Overall Score: 7
This is a manga review. I promise I'll hit the anime once I'm further into it, but it hasn't registered enough episodes logged for me to review yet.
Story - 5
The story in Katekyo Hitman Reborn is subpar at best and full of almost painful cliches. Full of previously unmentioned relatives, abusive senseis, naive characters, and pseudo villians who will join the heroes cause eventually. Ugh! The story surrounds Sawada Tsunayoshi who is a middle school student, he is naive, whiny, foolish, and over all extremely reluctant to get involved with anything. Before we ever have a chance to actually get to know Tsuna however he's thrust into a world that he knows nothing about, the world of the 'mafia'. Tsuna will be taught [see: abused) by his home tutor the cursed 'baby' Reborn. He will inherit the title of the tenth generation Vongola Boss (in trying to teach us italian Vongola means Clam, yeah so the Clam Mafia family......), but first he has to gather loyal followers to be his family. Here we get a whole new handful of cliches, but I'll cover those in characters. So instead of listening to Tsuna's abject denial of being a mafioso he is bullied into it, including at one point being told he would be he would be killed if he didn't suceed in a job that had nothing to do with him. And That's the base story....it's kind of.....painful really.....
Characters- 5
I'm not sure why this cast is so freaking endearing but well it happens, so I know if your reading this your thinking 'Loveable? With a score of 5?' Yes, loveable and with absolutely no character development at all. I have read 300+ chapters of this manga and the only people who have taken any steps forward as characters are DOkuro Chrome, Sawada Tsunayoshi, Miura Haru, and Sasagawa Kyoko. Four characters out of a very very large cast. Other Characters (Hibari Kyoya, Rokudo Mukuro, Xanxus, and Gokudera Hayato) come of as nothing more then petulant petty children. Don't misunderstand me though I like my fair share of pettyness, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. I draw the line at Xanxus throwing HOT coffee at Squalo's head for ? reason. That is the exact kind of action one would expect from Lambo not a 24 year old man, I really hate that alot. The villians seem to have no discernable purpose, let alone a purpose that you can take even remotely seriously. When Byakuran announces his grand scheme you really can't help but bury your face in your hands and cry a little. On the other hand Dokuro Chrome doing dishes with I-pin showed that she was trying her best to come out of her shell and accept the other girls friendship, and now.... now she's seen frequently with Haru, Kyoko , and I-pin. Then there is the ever cute, eve loveablr blackhole of character development himself Yamamoto Takeshi. Cute? Yes. Lovable? You Betcha! All the depth and meaning of a spoon? Right on the money. From the first time it's brought up all the way into the future arc Yamamoto honestly believes that this is all just a mafia game. A game with explosives, murder, prisons, and assassins. What a game.
Art- 6
Visually Hitman Reborn can fall anywhere between 'OMG what the hells wrong with that guy?' all the way over to 'from the right angel Hibari looks kind of good in that' and so on and so forth. In the later chapters more details become apparent, the characters start to appear less generic looking as more detail is added into their hair and clothes. Overall the art isn't horribly offputting but it's not really striking either. I do appreciate however that other then Hibari's unnatural attachment to his disciplinary committee outfit, that the characters actually wear different outfits from time to time. The most notable of these being the always horrible but ever changing wardrobe of Rokudo Mukuro. Another Area of notable detail is in the tattoos on Dino Cavallone's arms. Also a lot of detail goes into weapons and special moves. PS Mukuro's Khakkhara has some great detail, very cool looking.
Overall- 7
Pretty generous score considering this review's bias, but whereas the characters and story are fairly blase' my overall enjoyment of this franchise sits right about here. The story arcs though not page turners are interesting enough that you want to finish the story arc and you really want to see the villiansget their faces bashedin for what theydid to our 'heroes'. Returning side characters always add a nice flair bringing with them their own tricks, trip ups, and one liners that make you smile even if just a little. I think that whereas the things Hitman Reborn does wrong it does really really epicly wrong, the few things that it does right really draws you.
