Posted by 
“For us, it’s not a choice of life or death, but a choice of how to die.”
Yikes. As it stands, there really is no other option for the Arcobalenos now, is there? Fortunately though, Tsuna looks like he’s got something up his sleeves.
The dissension amongst the Arcobaleno aren’t that surprising since Mammon and Verde have always been the more self-serving ones of the group. What will be interesting though, is how they’ll choose to deal with the situation – as Reborn says, it’s a matter of dying a dog’s death or a slightly-less futile death by trying to at least prevent others from being chained to the same fate as them. Barring Tsuna’s hidden plan, the Arcobaleno have nothing; it’s a bitter and cruel fate and I don’t really blame Verde or Mammon for wanting to live instead (imagine the lives all seven of them could have had!).
I assume the representative battle will have to take a backseat now that Tsuna has started to move on his own. It’s a tricky business though, since the rules are going to keep most of the characters under tight watch. I suppose they can always try to do what Yuni’s team did by transferring the boss watches to another player and just fighting to stall time. That will theoretically free up Tsuna, Xanxus, and Mukuro to do whatever they need to do. This is all just wishful thinking though! All I have to base my guesses on is the vague statement “fill up the part that’s no longer there”. From that itself, I can see two ways Tsuna’s plan will go: either offer himself and six others to become the replacements or use illusions to try and trick Checkerface. I really don’t see the first option being likely as all the others save for Byakuran and maybe Xanxus are probably going to refuse. The second option sounds too simplistic; there is also the mystery person Tsuna spoke with (Hibari?) to add to the equation, and I still feel like I’m missing a big chunk of the puzzle.
Whatever the case, this really feels like the final arc for the series – you have Tsuna gathering up all the past antagonists (maybe “final bosses” is a better term): Mukuro, Xanxus, Byakuran, and Enma to put his plan into motion. A conclusion with the Arcobaleno restored to their original forms will be nice to see, but everything’s just up in the air for now!
Note: People mentioned it would be nice to have something to ease new readers into the series, and after thinking a bit of the best way to incorporate it into my post without the summaries taking up too much space, this is what I came up with:
- Spoiler-free summary. Unfortunately, spoiler-free version will not include any impressions from me and will inevitably be less detailed.
- Summary WITH spoilers. It’s a very quick description of each arc and what I thought about it; no major spoilers are present.
- I also put together a character chart, and although there are probably a couple missing, I think I covered all the major ones that have appeared up to now. This includes characters that have appeared throughout the series, so it probably will not be spoiler-free. Also: THIS IMAGE IS MASSIVE AND TAKES LONG TO LOAD, so please be patient! If people are having trouble viewing it, let me know and I’ll try to find a quicker alternative.
It excites me that you’re covering this manga. <3
Hmm.. Somehow I don’t think Tsuna would be calling Vongola Nono just to check about Hibari.. I’m leaning towards the idea that the mysterious person Tsuna talked to is Talbolt. :/
Talbot was my first guess too, but the place Tsuna went to was a very traditional Japanese house similar to the one Hibari lives in.
I suppose it’s highly unlikely Tsuna would leave alive if he did go see Hibari though… lol
Yes it was japanese but Hibari lives in a mansion not some shady small house somewhere in the woods.
Hm I figured it was Talbot as well but now that you mention the traditional Japanese home thing, I’m starting to think it could be Hibari. I guess it is possible that Hibari would be relaxed in his own home and not be antagonistic toward Tsuna. And Tsuna may not have visited the person he was talking about on the phone with Nono yet.
Either way I’m still anticipating Hibari to show up in this battle sometime.
I was thinking Talbot too. But there are two more persons that came to my mind. One is Doctor Shamal who hasn’t appear for quite awhile. Second person is more possible because from the way he dressed and the very fact that we don’t know much about him. I’m thinking the mysterious person might be Uncle Kawahira.
If it was Hibari, I’m pretty sure they would show his face like everyone else, its obviously someone with little manga appearance that have some sort of powerful influence. Like a urahara kisuke in bleach type of character.
my personal theory is Kawahira ojii-san. it was hinted in Future Arc that he’d appear again.
