The Flame Still Burns

I first truly became a fan of anime when I was in high school. Sure, I had snuck some episodes of Digimon, Naruto, and One Piece as a kid (my parents weren’t too keen on those shows at the time), but I hadn’t actively sought out series outside of localized dubs on Cartoon Network.

As a freshman, I happened to see my brother reading manga on his computer. One of the characters stuck out to me, mainly because he was wielding tonfa and Dynasty Warriors had gotten me interested in those weapons. My brother told me the series was called Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (yes, the exclamation point is part of the title). In English, the title would roughly translate to Home Tutor Hitman Reborn! My brother did mention that it wouldn’t really pick up until later, but that I should still stick it out. I started reading, and got very, very hooked. The moment I discovered the anime, I watched as much as I could. It was the starting point of one of my biggest hobbies.

Despite my fond memories of that series, Reborn is not my number one favorite series (I’ll write about that one another time). Don’t get me wrong, I love Reborn. However, having learned the art of story and honed my own craft, even I have to admit that there were some things that fell short. Today, we’re going to take a trip down memory lane to see what started my love for anime, both the good parts and the bad.

With the speculation that this series may receive the continuation/reboot treatment that several other anime have gone through (most recently Bleach), I do have to offer a spoiler warning, just in case this becomes something you want to go into blind.

The Daily Life Arc

This was the introductory arc to the series. As with any story, we need to establish where we are and who we’re following. The protagonist of Reborn is Tsunayoshi Sawada, or Tsuna for short. Tsuna is your typical underdog. He’s uncoordinated and socially awkward. His grades are abysmal and athletic ability is nonexistent. It’s little surprise that his classmates nicknamed him “No-Good Tsuna.”

His life changes drastically when his mother hires a home tutor off a dubious flyer she received. To Tsuna’s disbelief, the tutor turns out to be a toddler sporting a suit, fedora, and a chameleon that can change into a pistol. This (literally) baby-faced stranger is Reborn, the number one hitman in the mafia world. He set up the tutoring gig due to his latest orders: for some bizarre reason, Tsuna has been selected as the Tenth head of the Vongola mafia family, and it’s Reborn’s job to train him.

Of course, Tsuna doesn’t believe him, so Reborn does what any infant hitman would do: take his chameleon gun and shoot Tsuna in the head.

This is where the supernatural element comes in. The bullet Reborn shot him with was called the Deathperation Bullet. Drawing on the victim’s dying regret, it revives them with a power called the Dying Will Flame and gives them the strength to fulfill that regret. In Tsuna’s case, his regret was not confessing to his crush, Kyoko. Unfortunately, the Dying Will state varies from person to person, and for Tsuna, his manifests in a berserker rage so powerful that it shreds all of his clothes, save his underwear.

Tsuna’s life only gets whackier from there. Amidst the Dying Will Flame shenanigans, we’re introduced to more of the cast. There’s Gokudera, the teenage mafioso who swears unwavering loyalty to Tsuna as his right hand man after the latter saved him from a dynamite accident (to be clear, it was Gokudera’s dynamite in the first place). We meet Yamamoto, the easy-going, borderline-airhead baseball player. With the unwilling Tsuna at the helm, these three make up the core trio of the series, much like Luffy, Zorro, and Sanji from One Piece, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura from Naruto, and Emile, Marian, and Alice from Fable’s Folklore. There’s a plethora of other characters, too, including Lambo, another child hitman we’ll bring up again later, and Hibari, the tonfa-wielding delinquent that first got me interested in the series.

As we can see from this crazy premise, Reborn is a comedy series. When I was in high school, there weren’t many comedy series that held my interest for very long. Sitcoms felt too similar to everyday life for me, and the only purely-comedy show I enjoyed watching was Whose Line is it Anyway. However, I wanted to see what my brother was talking about, so I decided to tough out the slapstick. I’m glad I did, because the story took on a new tone with the arrival of the first major antagonist: Mukuro.

The Kokuyo Arc

We had seen plenty of oddball mafia members show up already. Most of the time, Reborn had either brought them in for Tsuna’s training or kept everything well within his realm of control. However, the danger becomes far too real when one of Tsuna’s friends is kidnapped by criminals masquerading as students from another school. Due to certain circumstances, Reborn is indisposed and couldn’t be actively involved. Instead, Tsuna and his new “mafia family” go instead.

This new batch of criminals is led by Mukuro, a powerful illusionist and charismatic strategist. Mukuro and his men put Tsuna’s team through a bloody ringer, all with the goal of possessing the next head of the Vongola family (and yes, Mukuro is capable of literal possession). However, the light of hope ignites when a staple element of shounen anime arives: the Power Up. Tsuna is granted a new form by the Dying Will Flame, a sort of hyper mode that unlocks his internal limiters rather than his external ones. His mind is far sharper, so much so that he can see through Mukuro’s illusions. He also gains the ability to channel Dying Will Flames through his gloves, zipping around the battlefield like My Hero Academia’s Bakugo (sorry, Tsuna did it first and better; fight me on it).

