Manga / Reborn! (2004)

aka: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

"You'll understand if you die."

— Reborn

Katekyō Hitman Reborn! (lit. "Tutor Hitman Reborn"), simply retitled to Reborn! in Viz Media's English translation, is a shonen manga written and illustrated by Akira Amano, which was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2004 to 2012.

The series follows the story of Junior High student, Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, who is generally considered a loser by all of his peers; receiving terrible grades, being inept at sports, clumsy to a fault, and generally disliked by the populace of his school. That all changes after coming home from school one day to find a gun-toting baby hitman named Reborn, who explains that he is next in line to become boss of the world's strongest mafia family, the Vongola, and will be serving as his home tutor to train him to become the boss.

Initially, Tsuna is in disbelief, but after Reborn shoots him in the head with a bullet that only temporarily kills him, he is brought back to life with all the limiters of his body removed, gaining the ability to perform amazing feats and carrying out his Dying Will.

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

An anime adaptation by Artland began airing in October 7, 2006 and ended September 25, 2010. The anime is available free and legally with English subtitles at Crunchyroll and Hulu, but only in certain areas. Discotek Media has also licensed the series in North America and, in September 2018, released the first 101 episodes on Blu-ray.

Marvelous! announced that a stage play adaptation titled Katekyo Hitman Reborn! The STAGE was scheduled to be performed on September 21 to October 6, 2018, at Tokyo and Osaka, which covered the Daily Life and the Kokuyo arcs and saw to NEEKO reprising her role as Reborn. After a successful run, a second stage play titled Katekyo Hitman Reborn! the STAGE vs VARIA was announced for a two part run. The first Part ran June 14 to June 23, 2019.

---

Reborn 2004 provides examples of:

A-F

• Abhorrent Admirer: Longchamp's girlfriends are certainly something and tries to chase Tsuna and his guardians (and Shamal) for a blind date.
• Abnormal Ammo: Reborn's guns shoot Dying Will bullets. Gokudera's Systema C.A.I can use dynamites as emergency ammo as well.
• Aborted Arc: Thanks to the manga abruptly ending, there are some plot points that are not yet resolved at the end:
  • The whole deal with the Cervello, which is hinted to be more than just an organization that watches over the mafia. As shown at the end of the Varia arc and when they gave the Mare ring to Byakuran, they are connected to the Tri-ni-sette mystery but was never expanded on.
  • Tsuna's road to becoming the Vongola Decimo is also cut off, as his character development is not shown off and is stated to be the same at the end, but with more friends.
  • The relationship between Tsuna and Kyoko becomes this, in one of the final chapters, Reborn finally approaches Tsuna about being in a romantic relationship with Kyoko, he enters the original Dying Will Mode like in the very first chapter chapter to confess his feelings to her, but it's interrupted by him being forced to save Haru and reverting back to normal. The chapter ends with Kyoko essentially telling Tsuna that "he's not an ordinary person", which is exactly the same thing she says in the first chapter.
  • Kawahira and Yuni's revelation as aliens, or true earthlings, where it is just dropped near the end of the Rainbow arc and opens a whole lot of worms about the Tri-ni-sette.
• Absurdly Powerful Student Council:
  • Namimori Junior High's Disciplinary Committee led by Hibari controls the school and the whole town through violence. They can also get rid of dead bodies if requested.
  • The Liquidation Committee of Simon Middle School could qualify as well since they're practically an Expy of the Disciplinary Committee.
• Abusive Parents: There's not a good selection of parents in this series, least of all 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.
• Accidental Marriage: Reborn accidentally accepted Bianchi's wedding proposal when he said yes in his sleep. He got out of it, but not before forcing Dino and Tsuna to cover it up with a Reborn robot to avoid Bianchi's wrath.
• The Ace: Hibari is said to be the strongest guardian many times in the series and it shows. Yamamoto is not far behind him as he has won all of his fights as well. Interestingly, they are the first and second strongest people in Namimori as revealed by Fuuta's rankings.
• Action Girl: Nearly every woman in the Mafia can kick ass like Bianchi and Lal Mirch.
  • Chrome can put up a fight, but her missing organs cripple her fighting abilities. She did become one in the Curse of the Rainbow arc.
  • Suzuki Adelheid is the best one in the series, as she was able to go toe-to-toe with Hibari in her first appearance.
• Adaptation Expansion: The "Arcobaleno Trials" and the "Inheritance Succession/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 Yuni some character development.
• Adapted Out: Naito Longchamp, whose appearance and personality was so disliked that he made no appearances in the anime, with all of his scenes with Tsuna replaced by his guardians.
• Advertised Extra: Lambo, especially with his fifteen-year-old counterpart who is frequently used in promotional art and merchandise, who only appears a few times in each arc with most of his screen time relegated to comedic scenes and short lived fights. Even worse with his twenty-five-year-old counterpart that only appears once before never returning again.
  • The Arcobaleno (excluding Reborn, Colonello, and Mammon) make minimal appearances. The other members (Skull, Fon, and Verde) only have small cameos in the Daily Life arc, appear towards the ending of the Future Arc, and only significance is in the Curse of the Rainbow arc. Even worse with Luce and Aria, who don't make any appearances outside of an anime filler arc.
  • The adult counterparts of the Vongola Guardians are prominently featured merchandise and were even heavily advertised in the fourth opening, despite the adult versions of them only appear in the be beginning of the Future Arc before getting switched out with their present counterparts. The only ones that stay around for a long period of time are Ryohei, Hibari, and Mukuro (the latter only makes a couple brief appearances in the arc before disappearing until the ending), and even then both Ryohei and Hibari are replaced with their present counterparts during the Merone Base invasion. The adult counterparts don't even appear again until the final shot once the arc is over.
• 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 Love Is Unrequited: Kyoko's obliviousness to Tsuna's feelings for her is equals to Tsuna discouraging Haru's love for him. That's for the main love interests. For a more detailed example, check the trope page for a better one.
• 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: The Vongola Rings, The Arcobaleno Pacifiers, and Mare Rings all follow the rainbow theme alongside an ElementalPower.
• Alternate Universe: Many, in fact. Byakuran and Yuni both have the power to acquire knowledge from multiple AU versions of themselves, which is what makes the former such a Magnificent Bastard.
• Always in Class One: After moving to second-year middle school, Tsuna and his friends discovered that all of them had been placed to different classes. Reborn makes it so that anyone can choose their classes and show Tsuna that his friends are willing to follow him in class.
• Ambiguous Gender: Viper, aka Mammon. Goes as a man, but in fact, spends most of the time in a form that makes it impossible to tell his real gender or even looks. Also continues to live under aliases, to the point even his fellow Arcobalenos Colonnello 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 turns him into a badass fighter whenever he's shot in the forehead with it.
  • The Criticism/Rebuke Bullet ups the concentrated awesome content as it is a more powerful version of the Dying Will bullets.
  • And now, everyone gets as many as they want in the form of rings (knockoffs of the Vongola Rings) and boxes.
  • And now that they're back in the present, everybody uses the very same bullets.
• And the Adventure Continues: The last chapter closes out this way, after all the opponents and obstacles the heroes go through. Tsuna still can't bring himself to tell his love interest he loves her nor decide if he truly will lead his mafia family. Due to this, Reborn decides to stick around for a while longer and continue tutoring him.
• Angrish: Xanxus tends to do this when he reaches the apex of his fury (along with breaking out with his old scars). To quote just one instance:
  Xanxus: "Shit... shit... piece of shit... you trash!"
• Animal Motifs: The Arcobaleno has a pet that represents them. Also Lambo, and Squalo.
  • During the Future arc, everyone who is part of the Mafia has this.
  • A commonly missed fact is that the Simon 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 a scorpion.
• Animation Bump: The fight between Yamamoto and Genkishi had much better animation quality than usual.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Bermuda offers Reborn to go to an alliance with each other in order to take down Checkerface. In order to do so, Bermuda reveals the dark secret about the Arcobalenos. Reborn almost took the offer, but Tsuna has something to say about it.
• Anti-Climax:
  • 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.
  • Nearly all of the Vindice except Jager have suffered hard from this trope. They had previously beaten-down everyone from the Simon Family to Iemitsu, but when they fought the Vongola, they didn't stand a chance. Some were taken out within the chapter of their introduction. Bermuda, the strongest of the Arcobaleno, lasted two whole chapters before getting beaten down by Tsuna.

