REBORN!, VOL. 1

VIZ MEDIA
CARTOONIST; Akira Amano
ISBN: 978-1-4215-0671-5; paperback; Rated “‘T+’ for Older Teen”
192 pp., B&W, $7.99

Japanese high school student and all-around loser Tsuna just may be the 10th boss of the Vongola crime family.  Although, he is Japanese, Tsuna happens to have an ancestor who was in the Italian Mafia.  He learns this when a toddler arrives at his doorstep, but this isn’t any ordinary baby.  Named Reborn, he is a gun-toting Mafia hit man/tutor, and it’s his job to turn Tsuna into a Mafia boss.  But how will Reborn change Tsuna from a chump into a crime kingpin?

Reborn’s guns can deliver the “Deathperation Shot.”  Like a regular gunshot it can kill, but if the victim is desperate about something or some situation, he is “reborn” as a fiery fighter before resorting to normal.  Reborn uses every opportunity to shoot some gumption or “deathperation” into Tsuna, and soon his entire school is in an uproar about the new Tsuna, part hero and part pervert.

THE LOWDOWN:  I thought Yakitate!! Japan was weird, but Reborn!, Vol. 1 takes the cake (and it’s probably not the weirdest anime or manga concept out there).  Still, I found it highly entertaining, in spite of initial reservations.  The art by manga-ka (creator) Akira Amano has a Chuck Jones-inspired mania, and in fact, the entire manga is like a Looney Tunes cartoon.

FOR READERS OF:  Fans of the madcap, zany, and surreal animated cartoons of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett will dig this.  It’s the manga for adults who wouldn’t think of reading manga unless they knew that this existed.  Reborn! starts slow, but it grows on you.

B+

Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the images.