meitachi | PIMPING: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

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PIMPING: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! by Amano Akira
Currently 16+ volumes in Japan, serialized in Weekly Jump
Licensed by VIZ Media, 4 volumes released in the U.S.

THIS IS MY PIMP POST. Image heavy. Disclaimer: I have only read up through KEFI's scanlations (chapter 96) though I've been spoiled for more, and my fangirling and fanworks stem primarily from my flist. I have yet to seriously dip into the wider Reborn!fandom.

OVERALL
So

kasugai_gummie's been trying to pimp this at me for months on end. She made me download volumes 1-6, which I let sit unzipped on my computer for a shameful amount of time. But then when

forochel joined in on the fangirling, I finally caved and began to read last week, because I can't stand being out of the loop. ;3 And if both of them are crazy about it, then certainly I would be too.

So, am I crazy over Reborn? YES, YES, YES.

How--I--there will be little coherency from now on out. THERE ARE KILLER BABIES. KILLER BABIES OH MY GOD. And the art. This is a shounen series drawn by a woman and guess what that means? It means the art is HOT, the boys are HOT, and the boys all have fabulous friendships with that ever-present undercurrent of UST. Oh, it means not all female characters are relegated to minor roles, too!

But mostly I'm there for the hot boys, hot art, KILLER BABIES, what have you. The entire series is so much crack and so much fun and--alskdfjl. ♥ x 10000.

PLOT
[c&p-ed directly from Wiki because I want to fangirl more than I want to summarize, LOL]

Reborn! is about a boy, Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, who is chosen to become a mob boss. Tsuna unwillingly undergoes training from Reborn, an assassin from Italy. Timoteo a.k.a. "Vongola IX," the head of the Vongola Famiglia ("Famiglia" is "family" in Italian), sent Reborn to train Tsuna; the first Vongola boss moved to Japan, and Tsuna was his great-great-great grandson; the other candidates for the position of the head of the Vongola family died. Enrico, who was the leading candidate to become "Vongola X", died in a gun battle. Massimo, the second, "sleeps with the fishes." Federico, the favored son, was found as a pile of bones. For these reasons, Tsuna is the only remaining heir.

Reborn's main instrument of choice in teaching Tsuna is the Deathperation Shot ('Dying Will Bullet' in the Japanese versions) which will make the person be "reborn" as a stronger self intent on fulfilling his dying will.

But nevermind the plot. The first seven or eight volumes are all Normal Life Arc, meaning short storylines from Tsuna's crazy life as he deals with all these psycho mafia people. The real plot starts afterwards, but don't discount any of the volumes! They're all hilarious! And they introduce the characters, oh the characters!

CHARACTERS

Sawada Tsunayoshi (Tsunafish!) - This boy is not my favorite character. He suffers the main character syndrome of being kind of good-natured but full of LOSER, with a hopeless crush on a popular girl, and being the "normal" person surrounded by people he thinks are insane. I do not love him best, but there are many who think he is quite likable. He's all right, for me, and some of his reactions are hilarious, but I have to confess it's everyone around him who make the series for me. (Think Allen of DGM or Sena of ES21. But these are my personal opinions, because Tsuna's not as moral as Allen or as naturally talented as Sena. And I like the others better. ~__~.)

Reborn
KILLER BABY. He is freaking adorable and so, SO cool. He's the Vongola family's #1 assassin, and he wears a suit when he's not in costume (as a potted plant or PaoPao, a great Thai master of the martial arts). I ADORE HIM. He's always so calm and wields a gun with no second thoughts. And on his hat is LEON, the magical chameleon.

Gokudera
MY FIRST LOVE. His silhouette showed up, I shouted "SASUKE", and then he turned out to be even awesomer because he has a personality while Sasuke is currently trying to transform into Tezuka. I mean, what. Gokudera is the "Smoking Bomb", i.e., the crazy boy who plays with dynamite. He wants desperately to be Tsuna's right-hand man, and runs around calling him "the Tenth" and fanboying him wildly. His attachment is so cute, especially when played off his otherwise badass and angry personality. He is violent and reckless and defends the Vongola family without hesitation, and he is totally, totally awesome. Especially when he gets into fights with Yamamoto.