It's at this point that Reborn shifts from a comedy series to a battle series. These kinds of stories are usually defined by multiple conflicts, such as one-on-one duels and small group skirmishes, that happen either sequentially or simultaneously. For plots that have large ensemble casts, this is a great way to showcase certain characters and give them some much needed screentime. While we still get some comedic moments here and there, these battles come more to the forefront, especially when the Succession Dispute occurs.

The Varia Arc

Shortly after Mukuro is defeated and locked away in mafia prison, a new threat emerges in the form of Xanxus, the leader of the Vongola’s special task force, Varia. Xanxus is the adopted son of the current head of the Vongola family. Upon learning that a boy in Japan had been chosen as the next head instead of him, he spearheads a coup within the mafia family and zeroes in on Tsuna and his friends. Through some sort of mafia laws that I need to do deeper research to understand, Tsuna and Xanxus face off in a tournament with succession on the line.

Tournaments work extremely well in both sports series and battle series. Training sessions and preparation beforehand helps to set up future faceoff payoffs. Much like wrestling matches, the back-and-forth nailbiters keep audiences on the edge of their seats. What new trick are they going to pull? How are they going to overcome this opponent? And, in true wrestling fashion, sometimes the heels win over the faces. Not every one of Tsuna’s teammates defeat their opponents. It would be poor storytelling if the heroes overcame every obstacle the first time they encounter them. Second, sometimes third tries are necessary, because that encourages growth in both the characters and the audience. That perseverance prepares them for things to come. Speaking of which…

The Future Arc

Now we come to the longest story arc in the series. Remember Lambo, the child hitman I mentioned in the Daily Life Arc? One of his main gimmicks is his 10-Year Bazooka. Whoever gets hit by it gets swapped with their 10-years-in-the-future selves. Normally, Lambo would shoot himself with it whenever he ran into trouble (why handle your problems now when you can leave them for your future self to deal with?).

However, at the start of this arc, Tsuna accidentally gets hit with it instead. He’s curious to see what his future life is like, only to wake up inside a coffin in the middle of the woods. While he’s still reeling from this sight, he encounters the future version of Gokudera, who is equally surprised to see him. Future Gokudera tries to warn him about what’s happened, but before he can give full details, he’s suddenly swapped with Present-Day Gokudera, who also got hit by the 10-Year Bazooka. Eventually, most of the present-day cast ends up in the future, including Kyoko and Haru (a girl who fell in love with Tsuna when he saved her early on in the series).

Tsuna and crew discover that the future has been taken over by a megalomaniac named Byakuran, the leader of the Millefiore family. He hasn’t just dominated the mafia world, but the entire world. Tsuna and his friends are the only ones who can end his reign of terror, but those odds are stacked very high against them.

This is, in my opinion, the best arc in the series. It incorporated and built upon much of what made the Reborn series good. Yes, you got the comedic bits, the power-ups, the training sessions, the character growth, and a faux tournament sub arc (I say faux because it didn’t play out in the same way as the Varia Arc), but there was so much more in there. You had infiltration into an enemy stronghold, espionage, loss of territory and life (and I don’t mean the “someone almost died” you see in most shounen anime, I mean permanent character deaths), and taking one last stand after being backed into the final corner. The tension, pacing, and character dynamics were at their peak.

When the anime version concluded at the end of this arc, I felt the heartache many fans get when a story ends. There were still some loose threads that hadn’t been resolved, and I wished I could get more of this series. You can imagine my delight when I found out the original manga version was still going. However, as I continued on, I could hear the words of my old pastor, Don Sheley, ringing in my head: “You may get what you want, but you might not like what you get.”

The Inheritance Ceremony Arc

Back in the present, Tsuna and his friends return to their daily lives. However, there are some new additions to that daily life. A group of students transfers in, and they seem to get along with the rest of the cast (aside from Hibari, because he’s aggressive with just about everybody). At the same, Tsuna and Reborn receive word that Tsuna will be officially made the Tenth head of the Vongola family in a week’s time.

While waiting for the inheritance ceremony, Hibari gets into a fight with one of the new students. Tsuna, his friends, and the other new students rush in to intervene. It’s here that Reborn gives a startling revelation: the new students are the tenth generation of the Simon mafia family, which once had close ties to the Vongola. Additionally, all of them were invited to Tsuna’s inheritance ceremony.

Amidst growing strife and intrigue, including a brutal attack that left Yamamoto hospitalized, Tsuna goes through the inheritance ceremony, only for the Simon family to show their true colors and steal an item of major importance to the Vongola. Apparently, the First head of the Simon family was betrayed by the First head of the Vongola family, and the tenth generation sought to make things right by reclaiming said item and crippling Tsuna and his team.

