KHR Theory
Hi everyone! How are you doing? I have a theory about "Katekyo Hitman: Reborn!" and I would like to share it with you so you can give me your opinion :)
I'm French at the base and I'm not bilingual in English so everything has been translated thanks to DeepL even if I corrected some mistakes.
"Hope" (with an uppercase) = the virtue of Hope
"hope" (without an uppercase) = hope, opposed to despair
Let's begin :
The term "born again" in English, or "Nouvelle Naissance" in French, is, in the Christian religion, the conversion to Christianity. Already, "born again"... "reborn"... it's easy to make the connection.
Let's say that the character of Reborn represents the hope that allows people to become a better person (rebirth, to reborn,...). This goes along with the term "born again", it would mean that the character of Reborn also represents religion.
Dino: Dino was about to lose his father, he had to take over his family, he was desperate but Reborn comes into his life and helps him. Dino is the "alumnus of hope" and he is there to help Tsuna manage her new world. Like a "big brother" (as said in the work).
Lexical field of death, depression and suicide:
Gun
Bullets in the head
Pills that make you stronger
"Dying will"
We know that the Varia represent the 7 deadly sins:
7 deadly sins :
Anger : Xanxus
Gluttony : Gola Mosca
Sloth : Belphegor
Lust : Lussuria
Greed : Mammon
Envy : Levi A Than
Pride: Superbi Squalo
The fact that they are opposed to the Vongola may mean that they are the 7 Catholic virtues:
7 Catholic virtues:
Temperance: Tsuna
Justice : Hibari
Faith : Gokudera
Fortitude : Ryohei
Hope : Mukuro/Chrome
Prudence : Lambo
Charity : Yamamoto
Explanation for each guardian: (the quotes come from the French Wikipedia which have been translated on DeepL)
Ryohei: Fortitude
"To possess the virtue of fortitude is to overcome human weakness and especially fear. Man, by nature, is inclined to fear danger, misfortune and suffering. It is par excellence the virtue of the "heroes". They go beyond their limits, "with firmness in front of the recognized risk, that is to say in last resort in front of the death", for the good of others or to defend the truth and the justice. The virtue of fortitude goes hand in hand with sacrifice."
Ryohei is the boxer who constantly wants to go beyond his limit. This description fits him: he never bends in the face of danger and he is presented from the beginning as a strong character (he is the leader of the boxing club) and with a powerful soul.
Lambo : Prudence
Lambo embodies Prudence for various reasons: he is very fearful and fear is a form of prudence. He will have throughout the manga a shield and an armor, symbol of prudence. According to St. Augustine: "Prudence is the love that sagaciously separates what is useful from what is harmful" this can represent Lambo who can store electricity in his horns and use it in battle, making the harmful (lightning) useful. The mission of the thunder guardian is to protect the family like a lightning rod. The first thunder guardian was sent to the front line with a shield, as a precaution.
Gokudera : Faith
Gokudera represents faith. He is devoted to Tsuna, believes hard in him and it shows in his behavior. Tsuna is also the Godfather and so "Sky" (Heavens, but Tsuna is not God in the manga). Faith is the fact to believe in something and to be devoted to it, while adopting behaviors which show it.
Hibari : Justice
Justice is the judgment of any individual or behavior because of morality. Hibari is the head of the disciplinary committee, he embodies justice from his arrival. In the Simon arc, he will affirm that his pride is discipline, therefore Justice. Justice must be neutral, exactly like Hibari: the solitary cloud that protects the family without any particular attachment.
Mukuro/Chrome : Hope
There are two quotes about the virtue of Hope on the French Wikipedia:
"Hope is a heroic virtue. It is believed that it is easy to hope. But only those who have had the courage to despair of the illusions and lies in which they found a security that they falsely took for hope." Georges Bernanos.
And :
"The true, great hope of man, which resists in spite of all disillusionment, can only be God. (...) We need hopes - the smallest or the greatest - which, day by day, keep us going. But without the great hope, which must surpass everything else, they are not enough. This great hope can only be God, who embraces the universe and who can propose and give us what we alone cannot attain." Benedict XVI.
In these quotes, there is mention of illusions, which is the main fighting technique of Mukuro and Chrome. Moreover, it is said that Esperance proposes to us "that which, alone, we cannot reach", that falls well because Mukuro and Chrome are two. Moreover, one and the other hope mutually something: Mukuro hopes to be able to leave his prison thanks to Chrome, it is besides his only means of exit via an illusion or by taking control of his body. And Chrome hopes to live thanks to Mukuro's powerful illusions recreating his internal organs.
