Advanced and have also released them in volumes. The first volume was released on October 3, 2006; the last volume published by Viz was the sixteenth which was released on July 6, 2010. Reborn! is also licensed in Brazil by Panini Comics, in France by Glénat, in Germany by Tokyopop, in Singapore by Chuang Yi, in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini, and in Taiwan by Tong Li Publishing.
Anime
The series has been adapted into an anime series that lasts 203 episodes, and is produced by Artland and directed by Kenichi Imaizumi. It first aired on October 7, 2006 on the Japanese network TV Tokyo and ended on September 25, 2010. Though the anime series has not been licensed for distribution outside of Japan, Funimation, on behalf of Japan's d-rights production company, exercised a power of attorney to remove fansubbed episodes of the Reborn! anime from the internet. Thus, to prevent copyright infringement, cease and desist notices were sent to fansub groups who were subtitling the series. On March 21, 2009, the anime-streaming website Crunchyroll began streaming subtitled episodes of the Japanese series in North America. New episodes were available within an hour after the airing in Japan. In 2011, Viz Media licensed the anime to be streamed on Hulu and VizAnime.com in an uncut subtitled version.
As of May 29, 2009, a total of twenty-seven DVD volumes have been released in Japan by Marvelous Entertainment. The DVDs have secondary volume titles: the first eight volumes are "Bullets" which contains the first thirty-three episodes; the next eight are "Battles", and contains episodes 34 to 65; volumes seventeen and eighteen are "Daily Chapters", containing episodes 66 to 73; the next seven are the "Burn" volumes and contains episodes 74 to 101; and starting from volume 26, they are referred to as the "X.Burn" volumes. A DVD box containing the Bullet episodes was published in Japan on June 17, 2009.
CDs
All of the Reborn! music was composed by Toshihiko Sahashi. Each theme music has been released into a single or album by their corresponding performers. Four Reborn! OSTs (Original Soundtracks) have been released; the first soundtrack, KatekyÅ Hitman Reborn! Target 1 OST, was released in Japan on December 20, 2006; the second, KatekyÅ Hitman Reborn! Target 2 OST, was released in Japan on April 18, 2007. The third soundtrack was released on August 20, 2008. It includes two CDs that include songs used from episode 78 onwards in the anime. OST 4 was released in Japan on September 26, 2010. It consists of a few tracks that will be used in the second season of Reborn! Most of the Japanese voice actors of the series have performed a song; all of them were gathered in a CD called Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Character Soshutsuen Album Bongorefamiry Sotojo - Shinukidekatare! Soshiteutae!, which contains ten tracks. Pony Canyon also released two volumes of Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Opening & Ending Themes, which contain the opening and ending themes from the series. Additionally, there have been various CDs that include songs performed by various characters such as the Varia or Hayato Gokudera along with Takeshi Yamamoto.
Video games
Besides characters from the series making special appearances in Jump Super Stars, Jump Ultimate Stars, and J-Stars Victory Vs, there are twenty-one video games based solely on the series. The first one released was Katekyo Hitman Reborn! DS: Shinuki Max! Vongola Carnival!! on March 29, 2007 for the Nintendo DS. On June 28, the fighting game Flame Rumble: Mukuro KyÅshÅ« was released; four other games were released in the Flame Rumble series for the DS between September 20, 2007, and July 22, 2010. A PlayStation 2 (PS2) game titled Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Dream Hyper Battle! was released on August 30, 2007, and the same game was released on the Wii on January 10, 2008. In contrast to the PlayStation 2 version, the one from Wii added characters from the fight between the Vongola and the Varia. The adventure game Let's Ansatsu!? Nerawareta Ju-daime! was released for the PS2 on October 25, 2007. A sugoroku-inspired game, Vongola Shiki Taisen Battle Sugoroku was released on March 27, 2008 for the DS.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! DS: Fate of Heat, an role-playing fighting game, was released for the Nintendo DS on May 1, 2008. It was followed by two sequels: Fate of Heat II: Unmei no Futari on April 16, 2009, and Fate of Heat III: Yuki no GÄdian RaishÅ«! on April 29, 2010. An adventure game titled Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Nerae!? Ring x Vongola Trainers was released for the PS2 on August 28, 2008. Also there were two releases for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Battle Arena and Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Battle Arena 2: Spirit Burst, on September 18, 2008, and September 17, 2009, respectively. Another PSP game, Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Kizuna no Tag Battle, was released on February 25, 2010. Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Kindan no Yami no Delta, an action-adventure game for the Wii and PS2, was released in Japan on November 20, 2008. Three other DS games were released: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! DS: Mafia DaishÅ«gÅ Vongola Festival!! on December 4, 2008, Katekyo Hitman Reborn! DS: Ore ga Bosu! SaikyÅ Family Taisen on December 17, 2009, and Nari Chara: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (for DSiWare) on January 27, 2010.
