Katekyou Hitman Reborn!

There is no putting it lightly—Tsunayoshi Sawada is just no good. He is clumsy, talentless, and desperately in love with the school idol Kyouko Sasagawa, a girl so completely out of his league. Dubbed "Loser Tsuna" by his classmates, he seems to be the very personification of failure in the guise of a middle-schooler.

Tsuna's boring life takes an extraordinary twist when he encounters the mysterious Reborn, who happens to be a hitman... and shockingly, a baby! Sent from the strongest Mafia family in Italy, Reborn is assigned the daunting mission of preparing the dull middle schooler to succeed the ninth boss of the notorious Vongola family, who is on the brink of retirement. The dull boy has a grueling road ahead, but with the help of his new criminal affiliates and his peculiar home tutor, perhaps even Loser Tsuna can achieve greatness.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sawada, Tsunayoshi Main

Kokubun, Yukari Japanese

Hibari, Kyouya Main

Kondo, Takashi Japanese

Gokudera, Hayato Main

Ichinose, Hidekazu Japanese

Reborn Main

Narita, Ken Japanese

Yamamoto, Takeshi Main

Inoue, Suguru Japanese

Rokudou, Mukuro Main

Iida, Toshinobu Japanese

Lambo Main

Takeuchi, Junko Japanese

Dokuro, Chrome Main

Akesaka, Satomi Japanese

Sasagawa, Ryouhei Main

Kiuchi, Hidenobu Japanese

Fran Supporting

Kokuryu, Sachi Japanese

Kataoka, Yoshirou Producer

Yamanishi, Tahei Producer

Hasegawa, Yasuo Producer

Watanabe, Hidenobu Producer

Reviews

May 8, 2025

uchu_no_otaku

Recommended

If I could only pick one anime to call my all-time favorite — no contest, it’s Katekyou Hitman Reborn! This anime isn’t just something I watched... it’s something I grew up with. It’s my top 1, and no matter how many new series come out, it’s the one I always end up coming back to.

The whole mafia concept was already a huge hook for me, but what really made it special was the way it slowly built this group of characters that ended up feeling like a real team, like a family. I love team-ups when they’re done right, and this one nailed it. Every ... character had their own thing going on, their own strengths, personalities, and growth arcs. Watching Tsuna go from a hopeless “No-Good Tsuna” to a legit boss was just so satisfying.

I’ll be honest though — getting through the early episodes was kind of a slow burn. The first chunk felt like slice-of-life comedy with a mafia twist, and while it wasn’t bad, it definitely didn’t hint at how amazing the story was about to get. But once things got serious — when the real threats came in, when powers awakened, when the stakes jumped way up — it took off. From the Varia Arc onward, it was on a different level.

And don’t even get me started on the fights. There’s just something so unique about the way they did the action — intense, stylish, and sometimes emotional too. The Flame system, the boxes, the different ring battles — all of that was so creative and well-integrated into the plot.

One thing I really wish, though? That they’d continue it. There’s still so much left unexplored — especially with the Arcobaleno. Their backstories and the whole curse thing deserved more screen time and more explanation. It felt like there was a bigger story behind them just waiting to be told, but it kinda got left hanging.

Still, even with those few nitpicks, Reborn! left a huge impact on me. It’s nostalgic, yes, but also just genuinely well-done. Great story, great characters, amazing concept — and above all, heart. It might not get the same hype as some newer shows, but for me? It’s always going to sit at the top.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Aug 7, 2019

felixlovesanime

Mixed Feelings

Funny

If this review had been written back in 2006, I probably would have graded Reborn! with 8 or even 9. Unfortunately, this review was written in 2019. I decided to grade it a cold 5. Conclusion? Reborn! had failed to pass the test of time.

Back in mid-to-late Noughties, Reborn! became a staple for otaku and cosplayers everywhere. It was rare to see an anime series that blended a mafia element in its narrative and back then, zero-to-hero main characters were all the rage. Simplicity was celebrated, slapstick comedy was basically demanded, and the more straightforward the character development was, the better for the audience to ... follow. For instance, one could notice a subtle-yet-significant difference between the Noughties-era Tsuna and the 2010s-era Deku. While the latter seemed to have one giant crisis only as his sole challenge, Deku has so many barriers to climb, he just can't catch a break. Ultimately, though, that is what makes the latter more interesting than the former. Interesting and memorable. Boku no Hero Academia had learned the history and sadly, Reborn! is only a history.