• Arc Number: 7 is a consistently recurring number throughout the series, 7 guardians, 7 flames, 7 new transfer students... you get the idea.
• Arc Villain: There is one in every arc.
  • Kokuyo Arc: The Kokuyo Gang with Mukuro as their leader.
  • Varia Arc: The Varia, with Xanxus as the boss.
  • Future Arc: The Millefiore family, and with Byakuran with his Real Six Funeral Wreaths.
  • Arcobaleno Trials arc: You can count Verde, as he is not interested in helping out and only wants to do things For Science!.
  • First Generation Trials Arc: Daemon Spade
  • Inheritance Arc: The Shimon family after they reveal themselves in the inheritance ceremony. They are later upstaged by Julie, and later Daemon Spade.
  • Curse of the Rainbow Arc: Checkerface, with the Vendice later joining the fray.
• 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 helped that the bishies got even more bishie-y.
• Artistic License – Physics: Rampant flame-generation through willpower and Convection, Schmonvection aside, Enma is able to create not one, not two, but three black holes without utterly destroying well... everything. More recently Bermuda manages to accelerate himself to the speed of light... despite the fact that it'd be impossible for anything with mass to reach that speed without enough energy to remake the universe. Of course this is a shounen manga, but even Dragon Ball didn't take things that far.
• Ass Kicking Pose: Fran failed at unleashing his box weapon because he lacked one.
• As You Know: Recap episodes are framed by letting characters explain the story to someone clueless, allowing the audience to flash to scenes audiences are already aware of.
  • Gokudera first recaps the story thus far to Lambo, who is in the hospital, letting the audiences know who the Varia are and who won or lost in the fights.
  • There is another recap episode that focuses on Gokudera looking for Uri and seeing things that help him flashback to the events in the story.
  • In the Melone Raid, Yamamoto tells Lal Mirch, who was incapacitated, what happened after she fainted with the audiences shown scenes from other characters that both are not aware of.
  • After the filler arcs, there are two episodes where Reborn tells what happened from the past to Lal Mirch, who is recovering in the base. He tells the events and how everyone was able to accomplish their goal after all the characters return to the future.

• Back from the Dead: A variation, Anyone who was killed in the Future Arc is still alive in the present time as that particular future was erased and they received memories of what happened in the future. In Yuni's case, she came back thanks to the sky pacifier.
• Back-to-Back Badasses:
  • Mukuro and Hibari in the Filler Arc.
  • Tsuna and Byakuran does this when the Vindice launched their surprise assault.
  • Tsuna and Mukuro at the end of Chapter 380.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Everyone in the mafia wears one, save for some higher-ups. Enforced in the Choice Arc, where Reborn made everyone wear suits in the battle against the Real Funeral Wreaths in order to show support to Tsuna.
• 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 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 the mafia to kick everyone's asses.
  • Ryohei is this as well, to the EXTREME!!
  • Hibari and his tonfas will bite your asses to death.
• Badass Teacher: Reborn is a world-class hit-man and is Tsuna's teacher. Also pretty much all of Tsuna's mentors count as this, often acting as Sink or Swim Mentor to him.
• 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!
  • Worth to note: In the official Reborn character book, Vongola 77, one of Xanxus's hobbies was listed as: "Torturing Squalo".
• Bad Guy Bar: The Millefiore Base has one inside. It's usually where the Black Millefiore hang out when resting.
• Bad Future: The entire plot of the Future 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 transition, which also resulted in the destruction of his home world. Poor him... right?
• Battle Butler: Olgert, elephant-wielding butler to Rasiel, Bel's eviller twin

• The Beautiful Elite: Most of the cast, especially after Art Evolution.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Lal and Colonnello appear as sort of this. They do confess their feelings to each other and the last we see them is that they are inviting Tsuna and Reborn to their wedding.
• 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 Bad: Each arc has its own. Mukuro, Xanxus, Byakuran, Daemon Spade.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: The Curse of the Rainbow arc. Checker Face and Bermuda Von Vichtenstein, the eighth Arcobaleno.
• Big Damn Heroes: The freakin' VARIA pull one off in the Future arc! As does Yamamoto later on.

• Big, Screwed-Up Family:
  • The Vongola family is the biggest Mafia family in the story and has its share of Cain and Abel killings and freakish traditions. This is initially played for laughs but following the manga's Genre Shift, it means that the Tsuna receives daily death threats to the point he claims he'll destroy the family if he has to carry on its bloody legacy.
  • The Varia is this, whether they admit it or now. Lussuria even calls himself the mother and Xanxus the father of the group.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • Crossing alike with Lookalike Lovers, Tsuna and Kyoko isn't really very different in personality. They're both determined, both naive and good-natured, and both are very oblivious to other character's feelings for them (In Kyoko's case, Tsuna's feelings for her; In Tsuna's case, Haru and Gokudera's feelings for him). It doesn't help that due to Art Evolution, Tsuna and Kyoko are now practically twins, as shown in Chapter 237.
  • Tsuna's new best friend Enma is basically himself. That makes them not only the "Loser Duo" as dubbed by Lambo but also the "Amazing Duo".
  • Not only Tsuna and Enma, but their Famiglias are also in good terms with each other and have a lot in common. Gokudera and Shit P. find the other one weird and strange, Yamamoto and Kaoru love baseball, Ryohei and Koyo are boxing freaks. Only Hibari and Adelheid subvert this trope; both of them are similar to each other, but they also don't like each other.
• Black-and-White Morality: Tsuna and his friends may be part of The Mafia, but it is clear that he is on the side of good and will not tolerate any kinds of violence or evil acts. Compare that to the rest of the mafia wherein it's pretty much normal to shed blood. Even his enemies are on the evil side, as shown by Xanxus, Byakuran, Daemon Spade and Bermuda who will kill anyone getting in their way.
• Black Blood: In the anime, during the very few times that blood isn't removed expect to seem some Black Blood.
• Bloodless Carnage: About 99% of the blood and gore is removed from the manga into a surprisingly tame anime. This is best shown when Tsuna is sliced in the back from hip to shoulder each direction without a single drop of blood.
  • This is only true of the anime adaptation, whereas in the manga, blood is not only frequent but so is some pretty graphic stuff like Mukuro activating his evil eye.
  • The anime actually didn't have a problem with showing blood early on during its adaptation of the Mukuro arc. It's like after this particular arc, the animators found it too gruesome for the kids watching the show so they turned to Bloodless Carnage afterward. During this arc, Gokudera, for example, took a few needles to the chest, yet his shirt began turning blood red afterward from the injury. Looked even MORE painful then ANYTHING the anime dished out afterward where the only times you ever see blood again is during the Varia arc when Yamamoto gets slashed across the chest in his Ring duel and much later on during the Future arc when Hibari tries to pet his porcupine box weapon, but accidentally gets his hand stabbed. Everything else is straightforward Bloodless Carnage.

