katekyo hitman reborn

katekyo hitman reborn


Reborn!, known in Japan as Katekyō Hitman Reborn! (家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN! ,Katekyō Hittoman Ribōn!?, "Katekyō" being a portmanteau of Katei Kyōshi and translated as Home Tutor), is an ongoing 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 the next in line to become the boss of the most powerful Mafia organization, the Vongola Famiglia. 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 are serialized in Japan in Weekly Shōnen Jump. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with twenty-two volumes released currently. Viz Media licensed the series for an English language release in North America, shortening the series name to Reborn!. Viz is serializing the chapters in their Shōnen Jump Advanced manga anthology and began releasing the tankōbon volumes in October 2006.

Reborn! has become one of the best-selling Weekly Shōnen 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 infants characters. They also mentioned that though it has become more violent since volume 8, it has turned into a better shōnen series, praising the storylines and the fights.



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 grandson of the first Vongola boss, who had moved to Japan from Italy during his time. Also, the other candidates for the position of the head of the Vongola Family 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 "Dying Will Bullet" ("Deathperation Shot" in Viz Media's translation of the manga), which will make the person be "reborn" with a stronger self intent on fulfilling his dying will. Through his experiences, Tsuna unconsciously becomes stronger and more confident, which ultimately makes him better suited as the Vongola Family's boss despite continuing to reject his Mafia inheritance.

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, a rival group of Vongola assassins, claim the right for their boss to be the true Vongola boss, and start a competition to decide it. To defeat the Varia, Reborn recruits most of Tsuna's schoolmates to become the Vongola guardians: Hayato Gokudera, a dynamite expert who wishes to be his right-hand man, Takeshi Yamamoto, a baseball player who thinks the Mafia is a game, Ryohei Sasagawa, the energetic captain of the school boxing club, and Kyoya Hibari, the deadly head prefect. Lambo, a weak infant assassin who came to kill Reborn, and Chrome Dokuro, a girl who has a mental and physical link with the criminal Mukuro Rokudo, joins them as well. After defeating the Varia, Tsuna and his friends are accidentally transported to the future where they must face the Millefiore Family, which is annihilating the Vongola.

[edit] Production

Early versions of the series were published in seinen manga magazines, Reborn! first appeared in Weekly Shōnen Jump as a one-shot chapter in late 2003. The success of this chapter led Weekly Shōnen Jump to begin serializing Reborn! in mid-2004.The author Akira Amano has referred to the series as weird and mentioned that they changed the style of the manga in volume eight.

[edit] Media

[edit] Manga
Main article: List of Reborn! chapters

Written and drawn by Akira Amano, the Reborn! manga has been serialized in Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump since April 4, 2004 and it is still ongoing.[9] The individual chapters are also published in collected volumes by Shueisha, with the first volume having been released on October 4, 2004,[10] and as of February 4, 2009, twenty-three volumes have been released.[11] The series has been licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media. Viz serializes the chapters in their monthly manga anthology Shōnen Jump Advanced and has also released them in volumes. The first volume was released on October 3, 2006[12] and as of January 6, 2009, ten volumes have been released.

An official character book titled "Katekyō 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 the author Akira.[14]

[edit] Anime
Cover of Reborn! Bullet 1 DVD.
Main article: List of Reborn! episodes

The series has been adapted into an anime series, and is produced by Artland and directed by Kenichi Imaizumi. It first aired on October 7, 2006 on the Japanese network TV Tokyo.[15] 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.[16]

As of September 15, 2008, a total of nineteen DVD volumes have been released in Japan by Pony Canyon,[17] with another three scheduled to have consecutive monthly releases this year.[18][19][20] 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; and starting from volume nineteen, they are referred to as the "Burn" volumes.[17]

[edit] Soundtracks

All of the Reborn! music was composed by Toshihiko Sahashi.[21] Each theme music has been released into a single or album by their corresponding performers.[22] Two Reborn! OSTs (Original Soundtracks) have been released; the first soundtrack, Katekyō Hitman Reborn! Target 1 OST, was released in Japan on December 20, 2006;[23] the second, Katekyō Hitman Reborn! Target 2 OST, was released in Japan on April 18, 2007.[24] 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.[25]

[edit] Games

Besides characters from the series making special appearances in Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars for the Nintendo DS, there are six video games based solely on the series. The first one released was Katekyo Hitman Reborn! DS – Shinuki Max! Vongola Carnival!! for the Nintendo DS, and three fighting games titled Katekyo Hitman Reborn Flame Rumble were subsequently released on different gaming platforms. Katekyo Hitman Reborn DS: Fate of Heat an adventure fighting game was released for the Nintendo DS.

A PlayStation 2 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.[26][27] Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Kindan no Yami no Delta for the Wii and PS2 was also released in Japan on November 20, 2008. Another Nintendo DS game entitled Hitman Reborn! DS : Mafia Daishūgō Vongola Festival! was released on December 4, 2008.

A Reborn! collectible card game has also been released in Japan.

[edit] 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!～ぶっちゃけリング争奪戦～ ,riboraji! ~bucchake ringu sōdatsusen~?). 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).[28] 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 '07, 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!ぶっちゃけ 並盛Dong☆Dong ,riboraji! bucchake namimori Ding☆Dong?). The hosts are Hidekazu Ichinose (the voice for Hayato Gokudera), Suguru Inoue (the voice for Takeshi Yamamoto), and Toshinobu Iida (the voice for Mukuro Rokudo).

[edit] Novel

So far, Tong Li Comics[citation needed] has published two light novels of the series of Reborn!, and both have been released by Shueisha. The author's Hideaki Koyasu while Akira Amano's the illustrator of two novels. The first novel, Hidden Bullet: Mukuro's Illusions, tells how the character Mukuro Rokudo took over Kokuyo High, and was released on March 12, 2007.[29] The second one,Hidden Bullet: X-Fiamma, which recaps the of the mystery of Xanxus, was released on February 4, 2008.[30]

[edit] Reception

The Reborn manga has been highly popular in Japan, with the series having ranked as the tenth best seller of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine as of 2007.[2] During its second release week, the twentieth volume of the manga ranked as the third best seller comic in Japan.[1] During 2008, the manga has sold 3,371,618 copies in Japan, becoming 4th best seller series from the country in 2008. Additionally, the second light novel from the series became the 3rd best seller light novel from Japan during 2008, having sold 106,229 copies. Also, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper has noted Reborn! to have one of the highest number of cosplayers in Japan. 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.[3] 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.[4] In another review, Sparrow noted the series "is quickly becoming a great shōnen 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.[6] Comicbookin.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.