Reborn! Known in Japan as Katekyō Hitman Reborn!
Reborn!, known in Japan as Katekyō Hitman Reborn! (家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN!, Kateikyōshi Hittoman Ribōn!, "Katekyō" being a portmanteau of Katei Kyōshi and translated as Home Tutor), is an ongoing Japanese manga written and illustrated by Akira Amano. The plot revolves around the life of a young boy named Tsunayoshi Sawada, who finds out that he is the next in line to become the boss of the most powerful Mafia organization, the Vongola Family. As such, the Vongola's most powerful hitman, a gun-toting infant named Reborn, is sent to tutor "Tsuna" on how to become a respectable boss.
The individual manga chapters are serialized in Japan in Weekly Shōnen Jump. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with twenty-seven volumes released as of October 2, 2009. Viz Media licensed the series for an English language release in North America, shortening the series name to Reborn!. An anime adaptation of the series premiered in Japan on October 7, 2006 and it is still ongoing. It is developed by Artland and is airing on the television network TV Tokyo. Various video games based on the series have been developed, with several of them being for the Nintendo DS. Additionally, Hideaki Koyasu has authored two Reborn! light novels.
Reborn! has become one of the best-selling Weekly Shōnen Jump manga with several of its volumes becoming top-sellers in Japan. Reviewers from the series praised its use of comedy as well as the designs used for the infants characters. They also mentioned that though it has become more violent since volume 8, it has turned into a better shōnen series, praising the storylines and the fights.
Kagamine Rin and Len
Released on December 27, 2007, Kagamine Rin/Len (鏡音リン・レン) is the second installment of the Vocaloid 2 Character Vocal Series. Their surname was chosen by combining Kagami (鏡, Mirror), Ne (音), with the first syllables of their given names a pun on "Left" and "Right". According to Vocaloid's official blog, the package includes two voice banks: one for Rin and another for Len, both provided by the voice actor Asami Shimoda. Despite the double voice banks, the package still sells at the same price as Hatsune Miku. Their only cameo appearance in an anime is in (Zoku) Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei, where the two, Miku, Kaito, and Meiko (and various other people and characters) try out to be the voice of Meru Otonashi.
On June 12, 2008, Crypton announced the updated edition, named "act2", will be released in early July 2008. Users who had bought the old version will get an expansion disc free of charge. On June 18, 2008, beta demonstration songs using the new version were released on the company's official blog. The expansion disc is an entirely different software and does not affect the original Kagamine Rin/Len installation in any way, giving the user options to either use the old or new voice sets exclusively or combine their usage.
Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings
Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings (創竜伝, Sōryūden) is a set of novels based loosely on Chinese mythology.
It was written by Yoshiki Tanaka in collaboration with Japanese illustrator Yoshitaka Amano (Kodansha Novels edition) and mangaka group Clamp (Kodansha bunkobon). It is written with a humorous and satirical tone. It is published to the 13th volume as of 2005.
On July 24, 2008, at San Diego Comic-Con, North American publisher Del Ray announced that they have secured the licence to the Sohryuden novel series. This will be the first work by Yoshiki Tanaka to be released in English. This was projected to be released in 2009, but has since been seen on online bookstores as having a 2011 release date.
The story features four divine Dragon Kings, each with their own kingdoms: one to the north, one to the east, one to the south, and one to the west. The brothers are reborn in the modern world, complete with supernatural powers and the ability to become the Dragons they descended from. They are content to live ordinary lives until evil creatures come to attack them.
It becomes the mission of the four brothers to defeat the "Four Sisters", four girls from America and the descendants of the "Bulls", before they use their control over technology and the economy to take over the world. However, as this battle begins, the four brothers must also find their place in the world as they flee from the destructive will of the "Bulls".
