Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, aka “The Idiotic Mafia anime”. Who would have guessed that the Godfather would get such a ridiculous spin-off in Japan? And here I thought zombies called orcs in Gungrave was too much.
But let’s clarify a few things first. This show is a silly action/comedy that uses a backdrop story as an excuse for mostly random gags and some guys to come fight with some other guys. Don’t expect a captivating, multi-layered, well-thought of scenario. It is just a typical “kid wants to grow stronger and more secured with himself and lead its own empire” scenario, with the catch that he didn’t choose it. Others did that for him; specifically his father who wants to prepare him just to succeed him in his mafia family when he retires. It is not a bad premise actually; it is good to see a story where the lead character is forced to do something important against his will and gaining the support of those around him in the process. Remember Shinji in Neon Genesis?
Well too bad he is no Shinji and this is hardly a Neon Genesis. It’s nothing but a silly comedy with slapstick humour, random stories and over the top characters. So we can start by saying the story is barely there, goes nowhere, and you shouldn’t even care about it. Sure, there is occasional progress in the form of having the characters overcoming a challenge and becoming stronger but that never actually heads to something important. They go here, they go there, they travel in time, they play in a Pokemon-like tournament, they assume forms from the future, they gather magic rings, blah blah, random mambo jumbo just for kicks.
Pacing is another very negative thing. Having good humour and dense episodic storylines would be good but to the most part it is dragging to the point of insanity. The first 7 volumes are nothing but aimless childish episodic adventures where we just get to know the characters of the show. Past the introduction, they are boring and barely rewatchable. Down to it, it’s the characters that only matter in this show and your enjoyment is equal to how much you can laugh with them or tolerate them thereafter. The protagonist may appear to be Tsuma, but he is just a boring wimp who just has to do stuff for the heck of it. The real good ones are Reborn, the baby-mafia with a lizard gun, and Lambo, the afro cow-uniform baby. There are others almost as interesting and, yeah, again all of them are babies doing nonsense. Do you believe this is a shonen about babies? In fact, the entire show is quite juvenile in its humour and action; do not go comparing it to Naruto or One Piece because its target audience is much younger and thus has far less violence and intelligence.
Anyways, even if you get to love the characters for their weirdness it is still questionable for how long you will like them before they become annoying. There is no actual character development besides getting to see more sides to them (usually involving their future selves) and most of them are defined by an extreme personality quirk and nothing else. How many times can you stand watching them doing the exact same things before getting fed up with it? It might have worked with Urusei Yatsura in the 80’s but this is not nearly as extreme in humour or episodic in structure.
The artwork is ok all things considered, and so are the battles if you are around 10 years old but surely lack excitement. I mean, most of the times they shoot Tsuma with a bullet which makes his clothes rip apart (but not his trunks) and he gets all furious and powerful, doing all sorts of improbable things, only to revert back into a spineless idiot a few minutes later. And that is all the action you get to the most part. Later on it gets a bit more complicating with Pokemons and mgic rings but it never becomes hardcore action. Because it’s for kids.
So is it a good show? Sporadically yes, if your bar is rather low. It’s definitely not good in the beginning, and the characters are frozen stiff in personality and mostly repeat the same joke. And of course girls are useless who can only cook while boys love to fight. And babies carry gun lizards and time machines. And all that makes no sense and it’s funny for a couple of times before you get bored with its juvenile approach.
