I get the feeling there are little to non critical reviews for KHR, so I'm gonna give it a try (and yes, I AM biased and a bad writer)
Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn! starts as an gag series with flat humor, after 20 episodes is shifts to a shounen-fight. With that change the overall comedy elements get lessen, but they are still present.
The comedy in KHR is mostly aimed at children and does not have any deeper elements to it, expect for some absurd showings of their running-gags edging to satire. As said, the comedy is mainly made out of simple character traits and resulting running gags
...
or punch lines.
Each and every character in this show gets their own trademark line or trait. Something like dere-archetypes just a bit more overdrawn and without any good explanation for that behavior, but we'll later have a look at the characters.
Returning punchlines and the sometimes high pitched voices we have in KHR are things that often have a pretty good affect on children, because it sticks in their heads and sounds friendly and funny to them.
In addition to that the story has some comical elements to it. Mostly the exaggerated situations the protagonist Tsuna has to face or the exaggerated way he has to face simple situations. Getting shot and regretting not having lived to the fullest, thus getting “Deathperated” and doing the stuff he would regret otherwise.
What most people really appreciate about this anime is the action that starts after like 20 episodes. Similar to the humor, the action has no proper build up. An essential element of a Shounenbattle would be an exciting and diverse training that makes the character overcome an obstacle and lets them grow as a character.
KHR has a good amount of training arcs, which are presented in a different way than an usual show would do. The style of those arcs presented just like the gag stroyline in the beginning. A baby teasing the protagonist with a ridiculous task or some other burden they have to face to overcome their weakness. Thus we get to see a mix of action-battles and comedy for each trainings arc. Sadly we don't really get to see any real struggle, the characters just get a new ability or are suddenly just stronger than before. So the most important thing for a good written and growing character is missing and we get to watch the same cast without any changes for 203 episodes, just the battle-system grows.
The actual action was not too bad. We have some average animations and a cool battle-system. On the other hand we have the story, which forces itself in every single fight. Because of that every fight comes down to an one versus one, even though 10 people could interfere. The tactical deepness also gets other thrown, either it is just told as an simple creep-power show-off or they overcome everything with sheer plot armor.
Lets have a look at the characters.
All of them are presented as simple minded beings only showing us their one character trait used for comedic purposes. The main character Tsuna is a crybaby and after 200 episodes he still is. The only character development we get is his Deathperationmode. He gets super badass taking on every burden, every enemy, every fight, but this sudden change just makes the character absurd and every obstacle he overcomes gets boring to watch.
Even thought there are some attempts to make the characters look deep or really cool or whatever, it only scraps on the surface concluding in an even lesser state of an actual character, for example:
The girls in the anime eventually, after 150 episodes, start to question what exactly the reason is the protagonists even have to fight. Every protagonist is outrageous when they think about the fact they would harm those cute little girls with the truth! But leaving them without explanation in a completely deracinate environment, literally hiding in a secret base after they were warped into a different environment and being attacked by some flying maniacs, is okay?! The jokes here is, the girls change their minds because they see how hard everyone fails without their unconfined help (in the kitchen... they literally only cook and stoppage for one day to get their answer). At least they're still informed about the situation.
And that is about as deep as it gets. Maybe every now and then a good idea comes up to strengthen the writing of the character, but that's just too little and it simply does not affect the characters.
As for the story, it is just not engaging, we have a bunch of memeing characters and memeing action. The story we experience is not told, it is forced upon Tsuna. Reborn just tells us that he has to do something, otherwise the whole family will be in trouble. Crybaby Tsuna cries about how he doesn't even want the responsibility and gets forced into a training-arcs. If it wasn't for the bad storytelling the story would actually has it's points. But it's told in such an unrelatable fashion, due to the fact that we only get to experience the fights and the training. The whole story we get is in long exposition scenes where every character present interrupts the story with a running gag.
I've already covered the art in the review for the action, it's just average. Some ED/OPs look nice, some scenes look good, but it is the same old long running shounen that has 90% reused animations. Trust me on that percentage.
The OST was average too imo. I liked some tracks and like 3 OP/EDs. The main action theme was the most memorable from it, just like any other shounen it pumps you up for the unbelievable counterattack from the protagonists after avoiding a pinch or when they show off a new or awesome ability.
All in all it felt dragging and boring, even the hyped up moments were lame, because the whole series lacked a good writing and build-up. KHR only relies on running-gags and simple creep power exchanges without any character deepness or development. Because of that, everything that it does right, falls flat.
I hope I could help people with this review or people who disagree with me are able to see my points. IDC If you still enjoy this show, I just wanted to make a review that's now just praising this anime.
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Jan 24, 2018
Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
(Anime)
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I get the feeling there are little to non critical reviews for KHR, so I'm gonna give it a try (and yes, I AM biased and a bad writer)
Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn! starts as an gag series with flat humor, after 20 episodes is shifts to a shounen-fight. With that change the overall comedy elements get lessen, but they are still present. The comedy in KHR is mostly aimed at children and does not have any deeper elements to it, expect for some absurd showings of their running-gags edging to satire. As said, the comedy is mainly made out of simple character traits and resulting running gags ... |