Oh! I COMPLETELY forgot about him! O: Kawahira might actually be a more feasible guess than Hibari haha!
I believe too that the person Tsuna spoke with was Talbot, also my guess for what the missing part may be is the mare rings, I mean in the future the arcobaleno were alive and Kicking until Byakuran killed them but things changed now that the mare rings are no longer powerful wich is probably taking its toll on them and thats why they need to be changed.
Didnt the Arcobaleno destroy the Mare Rings at the end of the Future Arc? I can’t remember exactly but I thought that was the case…
Which means the Mare Rings were destroyed in that future. The only things that returned to the original time were the memories, remember?
Well, the animal boxes also came along, but that is a different matter.
whatever the case part of the tri ni set is missing since the future arc (but I remeber reading that they just sealed them)…since they are bringing the tri ni set again maybe they plan of restore balance this way.
You’ve made an error in the character chart, Bianchi is Gokudera’s older sister, not younger.
Shoot – sorry! Dunno what I was thinking lol… thanks for the fix! =D
On the character chart: “Kakimoto Chisuka” – “Flame: Flame” 😉
My theory on what Tsuna is planning is a bit more literal.
Bermuda mentioned that when he had the pacifier removed, the only reason he survived was because he filled up his now empty pacifier with his hatred and the eighth flame of the night. The same happened to the rest of the Vindice, who survived by replacing their old flames with the eighth flame.
But what Reborn and the others have that Bermuda does not are comrades. So what Tsuna is probably planning is that once Reborn has his pacifier forcibly removed, he will fill up the empty space with his own flame, to keep Reborn alive without turning him into a Vindice. And in order to do so, Tsuna needs a group of individuals with abnormally powerful flames, to save all of the Arcobaleno.
O: That actually might be it (certainly sounds more feasible than my two theories at any rate XP); the people he’s asked so far have been the “strongest” in each arc as well… With Mukuro, Xanxus, Byakuran, Enma, and himself that’s five people. Mystery guy and another person will round off the seven, and I wonder who they’ll be? One of my guesses is still on Hibari, since he was the boss of Fon’s team (the people he’s visited have all been bosses of their teams). We’ll see though.
Holy crap Wednesday can’t come fast enough ndgsgh.
It never occurred to me he visited bosses of teams. 😮 I just thought he was visiting old antagonists. 😮
I thought he was trying to get people together to become the new Arcobaleno as well but even with Mukuro, Xanxus, Byakuran, Enma, the mystery guy, and himself he’s still a person short.
Great job on those summary images and character chart, they look amazing! Maybe you should put your name on them so if they’re ever shared online, people will know whose hard work it is =)
Hmm another mistake on the character chart.
I know Lal’s original flame before she got cursed was rain, but she can only use them when she uses her pacifier, and her regular usage for her flames is Mist and Cloud, so should it be Rain/Mist/Cloud?
Hmm… I put Rain down because I thought that was her ‘main’ one, but yeah you’re right. She doesn’t use that element as often.
Maybe he’s recruiting for his team for a different plan?
I’m only considering that since only one of his team’s watches has been smashed leaving
1 boss watch and 5 other watches left which would fit everyone he showed.
Boss watch = Tsuna. 5 Other watches = Xanxus, Byakuran, Enma, Mukuro, and mystery guy.
If true, I still dun know what the actual plan could be.
If not the final arc this might be the second to the last… theres still the uncle kawahira thing.
Hmm initially, my reactions were that the mysterious figure would turn on to be Kawahira-Oji. Secondly, although it does sound feasible from one of the above posts that Tsuna and the others might want to replace the flames of the current arcobaleno, it does not really solve the problem of the final(probably) antagonist Checker Face. I want to believe that Tsuna might be gathering his team in order to train(maybe?) in the future or however to defeat Checker Face and then go on to as replace the arcobaleno’s flames with theirs.
so many good mangas reviewed on this page.. Naruto,Fairy Tail, Reborn
and others not so good like Bleach..
i dont understand why no love for One Piece 🙁