Kyoya Hibari

Kyoya Hibari (雲雀 恭弥) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Reborn! created by Akira Amano. For the most part of the series, Hibari is portrayed as an anti-hero, taking little to no interest in the events that surround the main protagonist, Tsuna Sawada. He is introduced as the leader of the Disciplinary Committee at Tsuna's school, Namimori Middle. Despite his status, he is a delinquent who uses violence to create his own form of order in school, as well as enforcing it throughout certain parts of the town of Namimori.

Personality
Hibari is the leader of the Discipline Committee of Prefects, who all are delinquents loyal to Hibari. Like his subordinates, he too is a violent delinquent who uses his status to keep his own version of 'order' among the other students. However, he prefers to be alone and cares little for his subordinates. He hates people clustering. His catchphrase is "I'll bite you to death" (kamikorosu), which he says to everyone whom he is ready to fight. This isn't limited to actual combat instances. He has a tendency to say this to pretty much anyone who is standing too close to him, making too much noise, or creating a rucus of any kind. Hibari is very proud of his school, and is apparently the only person who likes their school's anthem, even using it as his ring tone. In the Kokuyo Arc, he adopted the Kokuyo assassin Birds' bird. The bird (subsequently nicknamed "Hibird" due to its connection to Hibari) becomes attached to Hibari. Hibari has a soft spot for animals such as Hibird, and also seems to feel at least a modicum of compassion for small children, as he has at least on one occasion refrained from beating people to death, simply due to the presence of Lambo and I-pin. Subsequently, due to Hibari's resemblance to the Arcobaleno Fong, I-pin has a bit of a crush on him, and even gave him chocolates on the Valentine's Day episode.

Reborn piqued Hibari's curiosity early on in the series and Hibari considers him a worthy opponent, having a strong urge to fight him. After Tsuna passes the test for the inheritance of the Vongola, the Hibari of the future comments that Tsuna starts to resemble the one he knows, who excites him as much as Reborn does. In the anime version, he has the tendency to say "Wao," (like "wow" in English) whenever he's impressed or being sarcastic.

It has been noted that Hibari is exactly like the first Vongola Cloud Guardian. The first Cloud Guardian had been the head of a country's secret intelligence division, never stood alongside the Family, hardly got along with anyone, and preferred being alone. However, he and Vongola Primo had one thing in common that allowed them to work together, in that they defeated the most enemies and were benevolent to comrades.

Weapons and abilities
According to Futa's ranking list of the strongest students of Namimori Middle, Hibari is the number one strongest student in his school, a fierce and well trained fighter who has an almost insatiable bloodlust for a worthy opponent. As his main weapon, he uses a pair of tonfa. Hibari's tonfa have also been shown to have hidden compartments containing other weapons. In the future, he has a box weapon which contains another pair of tonfa which emit Dying Will Flames.

In the future, Hibari has become adept at using rings. His flame has become so intense that even without the Cloud Vongola ring, he is capable of great feats of strength. However, he shatters normal rings when he uses them. The younger Hibari is also capable of emitting a massive Dying Will flame with the Vongola Ring, though he had only recently arrived in the future. This was said to emerge when Hibari was feeling angry with others for disrupting him. It is revealed that Dino taught him how to emit the flames. Hibari has been shown to have more knowledge than most concerning the boxes and uses them at a high proficiency. He also owns a level E Mist ring which he uses to hide his secret base, indicating that he may have mist flames as well.


 * Hedgehog - When used, a hedgehog is shot towards the target. Due to the Cloud's ability, propagation, the hedgehog can become bigger when it takes in Dying Will Flames.


 * Needle Sphere Form - His hedgehog forms a huge sphere that grows larger, attacking everything within a certain radius.


 * Needle Sphere Form, Reversed - He creates a big airtight space with a limited air supply where only people are allowed inside, it is used to bring about a physical fight.


 * Cambio Forma - Hibari's Cambio Forma of his Vongola Box are the Alaude Handcuffs (black handcuffs with spikes all around one cuff). Although it starts out just as one, he is able to multiply them at will with his Cloud Flames. He is able to trap his opponents by multiplying the amount and sizes of the handcuffs until they become physical restraints, and then he tightens the handcuffs and chains until they squeeze his opponent to death.

