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REBORN!, VOL. 5

VIZ MEDIA
CARTOONIST; Akira Amano
ISBN: 978-1-4215-1099-6; paperback; Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
200 pp., B&W, $7.99

Tsunayoshi Sawada AKA Tsuna is a student in junior high school where he is mainly known as a loser and a failure at socializing and sports.  One day, however, Tsuna learns that he is destined to be the 10th boss of the Vongola crime family, and the toddler assassin Reborn has the “magic bullet” to make a boss man out of Tsuna.

In Reborn!, Vol. 5, Tsuna adds two new people to his growing circle of friends, associates, and family members.  First, he becomes the protector of a master statistician and his book of secrets, but Tsuna can’t believe the person who holds the numbers that are the keys to the Mafia control of the world (1) is a child younger than him and (2) gets assistance in tabulating his numbers from a faraway alien world.  Tsuna meets “Ranking Futa,” in the tale “Futa, the Planetary Prince.”

In the chapter entitled, Malfunction,” Tsuna meets Hana Kurokawa, who is so madly in love with adult Lambo that she’s willing to complicate Tsuna’s life unless he introduces her to adult Lambo.  Also, Tsuna finds himself in a snowball fight that turns to all-out war, and in “The Zoo,” Tsuna’s date with Kyoko Sasagawa – a trip to the zoo – becomes a mad chase as Tsuna tries to keep the rest of his “family” from ruining it.

THE LOWDOWN:  Using an ever-growing cast of eccentric and peculiar characters, manga-ka Akira Amano expands the comic potential of his manga, Reborn!, and most of the time he taps that potential, although this volume is a little on the dry side.  The mixture of over-the-top violence, crime comedy, and the clever parody of organized crime is a strange brew, but it’s a funny, heady strange brew.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Reborn! is part of VIZ Media’s “Shonen Jump Advance,” line of manga, which is billed as “The World’s Most Cutting-Edge Manga.”  Reborn! fits the profile as cutting-edge.  It’s a concept that isn’t for everyone, especially if readers that take violence, even mock violence, too seriously.

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