Yamamoto
He's the casual laid-back, friendly guy next door. The one who's all smiles to Tsuna, his first real friend. He's a baseball fanatic and his dad owns a sushi restaurant and, holy shit, I did not expect to fall head over heels with him as much as I have. I usually smile and pat the nice guys on the head while I fangirl over the cold bastards, you know? See Sasuke, again. BUT YAMA. HE IS SO HOT. He is constantly unfazed at all the weird Mafia stuff going on, playing along with everything because he thinks it's all a game. But he is serious when it comes time to defend Tsuna, and he GETS SO FREAKING HOT. His baseball bat/telecope/sword is HOT, his kendo is HOT, and Yama is HOT, and I WOULD DO HIM IF HE WEREN'T 14/15 (AND 2D) DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT MY PEDOPHILIAC PROBLEMS. ;o; Also, he totally doesn't get that Gokudera hates him and sees him as a rival for Tsuna's right hand man, and constantly throws a friendly arm over Gokudera's shoulders. Have I mentioned that I love Yamamoto?

Dino
Okay, so my incoherency grows, right? As much as I love Gokudera & Yamamoto--DINO IS MY FAVORITE. He's Dino "Bucking Horse" Cavallone, the 10th leader of the Cavallone Familigia, who help out the Vongolas. He's 19 and HOT and he comes to Japan to, you know, say hi to Tsuna and all that. His weapon's a whip and it is HOT just like he is, because, trust me, he's VERY VERY HOT. The best part? He's only good with his whip (very deadly and accurate and HOT) when his men are around, because he cares so much about protecting them. When they're not around, he's this complete and utter klutz, complete with sheepish laughter. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. ALSKDJLDH. AND HE'S LEGAL. Dino is just completely awesome. He's just a good person. And also hot. I will not get over this.

--AND OH MY GOD. I JUST FOUND OUT. DINO IS VOICED BY KEN-KEN. BE STILL MY TENIMYU!HYOUTEI FANGIRLY HEART.

Hibari
AHH HIBARI. Hibari is the true love of both

kasugai_gummie &

forochel, so I knew I would like him. Do I? I DO. He's the Sasuke-type. He's the school (Namimori Middle) prefect and also the biggest delinquient. He rules the Disciplinary Squad and thus the school with his remorseless violence (and TONFAS). He is cold, uncaring, and he likes only his school and a good fight. He sings the school anthem to himself. He threatens--with a little cold smile--to bite people to death. He is vicious and pretty and wonderful. And I'm totally superficial, I know it. But he is so hot when he fights and bleeds and has angry UST with every object (living or not) in a 20 meter radius. For fucking serious. Not so much on the backstory, and I feel his personality could use more fleshing out, but that is what fandom is for.

Lambo
Heeee. ::giggles:: LAMBO. Lambo is a five-year-old in a cow suit with an afro. He is gross and sticky and perverted. He humps people's legs, gets candy stuck in his hair, and throws temper tantrums all over the place. He is on a dedicated mission to kill Reborn, but he is foiled with nary a glance from Reborn, who does not deign to notice those beneath him. Lambo sticks around though, being a pest and being very, very pretty when he shoots himself with the 10-year-bazooka, which switches his five-year-old body with his fifteen-year-old body for five minutes. He is so much entertainment. :D

Ryohei
Ryhoei is on the boxing team. He is the older brother of Kyoko, Tsuna's crush. He is loud and zealous and determined to get Tsuna onto the boxing team after seeing Tsuna's awesome fighting thanks to the Dying Will bullet. He is hilarious and so earnest and I adore him. He really reminds me of another character but I can't put my finger on who.

