Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Your wholesome neighborhood mafia family.
"You'll understand if you die."
—Reborn

Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada is a loser. A really big loser. Last in his class, inept at sports, and generally disliked by the populace of his school.

He's also the future boss of the Vongola crime family.

He doesn't believe it at first, but when his "home tutor", a diminutive hitman named Reborn, visits him and shoots him (apparently) dead, he gains unstoppable determination and becomes able to do a host of amazing feats and command the respect of others... just the sort of thing he needs to turn his life around.

However the life of a mafia boss is fraught with danger, and Tsuna and his new 'family' must become stronger if they are to survive the competition.

A popular Shonen Jump manga series by Akira Amano (known simply as Reborn! in the Viz translation) with an anime adaptation that ran from 2006 to 2010. The latter is available free and legally with English subtitles at Crunchyroll and Hulu, but only in certain areas.

Tropes used in Katekyo Hitman Reborn include:
  • A Boy and His X: A Boy and His Scheming One-Year-Old Assassin Tutor.
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Namimori Junior High's Disciplinary Committee controls the school and the whole town through violence.
    • They can also get rid of dead bodies.
      • The Liquidation Committee of Shimon Middle School could qualify as well, since they're practically an expy of the Disciplinary Committee.
  • Abusive Parents: Honestly, both of Tsuna's parents can't really count as being very good parents. His mother, although she loves him, constantly belittles him and cares little about doing anything about his future. His father is a Disappeared Dad who, without asking him about his opinion, decides to force him to become a Mafia crimelord that will be targeted by countless assassins.
    • His mom only really belittles him in the early chapters. She becomes much more sweet and supportive once Tsuna stops being such a loser.
    • There's also Chrome's parents, who treated her like she didn't exist and then abandoned her to die after a car accident... with half her internal organs missing.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: Tsuna who is thirteen when the series first starts, and Uni who is even younger.
    • Also Reborn himself until we found out he wasn't actually a child.
  • Accidental Marriage: Reborn and Bianchi (he got out of it)
  • Action Girl: Lal Mirch. Chrome might get there, someday.
    • Suzuki Adelheid
  • Adaptation Expansion: The "Arcobaleno" and the "Vongola Primo" filler arcs in the anime expanded on the backstories of the titled characters including The Reveal that it was Daemon Spade, Vongola's first mist guardian, who forced Primo to move to Japan, as well as giving Uni some character developement.
  • The Alcatraz: The impregnable Vendicare prison. Mukuro and the Kokuyo gang are the only people to have ever escaped from it, though they got sent back later. The most dangerous criminals are put into a coma and kept chained up in People Jars on the lowest level, where no light or sound can reach them.
  • All There in the Manual: Want to find out Bianchi's past? How Dino met Squalo? Why Mukuro hasn't taken over Tsuna's body yet despite all the opportunities to do so? The story of the Arcobaleno? Bluebell's Start of Darkness? Well you're going to have to read the novels, listen to CD Dramas, or watch the anime.
  • All Your Colors Combined: Vongola Rings! Activate!
    • The Arcobaleno pacifiers even more-so.
      • Byakuran and his funeral wreaths all seem to have this too - but in hair colours.
  • Alternate Universe: Many, in fact. Byakuran and Uni both have the power to acquire knowledge from multiple AU versions of themselves, which is what makes the former such a Magnificent Bastard.
  • Ambiguous Gender: Viper, aka Mammon. Goes as a man, but in fact spends most of the time in a form which makes impossible to tell his real gender or even looks. Also continues to live under aliases, to the point even his fellow Arcobalenos Colonello and Reborn don't know if that's really the person they used to know. When Mammon's looks get finally (partially) revealed, turns out it's suspiciously feminine.
  • Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Tsuna's Dying Will Bullet.
  • Angrish: Xanxus does this. A lot!
  • Animal Motifs: The Arcobaleno. Also Lambo, and Squalo.
    • During the Future Arc, everyone who is part of the Mafia seem to have this.
    • A commonly missed fact is that the Shimon family has an insect theme.
      • Enma is a Japanese rhinoceros beetle.
      • Aoya Koyo is a dragonfly.
      • Rauji is a beetle.
      • Shit-P is a spider.
      • Adelheid is praying mantis.
      • Mizuno is a honey bee or wasp.
      • Julie is an scorpion.
  • Animation Bump: The fight between Yamamoto and Genkishi had much better animation quality than usual.
  • Anticlimax: Compared to Tsuna's battles with Mukuro and Xanxus, the fight with Byakuran is rather short and underwhelming, especially when one considers how much hype Byakuran got before the fight; the power and knowledge of 8-tetra-trillion worlds, and he gets defeated in six chapters by a basic, if Deus Ex Machina fueled, X-burner.
    • Tsuna's going to the Ninth and refusing to be the Tenth Vongola Boss.
  • Arc Number: 27 is a pun on Tsuna, and it appears on his gloves and headset.
    • 7 is also a consistently recurring number throughout the series, 7 guardians, 7 flames, 7 new transfer students... you get the idea
  • Art Evolution: The boys sure seem to get a lot prettier as the manga runs on.
    • Simply admirable evolution of the art in the ENTIRE series. It can't be help that the bishies got even more bishie-y.
  • Asexuality: In all probability, Hibari. He's Married to the Job.
  • Asskicking Pose: Fran failed at unleashing his box weapon because he lacked one.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking
  • Awesome McCoolname: Bermuda Von Vichtenstein.
  • Ax Crazy: Hibari's more like Tonfa Crazy.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Mukuro and Hibari in the Filler Arc. Fangirls reaction was as expected.
    • Tsuna and Byakuran in The Curse of the Rainbow arc
    • Tsuna and Mukuro at the end of Chapter 380
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: It's the Mafia after all.
  • Badass Longcoat: The Mukuro of the future, not to mention the Six Funeral Wreaths, including Byakuran.
    • Tsuna has now achieved this status, thanks to his Cool Pet.
    • Hibari has one now as well thanks to his Vongola Gear
    • Daemon Spade's new outfit in the Inheritance Ceremony Arc features one, with a hood this time.
  • Badass Normal: Yamamoto doesn't need to be shot in the head or be related to mafia to kick everyone's asses.
  • Bad Boss: Xanxus, who mercilessly abuses his subordinates (especially Squalo, who is more likely to get heavy objects thrown at him than not) and has anyone who fails to complete a mission killed on the spot. Heck, he even takes out an entire squadron just because they didn't have the right kind of steak he wanted to eat!
  • Bad Future: The entire plot of the one arc.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Ghost has... No genitals. None what-so-ever. Not much to Full-Frontal Assault with there.
    • To be fair he is a Byakuran from another world who only got mutated because of the transistion, which also resulted into the destruction of his home world. Poor him... right?
  • Bare Your Midriff: Chrome in her school uniform. Interestingly, it seems to be only her, even though another character is seen wearing a uniform from the same school, and it doesn't bare the midriff. Nor does Chrome's clothing appear to be particularly tight.
    • At times, Tsuna in his Hyper Dying Will Mode.
  • Battle Butler: Or Right-hand Man.
    • Also Olgert, elephant-wielding butler to Rasiel, Bel's eviller twin
  • Beach Episode: Not to mention a pool episode.
  • Beam-O-War: Most of the Sky battle.
  • The Beautiful Elite: Most of the cast, especially after Art Evolution.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Lal and Colonello appear as sort of this.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Yamamoto. Hurt his friends, or heck, put a baseball in his hands and he automatically puts on his psycho killer face.
  • Big Damn Heroes: The freakin' VARIA pulls one off in the Future arc! As does Yammamoto later on
  • Big Ol' Eyebrows: Genkishi. They're against school rules!
  • Big Screwed-Up Family: Poor Tsuna gets recruited into one in the first episode!
    • More like he learns he's part of one.
  • Bishonen: All of the male main characters and 99% of the villains are hot.
  • Black Blood: In the anime, during the very few times that blood isn't removed expect to seem some Black Blood.
  • Blinding Bangs: Belphegor
    • Also, Bel's brother, Rasiel.
    • And Belphegor's pet mink.
  • Bloodless Carnage: About 99% of the blood and gore is removed from the manga into a surprisingly tame anime.
  • Blood Knight: Squalo. Fighting and Xanxus is all he needs.
  • Blood Upgrade: Belphegor. Just give him a few scratches and let his blood flow and he'll let hell loose on you.
    • The Vongola gear is a result of this, and the Shimon Rings needed this to become active.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Gokudera. Extremely.
    • And Gamma.
  • Body Horror: The Deathstalk Squad.
    • The Vindice as well. Underneath those cloaks and bandages, the Vindice members look like corpses.
  • Boobs of Steel: The new transfer student Suzuki Adelheid is the leader of the Shimon Middle School Liquidation Committee, an expy of the Disciplinary Committee, who challenged Hibari Kyouya to a duel to determine who will take charge of the discipline in the school. She also has very big . . . assets.
    • And they increase in size quite considerably in later chapters.
  • Book Dumb: Tsuna, Tsuna, Tsuna. In actuality, after the series gets more serious and Tsuna stops being an all-around Butt Monkey, he's shown to actually be pretty darn smart about figuring out how to fight and properly utilize his X-Gloves.
    • Yamamoto was also initially this, until it's shown that he only makes bad grades because he focuses on baseball instead of classes.
