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Now in Japan
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Monday, 15 January 2007 00:00 |
 Improve your life by becoming a mafia boss. Hmmm - that's gotta be one of the more suspect ideas for an anime that I've come across recently. Add in a hitman baby with a voice that could strip paint, and the odds are stacked against Katekyo Hitman Reborn! from an early stage...
1 - What!? I'm a 10th-Generation Mafia Boss!?
When Tsuna Sawada's low test scores got too much for his mother to bear, she was quite pleased to receive a letter saying a personal tutor wuold be starting to work with him. What she didn't realise was that the tutor was nothing to do with his schoolwork - instead, it was Reborn, a small baby in a gangster outfit who claimed to have been sent from Sicily to train Tsuna to fulfil his destiny as heir to the Vongola mafia family. The first step in Reborn's training program? Kill Tsuna...
First up, Reborn has an old family tree to show just how a Japanese boy came to be a possible heir to a mafia family. Can't criticize the writer for not thinking of these things. There's a fairly strong hint dropped toward the end of the episode (and backed up by the next ep preview) that Tsuna won't be the only Japanese boy in the running for the job, either.
Second, being shot by Reborn doesn't necessarily kill you outright - he uses Dying Will bullets. If you're histby one of these and there's something you regret not doing in your life, you're reborn with an almight yburst of willpower to allow you to do whatever that was - with the added bonus that you'll still be alive after the effects of the bullet wear off. If you're hit by one when you have no regrets, then that's it - you're dead. Reborn is a hitman, after all. The whole reincarnation thing is an interesting angle, but I'm sure Tsuna would be happier with it if the effect of the bullets left his clothing intact. I say he should just be glad it doesn't seem to work on underwear.
Tsuna gets "killed" twice in this episode alone, both times saved by his regret about not making a better impression on class cutie Kyoko Sasagawa. The second time shows how the Dying Will can be used as a rather useful weapon in a fight, by giving Tsuna the will to really kick ass - and that's where we get down to what Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is really about: it's a shounen fighting show, pure and simple, with the excuse given for the fighting being Tsuna's journey towards becoming the ultimate mafia boss.
Fighting shows really need to make an impression on me if I'm to keep watching them - I find they get samey very quickly, so unless there's something really stand-out about them, I tend not to bother with them. Reborn! has some decent funny moments, but the character designs aren't the best to look at and Reborn himself is right up there with magical-girl mascots on the annoyance scale. End result: pass. There are definitely better shows out there this season. |
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