• 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 Simon Rings needed this to become active.
• Bodyguard Crush: Gokudera. Extremely. With all those blushes he does whenever Tsuna gives him attention.
  • And Gamma to Aria and later, Yuni. He admits that he has an unrequited love for Aria after she died and even thinks to himself that Yuni has cast a spell on him.
• Body Horror: The Deathstalk Squad who are scientists that experimented with themselves until they turned into inhuman monstrosities.
  • Daemon Spade while possessing Mukuro's body turns more monstrous the more he powers himself up in his fight against Enma and Tsuna.
  • The Vindice as well. Underneath those cloaks and bandages, the Vindice members look like corpses.
• 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: Xanxus' guns, which fires off his Flames of Wrath instead of regular bullets.
• Bowdlerise:
  • It seems that the series' initial 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 that 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 joining the Vongola is changed big time. In the manga, Yamamoto attempts to commit suicide on the school rooftop and 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. However a rare Subversion, during Episode 21, when Gokudera fights Chikusa at the beginning of the "Mukuro/Kokuyo arc", Chikusa's attacks left Gokudera covered in red blood. That's the most violent the anime adaption ever gets, likely due to its Saturday morning timeslot.
  • 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 the hands pointing at different hours.
  • Byakuran snapping Tsuna's neck is changed to a giant transparent hand crushing him instead.
  • In the choice arc, motorcycles are turned into air bikes as the main characters are not of legal age in Japan to ride.
  • Nearly all sexual humor is removed from the story, with the scene of Lal Mirch bathing and Lambo proclaiming that there are boobs everywhere left in the story.
• Brainwashed: Chrome, by Julie/Daemon Spade.
  • Also Arcobaleno Leader Yuni in the Future Arc. She apparently protects herself from becoming a permanent mind control slave though, by sending her heart "someplace far away". Not so much in the manga, where she is drugged with an emotion-suppressing drug instead.
• 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.
• Breakingthe Fourth Wall: When Flan faced the camera and said to its audiences " It's dangerous, so good little kids shouldn't try it at home."
• Breaking Speech: Byakuran gives Tsuna one, talking about his past experiences as a Butt-Monkey. Tsuna retaliates with more fighting and eventually defeats Byakuran.
  • Enma and Tsuna get into an argument this way. 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 no different. Enma then wins the speech battle by saying that even though Tsuna claims to not want to be the boss of Vongola, he claims that Tsuna is very cunning to plan to take the throne anyway. 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.
• Breather Episode: After the intense Mukuro arc, we get some slice-of-life episodes before the start of the Varia arc and the same goes before the Future Arc. The filler arcs count as this in the anime, which returns the cast to the past while acting as a training arc at the same time.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Belphegor. Yamamoto is one since he usually focuses on baseball and can get decent grades if he studies.
• Building Swing: Reborn casually swings like Tarzan, even dressing like him to surprise Tsuna.
• Burn Scars, Burning Powers: Xanxus' face is covered by a large burn scar that was inflicted by the Ninth Vongola Boss' Dying Will Flames when he tried to rebel. Normally only a small scar on his left cheek is visible, but the whole scar appears when Xanxus becomes enraged and uses his own Dying Will Flame, the Flame of Wrath.
• But Not Too Foreign: Gokudera has a Japanese mother and an Italian father. Tsuna himself and his father have some Italian blood thanks to his ancestor Giotto.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Tsuna (borderline Chew Toy at first, it must be said).
  • Gokudera when his boss is not around or whenever his sister appears.
  • Dino when he is away from his men.
  • Also Lambo, thanks to his own actions
  • And Skull among the Arcobaleno. He doesn't exactly have it easy in the manga, but the anime's Arcobaleno filler arcs abuse him beyond belief.
  • Levi gets quite a lot of abuse from the other members of the Varia.
  • Emma is this after his appearance, this is one of the reasons why Tsuna relates to him so much.
• Calling Your Attacks: Shounen will be shounen.
• Camp Gay: Lussuria, he likes wearing the frilly clothes, loves making dainty hand gestures, generally acts very feminine and even called Big Sis Lussuria by the lower-ranked members of the Varia.
  • 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. Lal Mirch towards her feelings for Colonnello, whereas almost Everyone Can See It.
• Can't Live Without You: Chrome Dokuro can live only because her organs, the originals of which have been removed, are physical illusions cast by Mukuro Rokudo.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: There is an astounding amount of Bishōnen in the series. They make up over 75% of the cast, the remaining 25% are Gonk.
• Cast of Snowflakes: The mange has an insane amount of characters but each of them are distinct from each other (and if there is a resemblance, expect there to be a reason).
• Catchphrase: 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.
  • The series starts out with all the elements it needs to be an action series; the hero has a powerful super-form and is taking on a dangerous line of work, he's got allies with different fighting skills, and so forth. But it's all played for laughs, essentially as a parody of the sort of manga it eventually became.
• Chef of Iron: Bianchi uses Poison Cooking as a weapon. And she can turn everything she touches into poison as well.
• Chekhov's Gun: The box that Lambo's mafia family sent Irie Shouichi after Lambo helped destroy some of his apartment building. It is the reason how Byakuran was able to realize his power over parallel worlds.
  • The ring Lancia gave Tsuna. It saved him from Byakuran's mini white dragon.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Irie Shouichi, and in the Future arc Old Man Kawahira, the man Adult I-Pin delivers Ramen to.
• Cherry Blossoms: The Sakura-kura disease, as well as the Ending Theme "Sakura Addiction".
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Tsuna who is thirteen when the series first starts, and Yuni who is even younger.
  • Also Reborn himself until we found out he wasn't actually a child.
• Chinese Girl: I-Pin. An assassin from Hong Kong who fights with gyoza and has Mahjong-themed attacks. She later grows up to work in a ramen restaurant.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Shamal. He's quite the lecherous pervert when it comes to women. Haru and Kurokawa are creeped out by him whenever he saves them from trouble.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: 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 altogether.
  • An explanation was presented as bonus material in the 11th collection. The reason Longchamp wasn't in the more action-oriented storylines is that 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.

• Cloudcuckoolander: Yamamoto pretty much writes the book on this whenever anything Mafia-related comes up. Haru with her Genki personality and strange cosplays.
• Code Name: It's assumed that most of the Arcobaleno have at least one.
  • Some assume most of the Varia as well.
• Combat Commentator: Played straight in the Vongola Ring Arc. For any given battle, most of the characters are spectating, and so clearly someone needs to tell them what's going on. Reborn is always the one explaining for the other characters as there is always a plot device that usually prevents him from fighting (Ninth's orders, Non-trinisette policy).
• Combat Cue Stick: Gamma's Box Weapon is a cue stick surrounded by multiple electrically-charged pool balls which he can shoot at opponents.
• Coming of Age Story: The anime and manga is this to Tsuna, as he grows from a wimpy kid to the Tenth Vongola Boss
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Hibari loves this trope, as he faces against a whole squad of Millefiore goons and wins effortlessly. He also wins against 500 ice clones of Adelheid, each of it as strong as her.
• Conveniently Empty Building: Invoked. The setting for the Choice Battle happens in an empty metropolitan area prepared by Byakuran so that everybody can go all out. It's implied that people lived there before.
• Convection, Schmonvection: The Dying Will Flames don't actually burn in it's simplest form as it is more of a condensed battle aura. Anyone on the receiving end of an attack is usually injured, but strangely enough, no actual burns are showing off in their bodies. In fact, the flames will have other properties other than burning. ^note For example tranquility for rain flames, petrifying for sky and sun flames, hardening for lightning flames, and multiplying for cloud flames. Only the storm flames act like this, but it is more to their disintegration factors than an actual fire. In fact, the only time that someone was burned was Byakuran, where his body disappeared after an intense X-Burner, and Daemon Spade.
  • Played straight with Zankuro, as he was first shown bathing in lava after he burned his village in lava. He is resistant to the heat, but the towel on his head isn't.
• Cool Car: Cool Motorcycle. They run on Dying Will Flames!
  • And have stealth functions!
• Creepy Twins:
  • Bel and Jill/Sil/Siel/Rasiel. Although, Bel is to blame for Rasiel's creepiness.
  • The Bloody Twins. They're barely human-looking as they resemble walking corpses with long sharp nails they use to stab people with.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Hibari personified.
  • Levi vs Lambo after the bazooka's effects disappeared. Tsuna had to save Lambo from further harm, disqualifying him and making Xanxus the de facto winner.
  • Just moments after the revival of their power, the Simon 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.

• Daydream Surprise: Bluebell and Zakuro appears 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. He has around 666 deadly diseases in his body that he can weaponize. When he afflicted one of the bird twins with a disease, the latter just swelled up until his body burst out.
• Deadly Training Area: Death Mountain, which is full of weird things that can kill a person. And Mafia Land thanks to Colonnello making it his training ground for his students.
• Death as Comedy: In the first chapter, Reborn shows Tsuna graphic pictures of how the candidates for the Tenth Boss of the Vongola died to prove that he is the only person that can become the boss.
• Debut Queue: And how. Even in the latest chapters, new Bishōnen 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: This is a 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 planning 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. Gokudera is a straight case of this but is revealed to be surprisingly smart.
• 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.

