Anime Column] Tokimeki☆Time Trip #10 "Tutor Hitman Reborn!" Cool, cute and dark. A treasure chest of dreams filled with fun!

I still love it when I look at it now!"
Why were they so popular with the ladies?"
There is a reason for everything that is interesting!　Female anime writers take a look back at some nostalgic works that have become hits with female anime fans.

This time, we will focus on "Tutor Hitman Reborn!", a hit work by the same author (Akira Amano) as "Elle Drive [ēlDLIVE]", which started airing in January 2017.

The author, who followed the original work and anime in real time when they aired, looks back on the appeal of the series.

From daily comedy to serious battle! A very popular anime that lasted for 4 years!

The anime "Tutor Hitman REBORN!" is a long-running hit that ran for 4 years from October 2006 to September 2010, with 203 episodes broadcast (the original comic was completed in November 2012).

The original comic was serialized in "Weekly Shonen Jump" (Shueisha). The beautiful and unique male characters were popular among female fans.

The popularity of the manga is so deep-rooted that at the end of 2016, six years after its broadcast ended, merchandise featuring the anime version of the manga was sold at the Jump Festa event.

Character songs sung by the cast have also been a big hit, with the ending theme "Sakura addiction" sung by Kyoya Hibari vs. Rikudoukarei reaching the Oricon No. 7 position. A concert event featuring the cast, known as "Ribocon," was held five times from 2008 to 2011, including a trip to Taiwan.

Kimi no na wa. We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day. The film is also known as the first character designed by Masaga Tanaka, an animator known for his work on "Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai. Mr. Tanaka says, "Thanks to the drawings of the original author, Akira Amano, I was able to create the foundation for my current drawings. (From "Masaga Tanaka Animation Art Collection," Shinano Publishing Press)

The beautiful illustrations of the anime version featuring all the characters, especially the DVD jacket illustrations, that Mr. Tanaka created are collected in the above-mentioned art collection. A must-see for fans.

A collection of peculiar characters!　Cute, cool and interesting characters!

The secret of the popularity of "Tutor Hitman Reborn!" is, first and foremost, its fascinating and heartwarming variety of unique characters. There is no doubt about it.

Every character is cool and cute. And they are intensely "weird!

There is the mysterious Reborn, a baby dressed in black who is the best hitman and tutor in the world.
Tsunayoshi Sawada (Tsuna), the Japanese junior high school dropout who grows up to be the next boss of the Italian mafia.

Hayato Gokuji, a bomb-mongering delinquent who is absolutely obedient to Tsuna, is his right-hand man.
His friend, Takeshi Yamamoto, is a refreshing baseball boy with a natural aptitude for fighting.
Kyoya Hibari, a lone fighting fanatic and the head of the discipline committee who loves cute things.
Ryohei Sasagawa is a simple-minded idiot who loves his sister and is too passionate as the boxing club leader.
Rambo, a whiny, annoying toddler who wears a cow-patterned outfit.

They are all strange characters that one by one make you want to kick their asses. Yes, the main character's main job is to make fun of his funny friends!

I was impressed by the fact that Tuna, who is always fidgeting with his white eyes, becomes the strongest character with a cool and expressionless face when he endures trials for his friends in a serious situation and lights the "flame of the will to die" on his forehead.

The blood, violence, tragedy, and ...... darkness that is hidden in plain sight, stirs the imagination.

The rival characters that appear one after another are also handsome, violent and dark. And it is also strange and bizarre.

Rikudou Kekkei is a criminal who escaped from a mafia prison and has the special ability of "Rikudou Rinne" in his right eye, which is a different color.
Chrome Skull, a thin, beautiful girl who has lost her internal organs and cannot exist without the wreckage.

XUNXUS, the boss of the Valier assassination squad, who is full of anger and violent.
Squalo, a violent but compassionate swordsman, who is XUNXUS's henchman.
Belphegor, a genius knifeman who calls himself "The Prince.
Fran, a lazy, slovenly, and arrogant boy who uses illusions.

Bai Lan, the boss of the Millefiore family, who loves sweets and is cruel.
Shoichi Irie, an engineer and executive who suffers from stomach pains at the mercy of Shiran.

The assassination squad Valia, in particular, was extremely popular among female fans.

The world of the mafia overlaps with the everyday life of a very ordinary town. In a life of unrequited love and excitement for a girl in the same class, tests and summer festivals, dangerous assassins arrive and battle for their lives. It is a strange, fun, and unreasonable dream world, just like "Alice in Wonderland.