  • Boom! Headshot!: It's Reborn's anthem.
    • Xanxus shot Kikyou's head off at point blank range.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Averted by Xanxus' guns.
  • Bowdlerise: It seems that the series' central gimmick—the Dying Will Bullet that momentarily kills Tsuna and then brings him back to life with tremendous power—was a bit too violent for the anime version. So now, instead of Reborn pulling out a gun and shooting Tsuna in the head, Reborn's pet chameleon takes the form of a gun (which is colored bright green, so it looks like a toy) and Reborn fires a bullet from it. The bullet then explodes before reaching its target, leaving behind an energy beam which hits Tsuna. Needless to say, it greatly lessens the impact of the sequence, not to mention coming off as needlessly complicated.
    • Most other references to Reborn being a hitman or using real guns are cut out as well, probably because of his age. To be fair he is an adult, but you're not supposed to know just by watching an episode or two.
    • Lal Mirch's scars are changed to a tattoo.
    • Yamamoto's story on joining Tsuna's family is changed big time. In the manga, Yamamoto attempts to commit suicide, which is foiled by Tsuna, while the anime just has him basically join out of nowhere right after Gokudera.
    • The anime also never shows any blood, so you see people staggering around like they're mortally wounded when all you can see is a tiny cut or a rip on their clothing. Needless to say, it's quite confusing.
    • Gokudera is never seen smoking in the anime, which means the way his bombs light up themselves is... never explained. This is actually pretty funny and lampshaded by Tsuna the very first time.
    • In the Kokuyo arc, the countdown was made by extracting a number of teeth from each victim. The anime changed it to leaving pocket watches with different times.
    • Byakuran snapping Tsuna's neck is changed to a giant transparent hand crushing him instead.
  • Brainwashed: Chrome, by Julie/Daemon Spade.
    • Also Arcobaleno Leader Uni in the Future Arc. She apparently protects herself from becoming a permanent mind control slave though, by sending her heart "someplace far away".
  • Break the Cutie: More like stomp the baby, right? On another note, Belphegor's childhood treatment of Rasiel seems to have, er, broken every last bit of normalcy the guy had. Seriously.
  • Brilliant but Lazy: Belphegor
  • Brother Chuck: Longchamp and his family. He was introduced as the boss of a much goofier rival crime family to Tsuna's, but despite being the focus of several consecutive stories, he proved unpopular, and his whole crew vanished from the series without warning. In fact, the anime removes him from the series all together.
    • An explanation was presented as bonus material in the 11th collection. The reason Longchamp wasn't in the more action-oriented storylines is because he was taking his Gonk girlfriends out on dates at the time.
    • Chapter 295 features the triumphant (and brief) return of Longchamp. The entire scene is basically a self-referential joke about how he hasn't appeared in such a long time. He says he's been absent from school a lot lately, and Gokudera claimes to have completely forgotten Longchamp existed.
  • Building Swing: Reborn
  • But Not Too Foreign: Gokudera.
  • Butt Monkey: Tsuna (borderline Chew Toy at first, it must be said). Also Lambo. And Skull among the Arcobaleno.
    • Levi gets quite a lot of abuse from the other members of the Varia.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Shounen will be shounen.
  • Camp Gay: Lussuria, all the way.
    • Lampshaded in one of the mini-comics, where the narration tells us that Lussuria is likely to be quickly forgotten by readers as he is little more than a perverted gay stereotype. He takes great issue with this assessment.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Tsuna of his feelings for Kyoko.
  • Can't Live Without You
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys: There is an astounding amount of Bishonen in Reborn. They make up over 75% of the cast. Really.
  • Catch Phrase: Several characters. Most notable are Ryohei's "Extreme!", Squalo's "VOOOIII!", Hibari's "Bite you to death!" and Reborn's "Do it with your Dying Will".
    • And how could you forget "VONGOLA FIGHT!"?
  • Cats Are Mean: Gokudera's animal box weapon, Uri.
  • Cerebus Retcon: Reborn being a baby hitman was initially played straight, because the wackiness of the concept fit right in with the comedy feel the series was going for. Once things got more serious, it was revealed that he isn't really a baby at all.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: *sigh* Wave goodbye to the nice funny now. It won't be coming back.
  • Chaste Teens: Because the guys from Reborn are not attractive enough to have girlfriends at all.
    • It's not that they don't attract females - Yamamoto and Gokudera have their share of in-story fangirls - it's just that they're either dense to the popularity or think the girls are as annoying as hell.
  • Chef of Iron: Bianchi uses Poison Cooking as a weapon.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The box that Lambo's mafia family sent Irie Shouichi after Lambo helped destroy some of his apartment building.
    • The ring Lancia gave Tsuna.
    • Tsuna's lion Natsu, just look at this.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Irie Shouichi, and in the Future Arc Kawahira Ojisan, the man Adult I-pin delivers Ramen to.
  • Cherry Blossoms: The Sakura-kura disease, as well as the Ending Theme "Sakura Addiction".
  • The Chick: Chrome, except most of her organs are illusions by Mukuro, so you could say she's technically half-man. Haru and Kyoko are probably the best non-combat examples of the trope.
  • Chinese Girl: I-pin. Assassin from Hong Kong who fights with gyoza and has Mahjong-themed attacks. Later grows up to work in a ramen restaurant.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Shamal
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Yamamoto pretty much writes the book on this whenever anything Mafia-related comes up.
  • Code Name: Assumed that most of the Arcobaleno have at least one.
    • Some assume most of the Varia as well.
  • Combat Commentator
  • Cool Car: Cool Motorcycle. They run on Dying Will Flames!
    • And have stealth functions!
  • Cool Pet: Everyone has one now.
    • Some have two.
  • Creepy Twins: Bel and Jill/Sil/Siel/Rasiel. Although, Bel is to blame for Rasiel's creepiness.
    • Oh God, the Bloody Twins even more.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Hibari personified.
    • Just moments after the revival of their power, the Shimon Family completely trashes the Vongola and destroys their rings.
    • And after getting their upgrades, all of the Vongola practically win their separate battles with the family with hardly a scratch. Only Ryohei subverted this since he managed to tie with his opponent.
    • More recently, Tsuna's dad, Iemitsu did this to Tsuna with a single punch. Bear in mind this happened AFTER the above-mentioned arc.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Tsuna and Kyoko.
  • Cute Shotaro Boy: Ranking Futa, and increasingly Tsuna.
    • But then, how could you not see that coming - what with his woolly mittens and his earmuffs?
  • Dark Action Girl / Dark Magical Girl - Xanxus and Mukuro are gender-bent examples of Dark Action Girl and Dark Magical Girl respectively. This, naturally, makes Tsuna the Magical Girl.
  • Daydream Surprise: Bluebell and Zakuro appear to have the upper hand and seemingly wipe out the Varia. Psyche! It was just an illusion of Mukuro Rokudo's, the real Varia were on the sidelines and, after seeing how Bluebell and Zakuro's powers operate, are ready to take them down.
  • Deadly Doctor: Dr. Shamal
  • Debut Queue: And how. Even in the latest chapters, new Bishonen are still being introduced! ( "Let me introduce you to the real six Funeral Wreaths!") And what do we get after the Future Arc is finally over? 7 new transfer students.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Is a very recurring theme in this series.
    • In Gokudera's case, Defeat Means undying obsessive * cough* loyalty.
    • This also happens with Sasagawa, after being bitten in a boxing match, he joins Tsuna's family.
    • Hibari, who was an enemy of Tsuna in early chapters, could also count. It's not Friendship per se, but since Tsuna's family was able to fight with him, Hibari became a member of Tsuna's family.
    • Played with a bit with Mukuro and Xanxus, Tsuna's first major opponents after the Genre Shift. Mukuro indirectly becomes one of Tsuna's Guardians (but is still planing to kill him), and Xanxus and the Varia continue to serve the Vongola, but have their own reasons for doing so that have little to nothing to do with friendship—or even loyalty—to Tsuna himself, but rather to the Family.
    • Also used in the following arcs, Past!Byakuran becomes a good guy after hearing what his future self has done (even helping one of Tsuna's guardians). Enma Kozato also becomes Tsuna's friend after being defeated and finding out that Primo didn't betray his ancestor
  • Delinquents: Subverted in that they're actually the Disciplinary Committee, who all wear the Red Armband of Leadership.
  • Depraved Homosexual: Lussuria, who not only hits on jailbait but is also a necrophiliac. See also Camp Gay and Hard Gay.
  • Determinator: The "Dying Will Bullet" headshot grants its target five minutes of pure awesomeness, able to do any one thing they may have regretted in life. Once the time is up, the bullet pops out and they return to normal. And later on the Rebuke bullet, which is even more powerful than the Dying Will Bullet. Once Tsuna is shot by this bullet he becomes a badass. However, it causes Tsuna severe muscle pain after its used.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: Reborn and Hibari. No one but Tsuna notices/cares about the horrible things Reborn does, and the police haven't even bothered to acknowledge Hibari yet. (But they'll take Haru to the station for waving a fake knife around while wearing some kind of ridiculous monster costume.)
    • Tsuna himself lampshaded this in episode 15, when Hibari mentioned that he likes to go out on snowy days and throw snowballs at unsuspecting people.
      • How do you think he controls the school? And the town?

