At first i thought it would be a solid experience, thinking the characters would have significant character development and grow to accept their roles, but I'll tell you right now that this is for the most part, not the case.
The first 20 or so episodes of the anime are exclusively used to introduce characters and their powers (or weapons actually), they set up the premice that Tsuna is eventually gonna have to grow up and accept his role as the tenth boss, but he never does.
Below I'll explain on a precise note what makes this anime so terrible.
Story score: 7
Despite everything that Reborn! does wrong, the story is one of the few things it manages to get right, the arcs are actually pretty interesting story wise, they introduce the Arcobaleno (which in my opinion are the best part of the anime), have a war with rival mafia, a fight to decide who is the worthy successor of the Vongola, and some other things i'll not ention for the sake of keeping this as spoiler free as I can. After a while Tsuna stops getting naked as often as he does during the first 20~ episodes, but it still happens every now and then.
Art score: 7
Not much to say here, the anime is pretty old but it manages to look okay, it would be up to 2008 standards.
Sound score: 6
Same as the above but it does lack a bit more sometimes.
Character score: 2
Now here is my biggest issue with the anime, 90% of the main cast is absolutely terrible, specially Tsuna.
Tsuna:
Right off the bat I'll mention this, 194 episodes into the anime he still gets scared of everything, still refuses to act as the boss saying he never agreed to it, and absolutely ignores his gut feelings when he is not in combat.
The only times where Tsuna actually shines, is when he enters serious mode, which imo, he should use a lot more often. If you've watched Bleach,, get ready for an experience similar to Orihime's "Kurosaki-kun", because the amount of times he says "Kyoko-chan" is unreal.
He knows right away when one of his friends feels troubled, but only like 3 times has he actually done something about it; he says he fights to protect his friends, but during the last arc his friends are in danger almost the entire time, and he just stands there scared instead of reacting to the danger; he's trained an insane amount of times, and still whines when Reborn or anyone else tells him to train (credits to him for training by himself sometimes).
Overall he is a horrible MC, and an annoying character, i honestly rooted for the other boss candidate because he is actually a cool character who acts like a boss (he's an asshole tho).
Gokudera:
At first he is not so bad, but as the show goes on he gets worse and worse. He fights with literally everyone else, is rude for no reason, screams and rages whenever someone calls out Tsuna for sucking, calls himself "The boss' right hand man" but is never actually reliable, refuses to get help even when he knows he doesn't stand a chance, has the annoying trope of having a stomachache whenever he sees his sister. During a filler episode, they show how a right hand man should actually act, and it is miles better, but, as it happens with this show, whatever development he had during that episode, is thrown out the window on the next one.
Yamamoto:
He is actually one of the few characters I liked. He has an easygoing personality, but gets serious when he has to, is reliable, the only time he argued with someone from the team, was when Gokudera was being an asshole.
Lambo:
The most annoying little shit in the entire anime. The amount of trouble he gets the team into is enormous, he's pretty much useless, in fact, he's a liability for the rest. The irony is, he's the only kid i've seen in an anime who actually acts like a kid. I wanted to strangle him several times. So if the writers' intention was to represent real kids, they nailed that with Lambo. He has a few cool scenes (like a total 5 minutes) but pointing them out would be a spoiler.
I-Pin:
She gets introduced as a walking timebomb, and stays like that for the first quarter of the anime, after that she just becomes someone who tries to keep Lambo under control only to get herself in trouble along the way.
Hibari:
He single handedly has the most said line in the anime. "I'll bite you to death" and its pretty annoying. He's a quiet type and really doesnt give a damn about the others unless it is absolutely necessary, which puts him in a positive light for me because I hate everyone else too.
Chrome:
She would be a great character, if the anime actually developed her at all or gave her screentime. She's shy and doesn't know how to react towars kindness, but that just leaves her with no place to be during 3/4 of the anime. When she oes appear, her lines consist of "Mukuro-sama" and thats pretty much it. She is very weak, so whenever she does something it usually leaves her bedridden.
Haru and Kyoko:
They are mostly there to give Tsuna a reason to fight and to keep the team stable. Haru has a lot of personality and is a breath of fresh air because how grounded she is, while being absolutely ridiculous at the same time. Kyoko is just serving the role of Tsuna's love interest and nothing else, she;s a pretty bland character.
Bianchi:
She has the most stupid skill out of the team, using poison cakes. The funny thing is she often acts as if she's tough, only to get bodied in seconds. After a while, her purpose shifts to serving as the "wise older sister" for the team, specially the girls.
Reborn:
The single best character in the anime. Hes not afraid to be ridiculous when he can afford to be, but at the same time is always pushing Tsuna to act as the Boss, even if Tsuna never does. He teaches him from early on what it means to be part of the mafia, how a boss should care for his subordinates, and is always calling out how weak and how much of a wuss Tsuna is. He knows which characters are acting out of line ore simply being a hindrance or a nuisance. And most importantly he shows Tsuna the hard truth, that no one is gonna hold back just because he is scared, and that people could die if he doesn't take things seriously.
Enjoyment score: 4
What few truly enjoyable scenes there are, are quickly ruined by the characters' dumb clichés, bad jokes, annoying personality, and overused lines. After a certain point Tsuna manages to single handedly make me go insane because he never got the character development he needed, he just kept whining all the way. Many times the anime had a perfect moment to have him go serious and act like the Boss, but he never took advantage of it. In my eyes, Tsuna remained the same good for nothing he was at the start of the show, and Serious Tsuna isjust a completely different character.
Overall score: 5
There are way better shonens out there, even from the same era. Whatever lead people to rate this anime an 8, is just not there for me because even a 5 feels like im being generous.
