Reborn! stars Tsunayoshi Sawada, a high school boy being coached by an infant hitman named Reborn to be a mafia boss. Sawada is in line to be the tenth boss of the Vongola family, but Reborn is convinced he needs a lot of training. In the first few volumes, Reborn uses his "Dethperation shot" a bullet that allows the person shot with it to be "Reborn" with determination to fulfill their last wishes, or other various powers (like super swimming). Tsuna meets various crazy characters (like Lambo, another baby assassin in a lamb costume) but eventually the series changes to more action than comedy.

Highlights

The Varia, the assassination squad for the Varia, is determined that their candidate, Xanxus, should be the true 10th Vongola boss. They begin a tournament for various meteorologically themed rings- "Mist", "Lightning" etc.; the winner of the most would be crowned the true Vongola boss. Tsuna's friends and allies all fight together, and  surprisingly Murkuro, a former opponent,  even assists in the battle against one of the Varia, Mammon. That battle looks to be nearly over…then only one battle remains; the Cloud Ring battle.

While Hibari fights Gola Mosca (and what a surprising foe he is) Tsuna trains with Reborn. The baby assassin assures Tsuna his "Dethperation Point Zero Break" being perfected will be highly important. I hadn't read much Reborn!, so this was all a bit confusing for me; the series has a lot of characters and many of them are fairly similar looking (lots of young people with black hair in school uniforms or normal clothing) so the big headed infant in a suit was quite entertaining looking. I wished I'd seen more of him, but he seemed like a background character in this arc. 

Gola Mosca hides a big secret though; another group of characters in Italy (I assume more Vongola assistants working for Tsuna) find out a deadly secret; Mosca is a giant, seemingly invincible robot. That isn't even the worst part; that would be a spoiler. Even without having read much Reborn!, I began to get a bit caught up at this point. The revelation feels like a turning point for the series.

The fight scenes were a combination of well drawn and sketchy however; a lot of it seemed to be based around explosions and running around than clear choreography. There was a two-page spread when Hibari (another of Tsuna's allies) was fighting Gola Mosca however; quite cool to look at. While the art was sometimes a little sketchy between battles (Tsuna's feet are pratically blobs at one point) Amano goes to a lot of trouble to include cameos and commentary from what feels like every character in the series ever. A treat for people who miss their favorite character, kind of a pain for people who want to see it get to the point or tried to pick the series up midway.

Overall

Reborn! has changed a lot from the early volumes; it's gone from a largely gag based episodic series to a more serious one, with tournaments even. Everyone does the tournament thing, and while Reborn! has some stand out moments, it feels a little old hat. I'm a sucker for the shonen format though; near the end of the volume I was more in tune despite not having read the series in a while. Still, a couple problems stand out. The series has a lot of characters which they shoot at you rapid fire; it was hard to keep up with the guy turning into a woman, the characters referred to by different names, etc. Yet, I get the feeling these same appearances would be fun for people who have been following the series. Some manga are just not made to drop into the middle, and with a cast this voluminous (there's an entire page just stuffed with portraits and no explanations in the front of the book) it's nigh impossible to keep up.

On the plus side, within a few chapters the general thrust was simple to pick up, and the fight between Hibari and Gola Mosca was quite cool. Perhaps it's partly the character design. Some of them are neat, Reborn with the little lizard on his hat, or Mosca with the huge gas-mask like face with various steam-huffing tubes. Others, like Tsuna's hot-headed friend Gokudera seem more in the "spiky-haired dude in street clothes" motif that I find underwhelming.Reborn! is by no means a bad series; I've read that you really start to care about the characters and the scenario; but it feels like the sort of plot I've seen a lot in manga. I hate to say by-the-numbers for a series that gets a lot of respect in Japan, but without earlier volumes to flesh out the characters, it's just so much sound and fury. Incidentally, the inside of the book has a horrible recap; I had to hit the Internet for some research.

I do like the little mittens Tsuna wears over his hands when he uses his ultimate attack that sets his hands on fire though; a little more of that and a little less routine would really help. Jumping into this series with this volume at the end of the arc is really not recommended. I'd pick this one up from volume one to ease into it.

ComicsOnline gives Reborn! 14 The Sky Battle, 2.5 out of 5 mini assassins.