Katekyo Hitman Reborn is not a very good anime. It isn't, but it's also not the worst I've ever seen. This anime had potential to be moderately decent, but suffers from most of the same problems that hindered Bleach into a tailspin. I wanted to wait until I reached the future story arc before I wrote my review for this show, as this was apparently the money storyline. Admittedly, I wanted to see just what this was about. Now that I'm about halfway through KHR, I have just what I need to write a proper review for this. I'll break it into the good and bad of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
[THE BAD]
THE ACTION: While it's not as bad as Bleach, the fighting is just as obnoxious and probably sillier. Battles used to mean something in action shows, now they have dissolved into the method of following in Dragonball Z's footsteps: forget about subtext and just make your fight as loud as possible. It's bad enough that the skills these characters use look completely ridiculous, even by shonen standards, but they could've been utilized on a level that wasn't brain-numblingly stupid. I'll fix some of the stupidest ones right now.
1. Bianchi's Poison Cooking: Would it have been that hard to just have her vex someone's coffee with arsnic instead of producing plates of food out of thin air and shoving it in someones' face? It's hard for me to take this even remotely serious when you model a fighting style I've seen in Looney Tunes.
2. Get Rid of the Boxes: Really? Amano was so out of ideas, he had to rip a bit from a 13 year-old kid's show that already spawned a generation of Pocket Monster knockoffs? This gimmick was incorporated to increase it's female fanbase, because it's cute when Hibari summons a spiky hedgehog. That's fair game in my book; you need to increase your demographic, fine. But what's infuriating is the fact that every cast member that fights already has an established fighting style. Adding this only makes the fights more overbooked and complicated than they already are. It's such a cheap plug for a card game, I was expecting a starter deck to pop out of my C drive.
3. XanXus' Jet Handguns: Ben 10 is calling, and Heatblast wants his powers back.
THE COMEDY: Comic relief doesn't work when every single character has a satirical shtick. By trying to make every character funny, the jokes don't bounce off anyone, and you just have method actors reading catchphrases.
"Gotta....stay...calm"
"ROMEOOOOO!!!"
"TO THE EXTREME!!"
"I'll bite you to death"
"I'm the Tenth's right hand man"
"Ku fufu"
"I have to deliver these noodles"
This is overkill. These jokes are repeated anytime one of these acts are on the screen, and they are long past being fresh. Actually, to call them jokes would be insinuating that they were at some point funny. Without a balanced set of personalities (a catalyst, the butt of the joke, an instigator, and a straight man), humor doesn't work. Since there's no set up or punchline, the characters just scream at each other all day, and it's grating. How many times does Gokudera need to double over in agony after seeing Bianchi? Dr. Shamal wasn't funny back when he was Master Roshi. And Ipin's forehaed bomb is about as amusing as a root canal. The only character that truly makes me laugh is Haru Miura. More on her later.
THE PLOT PACING: The story(s) are slighty better than I would expect, but nothing above moderate. In fact, the plot could be a lot better if everything wasn't so drawn out and uninteresting. I won't harp on the endless amounts of filler (it's become almost a necessary evil in anime today), but rather the parts where things are supposed to be happening, but it prolongs simple development to the point where it grinds to a halt. Not a spoiler, during the Millefiore raid, Gokudera actually wants to STOP THE ATTACK so Yamamoto can talk about the Arcabaleno. Top it off with the fact that everything seems like it's kept a secret from the audience when it's just another new character reveal. Byankuan (I think I butchered that name) is supposed to be the main antagonist, but they have not given me a reason to hate him. It's becoming a pet peeve of mine when bad guys now just sit in chairs and LOOK evil instead of doing villainous deeds. They told me he runs a very powerful Family that can crush the Vongolas in 23 seconds, but has failed to alluminate on that, instead telling me how animals kept in boxes can turn the tide in a battle. On a side note, I think the Black Spell and White Spell guys look too much like Soul Reapers and Arrancars for my taste. It's just another stark reminder as to how little thought gets put into these franchises when four sets of cast members in two different shows dress exactly alike. Pitiful.