Tsuna: (thinking) How come he hasn't been arrested yet?

  • Devoted to You: Gokudera to Tsuna, Squalo to Xanxus... really, any right-hand man to their mafia boss.
  • Disappeared Dad: subverted when Iemitsu comes back and reveals that he'd been working for the Vongola family all along.
    • He's still a Disappeared Dad no matter the reason
  • Disney Death: Squalo loses in the Rain Ring Battle against Yamamoto. Yamamoto tries to save him but Squalo's pride doesn't allow him and he gets eaten by the shark that's let loose in the arena. At least, until he comes back to life covered in bandages and guns aimed at his head in a wheelchair at the Sky Battle having been saved by Dino's men and undergone major surgery after the large extent of damage done to him by the shark.
  • Dojikko: Dino, when he isn't cool (read: when there isn't at least one of his men around him), is really lame.
    • Tsuna is 10 times as worst, with or without his guardians.
  • The Dragon: Hibari. A rare example when you think about it, because Tsuna IS going to inherit a mafia family, and Hibari's clearly the second most powerful, if not the first, within the 10th generation Vongola
  • Dr. Jerk: Dr. Shamal - only towards men. Unfortunately, 99% of the cast is male.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Few. Nosaru, Kikyou, Mammon and arguably Basil. Also Daisy. Tsuna...
    • Squalo. Enough said.
    • Was I the only one that totally thought that Skull was a girl under that helmet? Make-up and all!
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Irie Shouichi appears in Chapter 13 and is not seen again until Chapter 145 where he's a main part of the arc.
  • Easily Forgiven: Rokudo Mukuro. Reborn warns Tsuna not to forgive him, but it becomes very obvious that Tsuna doesn't harbor hard feelings toward him.
  • Elemental Baggage: Tsuna and his "Guardians" are attributed to different types of weather phenomena. Later, it's revealed that everyone has special wave energies that correspond to these seven types.
    • And the Shimon Family has a full seven more original flames. While the flames we've seen thus far are the 'Sky Flames', the Shimon Family has 'Earth Flames', with the boss, Enma, presumably having the Earth Flame while his guardians have flames associated with earth. Not only that but according to Daemon Spade, there's a Flame of a yet to be named 8th element that the Vindice use.
  • Elemental Punch: For a while, it's Tsuna's only method of attack.
  • Empathy Pet: Most of the Vongola Box Animals bear some resemblance to their owners, but this applies especially to Tsuna and Gokudera. Gokudera's one is a bad-tempered cat while Tsuna's one is a literal Cowardly Lion.
    • Not necessarily with Tsuna's pet because it just reflects EXACTLY how Tsuna's heart is.
  • Enfante Terrible: Verde, who is willing to cross any moral lines For Science!, and Mammon/Viper who enjoys watching people suffer and will do anything for money.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Anyone in the cast, who isn't a woman or Gonk, or an infant. Even if it's a baby. Yes, even if it's Tsuna.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: Fon's pet is a monkey
  • Everything's Better with Plushies: I-Pin has a plushie of her master that Ryohei gave her
  • Evil Laugh: Mukuro... especially in his Image Song. Also, to a lesser extent, Belphegor.
    • Ciel/Rasiel/Jill/Whatever, Bel's brother, and Daemon Spade, whose laugh is just like Mukuro's, except he says "nufufu" instead of "kufufu".
  • The Evil Prince: Xanxus. Subverted because, surprise! He's adopted. Also Belphegor, who is a) a prince, and b) batshit insane... because he's a prince.
  • Expy: If you don't think of Gamera when you see Enzo's giant form, you don't know enough Japanese media.
  • Eye Scream: Rokudo Mukuro jamming his finger into his right eye so that he can activate the Fifth Path.
  • Facial Markings: Chikusa, Mammon, Byakuran, Uni, Fran
    • Don't forget Lal Mirch
  • Fail O'Suckyname:
    • The name Shitt. P.
    • Futa, if you know what I mean....
  • Faking the Dead: After wringing out fans' tears for over a hundred chapters... it turns out TYL!Tsuna was just shot by a special bullet and is not dead after all.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Anime adaptation changes Reborn's gun to Leon, actual bullets to lasers, etc. Also, Future Arc as a whole.
  • Fan of Underdog: Gokudera and Yamamoto. But it might be that they didn't realize that he was the underdog in the first place.
  • Fan Nickname: Apparently, "Hibird" started as a fan nickname, but the author liked it so much it became canon. It's even lampshaded:

Reborn: "Apparently, it's now called Hibird."
Tsuna: "Who made up such a name?!"