Yamamoto : Charity
Charity is love of our neighbor.
"Charity takes patience, charity renders service, it does not envy, it does not swagger, it is not puffed up with pride, it does not do anything ugly, it does not seek its own interest, it is not irritated, it does not harbor grudges, it does not rejoice in injustice, but finds its joy in the truth. It excuses all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things." Paul of Tarsus, First Epistle to the Corinthians.
This perfectly defines Yamamoto, who truly loves his neighbor. Also, the sword is the symbol of God's love, but that may be just because a swordplayer was needed in the hero's team.
Tsuna : Temperance
Temperance is the virtue that conditions all the others indirectly: like the sky. It brings harmony, which is the attribute of the flame of Sky. Temperance is the voluntary self-restraint, it allows to control one's will, one's excesses, etc...
Tsuna embodies this virtue perfectly in the sense that he is the one who unites his family, and therefore the 7 virtues, like the sky which encompasses everything and influences everything, and also because he controls his will: his flame. The character does not sink into excess either.
Tsuna doesn't care about dying at the beginning, he regains hope as the story goes on, he goes above and beyond to protect the reason for living that he has acquired, his friends. In the Daily Life arc, he will say that he has no real reason to live and that dying doesn't make him hot or cold, in the Kokuyo arc, against Mukuro, Tsuna will lament on his fate saying that everything is over and that he "did his best" but that he couldn't defeat Mukuro, and it's his last will, the one of protecting those he loves, that will raise him up.
Now, the story and its message:
In the Battle of the Rings Arc, Tsuna and his guardians, representing the 7 Christian virtues, will face off directly with their Varia counterparts, representing the 7 deadly sins. Tsuna will fight against evil to protect his friends. He will have to become stronger to protect those he loves: he now has a reason to live. Xanxus is Tsuna's rival, the sin of anger, both characters have a problem with their respective fathers and Xanxus will reject his father's love because of anger (so he practices his sin and rejects the father's love and therefore faith) while Tsuna, who knows how to control himself, will overcome it. Xanxus who is consumed by anger and hatred will be defeated by the one who embodies temperance and self-control.
There are also parallels between the members of the Varia and the Vongola guardians (Squalo and Yamamoto = Pride and Charity. So, the taker and the giver. In their conversation in the future, Yamamoto will want to give time to his two passions, but Squalo will tell him to take time only for the sword) (Belphegor and Gokudera both have problems with their families but Belphegor has fallen into sin by killing them all, unlike Gokudera). The fact that Xanxus is frozen may be a reference to the Divina Comedia. In the writings about Hell, the lower we go, the more ice is present, as if it was not flames that were at the bottom of Hell, but ice, ice that prevents us from reaching the purgatory to repent so much our sins are important. As if we were trapped, frozen with them, for eternity.
In the future, Tsuna is dead. He will fight to avoid this death which shows that he now holds on to life thanks to hope and what it has brought him. He will face Byakuran, who is a human with power who will want to rise higher than God (he makes wings appear as a "symbol" because he is "superhuman", and he wants to become the God of a new world that he will create). Tsuna burns Byakuran's wings during the fight, which has a huge symbolism, he will even say to him: "So Byakuran, do you become a simple human again after losing your wings?" Byakuran is either a fallen angel wanting to rise above God, or the Antichrist.
Byakuran pretends to be a messiah to everyone, and, thanks to his knowledge of parallel worlds, he can perform miracles.
He will be somehow "exorcised" by Uni, the granddaughter of a shaman (religious power), who will take his powers back to the past. Moreover, Byakuran dies consumed by flames, he is the only enemy that Tsuna really kills, and he is entirely disintegrated by an X-Burner.
In the Simon arc, demons from the past resurface and Tsuna must face them with his friends to protect their loved ones and keep their lives. Enma is in despair and Daemon will use him, and Hope (Chrome), to get his way.
