Jul 20, 2012
Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn Review
“Zero to Hero”
Hitman Reborn lasted much more longer then we thought. Aired on 2006, the series ended on Sep 25 2010, airing for almost 4 consecutive years total of 203 episodes. It is not exaggerating to say that Hitman Reborn is pretty much a veteran, especially in regards to the shounen genre, excluding the comparison of The Big Three that is.. since those three are quite incomparable.
Hitman Reborn’s story revolves around a teenage boy attending Junior High whom everyone calls “Tsuna”. He is known to be bad physically and academically and top of that, he is unpopular and had no friends. His life however, takes a sudden and extraordinary change when ‘Reborn’(ciaos), an infamous hitman from the Vongola mafia family, takes a flight to Japan and trains Tsuna into becoming the 10th boss of Vongola.
One main flaw in Hitman Reborn’s storytelling is the plot inconsistencies, not much planning can be seen in plots department. That’s the sole reason why Hitman Reborn’s story changed so much drastically over the years. First, we have normal everyday school life with humors and styles that could easily turned into a harem show. Then, the actions come in and the anime finally became what it is more intended for.. shounen. It is at this time where arcs like the Kokuyo Arc and Varia Arc (no more underwear transformations! Yaaay!) emerged. And for the most recent one, it now turns into a bizarre arc which even involved time traveling on a large scale. Ironically, it seems this franchise gotten more known just when the actions started kicking in. And I myself, also prefer the more technical and bizarre plot too, with all those time traveling, guardians, rings, boxes and deathperation flames, in contrast to the former harem-y situations.
Hitman Reborn is very good at character developments. Out of all the characters, Tsuna is probably developed the most. From one who had no friends to someone who has his own mafia family (although he denies it), from one who is physically weak to someone who can fight bravely, from a wimp to a 10th generation mafia boss. Basically, he turned from zero to hero. For the other characters, I found them a bit annoying at first but after learning more about them, I grew to love them and each of their special traits the characters possesses.
Hitman Reborn has a big character cast and I can’t help but find that some of them are nothing more then just plot devices. Besides, some of the characters could even be removed and the show would have been perfectly fine too. Especially when it’s nearing the end, there’s the main character and his guardians, the Varia, the Arcobaleno, Mukuro/Chrome and the rest of the gang. In a way, it’s like Nanoha. After some epic fights, the bad guys are defeated but they usually don’t die. Then after a while, the bad guys return and help the protagonist. Rinse and repeat and that explains the huge character cast. Having so many characters made viewers lose focus on the main characters, namely Tsuna and his guardians. Nevertheless, Hitman Reborn still has some good characters. I eventually found myself liking all the guardians and some of the supporting characters like Xanxus and Squalo.
For an anime that started in 2006, it has quite a decent level of art and animations. Though I found their battle animations looking a bit stiff at some points but that is nothing to fret about as most of the elements are illustrated thoroughly. The art styles is well designed and the characters and settings did not lack too many details from the original artwork.
Hitman Reborn has a lot of great openings and endings. One of my favorite is LM.C’s BOYS & GIRLS. I also like LM.C’s 88, CHERRYBLOSSOM’s DIVE TO WORLD and Ame Ato by w-inds. The voice acting is good too. I think the only voice acting I don’t like in this show is Gokudera. He sounds too forced, especially when he had to shout during battles, doing tsukkomi or when he had to show sincearity in his voice. I do like Mukuro’s distinctive “fufufu” and Hibari’s “kamikorosu” and Squalo’s “VOOOI!!!” Lastly, I applaud Ryohei’s with his ‘extreme’ voice acting. Kiuchi Hidenobu certainly did a fine job in delivering the ‘extreme’ qualities with his voice much needed for Ryohei. Both the sound effects and background music are good but seems reused a lot as you watched the more later episodes.
Now that this anime had ended, some people found that it’s good since they don’t want Hitman Reborn to turn into another Naruto/Bleach. Yet, some miss the show and wish for more. Well certainly, Reborn had a good run and it did a good job coming so far. If you don’t like the beginning of this show, give it a chance. The plot starts to build up later on and that is when this show starts getting more interesting and exciting.
*Spoiler Alert*
The Manga is still Ongoing has three more Arcs from where the Anime left Off we Met Enma.Demon Spada, and finally the mystery why Reborn and the others are Arcobaleno. (super babies)