    • Also, Bel's haters call him "Belwhore."
  • Faux Action Girl: Pretty much every combat-capable female except for Suzuki Adelheid and infant Lal Mirch. Future Lal would also be an exception if not for the Non-Trinisette Policy severely crippling her.
  • Festival Episode
  • Fighting Dirty: Rokudo Mukuro uses a huge percentage of the techniques listed in this trope during his fight with Tsuna.
  • Filler Arc: Rather special in the Arcobaleno Arc case since it revealed the long-awaited Canon secrets of the Arcobaleno before the manga did. May in fact be a case of Adaptation Expansion.
  • First-Episode Resurrection
  • Flash Step: Tsuna is capable of this once he figures out how to use his X-Gloves. In the future arc, It Gets Better.
  • Foe Yay: It's unbelievable how fast Spanner x Tsuna spread within the small amount of time they were shown together, and the mangaka seemed to be feeding the fans by having Spanner strip Tsuna naked and handcuff him in a bed. Not to mention Tsuna's relationship with Mukuro...
    • Hibari and Mukuro. Hibari is actually quite pacified when Reborn mentions to Hibari as he is about to go on a rampage that he might be able to challenge him in the future if he was patient. And when Mukuro (well, just his mind)got out of prison? Went to meet Hibari. Well, sort of.
    • Byakuran and Mukuro! There is an unbelievable amount of stuff going for these two.
      • Byakuran and Irie. Even after it's revealed that Irie is actually working against him, Byakuran doesn't behave any differently with him. Then again, he'd figured it out a long time ago.
        • Byakuran to Uni, and to Tsuna in the latest chapter...
    • One sided from Yamamoto who is a very Friendly Enemy to Squalo, who hates him.
    • And now we have Enma/Tsuna and Aoba/Ryohei.
      • Spade/Mukuro
  • Forgotten Phlebotinum: Tsuna almost activated his Dying Will Mode without a bullet or pill, once (unfortunately, he was interrupted). If the story writers cared to remember that, maybe he wouldn't be utterly useless without Reborn or his DW pills!
  • Freudian Excuse: Daemon Spade's love was killed because Primo didn't want the Vongola family to become too powerful. As a result, he strived for the opposite.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Ghost walking up in the middle of an all-out-war type battlefield nekkid. He stopped the whole party in three seconds.
  • Funny Afro: Lambo stores pretty much everything in his hair, even after the series has progressed beyond its gag days. One time he brought home a pair of bird's feet... but no bird.
  • Future Badass: Most characters, but it's especially one of Lambo's gimmicks (also the only character who had a cameo by his studly 20-year-future self). Also subverted by I-Pin, who, while still a talented martial artist, will be a much more benign person in 10 years.
    • The future arc applies this trope to almost the entire main cast. Those who were already badass became even more so.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Spanner and Future Gianninni, subverted with Gianninni of the present.
  • Gayngster: Not even talking about the questionable sexuality of a lot of the members of the Vongola family, Lussuria is shown outright to be very gay.
  • Gender Bender: It's not a normal case, but Chrome/Mukuro does this.
  • Generation Xerox: Perhaps the most over-the-top example of this trope anywhere. Every member of Tsuna's crew corresponds perfectly with a member of the first Vongola's circle. Tsuna and Giotto are at least blood related, but they look almost identical despite ten generations separating them. The other guardians aren't related to their counterparts, yet they all look and act almost exactly the same, and some even have corresponding life stories. All of which seems to have happened by sheer coincidence.
    • Odder still is the fact that Tsuna and Giotto resemble each other so strongly, yet the other eight bosses (all of whom would be more closely related to Giotto) don't resemble them at all.
      • The oddest might be Xanxus' resemblance to Vongola Secondo (including his attitude and Flames), since he's adopted and thus has no POSSIBLE blood relation.
  • Genre Shift: Starts out as a pure comedy, but after several volumes, becomes a straight-up shounen action series.
  • Genre Savvy: Many characters seem to realize that they live in a manga world so they don't question the weird things that go on around them
    • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Byakuran knowing that Mukuro is planning on bodyjacking him any time he could, but he doesn't tell anyone because it's fun to play pretend
      • Kikyou when during the Choice battle, instead of risking his life and the chances of his team's victory in fighting Gokudera, on of the Vongola's strongest members, he uses his plants to seal Gokudera's box weapons away leaving him helpless
  • Gentleman Snarker: Fran knows how to piss off his sempais just by telling them a couple words of truth.
  • Godiva Hair: Bluebell. Not that there was something to cover. Also Lal Mirch in one scene.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: Tsuna and Longchamp.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: Tsuna having to gather his seven guardians in order to become the Vongola boss. He has to do this twice, the second time being after being sent to future.
  • Gorn: Recently Kaoru made Yamamoto a bloody mess.
  • Gosh Hornet: Episode 12 of the anime has Reborn casually tossing honey on protégé Tsuna before unleashing a swarm of bees on him. "The mafia always live with danger," Reborn warns Tsuna as the latter runs for his life.
  • Grand Theft Me: Mukuro's whole plan was to take over Tsuna's body so he could get revenge on the Mafia.
    • Almost as if in cruel irony, Daemon Spade to Mukuro of all people. Most likely to repeat the past. Oh, and he is currently doing this to Julie.
    • And now Spade's out of Julie and in Mukuro! ... That sounded a lot cleaner in my head.
  • Gratuitous English: Haru 'Dangerous' Miura, especially her character song.
    • Frankly there's Engrish all over the place. All the weapon names (if they're not Italian) are in Engrish, and the characters say about two Engrish words per sentence. Granted, many characters are foreign.
      • "Ji-Endo-Obu Gakkou?!"
      • Not to mention pretty much all of the opening songs.

KICK OFF RIDE ON LET'S GO! FLY TO THE SKY! BOYS AND GIRLS BE AMBITIOUS! FUNNY DAY FUNNY FACE FUNNY PLACE! LISTEN TO THE STEREO AROUND AROUND AROUND!<-