Radio
Starting from September 10, 2007, after the recording of the episode for the following week, there is a radio show called ReboRaji! Bucchake Ring Tournament (リボラジ!〜ã¶ã£ã¡ã‚ƒã'リング争奪戦〜, riboraji! ~bucchake ringu sÅdatsusen~). The hosts for the radio are Hidekazu Ichinose (the voice for Hayato Gokudera), Suguru Inoue (the voice for Takeshi Yamamoto), and Rika Ishibashi (as the assistant). The show has brought in guests starting from the tenth episode. It has also hosted live audiences for the show during the Christmas break in 2007, and also a couple of episodes near the end in Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo. The last episode of ~Bucchake Ring Tournament~ was aired on June 30, 2008. However, they restarted the radio show on July 21, 2008.
The current radio show name is ReboRaji! Bucchake Namimori Dong Dong (リボラジ!ã¶ã£ã¡ã‚ƒã' 並盛Dong☆Dong, riboraji! bucchake namimori Ding☆Dong). The hosts are Hidekazu Ichinose, Suguru Inoue, and Toshinobu Iida (the voice for Mukuro Rokudo).
Books
An official character book titled KatekyÅ Hitman Reborn! Official Character Book Vongola 77 was released on October 4, 2007 in Japan. It is based on the manga and covers the 77 incidents that happened since Reborn arrived at the Sawada household. The book also reveals profiles of major characters including birthdays and favorites. Short side stories not shown in the manga are also included, along with free color posters drawn by Amano. On April 2, 2010, the series' first artbook, titled Reborn Colore!, was released.
Five Reborn! light novels have been released by Shueisha. Written by Hideaki Koyasu and illustrated by Akira Amano, the novels were originally serialized in Jump Square. The first one, Hidden Bullet 1: Mukuro's Illusions (éš ã—å¼¾1 骸·幻想, Kakushi dan 1 Mukuro·GensÅ), shows how the character Mukuro Rokudo took over Kokuyo High, and it was released on March 12, 2007. The second one, Hidden Bullet 2: X-Fiamma (éš ã—å¼¾2 X-ç‚Ž, Kakushi dan 2 X-en), which recaps the mystery of Xanxus, was released on February 5, 2008. A third light novel, Hidden Bullet 3: Millefiore Panic (éš ã—å¼¾3　ミルフィオーレ・ãƒ'ニック , Kakushi dan 3 MirufiÅre・panikku) was published on July 3, 2009. It is focused on the Millefiore Family as well as various members of the Vongola Family. A fourth and a fifth novel were released on April 30, 2010, and May 2, 2011, respectively.
Reception
The Reborn! manga has been highly popular in Japan, with the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper has noted Reborn! to have one of the highest number of cosplayers in Japan. The series has ranked as the tenth best seller of the Weekly ShÅnen Jump magazine as of 2007, a total of 7 million copies sold. During 2008, it increased to 15 million copies. The series reached the top-selling series of a year in Japan for several times. In 2008, the manga sold 3.3 million copies, becoming fourth best seller series from the country in 2008. In 2009, Reborn! ranked as the sixth best-selling series in Japan, having sold 3,694,323 volumes. In 2010, Reborn! was the eighth highest selling series in Japan, selling a total of 3,479,219 copies. In 2012, it sold a total of 1,844,824 copies to be the 24th best-selling series that year. Additionally, the second light novel from the series became the third best selling light novel in Japan during 2008, having sold 106,229 copies. The DVDs from the anime have also been popular in Japan, sometimes appearing in the Japanese Animation DVD Ranking.
Various publications from different types of media have commented on Reborn!. Carlo Santos from Anime News Network noted the first volume from the manga to have several episodic chapters in which the plot does not go to the important parts of the series and that the art was "downright messy and crowded", but noted the "volatile chemistry" between Tsuna and Reborn to be very likely. Popcultureshock.com noted the series to be aimed for girls due to the large number of male characters appearing in the chapters and mentioned the series has a good combination of artwork and humor, making jokes repeated gags very funny. A. E. Sparrow from IGN praised the artwork from the manga due to the "cartoonish characters exist alongside chiseled, well-sculpted figures" and liked how it jokes with the "Mafia concept" since most of it is comedy. The change of the series' tone has also met various responses. In a review from the ninth volume, Sparrow noted the series "is quickly becoming a great shÅnen read in no small part due to this current storyline" and noted the manga evolved since the character start to grow up and the fights became more violent. Comicbookbin.com mentions that though they liked that the fights were well made and the comedy was still in the series, volume 8 of the manga becomes too violent and that its common reader may find it strange. Ben Leary from Mania Entertainment expressed mixed comments about the series' darker tone since the eighth volume, praising the way the fights are done and how the tournament between the Vongola and the Varia was handled. Nevertheless, he still missed the series' comedy, wishing a refresher following the tournament's ending.
References
External links
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- Shueisha's Official Reborn! Site (Japanese)
- TV Tokyo's Official Reborn! Site (Japanese)
- Reborn! (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
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