Plot overview
After his introduction, he rarely appears, and his few appearances usually end violently. During an encounter with Dr. Shamal, however, he gets infected with the Sakura-kura disease, which makes him weak around cherry blossoms. When he later faces Mukuro Rokudo, the latter quickly defeats him by using his weakness to cherry blossoms. Soon after, he receives the cure and fights Mukuro once more, but due to his previous injuries, he collapses in the climax of the battle.

Reborn later chooses Hibari to be the holder of the Vongola's Cloud Ring. After training with Dino, Hibari appears during the Vongola Tournament and swiftly defeats the Varia's Gola Moska. He then challenges Xanxus, but is interrupted by a malfunctioning Moska. During the group battle, Hibari cures himself of a paralyzing poison injected into him, but he is then badly injured when he faces Belphegor. Still, Hibari becomes the Vongola's Cloud Guardian after Tsuna's side reigns victorious.

In the story's alternate future (nearly ten years later), after future Hibari defeats the Millefiore member Gamma, he trains the past's Tsuna. He also explains to Tsuna's group about the special boxes, which Hibari had been researching, having even started an organization called "The Foundation". After acting as a decoy when the Millefiore raids their base, Hibari infiltrates the enemy's Melone Base. He engages Genkishi in battle, but is replaced by his younger self in the midst of it. Though the past's Hibari is able to open a box weapon that releases a hedgehog, it goes berserk after injuring Hibari and expands its spikes at great speed, separating his group from Genkishi. After reuniting and returning to Namimori, Hibari encounters future Dino, who teaches him how to control his box weapon. He returns to join the others in the battle against the Six Funeral Wreaths, where he manages to defeat Daisy using his Vongola Box.

Appearances in other media
Besides his appearance in the original manga series and its anime adaptation, Hibari has appeared in other Reborn! works, including all of the series' video games. In some games, his future self appears as a playable character. He also stars in one of the Hidden Bullet light novels called Extreme Memories, which is set before the start of the series. On November 7, 2007, Pony Canyon released a character CD entitled "Sakura addiction", which features the characters of Hibari and Mukuro. It contains duets and individual songs sung by both of their voice actors: Takashi Kondō and Toshinobu Iida. The song "Sakura addiction", which was sung by both voice actors, is used as the fifth ending theme for the anime series.

Reception
Several pieces of merchandising based on Hibari's appearance have been released. These include key chains, action figures and cosplays. Hibari and Mukuro's character CD, "Sakura addiction", became the most successful Reborn! character CD, debuting in ninth place in the Oricon charts. The single reached its peak at seventh place, but remained in the chart's Top 40 till mid-January 2008. The second annual Seiyū Awards nominated both Takashi Kondo and Toshinobu Iida for "Best Musical Performance", but they did not win it. Hibari has been highly popular with the Reborn! reader base, ranking as the fourth most popular character with a total of 1769 votes in the official Shonen Jump poll of the series. In the second poll which was divided between heroes and villains, Hibari ranked as the second most popular hero losing to Tsuna Sawada. In the third poll of the series, Hibari ranked as the most popular male character, while in the fourth he ranked second, losing to Tsuna. In the latest poll, he ranked as the second most popular overall character. The Japanese music distributor Recochoku has made two annual survey of which anime characters that people would like to marry. In both years, Hibari ranked number one in the category "The Character I Want to Be My Groom." In the Animedia character popularity poll, Hibari has been featured as from the 2nd and 4th most popular anime character as well as the 2nd highest male character. Although Sam Kusek from popcultureshock.com liked Hibari's fighting scenes in volume 9 from the series, he mentioned that the "real winners" were Tsuna and Mukuro Rokudo. While reviewing the Reborn! gashapon, Anime News Network's Rob Bricken commented he was confused why Hibari's figure is dressed as a policeman despite praising how it is done.

Notes and references
Kyōya Hibari ฮิบาริ เคียวยะ