    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: Tsuna's dad, though Iemitsu isn't dead as previously thought and returns to reveal that he'd been working for the Vongola Family all along.
• 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 Ring Battle having been saved by Dino's men and undergone major surgery after the large extent of damage done to him by the shark.
  • Tsuna is 10 times as worse, with or without his guardians.
• Doomed by Canon: Aria, who appeared in a filler arc as the Sky Arcobaleno of the present time, is dead in the Future Arc. In fact, she gave up her chance at changing her future for a chance for Yuni to break her curse instead.
• Double-Meaning Title: Reborn!, the English-language abbreviated title, encapsulates a lot of things: the Character Title referencing the Arcobaleno, the effects of Dying Will Mode causing Tsuna (and others) to feel rejuvenated after being shot, and finally the intended rebirth of Tsuna as he goes from a high school loser to the respected young heir of the Vongola Famiglia.
• The Dragon: Hibari. A rare heroic 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 but only towards men. Unfortunately, 99% of the cast is male.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Few thanks to the Art Evolution. Tsuna's looks and has feminine mannerisms so much that he's mistaken to be a girl by Dr. Shamal. Nosaru, Kikyou, Mammon and arguably Basil also counts. Daisy also counts, with his feminine name and demeanor makes you think he's a creepy girl, until he speaks with a male voice.
  • Squalo with his long flowing hair that he refuses to cut thanks to his promise to Xanxus. Before growing his hair out, he's looks fairly masculine.
  • Skull, once you see under his helmet is easy to mistake for a short-haired woman.
• 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 Future Arc.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first 60 chapters (which is slimmed down to 30 episodes in the anime) was a wacky gag series that focused on the daily life of Tsuna after Reborn arrives and the crazy hijinks that follows.
  • Most of Tsuna's friends had considerably larger roles in these first few chapters as well, with secondary characters like Nana, Kyoko, Haru, Bianchi, I-Pin, Futa, and Doctor Shamal appearing more frequently in the beginning. Once the series changed genre, all of these characters begin to start making less appearances and most of their screen time was relegated to being minor supporting characters. It becomes even more noticeable in the Inheritance Ceremony and Curse of the Rainbow Arcs where none of the characters listed below have anything bigger than background roles, with Shamal outright disappearing from the series.
  • Dying Will bullets were used solely for comedic purposes and mostly just to advance the plot during the Daily Life Arc. For the first 78 Chapters, Tsuna only uses the original form (which makes him energetic and stripped down to his underwear) as opposed to the more iconic Hyper Dying Will Mode that he would adopt for the remainder of the series.
  • In Gokudera's debut chapter, it's stated that whoever kills the boss of the Vongola Famiglia will become the next boss themself, something that was dropped almost as quick as it was introduced. Later parts of the story, namely the Varia Arc, make it clear the only possible way to become a boss is to be a blood relative or have the Sky Flames sealed within you, otherwise you will be denied the rank.
  • Early chapters implied that Reborn was an actual baby. It's heavily implied that the pacifier around this neck was a real one, ^note Reborn could be seen sucking on his pacifier in the original oneshot. he was shown to wear diapers underneath his suit, his birthday chapter states that he is only a year old, and apparently Doctor Shamal helped deliver Reborn's birth. In fact, despite the status of Reborn being an adult now being a Late-Arrival Spoiler because of merchandise, the idea of Reborn being cursed wasn't even established until 157 chapters later in the fourth arc of the series.
  • Chrome Dokuro was less gentle and meek in her debut chapter. She introduces herself with Mukuro's Signature Laugh, slyly smiles when meeting the Vongola, kisses Tsuna on the cheek as a form of greeting, and playfully taunts Mammon for falling for her illusions. All of these characteristics are completely abandoned after her second appearance in the Future Arc.
• Easily Forgiven: Tsuna doesn't harbor a grudge to almost all his enemies which includes:
  • Rokudo Mukuro. Reborn warns Tsuna not to forgive him, but it becomes very obvious that Tsuna doesn't harbor hard feelings toward him.
  • Irie Shouichi was forgiven by Tsuna ever since he was told the truth and that he is on the Vongola's side.
  • Byakuran after he is revealed to be Uni's representative in the boss battles and healing Yamamoto helps in his decision.
• 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 Simon Family has a full seven more original flames. While the flames we've seen thus far are the 'Sky Flames', the Simon 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 Daemon Spade and the Vindice use the 8th element, the Flame of Night.
• Elemental Punch: For a while, it's Tsuna's only method of attack.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: In the final fight of the Future arc, Vongola Primo unlocks the power of the Vongola rings in order for Tsuna to beat Byakuran.
• Embodiment of Vice: The Varia each represent a sin.
• Embodiment of Virtue: In contrast to the Varia, the protagonists represent the virtues.
• 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.
• Enemy Mine: In the representative battle, Tsuna gathers up the remaining players in the other teams in order to find a way to fight Bermuda and his team. And it works as Dino, Squalo, Xanxus, Mukuro, and Hibari all join forces in order to fight Jager.
• 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.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: Tsuna remarks that he was able to reach the highest level of the Dying Will Stage that is equivalent to the mindset where Bermuda got his Night Flames. This is achieved by Reborn shooting a Dying Will Bullet while Tsuna is in Hyper Dying Will mode.
• Everyone Can See It: Tsuna's crush with Kyoko is pretty much noticed by almost everyone, as he makes a poor job of hiding it. Funnily enough, Haru is alright with his crush on her, in fact, the two even bond over their admiration of Tsuna. Meanwhile, Gokudera who got always got angry when the other girls got too clingy to Tsuna, is supportive of him asking Kyoko out for lunch. Even Reborn and Bianchi even tries to help him in their own extreme ways.
• 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 1.) a prince, and 2.) 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.
  • Ghost is basically a lime green Dr. Manhattan with long hair. Though without the Full Frontal Wang, as this is a kid's manga.
• Eye Scream: Rokudo Mukuro jamming his finger into his right eye so that he can activate the Fifth Path.
• The Faceless: Future Tsuna, whose actual face is not (and will never be) shown.
• Facial Markings: Chikusa, Mammon, Byakuran, Yuni (same as her mother/grandmother) share the same facial marking to show they are related, Fran.
  • Lal Mirch sports a tattoo on her cheek, changed from a horrible scar in the manga.
• Faking the Dead: After wringing out fans' tears for over a hundred chapters, it turns out that TYL!Tsuna was just shot by a special bullet and is not dead after all.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: The anime adaptation changes Reborn's gun to Leon, actual bullets to lasers, etc. Also, the Future arc as a whole.
  • Also in the manga, Gokudera's dynamites are supposed to light up because of the cigarettes he smokes but they light up by magic in the anime because smoking is Harmful to Minors. Tsuna lampshades this the first time Gokudera lights up the bombs this way.
  • In the manga, Byakuran's gigantic floating head is actually a giant weapon capable of destroying a mountain as he cheerfully demonstrates to the main characters. The anime removes this part so it's only a giant hologram in the anime.
• Family Theme Naming: Giotto's descendants are named after Tokugawa Shoguns.
• Fantastic Fighting Style:
  • Yamamoto's Shigure Soen Ryu, which is passed to each disciple just by teaching it once and allowing the practitioner to create their own techniques. It ensures that its techniques will stay strong and that the weak branches will disappear.
  • Likewise, Fon and I-pin's Gyoza Kenpo, where they are able to control a person's body through the use of garlic buns.
• Fan of Underdog: Gokudera and Yamamoto. But it might be that they didn't realize that he was the underdog in the first place. And pretty much half the cast admires Tsuna for unclear or misguided reasons.
• Fatal Flaw: Tsuna's lack of resolve to fight is usually called out by lots of characters in the earlier episodes to the point that enemies have to Kick the Dog many times in order to make him fight. Likewise, his forgiving nature is also called out as a flaw by Reborn, but actually worked out in his favor most of the time.
• 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.
• Females Are More Innocent: Not surprising considering the specific franchise and the targeted audience, but while this series does have quite a few female villains, expect them to be more redeemable than their male counterparts or having their goals be more justifiable. Or, completely forgiven and forgotten.
• Festival Episode: in one episode, Tsuna and the gang have to raise money in order to pay off a debt. Unfortunately, Hibari steals the money away.
• Fiery Lion: Box Animals generally are surrounded by and able to generate flames. This includes Tsuna's Natsu — a lion cub — and Xanxus's liger.
• Fiery Stoic: While Playing with Fire is the norm in the setting, being completely calm while using them is considered an outstanding achievement: "Hyper Dying Will Mode". When protagonist Tsuna uses it, his personality does a complete 180, from an emotional kid with exaggerated reactions to hardly ever changing his tone or expression.
• Filler Arc: Rather special in the case of the Arcobaleno Trials arc since it revealed the long-awaited Canon secrets of the Arcobaleno before the manga did outside the curse itself. May, in fact, be a case of Adaptation Expansion.
• First-Episode Resurrection: in the manga at least. Tsuna gets shot in the hear with a special bullet and is revived with his dying will.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Of the present to future type. One episode dedicates Tsuna and his friends dealing with their emotions after visiting their homes in Namimori and discovering that so much has changed even if their home still looks the same.
• Flash Step: Tsuna is capable of this once he figures out how to use his X-Gloves. Gets better in the Future Arc.
• Foreshadowing: In an early chapter, the gang tries to find a pet for Tsuna and a lion is one of his choices. Come the future arc and it's revealed his box animal is a lion.
• 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!
  • He's remembered how after the recent chapters. It appears to be activated by pressing his Berserk Button.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: The raid to Melone base becomes this as the main characters become separated with one another. This culminates with Tsuna meeting up with Spanner to finish the X-Burner, Yamamoto fighting and developing a rivalry with Genkishi, Gamma meeting up with Gokudera and learning about how Millefiore was formed. Lastly, there is also Future Hibari's raid to the base with him getting switched with his present counterpart in his fight with Genkishi with Chrome joining in at the last minute to help.
• Freudian Excuse: Daemon Spade's lover was killed because Primo didn't want the Vongola Family to become too powerful. As a result, he strived for the opposite.
• From Zero to Hero: Tsunayoshi Sawada. At school all his grades are zero, he is impossibly clumsy, smaller than everyone in his class, has no out-of-school activities whatsover (unless you count reading manga and playing video games), has absolutely no friends, and is berated both by his mother (though that was toned down in the anime) and at school. He even gets stuck with the nickname "Dame-Tsuna". By the end of the series he has obtained amazing power, is an expert in combat, has a very wide circle of friends and allies that would die for him and has managed to defeat his setting's Eldritch Abominations, among other deeds. No improvement in his grades, though.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Ghost walking up in the middle of an all-out-war type battlefield naked. 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 of the 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.

