Synopsis : Tsunayoshi is an average boy in junior high that doesn't do too well academically. His mother tells him that he's going to be tutored, by someone named Reborn. It turns out that Reborn is actually a baby-sized hit man. Skeptical, Tsunayoshi continues his way to school when suddenly Reborn fires a "will" bullet at him. Tsunayoshi's last words before death was "I wish I confessed to Sasagawa, Kyouko". With these words, the power within the will fire emerged a passionate, powerful Tsunayoshi. With all his potential strength surfacing, he dashes toward Kyouko to confess, sporting nothing but boxers.
and Kyouko runs away scared...
This willpower doesn't last forever, just a mere five minutes. What Tsunayoshi also discovers that he is in the bloodline of the Mafia and is a candidate for the 10th boss of the Vongola Family, which means that Reborn's real purpose is to train him to become a great Mafia boss
Link(s) : Official #1 : Ani TV's Reborn Website (Japanese)
Official #2 : Official Reborn Website (Japanese)
Now that the anime had ended, I decided to do a completed review on this show. Well it has it’s ups and downs along the way but it still remains as a great franchise to anime fans far and wide.
Here is what it is about, a teenage boy attending Junior High whom everyone calls “Tsuna”. He is known to be bad physically and academically and top of that, he is unpopular and had no friends. His life however, takes an extraordinary and sudden change when Reborn, an infamous hitman from the Vongola mafia family, takes a flight to Japan and trains Tsuna into becoming the 10th boss of Vongola.
One thing I noticed in Hitman Reborn is how the author just writes whatever comes to mind and it’s like there’s not much planning. Unless there’s some specific reason, that’s the only way to explain how Hitman Reborn’s story changed drastically over the years. First, we have normal everyday school life with humors and styles that could certainly proceed to the harem comedy plot if they wants to. Then, it started to become more action and shounen orientated from arcs like Kokuyo Arc and Varia Arc (no more underwear transformations! Yaaay!). At this point, the plot is starting to build up and gets more technical. And for the most recent one, it now turns into a bizarre arc which even involved time traveling on a large scale. Ironically, it seems this franchise gotten more known just when the actions started kicking in. And I myself, also prefer the more technical and bizarre plot too, with all those time traveling, guardians, rings, boxes and deathperation flames, in contrast to the former.
(The Arcobaleno true forms)
Hitman Reborn is very good at character developments. Out of all the characters, Tsuna is probably developed the most. From one who had no friends to someone who has his own mafia family (although he denies it), from one who is physically weak to someone who can fight bravely, from a wimp to a 10th generation mafia boss. Basically, he turned from zero to hero. For the other characters, I found them a bit annoying at first but after learning more about them, I grew to love them and each of their special traits the characters possesses.
Hitman Reborn has a big character cast and I can’t help but find that some of them are nothing more then just plot devices. Besides, some of the characters could even be removed and the show would have been perfectly fine too. Especially when it’s nearing the end, there’s the main character and his guardians, the Varia, the Arcobaleno, Mukuro/Chrome and the rest of the gang. In a way, it’s like Nanoha. After some epic fights, the bad guys are defeated but they usually don’t die. Then after a while, the bad guys return and help the protagonist. Rinse and repeat and that explains the huge character cast. Having so many characters made viewers lose focus on the main characters, namely Tsuna and his guardians. Nevertheless, Hitman Reborn still has some good characters. I eventually found myself liking all the guardians and some of the supporting characters like Xanxus and Squalo.
For an anime that started in 2006, it has pretty good art and animations. I found their battle animationsmay look a bit stiff at some points but that is nothing to fret about as most of the elements are illustrated thoroughly. The art styles is well designed and the characters and settings did not lack too many details from the original artwork.
(Vongola primo's family)
Hitman Reborn has a lot of great openings and endings. One of my favorite is LM.C’s BOYS & GIRLS. I also like LM.C’s 88, CHERRYBLOSSOM’s DIVE TO WORLD and Ame Ato by w-inds. The voice acting is good too. I think the only voice acting I don’t like in this show is Gokudera. He sounds too forced, especially when he had to shout during battles, doing tsukkomi or when he had to show sincearity in his voice. I do like Mukuro’s distinctive “fufufu” and Hibari’s “kamikorosu” and Squalo’s “VOOOI!!!” Lastly, I applaud Ryohei’s with his ‘extreme’ voice acting. Kiuchi Hidenobu certainly did a fine job in delivering the ‘extreme’ qualities with his voice much needed for Ryohei. Both the sound effects and background music are good but seems reused a lot as you watched the more later episodes.
Now that this anime had ended, some people found that it’s good since they don’t want Hitman Reborn to turn into another Naruto/Bleach. Yet, some miss the show and wish for more. Well certainly, Reborn had a good run and it did a good job coming so far. If you don’t like the beginning of this show, give it a chance. The plot starts to build up later on and that is when this show starts getting more interesting and exciting.