After some preparation, Tsuna and company chase after the Simon family members while trying to uncover the truth of the first generations’ schism. Here, we get more of the standard battle series setup. Certain members of Tsuna’s team face off against specific members of the Simon family in one-on-one bouts. I’m tempted to call this another faux tournament arc because it held a similar vibe. Part of me argues against that categorization because there is a sort of tower-progression, like each member they come across is a mini-boss in a video game. The Future Arc had some elements of this, too. This shouldn’t be too bad, right? After all, it worked well in the Varia Arc. There’s still enough difference here, right?

…right…?

The Curse of the Rainbow Arc

This was the final story arc in the series. The biggest focus was on Reborn and six other people who had been cursed with infant forms, known as the Arcobaleno. They’re told the truth behind their curse and offered a chance to regain their old forms. However, only one of them would be able to do so. How would they determine which of them gets freed?

Answer: a representative battle.

You guessed it. We have ourselves another faux tournament. This one wasn’t as clear cut as the previous ones, since each Arcobaleno gathered representative teams and fought each other in a battle royale that spanned multiple days. Certain teams could attack each other at different times. Alliances could be formed and broken at the drop of a hat. Most of the cast from throughout the series take part, including present-day versions of friends and foes from the Future Arc (yes, that includes Present-Day Byakuran). Although Tsuna clearly joins Reborn’s team, not all of his friends follow suit. A good number of allies, friends and family alike, join other Acobaleno teams. While we get a number of rematches and face-offs we never imagined, including Tsuna versus his own father, it’s still very much the same formula as before.

So…Was I Satisfied?

When it came to action and the over-arching plot, I can say Yes, I was satisfied.

For a good while, I was bummed out that the last two arcs devolved into more faux tournaments. At the time, I felt like the author was just falling back on the lightning in a bottle that came with the Varia and Future Arcs. However, there is a reason tournament arcs work so well. They give adequate screentime to multiple characters. When it switches from one person’s battle to another’s, you’re left in that cliffhanger state, wanting to know what happened to the former’s dilemma while also intrigued by the latter’s confrontation. After giving it some more thought, I came to the conclusion that keeping this battle-focused format worked well for the story as a whole.

I have a theory as to why the anime ended at the Future Arc instead of including the latter ones. Like I said before, the Future Arc was, in my opinion, the best in the series. Not only did it encompass everything great about Reborn, it had the greatest scale and stakes. The Inheritance Ceramony and Curse of the Rainbow Arcs had significant stakes, as well, but they were personal to the characters. In the Future Arc, the entire world was at risk.

Granted, depending on the story, personal stakes could be narratively greater than world-level threats. If I had the ability to reorder the last three arcs, I would’ve swapped the Future and Inheritance Ceramony Arcs around and kept the Curse of the Rainbow Arc as the last. Even though it was personal stakes instead of an overt world-level threat, the final arc brought everyone back together for one last hurrah, making for a good wrap-up.

There were some smaller details, however, that did leave me dissatisfied.

One was Tsuna still refusing to become the Tenth head of the Vongola family. Despite everything he went through, from the battles to the growth to learning that the first generation Vongola family was more of a vigilante group that held the same beliefs he had, he still didn’t want to take up the mantle. He only went through with the inheritance ceremony because he wanted to draw out Yamamoto’s attacker. Granted, there is something to be said about him sticking to his guns. He had gone through tremendous growth throughout the series, but his reluctance and skittish nature are still part of his core character. We are still left with the hope that he’ll eventually grow into the role as the Tenth head (to see why that’s of narrative importance, read the story writing article here).

My other gripe with the ending, which is very much so a personal strike, is in the shipping department. There was a constant “who’s Tsuna going to pick” going back and forth between Kyoko and Haru. He clearly liked Kyoko, but Haru diligently worked her way into his heart, too. All of us wondered who would become his canon girlfriend. There was even an entire chapter dedicated to this choice at the end of the series, complete with Tsuna getting shot by the Dying Will Bullet and bookending a berserker confession like the beginning of the series.

However, the chapter ended with nothing decided. Tsuna’s Dying Will has shifted mid-transformation before, and in this case, his desire to confess to Kyoko switched to saving Haru from some falling I-beams. Everyone saw it as another crisis averted, but Tsuna still made no progress. As someone who lives for the romantic element in stories (even when it’s not the main focus), it’s something that grinds my gears to this day.

With all of this said, would I recommend this series to anyone else? Absolutely. Throughout its run from 2004 to 2012, Katekyo Hitman Reborn! was a popular part of the Shounen Jump manga lineup. It may not check off every item on my “This is a Good Story” list (again, we’ll save the manga that does check everything off for another day), but it was an excellent starting point in the world of anime and manga. If you’re looking for something to add to your to-read list, you should definitely give this one a shot.

Just make sure that shot isn’t coming from a baby in a suit claiming to be the world’s greatest hitman…