G-L

• Gadgeteer Genius: Spanner and Future Giannini but subverted with Giannini 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 since they share a body.
• Generation Xerox: Perhaps the most over-the-top example of this trope anywhere.
  • Taken to extremes as Tsuna, the tenth boss of the Vongola Mafia Family, looks almost identical to the first boss, despite the fact that ten generations separate the two and the fact that none of the other bosses look very much like him, despite it supposedly being a direct line. It's later revealed that the other bosses have the lineage of Vongola Secondo, who usurped Giotto's position as Boss when Daemon Spade betrayed Giotto. Giotto later retired to Japan, and Tsuna turns out to be his descendant and/or reincarnation.
  • Every member of Tsuna's inner circle is said to bear a strong resemblance to a member of the First Vongola's circle, despite the fact that none of them are blood-related. 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. Later chapters imply that the real reason why the tenth generation so closely resembles the first is that they're the reincarnations of the first generation.
• Genre Shift: Starts out as a pure comedy, but after several volumes, becomes a straight-up shounen action series.
• Gentleman Snarker: Fran knows how to piss off his comrades just by telling them a couple of 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. Later on, Tsuna, Byakuran, and Uni hang out in a mansion together
• Good Luck Charm: During the Varia Arc, Kyoko and Haru make an omamori charm for the guys to wish them luck in their "Sumo Tournament". With emphasis on Kyoko making Tsuna’s charm, though it’s a recurring item it’s also a forgettable plot point.
• 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.
• 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 a cruel irony, Daemon Spade to Mukuro of all people. Most likely to repeat the past. Oh, and he is currently doing this to Julie.
• Gratuitous English: There's Engrish all over the place as many characters are foreign.
  • Haru 'Dangerous' Miura mixes English in her dialogues, even her character song is peppered with English.
  • All the weapon names (if they're not Italian) are in Engrish, and the characters say about two Engrish words per sentence. Even all of the opening songs have this in their lyrics.
    "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!"
• 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.
• Groin Attack: Tsuna received a volleyball spike on his groin in the second episode.
• 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.
• Hammy Villain, Serious Hero: Tsuna can be a very expressive Nice Guy and dorky but around some of his enemies who are Ax-Crazy he can be more serious, no-nonsense, and reserved in contrast. As it turns out this is an effect of one of his powers.
• Hard Light: Mukuro's, Ken's and Chikusa's illusions when Chrome fights Glo Xinia in the Future arc.
• Harmless Freezing: Slightly subverted. Xanxus was able to survive being frozen for 8 years without severe repercussions, except for his scars.
• Heel–Face Turn: Subverted, sort of, when Mukuro claims he's still after Tsuna('s body). Also, played straight with most of the cast after their defeat from fighting Tsuna. The Varia, Byakuran and his Guardians, the Shimon Family, Checker Face and the Vindice are all friendly, or at least tolerate him. Daemon Spade is an exception since he still cannot accept Tsuna, but at least admitted his defeat from him gracefully.
• 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.
• Hereditary Curse: The curse of the Sky Arcobaleno manifested as this, as Luce and her descendants suffered from a short life that killed them after a few years.
• Heroic BSoD: At the end of Chapter 318. Tsuna learns that his father is the one who killed the Shimon Family, and was shocked for a few chapters
• Heroic R Ro D: Tsuna usually suffers from muscles pains whenever he overuses his Dying Will Mode. He gets better with it over time with his training from hell.
• He's Back!: Yamamoto shows up after being hospitalized to save Mizuno in Chapter 326.
• 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."
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: In the anime-only Inheritance Succession filler arc, for Gokudera's trial, the will of first Storm Guardian G secretly impersonates and replaces Gokudera for the day. Since Tsuna's Hyper Intuition would easily allow him to recognize the switch, the will of Vongola Primo temporarily seals that power for the purpose of the trial.
• Home Field Advantage: The Melone Base is one for Shoichi and his forces because the base itself is his box weapon and he can rearrange it as he chooses.
• Homoerotic Subtext:
  • In one of the earliest episodes, Doctor Shamal accidentally kissed Tsuna as well as including a scene where Shamal feels Tsuna's chest to check if he's a girl before discovering he's not. Both of them were obviously disgusted and never mentioned it again afterward.
  • When Lussuria takes over Haru's interview program, he describes himself as the "mother" of the Varia "household" and Xanxus as the "father".
  • Lussuria's flamboyant-ness is usually played for laughs. In his battle against Ryohei, he openly ogles his muscular physique, refers to his body as "pretty nice", says that he's "just his type" and promptly decides to take him home and make him a part of his "collection"... after he's kicked the shit out of him that is.
  • Byakuran sent Shouichi Irie a room full of flowers in order to give him the inspiration to find the Vongola. But turns out it also has an underlying subtle threat that he needs to hurry up finding them.
  • At the same time, Byakuran acts very friendly with Mukuro in his Leo disguise, and even discussing the meaning of the flowers with him once they are alone in his room.
• Hot-Blooded: Ryohei, to the EXTREME.
  • VOOOOOOOOOOI HOW COULD YOU FORGET SQUALO!
  • His Shimon counterpart Aoya Koyo is surprisingly one as well, even if he looks like the smart and quiet kind
• Hot Springs Episode: Part of the Jump Festa 2009 OVA takes place at a hot spring resort. Since this is Reborn, all the Fanservice is provided by the guys.
• Huddle Shot: VONGOLA FIGHT!
• 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 Yuni, Aria, and Luche which is possibly Generation Xerox. The Sky Flame probably has cloning properties...
  • It also seems to run in the Simon Family.
• Identical Stranger: TYL!Lambo and Romeo, who is Bianchi's ex-boyfriend. This results in Lambo getting a plateful of poison cooking thanks to her mistaking him as her ex.
• Ignorance Is Bliss: What all the guys simultaneously agree upon when faced with the choice of telling Kyoko and Haru the truth in the Future Arc. Though Tsuna ends up telling them anyway, much to Ryohei’s displeasure.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty:
  • Julie Katou expresses interest in Chrome and kidnaps her, telling her they have "date plans" and lets her sleep in his bed. He also finds her to be "so damn cute" and in Chapter 309 Chrome awakens in his bed, he enters the room, offers her a change of clothes, gets onto the bed with her, grabs her face, gets real close, and asks if she needs help changing. He then says they should "get to know each other, real nice". It's later revealed he is actually the first Mist Guardian, Daemon Spade, possessing Julie for some time.
  • Glo Xinia during his fight with Chrome. He grabbed her hard enough to cause her pain, kept getting in her face, and keeps telling her things like: "You seem to like being touched by men. Your blushing cannot betray your desires." and "It's time to eat... that ring and you!" It's hinted he might've done something to her had Mukuro not shown up, allowing her time to escape. When fighting Mukuro he comes out with this line:
    Glo Xinia: "Is that girl so precious to you? Then I'm going to take my share of such a precious girl right before your eyes. This could just be the best situation, don't you think? My appetite for that girl just keeps getting better!"
• Informed Ability: Many of the characters see Dino as a competent fighter but he has never won a fight and more often needs the help of others to bail him out of dangerous situations.
• Informed Attractiveness: Kyoko’s main plot point in the series is the fact that she’s the prettiest girl at school and it’s the only thing to come up when she appears on screen, and while she is cute (due to the art style), in a cast where everyone is just as attractive, it doesn’t really mean much.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Tsuna makes it clear that he does not want to do with anything with the Vongola or Mafia, but Reborn pretty much forces him to it. He keeps this line of thinking until the end of the manga.
• 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.
• 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 the Storm Ring Battle, and 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: Just 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 to become the Tenth...
• Improbable Weapon User: Amano really has a thing for unusual weapons:
  • Tsuna's woolly mittens. Hibari's handcuffs. Gamma's pool cues, Shamal uses mosquitoes, Kikyou killed Genkishi using freaking flowers, Lambo's electric cow horns, Vongola IV's fork. Most recent is Daemon Spade's playing cards able to make mind-raping illusions. Joshima Ken uses different sets of teeth to adopt the abilities of different animals. Kakimoto Chikusa uses yo-yos that shoot out poisoned needles. M.M uses a clarinet that, when played, creates special sound waves that cause the substance the clarinet is aimed at to boil instantly, which is called 'Burning Vibrato'. Levi uses umbrellas that discharge electricity. Bianchi specializes in poison cooking. I-Pin enhances her martial arts skills with special gyoza dumplings laced with garlic, which numbs the brain and forces the victim's muscles to involuntarily move on their own.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The Cervello agents are this, as the female agents have the same hairstyles and the only thing that can distinguish them are their clothing and voices. The male agents wear a simple trench coat and fedora to hide.
• Instant Expert: Right after they got upgrades on their Vongola Gear, everybody seems to be able to use them perfectly as if they had been with them forever. Don't forget they just got the upgrades in less than a week.
• Instrument of Murder: M.M.'s clarinet.
• Insult Friendly Fire: Gokudera has a habit of insulting people of not being able to do a simple thing like math or tying a tie. Unfortunately, this insult also applies to his boss, who just keeps a tight lip about it.
• 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.
• Involuntary Group Split: Shoichi's ability to control the rooms in the Melone Base involuntary splits up the Vongola Guardians forcing them to fight different captains within the base.
• I Owe You My Life: ...Which combined with Defeat Means Friendship and turned into Bodyguard Crush, which eventually evolved into Stalking is Love. Upon saving the life of Hayato Gokudera, (who had been trying to kill him), Tsuna gains his first (and most enthusiastic) member of the Vongola Family.
  • To a lesser degree, also happened to Yamamoto in the manga, who attempts to kill himself after an injury stops him from playing baseball. They both fall and Tsuna ends up saving both, after which, Yamamoto becomes Tsuna's second follower and Gokudera's competition for Right-hand man.
  • On the villain side, Byakuran has been doing this to most of his subordinates thanks to his parallel world knowledge. Most of them gain undying loyalty because of this.
• Irony:
  • The fact that Mukuro of all people eventually becomes one of Tsuna's guardians.
  • Squalo is half killed by a shark after the Rain Ring 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..
• Is That What He Told You?: Reborn's a filthy, filthy liar all the time. Even his fellow Arcobaleno has no idea what he is planning all the time.
• Jabba Table Manners: Dino, who cannot use a chopstick and manages to spill half his food all over the table and himself. Xanxus as well, if he is not being picky with his food.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gokudera's The Smart Guy who really loves his boss, plays piano, and subscribes 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 sticks 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.
• 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 and his Yamamoto Bat that turns into a katana when he swings it at 300 mph. He later gains Shigure Kintoki from his father.
• Keet: Longchamp, Yamamoto, and Haru certainly have a big smile on their faces.
• 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 Dark Horse though.
• KidAnova: Longchamp again. Subverted in that all of his girlfriends are... unique.
• Killer Yoyo: Chikusa.
• Kimodameshi: Tsuna is forced into one thanks to Reborn's schemes. Unfortunately, no one expected Romeo to actually make an appearance here, almost pulling Tsuna to the Underworld as a revenge to Bianchi.
• The Klutz:
  • Dino, when he isn't cool (read: when there isn't at least one of his men around him), is really lame.
  • Tsuna at the start of the story as well, where he can't even do one simple thing without fail. He gets better over time thanks to Reborn's efforts.
  • Enma, even more so than Tsuna. He manages to sew his pants sleeves together!
• 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. Likewise, G for Giotto.
  • Squalo takes on this role with the Varia as well, being their (relatively) Only Sane Man.
  • On the enemy side, Irie acted like this for Byakuran, only to reveal that it's a deception. Genkishi desperately wants to be this for Byakuran as revealed by his ramblings due to the Hell Ring. Meanwhile, Kikyo is really Byakuran's lancer for the rest of the story.
  • Suzuki Adelheid is this for Enma.
• 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
• Living Emotional Crutch:
  • Tsuna is this to Gokudera, as Tsuna is the first one to show kindness to the latter after he grew up distrusting everyone. Shitt. P. even lampshades this in her fight with Gokudera.
  • Yuni to Gamma as well, wherein Gamma descended into alcoholism and became rude to his fellow family members after she is under Byakuran's thrall. He even sacrificed his life with her so that she won't be alone.
• The Load: Justified since Kyoko and Haru are only civilians with no knowledge for fighting whatsoever. This is more prominent in the Future arc where both of them are the main cause of concern for Tsuna and co.
  • Lambo in general since he is the only guardian who’s just a child, though it is downplayed since he can be helpful in a pinch if you know how to get him to do something.
• Loony Fan:
  • Gokudera. He frequently goes off to beat people up for Tsuna's sake, and follows Tsuna around trying desperately to be his "Right Hand Man." Although the funny thing is that his attempt to replace the hero was actually his initial feeling and that it's after being defeated by Tsuna that he becomes his loony fan.
  • Also Levi. Even with all the crap that Xanxus does to him all the time, and even kicks him in the face when he was defeated, he stays very loyal to him and can't help but sing praises to him.
• Loophole Abuse: Recently pulled in a recent chapter by Vindice and later by by Varia, the Kokuyo Gang and Tsuna and Enma who used a spare watch to reenter the battle.
  • Lampshaded by Squalo. "There is no rule about using spare watch!"
• Lookalike Lovers: Tsuna and Kyoko look near identical to each other.
• Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders: Tsuna's classmates often wonder why popular students like Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryohei, and Kyoko became friends with Tsuna. Their curiosity is even more apparent when the his guardians and the Shimon Family don't hide their intentions of bodyguarding him. And girls are enraged when Dino is really friendly with him.