[THE GOOD]
TSUNAYOSHI SAWADA: I never thought this would happen, and it took awhile, but Tsuna is actually a pretty acceptable main character. He's no Gon Freeces in Hunter X Hunter, but in today's age of shonen leads being just completely intolerable jackasses and ignorant A-holes, Tsuna is a significant upgrade from Ichigo Kurosaki and Ryoma Echizen in Prince of Tennis. Yes, he's whiny, whimpy, and seemingly "no-good", but the real lighting-in-a-bottle of a character like this is watching them grow up before your eyes. it's what I loved about Gohan, though the saiyan's road is far more memorable and cohesive, Tsuna's metamorphosis into an independent pillar of valor is a something I can take away as a mild success from this. He's incredibly down to earth as well. All he wants is to win the affections of Kyoko, yet his own fantasies about marrying her and impressing her are so low-barred, it's like his brain is actually telling him he can't do it. I find that a little refreshing. To grade him on a letter scale, I'd give him a C average.
THE GIRLS: I always get the impression that shonen authors don't like to write female characters, what with the way they all follow the familiar pattern of being completely bitchy, nagging, hostile shrews like Bulma, and good ladies in shonen like Rukia get shelved and taken out of the show for episodes on end. The female cast of Hitman Reborn has been one of the reasons I made it as far as I have. While this mainly pretains to Kyoko and Haru (Lal Mirch and Chrome aren't presented enough at the point I'm at. Especially poor Chrome, she's the worst treated character in the whole franchise), I really like Tsuna's mother and even Bianchi has moments when she plays the big sister to the others. But man, Haru Miura has become one of my favorite supporting characters ever. Her off-beat wackiness, unpredictable sense of style, and unbridled enthusiasum picks me up everytime I got the urge to drop this show and became the heart and soul of KHR for me. her cheery theme music is like a Phoenix Down being dropped on my head after one of those silly box battles. The only other character to breathe this much life into something that didn't seem that good at first was Hime in Princess Resurrection last year, and that's now one of the best titles I'm currently reading. The ladies in KHR are always a healthy break away from the stupidity of the fighting and hackneyed dialouge, and are the best girls going in shonen for me today.
NOSTALGIA: While the humor fails and a good chunk of potential character development gets lost in the mundane battles, KHR has a certain feel about it that hearkens back to the classic days of shonen action series. The characters, while paper thin for the most part, are seemingly vibrant and full of life, like Yu Yu Hakusho or Power Stone. The setting and envoirnment isn't always dark and gritty like in Naruto or Bleach, and stays lighthearted enough to be a tongue-in-cheek action show, even if it is a little bit long. The intensity of the plot kind of picks up when a villian shows up, even if they lose steam halfway through the arc. If this show had come out in 1998, heck, even 2002, I would've fallen in love with it because it retains a glimmer of the spirit that most shonen titles lack nowadays, and that all I ask from this genre. Not Shippuuden.
IN CLOSING: This was long winded review, and I apologize. I can only hope the readers understand my frustration with thinking out a meticulous review for a show that's almost down the middle, it's not a "bad" 5. This was a mixed bag for me. There's a lot I really hate about this show that I can relate to other shonen title mentioned in this review and probably rant about for another eight paragraphs, and while the bad outweighs the good, it comes down to quality of the good over quantity of the bad, and those elements have kept me watching KHR for over 100+ episodes, and is a testament to doing just enough right to keep me entertained. I can't say the same for Bleach and Naruto, which I'll never finish.
STORY: 4
ART: 7
SOUND: 6
CHARACTERS: 3
ENJOYMENT: 5
OVERALL SCORE: 5 out of 10
PROS: Solid voice acting, most Hibari scenes, music is catchy
CONS: Cast is way too big, terrible fights, lackluster gags, 5 minute recaps every episode