The coolest part is the master-disciple relationship with the "tutors (kato kyo)!

No matter how many unique rivals appear, the presence of the main character is never diminished.

Tuna, who possesses the "big sky" attribute necessary for the head of the Bongole family, is called "the big sky that swallows and embraces everything while being dyed by everything," and perhaps because of this, he is well liked (and obsessed) by both allies and enemies alike, somehow or other. And even the heinous antagonists somehow wind up in a position similar to that of their friends. Before you know it, the mafia has become your neighbor.

Fans were thrilled to see the capacity they showed for being weak, and the way they grew strong and courageous for the sake of their friends, even though they were timid by nature.

And even though the battlefield may be different, Tuna's guiding hand as he grows stronger is always Reborn. At first glance, the two appear to be a hero and a mascot, but what is established there is a passionate and deep teacher-student relationship. Whenever Tuna seems to be on the verge of despair, Ribbon repeatedly rebukes him, trusts him, watches over him, and entrusts him to his care, and through these actions, Tuna is revived. This is a very royal development of a shounen manga.

The absolute trust between the two is the most exciting part of the story. The most hard-boiled second character in this work is Mr. Reborn! This has been the unanimous opinion of the fans since the daily life version.

The famous "all the best parts first" opening video.

The opening image of the anime "Tutor Hitman REBORN!" is a famous feature of the series.

For example, in the opening sequence "BOYS & GIRLS," which started before the "VS VALIER" (episodes 34-65), Tuna and his friends fight each and every one of the Valiars, and the special moves are performed, all in a cool promotional clip. This was due to the circumstances that existed at the time of the broadcast.

This seems to have had something to do with the circumstances at the time of the broadcast. Director Kenichi Imaizumi said that the anime "started out with a one-year plan" and "there was always the possibility that it would end in the middle of the year" (Gakken "Animedia," July 2011 issue).

If it had ended after the first year, there would have been a possibility that it would have ended in the middle of the "vs. Valiant" version. For this reason, we can assume that they wanted to show the best part of the story early without putting it out there.

This method of showing became a specialty of the anime "Tutor Hitman Reborn! Since then, with each new chapter, all new-faced enemies have been introduced and new special moves have been shown ahead of time. This became a cool fan service that both fans who know the original work and those who do not can look forward to waiting for what is to come.

One more "only in anime! is the "dying flame," which is divided into seven weather-related attributes: sky, storm, rain, thunder, cloud, sunshine, and fog. Each of them has the seven colors of the rainbow, and the way these flames are drawn is truly beautiful and animated.

Not only are the colors different, but the shape of the flames and the rhythm in which they burn and flicker are completely different for each of the seven flames. It was a setting that I was glad to see animated with color and movement.

The story of returning to everyday life is slightly connected to "Elle Drive [ēlDLIVE

In the final episode of the original comic, there is a monologue reminiscent of the lyrics of the anime's first opening theme "Drawing days," much to the delight of fans who enjoyed the original story and the anime side by side. It was as if it was a message of appreciation from the original author to the anime.

Also, in one episode of "Elle Drive [ēlDLIVE]," the TV announcer,

In the first episode of "Elle Drive [ēlDLIVE]," the TV announcer announced the news: "It has been revealed through interviews that the successor to the head of the Italian Mafia may be a Japanese national.

Many fans responded, "This is about Tuna, isn't it? and reacted (this was probably a reference to the original side story "Akira Amano Character's Visual Book Rebo to Dlive").

Perhaps the worlds of "Elle Drive [ēlDLIVE]" and "Tutor Hitman Reborn! Namimori Town may be somewhere in the world where Kuunose Chūta and his friends are active. It is fun to imagine so.

Because both the anime and the original work were completed without depicting the future, leaving the characters and world that fans loved intact, it seems that Sawada Tsunayoshi and his friends are still alive in the hearts of the fans as they were on that day.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the anime's broadcast, a Blu-ray box set of "Tutor Hitman Reborn!" will be released from April to June this year. In addition, an exhibition of original drawings by the original author, "Akira Amano Exhibition," will be held in Kyoto from January to February, following last summer's exhibition in Tokyo. The strong popularity of the work is likely to be rekindled with the anime adaptation of "Elle Drive [ēlDLIVE]".

(Text by YAMAYU)

Tutor Hitman REBORN! Blu-ray BOX 1

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