  *While watching Dino interact with Tsuna and the group*

  Female students: Gokudera and Yamamoto are fine, but what is he talking to someone like Sawada? They're totally mismatched! What the hell is going on 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.
• Loving a Shadow: Tsuna only likes Kyoko because she is the cutest girl in school who also happened to be one of the very few people to treat him nicely, but he never bothers to get to know her outside of casual conversation and greetings.
  • Hana claims to be in love with Adult!Lambo...or actually, she is in love with her mature perception of him.
  • I-pin has a crush on Hibari but more so because he looks identical to her mentor and less because of who he actually is.
• Loyal Animal Companion: In the Future Arc, the Box Weapons are artificial animals made by Verde that is imbued with Dying Will Flames. Everyone has one and some, like Yamamoto, have two which they were allowed to bring back to the past as a gift.
• Lucky Seven: There are 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.

M-R

• Mad Bomber: Gokudera keeps a near-endless supply of sticks of dynamite concealed on his person at all times. Like his weapons, he's quite a bit unstable, but he's not one of the villains of the story, as he was a test of Reborn's to start with and converts to Tsuna's side after Tsuna defuses all of his bombs with his dying will in order to avoid dying, and becomes his obsessively devoted self-described 'right-hand man.' Tsuna prefers to think of him as a friend.
• 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: This is a series about a mafia boss who gets shot in the head a lot. Although they're the Girlscout Mafia and they are the good guys, at least. The antagonists have are pretty much your standard mafia groups
  • We later meet the Millefiore Family, which is possibly even worse than any instance of the mafia around today, mainly because they control the world, and their leader seems wacky enough, but he's quite unpleasant… Or used to be…
• Magic Bullets + Green Rocks: The bullets from Reborn's gun have special effects, based on what part of the body they hit.