      • Not all. The first opening, "Drawing Days", had no Gratuitous English. Rather surprising, considering the song's title.
  • Gratuitous Italian: Though several of the characters are Italian. And Reborn! is about The Mafia. And most (if not all) instances of it seem accurate.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: For some reason, every mafioso in the series speaks Japanese fluently. In some cases this can be explained (such as with the Varia, who are all required to know at least 7 languages), but not with the Kokuyo gang, who are just normal extremely dangerous prisoners from Italy. Heck, Rokudo Mukuro, Kakimoto Chikusa, and Joshima Ken are all Italian expats with Japanese names.
    • Don't forget the Varia's character songs. They're Italian but they sing in Japanese. Also when Squalo and Basil fight in the beginning of the Varia Arc. They're both Italian but they converse in Japanese.
    • The only saving grace is their rather quirky Japanese accents.
  • Halfbreed: Hayato Gokudera is a biracial Italian-Japanese, his heritage made him be rejected by every mafia family, save the one that's run by the Japanese Tsuna Sawada.
  • Hammerspace: Lambo's hair can fit a full-sized rocket launcher in it while it itself is only about the size of a Soccer ball.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Byakuran gives Tsuna one, talking about his past experiences as a Butt Monkey. Tsuna retaliates with more fighting, eventually defeating Byakuran anyways.
    • Enma and Tsuna get into an argument using Hannibal Lecture. Enma tells Tsuna that he's just like the Primo (whom he claims is a cold heartless bastard) since Tsuna already caused the "death" of three members of his family. Tsuna then shoots back that Enma did that too, and Enma is Not So Different. Enma then wins the speech battle by saying that even though Tsuna claims to not wanting to be the boss of Vongola, he claims that Tsuna is very cunning to plan to take the throne anyways. While Tsuna denies that he wants to be the Tenth, Enma then gives the finishing blow that Tsuna's father and the CEDEF ordered the murder of Enma's family.
  • Hard Light: Mukuro's, Ken's and Chikusa's illusions when Chrome fights Glo Xinia in the future arc.
  • Heel Face Turn: Subverted, sort of, when Mukuro claims he's still after Tsuna('s body). Also, played straight with most of of the cast.
  • Hellish Pupils: Mukuro has kanji in his red eye of mystical reincarnation power. One of the kanji actually calls forth powers derived from Hell, too.
    • Daemon Spade again, except he has a Spade... meaning the card suit. It's used to control minds.
  • Heroic BSOD: At the end of chapter 318.
  • He's Back: Yamamoto shows up after being hospitalized to save Mizuno in chapter 326.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Adult Lambo's VA also did Seto Kaiba. Good luck taking anything the latter says seriously ever again. And hell, young Lambo? Naruto.
  • Highly-Visible Ninja: Supposed elite assassin Superbia Squalo decides it'd be a great idea to go rampaging in a civilian shopping center in broad daylight, all while yelling at the top of his voice.
    • Try every officer of the Varia. Mammon or Fran might get by on illusions, but it looks like their idea of "assassination" is "charge in and kill 'em loudly."
  • Hot-Blooded: Ryohei, to the EXTREME.
    • VOOOOOOOOOOI HOW COULD YOU FORGET SQUALO!
  • Hot Scientist: Verde fits this. Even has a cool Perma-Stubble.
  • Hot Shounen Mom: Nana Sawada. She could pass for Tsuna's sister.
  • Hot Springs Episode: Part of the Jump Festa 2009 OVA takes place at a hotspring resort. Since this is Reborn, all the Fan Service is provided by the guys.
  • Ho Yay: Has its own page.
  • Huddle Shot
  • Hyper Awareness: In this case, it's called Hyper Intuition.
  • Identical Grandson: Tsuna is a living copy of the Vongola Primo.
    • Even more so, now that he has a cool coat thing. Even lampshaded by the manga-ka.
    • Xanxus, while compared by some of the cast to Vongola Secondo, subverts this by being adopted!.
    • Then there is Uni, Aria, and Luche which is possibly Generation Xerox. The sky flame probably has cloning properties...
    • It also seems to run in the Shimon family.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal
  • I Know Madden Kombat: Yamamoto.
  • Image Song: Every character has one, even the robot.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Guns aren't Bianchi's strong point.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers: Boy who learns kendo in the span of a week defeats a bloodthirsty, expert assassin.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Suits are always cool and standard crime family fare, but the Varia one-ups the normal family with their leather numbers. See also the reason Mukuro picked Kokuyo as his base, Gokudera's outfit during his Ring battle, Longchamp.
    • While most characters choose more practical clothing, others simply live for this trope. Gokudera and Mukuro seem to be the most fashion oriented guardians, what with their liking for leather, belts, chains, studs,Fingerless Gloves, earrings and various jewelry. Even the bad guys are fond of it: jsut look at Byakuran and Daemon Spade.
  • Improbable Age: Tsuna and several of his classmates and friends are recruited into The Mafia while they are still in middle school. Not to mention, Tsuna is expected become the Tenth...
  • Improbable Weapon User: Dynamite. Yo-yos that shoot poisoned needles. Steroid dentures. A microwave clarinet.
  • Instant Expert : Right after they got upgrades on their Vongola Gears, everybody seems to be able to use them perfectly well as if it had been with them forever. Don't forget they just got the upgrades in less that a week...
  • Instrument of Murder: M.M.'s clarinet.
  • Interrupted Suicide: Yamamoto. This is unknown to the people who only watch the anime, because suicide is Harmful to Minors.
  • Invisible to Normals: "Wow, toys nowadays are so realistic!"
    • Now let's all go have a meeting about the next... sumo tournament.
  • I Owe You My Life: ... Which combined with Defeat Means Friendship and turned into Bodyguard Crush, which eventualy evolved into Stalking Is Love.
  • Irony: The fact that Mukuro of all people eventually becomes one of Tsuna's guardians.
    • The fact that Squalo is half killed by a shark after the Rain battle when his name is 'shark' in Italian.
      • And after that during the Future Arc it is revealed that Squalo's Box Weapon is a shark. Seems almost cruel.
    • And of course, that Daemon Spade wants to Grand Theft Me Mukuro who in turn wants to do this to Tsuna. Daemon Spade to presumably bring down the Vongola yet again, Mukuro the mafia as a whole
  • Is That What He Told You?: Reborn's a filthy, filthy liar.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gokudera's The Smart Guy who really loves his boss, plays piano, and is suscribed to occult magazines. Mukuro's not a complete sociopathic bastard. Apparently Gamma isn't entirely a bastard, either. Even Xanxus gets a redeeming moment with a heartwarming "families stick together" speech. Perhaps even Byakuran is not so bad after all, since he is revealed to be the one responsible for healing Yamamoto's wounds in Chapter 328. Complete monster with a heart of gold?
  • Just a Kid: In the normal world, at least. In the underworld, infant or child hitmen are commonplace.
  • Karmic Protection: Haru.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Yamamoto.
  • Keet: Longchamp
  • Keigo: Basil's preferred dialect; he also addresses nearly everyone as "-dono".
  • Kick the Dog: A requirement of every Reborn villain since Tsuna tries to avoid fighting most of the time. Doesn't stop the villain from being Ensemble Darkhorse though.
  • Kidanova: Longchamp again. Subverted in that all of his girlfriends are... unique.
  • Killer Yoyo: Chikusa.
  • Kimodameshi
  • Knife Nut: Belphegor.
  • Knight of Cerebus: The arrival of Mukuro changed the entire tone of the series.
  • The Lancer: Yamamoto and Gokudera combine into this for their hapless boss.
    • Squalo takes on this role with the Varia as well, being their (relatively) Only Sane Man.
  • Leitmotif: There's one for everything.
  • Lethal Chef: Bianchi, who actually uses her poisonous cooking as a weapon, since she's an assassin and all.
  • Like You Were Dying
  • Lolicon: Ryohei's crush for I-Pin in an omake probably doesn't count, but there's Giglio Nero's members' love for their boss Uni. Especially Gamma's.

Gamma: "Don't say stupid things, you bunch of lolicons."
Other members: "Wha?! Like you're not the most suspicious one here!!"