In the Curse of the Rainbow arc, Tsuna will be pushed to fight for hope, on his behalf. He will even have to support him and protect him from death. Arcobalenos are angels: those who mediate between God and humans. In the biblical religions, the Rainbow (Arcobaleno in Italian) is the bridge between God and mankind, the Covenant of God with mankind after the flood. The Arcobalenos are chosen by Checker Face. Checker Face is therefore God. "Checker" means: one who checks, or judges. In religion, this can only be God. He is an alien who is a life form more evolved than humans, he is probably the most powerful character of the manga. He comes from the heavens and this makes sense when you know the principle of the Trinity: God exists in three forms: The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son, therefore, in the Catholic religion: Jesus, perhaps Kawahira: Checker Face in his human form who comes to help the virtuous (so the Vongola, for example, as in the future) and the form of God when he comes to Earth. The Vendicare prison represents hell, with its different levels, the lower you are in the prison, the more serious your crime. Just like in hell. It is lead by Bermuda Von Weckenstein, who is a former arcobaleno, so a fallen angel. He wants to kill Checker Face, who is God. Bermuda is therefore Lucifer. This arc is strongly adapted from the episode of the "War in Heaven" in the Christian religion. By the way, "Vendicare" means "revenge" in Italian, so it is the prison of those who want to take revenge.
Extra: The first guardian of the Sun was a priest. Connecting everything to Heaven and Sky makes sense. The Italian mafia families are Christian and choosing this milieu allows the author to address the themes of family, godfather, and father. Tsuna is described as fighting with clenched fists, as if in prayer, as if he were praying for the salvation of his soul.
Tsuna realizes at the end of the manga how far he has come and what he is living for thanks to Reborn.
Message of hope: Reborn leaves, Tsuna denigrates himself and tells himself that he has not changed. Reborn comes back, he says that he will not leave until his mission is accomplished. If we replace "Reborn" by "hope", it makes sense. As if we shouldn't lose hope because hope always comes back in the end, until it has lifted us up for good.
So: Reborn is about a depressed teenager that hope will bring him out of his depression. Accompanied by the virtues and knowing how to control himself, he will face vices, sins, his past and evil beings who do not apply the virtues. He will have to protect hope in order to be reborn as a better man through the Christian religion. "Katekyo Hitman: Reborn!" tells the story of the new birth of Sawada Tsunayoshi.
There is also another part of this theory that I thought about but I'm not sure for several reasons: it seems too far-fetched and the author wanted to continue her manga. I share it with you anyway:
Each arc represents a stage of mourning, which makes sense knowing that, to have a new birth, you have to die once. And Tsuna only dies each time he takes a dying will bullet. This means that Tsuna is mourning his old self, so that he can finally be reborn as a Christian. He is approaching Heaven and thus the title of 10th Vongola Godfather.
Kokuyo arc: Denial
This is the first time that Tsuna's world will be really turned upside down, during all the arc he won't believe it, he will constantly complain to Reborn saying that he can't be part of this world, he is in denial.
Mukuro represents the denial, he is not aware of his own death (Mukuro means Corpse), and he comes back from the dead as if he was in denial. Mukuro commits suicide in front of everyone and comes back, he takes the bodies of others etc... he is not aware of his death and he denies it by all means.
Arc Varia : Anger
Already, Xanxus is the cardinal sin of Anger, I think I don't need to go further
Tsuna is angry with his father and after beating Xanxus (and thus Anger) he will be more understanding towards Iemitsu
Future Arc : Bargaining
Tsuna has to prevent his own death and the death of his relatives. He goes to the future (something higher than him) and there is no arc in which negotiations are so central to the plot. Byakuran bargains all the time: that's why Tsuna is supposed to be dead, bargaining in his base Byakuran bargains with Uni to merge their families and Byakuran will bargain again with Uni later to get her back to his side to use the power of 7³. Tsuna becomes stronger and fights, to bargain for his death.
Arc Simon: Depression Daemon Spade has lost Elena, he still hasn't accepted and he is in depression. Enma is depressed, you can see it in his behavior and his whole family is dead, presumably because of Tsuna's father. When Tsuna learns that, it's the moment when he enters this phase: after almost losing Yamamoto, seeing his friends go to prison, he learns that his father is a killer. This is the moment when he has empty eyes, when he doesn't speak anymore etc... (symptoms of depression). He will question his close relations, his family, as well as the meaning of his fight.
Rainbow Curse Arc : Acceptance
This is the moment when the characters accept their fatality: Reborn accepts to die: he says that he was prepared for it and that he will join Bermuda. Tsuna accepts to become the next Arcobaleno of the Sky. But Bermuda is the one who does not accept his death. He created the flame of the night thanks to his refusal of acceptance and via his hatred.
So, under the guise of humor, joy, laughter, epic battles and colorful characters, "Katekyo Hitman: Reborn!" tells the story of a depressed teenager who will have to overcome the mourning of his own person in order to be reborn as a Christian by approaching Heaven, the Sky, and the title of 10th Godfather Vongola.
What do you think about my theory ??