Reborn 13

Akira Amano – Viz – 2009 – 26+ volumes

Of all the shounen series I’ve been picking up midway lately, Reborn is the one I like least.  To be fair, that’s because the last few volumes have all taken place in the middle of a long tournament, which has another volume or two left in it at least.  While there has been character development, I haven’t really seen those characters in the context of the plot at all, nor have I really seen the plot or regular storyline at all, so… yeah.  That’s probably why.  I mean, I have seen shounen fighting tournaments before, so this is nothing new.

The swordfight from last volume finishes up here, though it goes on quite a bit longer than I would have expected.  The one nice thing about this tournament is that the outcomes aren’t predetermined, so there’s a good chance that the good guys will lose.  A couple already have.  I like having that wildcard, it helps get me through otherwise unremarkable swordfights.

The second fight, the Mist Guardian battle, was much more interesting.  There was a big mystery surrounding who would represent the Vongola side of the battle, and there was a pretty big to-do around unveiling the character.  I take it this person has appeared before, but I didn’t know who it was.  I liked that there was a little it of a fake-out regarding this too, and I think I would have gotten an even bigger kick out of it if I had known who the character was.

The important thing is that this fight is done by conjuring illusions.  The illusion can be anything you want.  They won’t damage your opponent unless they believe whatever is going on is real, so the more realistic illusionist wins.  It’s an interesting concept, and I enjoyed what I saw of the battle here.  It, of course, carries over into the next volume.

The story was discussing the arcobaleno babies a bit more here, too.  I like that… element of the story, and it did make me look up the series and read what their deal was, which pleased me even more.

But yeah.  So far Reborn has not knocked my socks off.  While I am nowhere near hooked or even vaguely interested, I do want to see more of the Mist Guardian battle.  That was pretty cool.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.