It is not impossible for Noughties-era anime to stay relevant up to next decade and so. BLEACH, Naruto, and D.Gray-man had proven so without any necessity to re-master themselves for the current youngsters. What makes it impossible for Reborn! to join such league is simply the inability to stay relevant. The simplicity has become shallow in the eyes, the slapstick comedy has stopped drawing laughter and instead only drawing irritation and Tsuna has become the rare hero who just stops being either relatable or admirable. This has yet to mention the depiction of the female characters that is simply off-putting (it could draw the rage from the PTA of the present, I argue). Dare I say that the damage that Kyoko, Haru, and Bianchi had done to female empowerment movements has become far worse than what Misa of Death Note did? Well... yes.

Regardless of such, it is still understandable that Reborn! does --and will always-- have a loyal fan base. This is still one of those anime series with which one whole generation grew up and made their childhood the way it was. Just don't count this series to generate new fan base. Sometimes, re-watching is not always a good idea. Sometimes, having a nostalgic memory is better.

#felixlovesanime

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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May 31, 2021

Resting_Bonfire

Not Recommended

Katekyo Hitman Reborn,

probably one of the most individual and memorable Shonen titles ever.

This anime deals with a very fresh and fascinating subject of the Mafia and various groups. You could compare it to the usual "magic guild" concept, as they are very similar. However, the structure and style are completely different. This was also implemented authentically and the respective families had charisma.
In addition, this series has a huge number of different personalities among the characters that are both interesting and bizarre.
The whole thing is decorated with wonderfully epic and beautiful musical support.

The whole thing sounds just perfect and I wish it had been too. Unfortunately, ... "Katekyo Hitman Reborn" is by far one of the worst shounen I've seen in my whole life and I will certainly not watch it a second time to save me this agony. Whether the manga is better than the anime adaptation is unclear to me and I will definitely never find out.

But what makes this series so bad when it sounds so promising?

First and foremost, it's implementation. There is almost no tension in this series and is probably one of the slowest in terms of dynamics among the Shounen. Most of the fights are just hot air, drawn-out, and appear far too childish due to the visual representation and censorship. Though, as the series progresses, you notice that it was definitely intended for teenagers.

Unfortunately, there is also a disappointing story. A very interesting final act was introduced that did not want to develop until the end and ended extremely flat. Although I found the final fight at least subtle for his standards. And that was the one-sided best arc. The first 20 episodes of the series are simple torture.

As I said earlier, the show has a lot of interesting personalities in characters, and it really is. As expected, the implementation here also made a big curve around the topic. Not only were a majority of the characters ultimately hateful, no, but their dialogues were also almost catastrophic as well. The author completely lacked the creativity to make the characters appear authentic and he left them like simple sidekicks and NPCs.
The protagonist was apart from his familiar awakened mode, just an empty shell with hardly any personality. Even if he owns one of the best theme songs by far, he's just an ongoing disappointment. The 2 female protagonists are the usual sidekicks that you hardly see and that are only there to scream the name of the protagonist. Almost everyone in the team of the protagonists is completely linear and has hardly any real charisma, let alone conversations. Only a few anti-hero protagonists were able to express their personalities more and actually stay interesting. Unfortunately, these had the lowest screen time of all the main characters.
The main antagonist of this series was visually quite interesting and had a charismatic personality, his simple ambitions at least existed. Unfortunately, he had no depth of character, like practically no character in the anime, as well as little development. The characters that had even minimal development were robbed of their entire screen time.


In the area of ​​animation, I can hardly say anything. In the course of the final arc, there were 2-3 fights in which a certain budget was used. Other than that, the animations are very dull and full of still images, like flipping through the manga. Which is also not wrong. I don't think a higher budget would have saved the series in any way.

Musically, Katekyo Hitman Reborn is definitely one of the strongest shounen titles and can definitely be on par with the most famous. Not only are the Osts individual and immensely creative, they even leave a good aftertaste and an occasional catchy tune.


In conclusion,

Katekyo Hitman Reborn is a series that had almost everything to be good, unfortunately, there was a lack of implementation and that massively. Almost everything that was touched here was ruined. From the tension, fighting, characters to the story and the dialogues.
And that's just enormously disappointing.

Story - 4
Art - 5
Sound - 10
Character - 4
Enjoyment - 4
Overall - 4

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Episode 15 Discussion notestinet - Jul 28, 2008	23 replies	by Samet_Online »» Oct 1, 7:25 AM
	Sequel anime when? Gardevoir0338 - Dec 3, 2024	8 replies	by HectorBlaze »» Jul 26, 4:14 PM
	Poll: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Episode 192 Discussion garfield15 - Jul 9, 2010	39 replies	by sjw_vegeta »» Jul 4, 10:34 PM
	Poll: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Episode 127 Discussion llamaben - Apr 3, 2009	42 replies	by sjw_vegeta »» Jun 28, 12:44 AM
	Poll: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Episode 54 Discussion Darkreaper70 - Dec 15, 2007	23 replies	by sjw_vegeta »» Jun 18, 10:57 PM

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