  • Love Triangle: Tsuna, and his two Tag Along Girlfriends, Kyoko and Haru. Lacks significance so much, that's hard to blame the fandom for seeking romantic tension elsewhere.
    • In the future, M.M seems to think she's in one with Chrome for Mukuro
  • Loony Fan: Gokudera.
    • Also Levi.
  • Loophole Abuse: Recently pulled in recent chapter by Vindice and later by by Varia and Kokuyo gang who used spare watch to reenter the battle
    • Lampshaded by Squalo, "There is no rule about using spare watch"
  • Lucky Seven: There's seven types of dying will flame, which leads to there being seven of absolutely everything else. Usually organized by the colors of the rainbow.
    • The new arc introduces some transfer students. Guess how many there are.
  • Mad Bomber: Gokudera
  • Made of Iron: Tsuna. He takes every kind of beating and punishment, and after a good night's rest, is completely unscathed. Not to mention how his body can withstand the amazing heat generated by his dying will flames...
  • The Mafia
  • Magic Bullets + Green Rocks: The bullets from Reborn's gun have special effects, based on what part of the body they hit.
  • Magic Skirt: Dammit, Chrome. Assisted frequently by changes in angle.
    • Also literally a magic skirt, in that it transforms into pants whenever Chrome switches to Mukuro.
    • Averted with Adelheid
  • Magnetic Hero: Tsuna. He's assembling quite a harem of incredibly loyal underlings who would certainly die for him.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Mukuro
    • Future Tsuna. Even though it's to save all existence, I'm almost certain that dragging your past counterparts, who are all middle schoolers, ten years into the future to fight guys who are used to fighting differently and more efficiently to jumpstart their growth qualifies.
    • Good God, Daemon Spade is WORSE than Mukuro.
    • Byakuran. Who sort of cheats, what with the whole "I can see alternate universes and know what you're going to do" thing.
  • Master of Illusion: Mukuro, Viper, Chrome, Genkishi, and Torikabuto.
    • More recently, Fran. Evidently he is one of three that can trick the Vendicare prison guards. No surprise, since he is Mukuro's apprentice.
    • Daemon Spade YET AGAIN
  • Meaningful Funeral: Subverted, with Tsuna-of-the-future, who was put in a coffin out in the middle of the woods in his no-name hometown. Not even some of his family members knew he had died.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Gokudera getting "run over a couple of times" while rushing to the hospital to give Tsuna roses. His response? "This is nothing!"
    • Fran. How many knives, exactly, has been stabbed into his back and all he said was 'Ouch' in a monetoneous tone?
  • Meaningful Name: "Six Paths Corpse". Wonder who that could be. See also: the Varia.
    • Spanner being British-English slang for wrench when he is a technician. Can also be considered as one in the works for being a permanent friend and ally for the Vongola Family during and beyond the TYL arc.
  • Memory Gambit: Combined with Time Travel no less.
  • The Messiah: Tsuna has evolved to become this.
    • Not to mention Uni who ended up pulling off a Heroic Sacrifice to reset everything
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: After Shimon's demonstration of My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours, the Vongola Rings shatter, or break, and everyone's either gone missing or are heavily injured. Then some old guy walks in randomly and fixes the Vongola Rings by upgrading them to a Vongola X Edition.
    • Tsuna's upgrade: A fancier version of the Vongola Ring that has a chain connected to Nuts's ring. He even got new contacts and headphones from Spanner, of the present time.
    • Gokudera: A belt buckle.
    • Ryohei: An arm bangle...
    • Hibari: A bracelet! Pretty!
    • Chrome/Murkuro: An earing.
    • Yamamoto: A necklace.
    • Lambo: It's a biker helmet. His afro makes it too tight though, so he needs to use the Ten Year Bazooka just to fit in the damn thing.
  • Mismatched Eyes: Mukuro, one blue, and the other red.
  • Mind Control Eyes
  • Mind Rape: The "Vongola Boss Right of Passage", while in a claustrophobic sphere with no light, air, or sound but the ones in your head showing you absolutely horrible crimes, could definitely be considered this.
    • Mukuro is this personified.
    • Daemon Spade
  • Mind Screw: Some people consider the Phalaenopsis Paradox and all the Time Travel and Memory Gambit needed to defeat it this.
    • Guess what, guys? Daemon Spade and Byakuran aren't dead!
  • Mons: The box animals occasionally
  • Monster Sob Story: Daemon Spade.
  • Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: Filled with beautiful boys, and boss complexes from just about everywhere, what do you expect?
  • Mr. Exposition: Reborn, and (less frequently) Ranking Futa. Reborn's sole purpose in most fights is to stand there, shoot Tsuna in the head, and then explain what just happened.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Suzuki Adelheid was created specifically to be this.
    • Bluebell
  • Mundane Utility: One of the Dying Will bullet's effects is to swell the target's cheeks...so that the opponent will laugh and lose their cool.
  • My God What Have We Done: Adelheid when she find out the First Boss of the Vongola didn't betray their leader and that they were being used by Daemon Spade.
  • My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Shigure Souen style owns all. It is utterly flawless and invincible.
  • Nakama
  • Naughty Tentacles: Everything involving Mammon fighting. And Glo. Basically whoever Chrome fights in general.
  • Near-Death Experience: Source of Tsuna's powers.
  • Nerds Are Sexy: Irie Shouichi, Verde, Gokudera...
    • And Spanner. Don't forget Spanner.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands
  • New Transfer Student: AND he's half-foreigner!
    • A later arc features 7 new transfer students. Actually, they're guests sent by the Vongola Family to the Inheritance Ceremony, the Shinmon Family.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Mukuro. A "sea of blood" indeed.
  • Non-Lethal KO: Most battles seem to end like this, even when an attack involves grabbing your opponent's head with a flaming hand.
  • Occult Blue Eyes: According to Gamma, many of the Sky Arcobaleno characters' eyes tend to look as if they expect an event would happen. It's true, since the Sky Arcobaleno have the ability to see the future.
  • Oedipus Rex: Tsuna's sort-of-love-interest Kyoko bears an incredible resemblance to his mom in both appearance and personality. Iemitsu even seems to lampshade it.
    • Reversed with Older Haru's crush on Tsuna. She's even got Nana's haircut. Only difference is hair color and those bizarre lines that are ALWAYS on her face.
  • Off-Model: Episode 5 is the most famous example of Off-Model from the anime, and has become a near meme in the Japanese fandom. Birthed a few FanNicknames.
  • One-Letter Name: G., the first Vongola Storm Guardian.
  • Only Sane Man: Tsuna, much to his chagrin.
    • Squalo, somewhat, in the Varia. Maybe not compared to the average person but looking at the mafia as a whole...
      • Fran, from the Ten Years Later arc. At least he doesn't have any overly-loud verbal tics.
  • The Other Darrin: In the anime, Dino was voiced by Kenta Kamakari, but after episode 34 he was replaced by Kenn.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: Bluebell's box hybrid.
  • Overnight Age-Up: 'sup, Ten-Year Bazooka.
  • Panty Shot: Adelheid. It seems she doesn't have a Magic Skirt like Chrome does.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Reborn has a rather extensive repertoire of these.
  • People Puppets: Fun with Mukuro and his plan to destroy the mafia and start World War III!
  • Pet the Dog: Gamma's flashback. Also, Mukuro's memories he conveniently chooses to show to Tsuna of him sacrificing himself so that his subordinates can escape (with the vision of him being trapped inside of a capsule).
    • It doesn't seem like Mukuro chose to show those memories, it seems like they were a product of the illusions plus Tsuna's Hyper Intuition. It's not even obvious whether Mukuro knows Tsuna saw them or not: he acts like he doesn't.
  • The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Considering the majority of the cast are members of The Mafia, you don't see them doing a lot of... mafia stuff. Whatever happened to collecting "rent" from shops or running gambling joints? And cement shoes?
    • This is justified in the latest arc, where the Ninth boss explains that while the Vongola started out as an outlaw vigilante group, from the second boss on they began to drift more and more to the side of traditional organized crime. In fact, the whole reason Ninth wants Tsuna to become the next boss is because his crew DOESN'T do mafia stuff, and he wants Tsuna to return the Vongola to how they were at the beginning.
      • So basically, everyone in the family EXCEPT the main cast is doing Sopranos stuff off-panel, while Tsuna is busy saving the universe.
  • Playing Against Type: Kiuchi Hidenobu, whose more famous roles include the composed and usually taciturn Hei of Darker than Black and the thoughtful, considerate hero of Dr. Tenma in Monster, plays Sasagawa Ryohei TO THE EXTREME!
  • Playing with Fire: At first it's just Tsuna and Xanxus...and Basil. Then, everyone starts using using Flames in the Future Arc[1]
  • Plot Leveling: During the Future Arc the main cast defeated an organisation that threatened countless Alternate Universes. While doing that they obtained weapons of Wave Motion Gun levels of power (which are unavailable to anybody else in the present) and now wield the full power of the Cosmic Keystones they possess (of which there are three kinds - one is their own, one is defeated and blocked and the keepers of the rest are their teachers or subordinates of said teachers).
  • Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Or down. The Ten Year Bazooka seems to exist purely for this.
