Akira Amano was born in Aichi Prefecture, located in central Japan. After early versions of the series were published in seinen (young men's) manga magazines, Reborn! first appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump as a stand-alone short story in late 2003. The massive success of this one-shot story led Weekly Shonen Jump to begin serializing Reborn! in mid-2004. Amano's work, with its entertaining mix of action, comedy and drama, remains extremely popular with readers.