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Post by Lyss on Oct 1, 2010 0:59:54 GMT -5
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Animanga Review Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is one of those animanga that you either love to pieces or hate with your entire soul. There is no “in between” or “neutral” ground with this one – hence I’m abandoning my usual way of reviewing animanga.
First opening theme. Drawing Days by SPLAY. Second opening theme. BOYS & GIRLS by LM.C. Third opening theme. DIVE TO WORLD by CHERRYBLOSSOM. Fourth opening theme. 88 by LM.C. Fifth opening theme. Last Cross by Mitsuoka Masami. Sixth opening theme. EASY GO by Kasuki Kato. Seventh opening theme. Funny Sunny Day by SxOxU. Eighth opening theme. LISTEN TO THE STEREO TONIGHT!! by Going Under Ground. It’s the full song, none of the ops work.
First ending theme. Michishirube by Keita Tachibana. Second ending theme. ONE NIGHT STAR by ARROWS. Third ending theme. Echo again by SPLAY Fourth ending theme. Friend by Idoling!. Fifth ending theme. Sakura Addiction by Takashi Kondo & Toshinobu Iida. Sixth ending theme. STAND UP! by Lead. Seventh ending theme. Ameato by w-inds. Eighth ending theme. CYCLE by CHERRYBLOSSOM. Ninth ending theme. Subiridai by Mori Tsubasa. Tenth ending theme. Sakura Rock by CHERRYBLOSSOM. Eleventh ending theme. Smile by Aya Ueto. Twelfth ending theme. Aoi Yume by Mori Tsubasa. Thirteenth ending theme. Yume no MANUAL by CHERRYBLOSSOM. Fourteenth ending theme. gr8 Story by SuG. Fifteenth ending theme. Famiglia by D-15. It’s the full song as none of the eds work. Sixteenth ending theme. Canvas by +Plus.
(Bow down and call me master. It took me over half an hour to find all those.)
Total Episodes: 203 Total Volumes: Ongoing
The main character of Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is Sawada Tsunayoshi “Tsuna”, who is the unwilling candidate for the Vongola Decimo, the Tenth Vongola Boss. He was chosen due to the fact that his great-great-great-great grandfather, the first Vongola Boss, moved to Japan and set off the long chain of reactions that would eventually lead to Tsuna being born. Tsuna isn’t exactly your ideal boss candidate – basically, he’s a useless wimp, putting it bluntly. He also has no intention of being involved with the mafia, or any sort of underground organization. One day, his mother applies for a tutor to teach him, as he is failing at school. This home tutor happens to be Reborn – a gun-wielding infant who is apparently the best hitman of the Vongola family. He immediately starts off training Tsuna; most of these episodes and manga chapters are gags, as it was originally supposed to be a comedy manga. Eventually it kicks off as a slightly formulaic beat bad guy, get a power up, beat the next bad guy series.
Of course, as a mafia man, Tsuna needs “Guardians”, who embody or control the six Flames of the Vongola Family. Gokudera Hayato has a love of dynamite and is Tsuna’s self-proclaimed right-hand-man; he is the Guardian of Storm. Yamamoto Takeshi sees mafia as a game, loves baseball, and is the Guardian of Rain. Lambo, an infant from the Bovino Family who has an ongoing rivalry with Reborn, is the Guardian of Lightning. Sasagawa Ryohei, a boxer, is the Guardian of the Sun. Hibari Kyouya, a young man who is obsessed with rules and regulations, is the Guardian of Cloud. Rokudo Mukuro and Chrome Dokuro are the Mist Guardians. (No, they are not the same person. Their situation is quite an interesting one.) The plot doesn’t really get exciting until the second or third arc, when the Varia comes into play. And it gets even better during the Future and Choice arcs.
Interestingly enough, for a formulaic animanga, the characters do grow and change as the story develops from one antagonist to the next. The art also changes drastically – it improves greatly over the course of the series, from slightly sloppy drawings to art that can almost be called beautiful. (Although it will, of course, never be as beautiful as Nabari no Ou.) The plot is obviously somewhat lacklustre and simple, although it does become more complicated as the characters become more and more entangled in the affairs of the Vongola family. All the characters have some sort of back story and a reason, as it were, to behave as they do. More or less. There are some characters that we know next to nothing about, but these are generally characters that have little importance to the plot.
If you don’t mind some mindless fun, KHR! is a good animanga to watch or read. Both the anime and manga are long, with the anime being over two hundred episodes and the manga still ongoing. On this note, I’ll inform you that, in my humble opinion, the manga is better. It is more mature than the anime – its counterpart had many things either censored or cut out completely. For example, in the manga, Gokudera is a chain smoker, while in the anime, he doesn’t smoke at all. Also, some events in the manga are either scrapped or twisted around in the anime. Therefore, the manga would be the slightly better choice, as it was made first and the original media is usually best, as in the case of Nabari no Ou and Pandora Hearts. (Yes, I’m just making up reasons to say “Nabari no Ou”. You caught me.)
If formulaic action isn’t your thing, I advise you to stay away from this series. If, however, you don’t mind it and can use a bit of mindless animanga, you’re good to go. I for one enjoy KHR! quite a bit, although not enough to call it the best series in the world.
5/10 stars
Credits This review was written by me, Lyss. Please do not redistribute without my permission, or claim as your own. Criticism and suggestions are welcome. Thank you. Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is the property of Amano Akira-sensei and Shueisha.
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Post by Deko on Oct 1, 2010 1:09:17 GMT -5
Ahh I love your reviews. And you actually almost made it without making reference to NnO...almost...and then you did it again XD If you had to rate anime and manga seperately, what would you give them?
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Post by Lyss on Oct 1, 2010 1:15:38 GMT -5
=3 Thank you~. And yes...I couldn't resist. xDD
Hmm. Anime would be 5/10, a healthy neutral, and the manga would be 7/10. Just because of the differences in media. It is nice to see things animated, but the anime censors/changes a lot so it sort of makes manga purists like me irate. [/sup]
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Post by Selekah on Oct 12, 2010 10:56:42 GMT -5
I have only read a few of the volumes, but I love it. Never knew they were so far in the anime considering the manga hit america in '08.
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Post by Lyss on Oct 14, 2010 16:55:23 GMT -5
Yeah, the manga started in '04 and the anime started two years later in '06. I don't think they've dubbed it yet, though. The anime ended about three weeks ago~. x: [/sup]
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