  • The Promise: Squalo, for not cutting his hair until Xanxus becomes the boss of Vongola. Tsuna, for always protecting Kyoko.
    • Gokudera personified. Oh Gokudera.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Notes left on desks are especially vulnerable.
  • Power Fist: The I-Gloves, the X-Gloves, the Sereno Gloves, the Knuckle of Maximum Break, and now Enma's armored gauntlet.
  • Psycho for Hire: The Varia
  • The Psycho Rangers: The Varia, the Real Six Funeral Wreaths and Byakuran, the Shimon Family.
  • Rage Against the Mentor
  • Rainbow Motif: The different types of dying will flame, Vongola Rings, and lots of other stuff.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Squalo, as a vow to Xanxus.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Reborn's a really filthy, filthy liar.
    • arguably, Daemon Spade, who looks exactly the same way he did back when the Vongola was created.... ten generations ago.
      • Although he's technically just a spirit and some illusions. Admittedly, a pretty solid-seeming spirit with some illusions.
  • Recap Episode: Lots and lots of them. And huge recaps at the start of each episode. It's a wonder the anime version manages to advance the plot at all, given all the recapping it does.
  • Red Armband of Leadership: Hibari's latest battle actually focuses on stealing the Red Armband of Leadership from his opponent!
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gokudera and Yamamoto, respectively. In countless ways.
  • Refuge in Audacity: In places. "My dying will is... to eat all of this cake!"
  • Reincarnation: The source of Mukuro's powers.
    • Also, it's probably a bit more than coincidence that the tenth generation Vongola boss and ring guardians look almost exactly the first generation.
      • Hello, the title of the series is Reborn?
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The box animals of the protagonists are usually mammals (or sea creatures) while the Real Six Furneral Wreathes get insects or dinosaurs!
  • Rescue Arc
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Hibird, and later, Hibari's hedgeho-- I mean, porcupine.
    • Which he apparently named, finally. Like Hibird, its completely unoriginal: Roll.
    • The Arcobaleno pets. And their owners.
    • Nuts is adorable, too, and so is Uri. In fact, it seems plenty of the Vongola Box animals are like this.
  • Running Gag: Gokudera gets a horrible stomach ache everytime he sees his sisters face; Dino is useless without his Famiglia; nobody notices Reborn's Paper Thin Disguises.
  • Samus Is a Girl: I-pin. Later, Lal Mirch.
  • Scary Black Man: Tazaru, initially.
  • Selective Obliviousness: Yamamoto, all the way.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: The Varia each represent a sin.
  • Seven Heavenly Virtues: In contrast to the Varia, the protagonists represent the virtues.
  • Shallow Love Interest: Kyoko. She hardly has much interactions with Tsuna, and doesn't really have much of a personaltiy. In fact, it's shown in the manga that the main reason Tsuna likes her is because she was the only girl in 12 months who bothered talking to him.
  • Shaped Like Itself: "Pain is no longer painful to extreme!" and "Painless things aren't painful either!" Ryohei...
  • Shirtless Scene: For Tsuna, pretty much the first sixty chapters of the manga. Then Gokudera and Tsuna together have one in a forest, trying to dry off.
    • Ryohei goes topless during his fight against Lussuria. Unfortunately, this only serves to make Lussuria his hardcore fanboy.
    • The mangaka seems to grab any chance she can to get Xanxus' shirt off.
    • Yamamoto got one in the anime, which verged on Shower Scene. With more Fanservice of the gratuitous Ho Yay sort, as Gokudera (again) comes in the changing room and starts taking off his shoes while sitting in front of a standing, still shirtless Yamamoto.
    • To be fair, it is a part of Japanese culture for men and women to go to baths together, so it is not unlikely that the two of them would end up showering at the same time. The same thing is true for sports teams in various other cultures as well.
      • Um, do want. What episode was this?
        • Episode 100
    • In the OVA there's a fight between the Varia and the Vongola, inside an onsen which is obviously one big and fanservicey shirtless scene for everyone, incluiding Hibari!
    • Chapter 372 gives us Fong's turn at a shirtless scene. In his adult form, of course.
  • Shout-Out: In chapter 309, Lambo runs off after a white rabbit and when they run after him, Tsuna and Goku fall down a Rabbit Hole...
  • Shower Scene: Unsurprisingly, Suzuki Adelheid recently got one.
  • Sidekick Ex Machina: Hibari and Mukuro to Tsuna.
  • Signature Device: The Vongola Rings and Mare/Acrobaleno Pacifiers.
  • Significant Anagram: Mukuro and Chrome's names are anagrams in Japanese (Chrome is Kuromu in Japanese).
  • Single-Stroke Battle: Cloud battle.
  • Sink or Swim Mentor: Pretty much every single mentor Tsuna has had? Reborn, Lal Mirch, TYL Hibari...
    • Future Squalo to Yamamoto.
    • Doctor Shamal to Gokudera. He even refuses the heal his wounds. (Although he does care; he just knows it won't do any good.)
  • Slasher Smile: Bel, all the way. Also, his even more psychotic twin, Siel/Jill/Rasiel/whatever. Both seem to have this smile on permanetly. Except Rasiel's looks like a rictus from Hell. "Ushishishi!" "Ushesheshe!"
  • Slouch of Villainy: Xanxus. Give the man a couch already.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Chrome, the only female guardian. And even then, only half the time is she female.
  • Sorry I'm Late: Yamamoto and Hibari, though Hibari wasn't sorry, when they came microseconds from being late to the Choice battle.
    • Also, Gokudera to the Storm battle.
    • And Yamamoto once again.
  • So Last Season: Despite the serie's biggest gimmick at first, the Dying Will Bullet, is pretty much retired after Tsuna gains the Rebuke Pills.
  • The Spartan Way: Reborn, Colonnello, and Lal Mirch all love to beat up their students.
    • Tsuna even lampshades this with Colonnello and Reborn: "He's even more Spartan than Reborn..!" * is beat up*
  • Spell My Name with an "S": So is it Chiavarone or Cavallone? Also, Marmon/Mammon, Lussuria/Lissuria, Colonello/Colonnello, Mosca/Moska, Lambo/Rambo etc. Also, Jill/Sil/Siel/Rasiel/that guy.
    • Most of these can be resolved with a decent knowledge of Italian language. It's Lussuria (="lust"), Colonnello (="colonel"), Mosca (=the insect called "fly"). As for Chiavarone (which is a real-life Italian surname, Google confirms it) / Cavallone (=more or less "big horse" ,though it's a rather colloquial term), they both are valid Italian words so I'm not sure about this. Also, while not an Italian word, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be Mammon, which is the name of the demon of Greed (following the Seven Sins naming motif the Varia seem to use).
  • Spit Take: Both Tsuna and Yamamoto do one at the same time when Lambo comes in and tells them that, "right now, in the shower... THERE'S A LOT OF BOOBIES!!"
  • Spoiled Brat: Oh lord, Xanxus. Made especially noticeable when his resent about his childhood isn't nearly as justified as Butt Monkey Tsuna's.
  • Spoiler Opening: Mukuro's Heel Face Turn and Chrome's existence in the second opening, Ryohei's box animal before it was even introduced in the manga in the fourth.
    • For the non-manga readers, the X-Gloves in the first opening, the existence of the non-sky Vongola Boxes, the Vongola Box Animals, and five of the six Real Funeral Wreathes in the 7th opening.
    • In the eight opening, Byakuran's final form.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Gokudera to Tsuna. He becomes unreasonably jealous of anyone who is close to Tsuna, and is even shown watching Tsuna and getting incredibly pissed at Yamamoto for being so friendly with him. Not to mention his violent reaction when Chrome kisses Tsuna.
    • Haru could be considered one at her very first appearances, from when she liked Reborn.
  • Status Buff: This is what the sun flame is about.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Happens to Haru and Kyoko during the future arc. All they do is cook, clean and take care of the younger ones.
    • Granted they have no actual fighting ability anyway, and someone has to look after the boys while they're training.
    • Some fans find this especially odd considering that the author of the series is a woman.
  • Stepford Smiler: Byakuran
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Gokudera's specialty is explosives, and he can set off hundreds of them at once.
  • Straight Man: Tsuna
  • Stylistic Self Parody
  • Surprisingly Good English: Except it's Italian.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Abused to a ridiculous amount. Honestly, does anything ever happen when people are talking? Or is it simply against this universe's physics?
  • Tall, Dark and Handsome: Yamamoto, Xanxus, Genkishi, Hibari... Pretty much anyone with dark hair.
    • Verde has dark green hair, and is tall enough that he slouches. Also, Chikusa.
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky: Pretty much everyone with dark hair. Again.
    • Fran also counts, despite the fact that he's quite short and has teal hair.
  • Teach Him Anger
  • Team Mom: Lussuria in some anime omakes. Its just as creepy as it sounds.
  • Temporal Paradox: We'll fix the problems of the past... by fighting in the future.
  • Theme Naming: The Varia are named after the Seven Deadly Sins or their associated demons, and the Millefiore family is largely named after flowers. A sizable amount of the casts' names reference Italian or European vehicles.
    • Some of the members of CEDEF (ex. Basil, Oregano) Even Lal Mirch who's name means "Red Pepper."
    • Parts of the Shimon's names have Earth-related words in them when translated.
  • Third Person Person: Haru, Lambo-san.
  • This Cannot Be!: Xanxus isn't too happy about the fact that he's clearly getting beaten towards the end of his fight with Tsuna.