Bianchi
She's Gokudera's older sister, passionately in love with Reborn and willing to do anything for him. She fights with "poison cooking"--that is, everything she cooks is poisonous and sends its eaters into gales of sickness. Gokudera is sent into sickness whenever he so much as sees her because of painful childhood memories. She used to date a guy named Romeo who looks exactly like fifteen-year-old Lambo, so whenever older!Lambo makes an appearance, she comes after him with her poision cooking. It is fantastic. I love Bianchi.

I-pin
Is a girl. No, really. She's Chinese and no one can understand her except Reborn. She has mastered some fighting technique I didn't pay attention to, but the most important thing is that she is painfully shy, which causes 9 dots show up on her forehead...then count down to her explosion. Er, it's hard to explain. She is occasionally hit by the 10-year-bazooka, showing up as a pretty and intelligible delivery girl for a ramen shop (I couldn't help thinking Shampoo).

Haru is the girl next door. First she was in love with Reborn, now she's in love with Tsuna. She is friendly, klutzy, well-meaning, and very much a girl. Flaily, also. She knows about the Mafia and is determined to become a future Mafia wife. I like her well enough.

Kyoko is Tsuna's Ultimate Crush. She's pretty and popular and friendly and is never fazed by all the crazy that happens around Tsuna. She doesn't know most of what's going on--definitely not that it's Mafia-related--and worries and frets a bit. I have nothing against her.

Aaand, there are, like, a gazillion other characters I'm leaving out (villains, mostly--even the hot ones, as seen in the picture above--and people who don't make my heart go dokidoki), but you'll come across them. :D

PAIRINGS

Dino/Hibari
I ship this because they are pretty. Do I need another reason? Not really, no. Heh. But I also ship this because volume 10 canon gives fandom a beautiful, beautiful treat. Dino becomes Hibari's "teacher" for 10 days, and he finds Hibari terribly intriguing. Let's "tame the shrew", shall we? Shakespeare references! Hot boys fighting! And fic and fanart that absolutely doesn't convince me otherwise? ::adulates:: THE SHIPPING WAY TO GO, GUYZ.

Yamamoto/Gokudera
Most of fandom agrees with me about this pairing. That they are cute and hot and angry. I like their fighting dynamics, Gokudera's very mulish and tenuous acceptance of Yamamoto as part of the Tenth's family, and Yamamoto being totally blasé about Gokudera's hate after awhile. He is just so damned good-natured. But before this degenerates into another bout of Yama-fangirling, let me point to the fact that they do have a semblance of friendship. They go places together (even though Gokudera's yelling about it the entire time), they spend time together through Tsuna, they (sort of) talk. Okay, it's been a long couple hours trying to piece this post together. I'm tired and you'll just have to trust me that I see the possibilities. *G* The fic & art is also A+.

Free-for-all!
Other than those two pairings, I ship a free for all! Hell, Goku/Tsuna does intrigue me a little bit, and so does Yamamoto/Hibari and Ryohei/Gokudera and Dino/Gokudera and--I could go on. Kyoko/Tsuna/Haru is cute, I kind of want to see older!Lambo/older!I-pin, or even an adult!Lambo/adult!Reborn. There are just so many pairing possibilities. I'll read everything as long as good writing can convince me, though of course I have my soft spots for DinoHiba and YamaGoku. Aw, cute.

FANWORKS

hitman_reborn

dinohiba

yamagoku

gokutsuna

tsunafish

Doujin:
Hari no Me - RAW but HOT dj for DinoHiba!