• Magnetic Hero: Tsuna. He's assembling quite a harem of incredibly loyal underlings (99% of which are male) whose main purpose in life is apparently to protect him. And most of his enemies/rivals, after being defeated by him, become... very friendly and affectionate towards him. In a creepy way though, since they're normally rather Ax-Crazy.
  • One of the more... interesting examples is Spanner's sudden decision to switch sides and become a part of Tsuna's family. This decision was reached after the two spent a long, undisclosed amount of time alone together. With Tsuna naked, unconscious, and handcuffed to Spanner's bed. You figure out the reason and method of how Tsuna unwittingly managed to convince him to join.
• Manipulative Bastard: Mukuro.
  • Future Tsuna. Even though it's to save all existence, 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.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Kyoko. For the most part she is one of the very few characters to treat Tsuna kindly, and there are a small amount of hints implying that their relationship might go somewhere. But overall, she always ends up treating him like a normal friend by the end of the day. It also doesn’t help that Kyoko’s role in the series isn’t very memorable either.
• Meaningful Funeral: Subverted when we found out that the ten-years-later Tsuna was in a coffin in an unmarked forest, dead. What makes it odd is the fact that it wasn't a meaningful funeral, in spite of the fact that he was the well known and well-loved boss of the greatest mafia family in the world. This could be considered a Meaningful Funeral with an audience of one, considering that the ten-years-later Gokudera was there.
• 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 monotonous tone?
• Meaningful Name: "Six Paths Corpse". Wonder who that could be? Also see: 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 Future arc.
• Memory Gambit: Combined with Time Travel no less.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: After Simon'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 the Vongola Gear X Edition.
  • Tsuna's upgrade: A fancier version of the Vongola Ring that has a chain connected to Natsu'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.
  • Chrome/Murkuro: An earring.
  • Yamamoto: A necklace.
  • Lambo: It's a helm. His afro makes it too tight though, so he needs to use the Ten Year Bazooka just to fit in the damn thing.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Whenever Mukuro possesses someone, one of their eyes change to his cursed red eye.
• 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
• Modesty Towel: The OVA Hot Springs Episode has all the guys wearing these, much to the fangirls' disappointment.
• 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. In fact, it's consistent enough that one can tell if a fight is plot-important when Reborn is nearby by whether he's beating people up or currently being Mr. Exposition.
• Mr. Fanservice: 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.
• Ms. Fanservice: Suzuki Adelheid was created specifically to be this.
  • Bluebell, where she is shown to not wear anything underneath her cloak.
• 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.
• Must Have Lots of Free Time: Bronco Dino is supposed to be the boss of his own family, but he helps out Tsuna often. One of his men even calls this trope by name one time.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Adelheid when she finds out that 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.
• Near-Death Experience: The source of Tsuna's powers.
• Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: For the first 8 volumes, the story is a wacky comedy where the cast is supposed to be a Mafia family. They're really more True Companions than anything else. Meanwhile, The other part of their family show that they are not Friendly and engages in the battle for the succession of the boss title.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Irie Shouichi, Verde, Gokudera...
  • And Spanner. Don't forget Spanner.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Every single arc starting from the Kokuyo Arc. The main characters are shown training, then will show off their new techniques at the Tournament Arc once, then it's never seen again until the next arc.
• New Transfer Student: AND he's a 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.
• No Ending: Even though the final arc ends with the curse being lifted from the Arcobaleno there is no clear resolution for Tsuna or the other guardians. Tsuna is still failing his way through school and sports, still hasn't confessed to Kyoko, and is still dependent on Reborn for guidance and all of which is lampshaded mercilessly. He still defiantly opposes being the Vongola boss but offers no alternative for his future. The only difference between the beginning and the end of the manga is that he has friends.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: Because the guys from Reborn are not attractive enough to have girlfriends at all.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: Most of the battles seem to end like this, even when an attack involves grabbing your opponent's head with a flaming hand.
• No Romantic Resolution: In the end we never got to know if Kyoko will ever reciprocate Tsuna’s feelings for her, or if she is aware of his feelings for her at all, there is also Haru’s feelings for Tsuna to take in account. Thus in the end, leaving the romance open ended.
• Numerical Theme Naming: The main characters have these motifs in their names, which is the basis of their ship names as well.
• 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. The only difference is hair color and those bizarre lines that are ALWAYS on her face.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: Xanxus theme, which highlights his Bad Boss nature and Asshole tendencies.
• One Bullet Left: In the Kokuyo Arc, Tsuna is forced to confront Mukuro and his gang with only one Dying Will Bullet left due to Leon unable to control his body since he is in the process of creating the X-Gloves.
• One Head Taller: Colonnello and Lal Mirch are this, with Colonello even showing to put his arms on top of Lal in some pictures. Iemitsu and Nana as well.
• One-Letter Name: G., the First Vongola Storm Guardian.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Tsuna, much to his chagrin. Though as the series goes on, less so, since the insanity is apparently contagious.
  • Squalo, somewhat, in the Varia. Maybe not compared to the average person but looking at the mafia as a whole...
  • Enma for his family.
  • Fran, from the Future arc. At least he doesn't have any overly-loud verbal tics.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Bluebell's box hybrid.
• Out of Focus: Kyoko and Haru. While both girls are far from main character status they did play a bigger role in the Daily Life arc, and even participated in some of the shenanigans as well. However, as the series progresses, Kyoko and Haru are either absent or the damsels in distress in any given situation.
• Overnight Age-Up: Lambo from does this in spades with his Ten-Year Bazooka, turning him from a five-year-old Bratty Half-Pint into a suave 15-year-old {{Bishōnen}}. In one instance, he does it twice during a battle and turns 25 — and is a veritable powerhouse, to boot. However, the transformations only last for about five minutes. I-Pin has been hit by the bazooka more than once as well, and in one notable misfire, Gokudera actually became younger after accidentally being hit.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Reborn has a rather extensive repertoire of these.
  • Enough so that when Tsuna sees Reborn's original older self, he doesn't recognize him at all.
• Parental Neglect: Honestly, neither of Tsuna's parents can really count as very good. 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 his opinion, decides to force him to become a Mafia crime lord that will be targeted by countless assassins.
• People Puppets: Fun with Mukuro and his plan to destroy the mafia and start World War III!
• Pet the Dog: Gamma's flashback where Yuni joined the Giglio Nero family. 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 as 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. This is justified later, 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 that his crew DOESN'T do mafia stuff, and he wants Tsuna to return the Vongola to how they were at the beginning.
• Playing with Fire: At first it's just Tsuna and Xanxus...and Basil. Then, everyone starts using Flames in the Future arc^note Although, the Rain Flames are more like Making a Splash, and the Lightning Flames are more like Shock and Awe.
  • Now we have the Earth Flames which contain An Ice Person and a Green Thumb among others.
  • The fact that everyone is starting to use the Dying Will Flame is even Lampshaded once.
• Plot Leveling: During the Future arc, the main cast defeated an organization 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.
• Poor Communication Kills: The newest conflict with the Shimon Family could've been completely avoided if not for an important note that was blown into a bin by a convenient breeze.
• Power Fist: The I-Gloves, the X-Gloves, the Sereno Gloves, the Knuckle of Maximum Break, and now Enma's armored gauntlet.
• The Power of Friendship: Tsuna seems to run on this, as he just needs to think about protecting his True Companions before he is able to get back to his feet again to fight. It's even revealed in his fight against Enma that his pride is his friends.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • The anime changes a lot of things around in the story thanks to some scenes being censored to fit the target audience which is easier to spot in the earlier episodes. Whether all this is a good thing or not depends on the viewer.
  • Individual chapters that have no relation to each other are condensed together. The Daily Life arc, which is covered from chapters 1-60 in the anime, is shown out of order and split up between the Kokuyo and Varia arcs. Some parts are expanded upon, characters who were not featured in certain arcs or scenes in the manga were added for comedic purposes, and Naito Longchamp was left out due to his invokedunpopularity. There are also two filler arcs acting as breathers for the Future arc (where they temporarily go back to their home time to train), which expands the already long arc even more.
• Progressively Prettier: Almost everyone gets this thanks to the series' Art Evolution. Compare Tsuna in his first appearance to the latest chapter, where he came from almost a plain looking guy to having a really cute face.
• The Promise: Squalo, for not cutting his hair until Xanxus becomes the boss of Vongola. And he did, for eighteen years into the alternate future from the Ten Years Bazooka. Obviously, because Xanxus doesn't have the blood of Vongola, thus it's impossible for him to become Boss.
  • Tsuna, for always protecting Kyoko. He gives another promise to Yuni but he fails in this regard as Yuni sacrificed herself to revive her fellow Arcobaleno.
  • Gokudera personified. Oh Gokudera.
• Psycho for Hire: The Varia, who is one of the best assassination groups and have taken missions said to be impossible to be done.
• The Psycho Rangers: The Varia, the Real Six Funeral Wreaths and Byakuran, the Simon Family, and lastly the Vendice.
• Put on a Bus: Thanks to the series's large cast, many are put on a bus after their respective arc is over.
  • Dr.Shamal disappeared after the ring battles, but the filler arcs gave him some more appearances.
  • Bianchi completely disappeared in the Inheritance Arc, and only have some one-off appearances in the Curse of the Arcobaleno Arc.
• Rage Against the Mentor: Xanxus turned against the Ninth as he overreacted to the discovery that he's actually not the Ninth's child, and therefore can't become the next Vongola boss. To the point where he readily tricks Tsuna into almost accidentally killing the Ninth with little remorse or regret.
• Rainbow Motif: The different types of Dying Will Flame, Vongola Rings, and lots of other stuff.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Both Byakuran and Mukuro gave Tsuna some of these during their respective battles with him.
  • Yamamoto gives one to Gokudera in the future arc, where he chastises the other's tendency to push other people away while only opening his heart to Tsuna. It hits deep and really jump-starts his Character Development.
  • Shit P. gives one to Tsuna as a way to disillusion Gokudera from seeing his boss in a high pedestal. It didn't really work as Gokudera himself knows all of Tsuna's bad sides.
• Really 700 Years Old: All of the Arcobalenos are older than they appear.
  • 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.
  • Another character is far older than he appears: Kawahira belongs to a race of pre-human Earthlings and is responsible for every generation of Arcobaleno.
• Recap Episode: Lots and lots of them. And huge recaps at the start of each episode. It's a wonder the anime adaptation manages to advance the plot at all, given all the recapping it does.
• Red Armband of Leadership: Hibari's battle with Adelheid actually focuses on him stealing the Red Armband of Leadership from her!
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gokudera and Yamamoto, respectively. In countless ways.
• Red Shirt Army: The ordinary mafia members are this. Even in the future where everyone has a ring and a box.
• 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 a coincidence that the tenth generation Vongola Boss and Ring Guardians look almost exactly like the first generation.
• Reluctant Ruler: Thanks to the other boss candidates dying, Tsuna is the only one left available to be the Vongola Decimo. He makes it clear that he doesn't want the title and even shows that he is not natural in being a leader and would rather live a normal life. But thanks to Reborn, he has no choice but to accept it.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The box animals of the protagonists are usually mammals (or sea creatures) while the Real Six Funeral Wreathes get insects or dinosaurs!
• Rescue Arc: The inheritance arc is somewhat this, as one of the objectives is to save Chrome who was kidnapped by Kaitou Julie.
• Revenge by Proxy: The Shimon Family wants to do this to the current Vongola head as punishment for letting the First Shimon Boss die. It's all a lie orchestrated by Daemon Spade.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Hibird, and later, Hibari's hedgeho— I mean, porcupine.
  • Which he apparently named, finally. Like Hibird, it's completely unoriginal: Roll.
  • The Arcobaleno pets. And their owners.
  • Natsu is adorable, too, and so is Uri. In fact, it seems plenty of the Vongola Box animals are like this.
• Robot Buddy: Mini Mosca! Complete with a sucker-maker. He even performs his own Heroic Sacrifice.
• Running Gag:
  • Gokudera gets a horrible stomach ache every time he sees his sisters face.
  • Dino is useless without his Famiglia.
  • Nobody notices Reborn's Paper Thin Disguises.
  • Yamamoto thinks everyone is just playing pretend with Reborn.