Xanxus: Not possible! This is impossible!

  • This Is Unforgivable!: The anime is so good at this. Poor Uni's gone from this world, and Byakuran's complaining about how she was a toy, and his plans were ruined...

"Why do you think Uni had to do this...? You ruined our world. That's why Uni... That's why Uni DIED!! Byakuran! I... I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!!!" Cue Tsuna curbstomping to the point he kills Byakuran. That's right, present Tsuna Killed Byakuran!

  • Threesome Subtext: neither Gokudera nor Yamamoto is shown to have any potential romantic partner out of the rest of the cast, yet they're both awfully close with their Boss.
  • Time to Unlock More True Potential: Every. Single. Chapter.
  • Time Travel: Lambo's Ten Year Bazooka says hi.
    • The entire Ten Years Later arc.
  • Throw Down the Bomblet: Gokudera all the way
  • Token Mini-Moe: Bluebell, Uni, Chrome to an extent (since she's the youngest of Guardians, save Lambo). Subverted with Luche.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Tsuna... after about nine volumes of fail.
    • Though he makes up for it by going up several levels of Badass one after the other.
    • Let's be honest, once he converted his box animal into a pimp mafia mantle while he was wearing the all-black and white mafia suit, the HSQ Meter, Cool Meter, and the Badass Meter all broke simultaneously then decided to just say fuck it and enjoy the show.
  • Tournament Arc: The Varia Saga.
  • Tranquil Fury: Hyper Dying Will mode.
  • Training from Hell
  • Trigger Happy: Reborn
  • Troubled but Cute: Gokudera
  • Tsundere: Also Gokudera.
    • Lal Mirch qualifies too, at least towards Colonello.
  • Ubermensch: Hibari, though he prefers to limit his ubermensch-ing to his beloved small town.
  • Uke: Tsuna may very well be the poster boy for this trope.
  • Uncanny Family Resemblance: Tsuna to his ancestor Vongola Primo. Another example that makes a lot less sense is Xanxus to the Second, considering that he isn't even supposed to be related or have any real Vongola blood in him. Are they really sure he isn't the Ninth's secret love child?
    • Also Uni, Aria and Luche.
    • And Hibari to the first Cloud Guardian, Yamamoto to the first Rain Guardian, Mukuro to the first Mist Guardian (who was a traitor to the Family), Gokudera to the first Storm Guardian... You get the picture.
    • And Hibari to Arcobaleno Fong, to the point where I-Pins crush on Hibari comes from his resemblance to him. The reason is never explained.
  • Unexpected Successor: The basis of the plot, only with the Mafia instead of the government.
  • Unexplained Recovery:
    • It turns out that Tsuna didn't kill present Byakuran after all. He just has his multiverse-awareness powers removed.
    • Squalo does this twice, first when he's eaten by a shark in the ring battle tournament, then later shows up at Xanxus and Tsuna's battle (after having been rescued by Dino's men and undergone major surgery) seemingly just fine, aside from being bandaged and in a wheelchair and the second time when he's seemingly killed by Zakuro; his cyborg hand is the only body part left when Yamamoto goes back to look for him. Turns out that he's still alive when he comes limping in to the final battle once again supported by Dino, and then he seems to be completely healed by the next day. Indestructible much?
    • And now Yamamoto does this as well when he shows up in Chapter 325, pulling off one of the best Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • The Unintelligible: I-pin. Why, that's not even Chinese!
    • Averted in the anime, where she speaks Japanese (albeit badly.)
  • Unknown Rival: Lambo
  • The Un-Reveal: Reborn finally gets nailed by the Ten-Year Bazooka...but no Adult!Reborn. Still 68 more episodes if you're watching the anime.
  • Up to Eleven: Tsuna's taking his act up a notch when Yamamoto nearly gets chopped in half by a "mysterious" person.
  • Verbal Tic: Colonnello, kora! Although sadly, taken out in the Viz Media translations.
    • Haru has a tendency to say "hahi!" when surprised.
    • Ken also tends to end his sentences with "pyon!"
    • The loudest mafia member has one. Goes something like this: "VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOI!" remember him?
    • Lambo likes to add 'monya' or 'damone' to the end of his sentences.
  • Villainous Breakdown: While normally calm and polite, Byakuran finally loses his cool after Uni's Heroic Sacrifice, complaining that Uni was a toy and that without her, his plans are ruined, all because of her key importance in his plans to become ruler of all time and space.
  • Vocal Evolution: Just watch any early episodes and see how much they have changed. Special mention goes to Tsuna, Gokudera and I-pin.
  • Wham! Episode: Chapter 62 of the manga. Up until that episode, it is an irritatingly light-hearted manga, to the point where you have to think "Why doesn't Tsuna just accept his fate already?" This chapter introduces the first real villain in the series, places Tsuna in the first real danger he's been in (which wasn't created by Reborn or any member of his family), and begins the change from a gag manga to a full-fledged Shonen.
    • Chapter 314. Byakuran is back. 0.0
      • Chapter 354 Byakuran and the Funeral Wreaths are back! Yuni has been ressurected! YUNI AND BYAKURAN ARE TEAMING UP!! O_O
  • Whip It Good: Dino
    • and now Hibari's Vongola Gear X weapon
  • With Friends Like These...: Xanxus and Squalo.
  • Wild Card: Hibari
  • Winged Humanoid: Invoked by Byakuran. Definitely some major God-complex going on...
  • The Worf Effect: Basil, a supposedly elite member of CEDEF, is the only person other than Tsuna (and Primo) to fight in Hyper Dying Will mode, but he's lost every battle that he's been in.
    • Up till now, Gokudera has only really won ONE fight in the entire series. Granted, one of his losses was intentional, one was a tie, and the other was due to an interruption, but he still loses a lot.
    • Yamamoto too, in that with the exception of Ken, he's never beaten someone who hadn't previously kicked the everloving crap out of him with increasingly painful results. Squalo did a bit of physical damage and hurt his pride, Genkishi made him run into a wall and knocked him out, and now Kaoru blew his insides all over a locker room and may have crippled him for life. The only reason he ever manages to beat these guys is cus of his Charles Atlas Superpower, though the last one is subverted as of chapter 325.
  • Yakuza: Not Tsuna's family, but when Dino wants to 'test' Tsuna's family, he fakes a kidnapping and tells Gokudera and Yamamoto he has been kidnapped by the yakuza. It was supposed to be a fake yakuza but of course Reborn just had to go to extremities.
  • Yaoi Fangirl: Most of the fanbase.
  • Yandere: Lethal Chef Bianchi goes into a homicidal rage whenever she sees adult Lambo, who looks exactly like her deceased ex-boyfriend Romeo (who apparently died of food poisoning) ...make of this what you will...
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Actually, you can.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: Daemon Spade succeeds in possessing Mukuro's body in chapter 335.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Mukuro, in bonus pineapple hairstyle.
    • Lal Mirch too. Outside of Japan, there seem to be quite a lot of different Hair Colors.
  • You Said You Would Let Them Go: In the most recent chapter, "The next time we play Choice, I will allow any agreement that favors you." "Sorry, I don't remember that."
  • You Have Failed Me...: Byakuran to Genkishi; he doesn't say it but after losing again in the CHOICE battle he had one of his squad kill Genkishi. The Varia also function this way.
  1. ↑ Although, Rain Flames are more like Making a Splash, and Lightning Flames are more like Shock and Awe.
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