Feel free to give me more, ohoho. ♥

Fic:
Masterlist of fic by

picnicbird - DinoHiba, YamaGoku, DinoGoku, others
Twenty Facts About Hibari Kyouya by

kasugai_gummie - gen, Hibari-centric, very awesome at fleshing out his personality without making him OOC ::delights in Hibirds!::
Awkward Situations by

kasugai_gummie - gen, Lambo-centric, on the awkwardness of being transported back into a past where your five-year-old self is being, well, five years old
filling in the spaces (1) by

forochel - PG, Dino/Hibari, beautiful writing without seeming prententious or artsy, gritty and harsh in a realistic way but still capturing an essence of something more

Fanart:
http://crush.wisnet.ne.jp/index2.html - Dino/Hibari art
http://zero.raindrop.jp/neo/top.htm - Yamamoto/Hibari, Mukuro/Tsuna fanart
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~makofu/kuro_002.htm - Dino/Hibari, gen art
Happy Birthday Hibari by

kasugai_gummie/

kirui - for it is RIDICULOUSLY CHIBI & CUTE (oh hell, just go look at her dA gallery)

Icons:
Animated! by

kasugai_gummie/

kirui

See others in

hitman_reborn - I am too tired now to trawl. Do your own work!

Colored Reborn!
Collected here by

sanda888

Cosplay
Night-Knight - the incredible cosplay site of a tremendously hot Hibari cosplayer. Seriously, I think this girl just turned me bi. She is SO GOOD.
→Dino/Hiba - Dino is also so, so pretty
→Various others - lots of family, Hiba/Tsuna, and Hiba/Goku here

DOWNLOADS
Volume 01
Volume 02
Volume 03
Volume 04
Volume 05
Volume 06
Volume 07
Volume 08
Volume 09
Volume 10
Volume 11*

*scanlated through ch95; ch 97-98 are raw. Ch96 scanlated can be found at the following places, however.

Other links:
KEFI - official scanlators, with individual chapter downloads
OneManga - where you can read the scanlations (current through KEFI) online
Mangatraders - more downloads available here, but you must be registered
Chinese scans - from chapters 90-156 (current)

I believe

fyredra is attempting to translate 96+, with 97-100 currently up at

dusted_sunlight. Please give me more updates, Fyre! ♥

Oh fuck it, I'M DONE. Seriously, this took hours. Days. See the effort I put into pimping this series, because I love it so! C'mon it's about the Mafia! And it has killer babies and hot guys! You should download for that. You should download for the sheer effort I put into this post, hahah. ::loves::

Continue to rec me stuff if you're in fandom already! Flail with me! Spoil me!

And in the meantime, let me rec you a movie. The History Boys. Watch it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay, so I love your fangirling posts because they usually hit all the points where I myself have or would fnaigrl over ::left in the misspelling to showcase The Glee::

Ken-ken no longer voices him alas. Something about a terminal illness? Health issues? Either way, Dino's new seiyuu is also named Ken. O_o Just, not the good looking one ahahaha.

::SNORT:: I love your description of Lambo. Lambo is a five-year-old in a cow suit with an afro. He is gross and sticky and perverted. PERFECT REPRESENTATION RIGHT THERE. ~~As for Haru, you forgot that she's totally doing some kind of recreational drugs ::SMOTE::~~

10 Shots fic! (http://kasugai-gummie.livejournal.com/35970.html#cutid1)

Also, who I swear is the best Reborn! cosplayer in our time: http://night2knight.fc2web.com/

Seriously, Naito makes the BEST HIBARI EVAR. She crushes any and all fledgling inclination I have to ever cosplay... much less cosplay Hibari. orz

ANDANDANDAnd her Dino is hawt too (gallery >> 250,000 hits >> image #2). And her Mukuro and Chikusa and, just christ on a cracker, she is BRILLIANT and AWESOME.

And she finally found another Dino cosplayer that matches her in prettiness and (photo >> reborn >> http://night2knight.fc2web.com/photo/reborn/kyoya.html >> 2007年05月20日撮影) ADLFKJSDFH DINOHIBA COSPLAY SHOOT OF BEE-YOO-TI-FUL VIOLENCE AND A LOT OF FLOORING LOLOL. There's another shoot where she's the Dino to somebody's Hibari and... um, word of warning--that Hibari has the BIGGEST EYES EVER. It's actually rather scary. .____.