S-Y

• Sadist Teacher: The early chapters had Tsuna's Science teacher, Mr. Nezu. He liked to pick on kids who got low grades or students with bad reputations since Nezu came from a prestigious college, and when time came to give Tsuna and Gokudera a possible escape from expulsion, Nezu suggested making them dig up a time capsule in a day that wasn't even buried to begin with.
• Sailor Earth:
  • Since the series only focuses on the top mafia alliances and the Vongola is noted to have lots of enemies, one can easily whip up their own family. Make up some Italian-like name, then fill it with many original characters and assign them their flame properties, and viola! you have your own Mafia Famiglia.
  • Having more than seven rings and seven colors was sorta canon, as said in one of the games, but there was a specific reason why the topic of an eighth ring isn't touched upon. It's the Flame of the Night, which only the Vindice can touch upon. And it seems to be so powerful that Daemon Spade thought that if he had it, he could beat the combined forces of Earth and Sky.
  • Since one canon character has a power over parallel universes, one can even create an entire new universe made of original characters.
• Samus Is a Girl: I-Pin. Later, Lal Mirch.
• Satellite Love Interest: Kyoko. She hardly has much interactions with Tsuna, and doesn't really have much of a personality. 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.
• "Save the World" Climax: The story starts with a baby teaching a clumsy kid to be a mafia boss, and turns into a save the world and all parallel universes plot.

• Scary Stinging Swarm: Episode 12 of the anime has Reborn casually tossing honey on his protégé Tsuna before unleashing a swarm of bees on him. "The mafia always lives with danger," Reborn warns Tsuna as the latter runs for his life.
• Sdrawkcab Alias: Overlaps with Sue Donym, as Reborn's names are variations of his name whenever he dons his Paper-Thin Disguise. It varies on what costume he uses, like Professor Borrin or Reboyama.
• Secret Test of Character:
  • Gokudera's loyalty to Tsuna was tested by the Ninth in the Promotion chapter, where he was supposed to be given a really high position within the Vongola Echelon at the cost of him going back to Italy. Had he failed, Dino was supposed to kill him as a traitor.
  • The Vongola Trial is this, as Tsuna is tested whether he will accept all the sins of the Vongola Family. Tsuna stays firm to his convictions and rejects it, which pleases Primo and gives him his permission to make the Family great or destroy it himself.
  • Aria's test to Tsuna involves him being her aide for the day. She makes him do many menial tasks like accompanying her in shopping and pretty much tries to snap his patience. He passes with flying colors.
  • The Wills of the Vongola gives this to the main characters, where they test each guardian to see if they can embody the flame they are supposed to represent.

• Seven Deadly Sins: A major theme in the Varia arc with the Varia members representing the Deadly Sins: Xanxus - Wrath, Squalo - Pride, Leviathan - Envy, Belphegor - Sloth, Marmon - Greed, Lussuria - Lust, and Gola Mosca - Gluttony.
• Seven Heavenly Virtues: A major theme (along with Seven Deadly Sins). The main protagonists representing the Heavenly Virtues: Tsuna - Patience, Yamamoto - Humility, Gokudera - Diligence, Ryohei - Chastity, Lambo - Kindness, Mukuro / Chrome - Charity, and Hibari - Temperance.
• Shaped Like Itself: "Pain is no longer painful to extreme!" and "Painless things aren't painful either!" Ryohei...
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: After Yuni and Gamma sacrifice themselves during the final battle of the Future Arc.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Haru always introduces herself as Tsuna's girlfriend and future wife, which Tsuna (and Gokudera) always denies.
• Ship Tease: Rampart Ho Yay aside, there are many hetero ship teases in the show:
  • Reborn and Luce are shown to be amicable with each other, especially in the filler arcs where it's shown that he developed a soft spot for her and likewise saving her from a falling boulder. He is even soft to her descendants Aria and Yuni.
  • Colonnello and Lal are not really subtle with their feelings for one other, with Lal grieving over Colonello's death in the future. They have officially tied the knot as of the ending. Well not exactly, as they had another fight in the end that cancelled the wedding.
  • Tsuna and Kyoko do have scenes where both are quite shy at telling each other good luck. Especially in the future arc where Kyoko is shown to be worried for Tsuna and is quite confused of her feelings for him.
  • As much as Tsuna tries to deny Haru's feelings for him, he does care for her a lot and he even accompanied her to her empty house. He even comforts her when he expressed his frustration on her.
  • Gokudera and Haru has a chapter in the light novel where she tricks him into thinking that he is cursed, but her true intention is to try to cheer him up. She even admits that Tsuna and her will be sad if he keeps getting hurt, much to his embarrassment.
  • Also Aria and Gamma. Too bad Aria bit the bullet and Gamma's feelings somewhat transferred to Yuni.
  • For the Kokuyo Gang, Ken is pretty Tsundere to Chrome, to the point that Chikusa doesn't believe it when he says that he is not doing it for the "idiot girl". Chrome is shown to have a crush with Mukuro, with Mukuro showing having a soft spot for her as well and was pretty mad when Daemon took her hostage.
  • Suzuki Adelheid is implied to have a crush to Julie as shown in some of her flashbacks.
• 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.
  • 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, including Hibari!
  • Chapter 372 gives us Fon'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.
  • A huge one occurs for Talbot who appears out of nowhere to offer a device that can power the pacifiers without sacrificing anymore lives.
• Significant Anagram: Mukuro and Chrome's names are anagrams in Japanese (Chrome is Kuromu in Japanese).
• Single-Stroke Battle: The Cloud Ring Battle.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Pretty much every single mentor Tsuna has had? Reborn, Lal Mirch, TYL Hibari...

• 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 permanently. Except Rasiel's looks like a rictus from Hell. "Ushishishi!" "Ushesheshe!"
• Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness: Started off on the silly end, then gradually slides to the serious end. It sometimes slides back a little before becoming even more serious.

• The Smurfette Principle: Chrome, the only female guardian. And even then, only half the time is she female.
• Social Circle Filler: Kyoko and Haru are mostly Locked Out of the Loop when it comes to mafia-related matters, and even after the Future arc where they experience time travel, magic battles, and understand (somewhat) what the main cast is up to all this time, Tsuna still keeps them out of major events, though it is for their safety.
• 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 Ring Battle.
  • And Yamamoto once again in the Inheritance Ceremony arc.
• So Last Season: Despite the series' biggest gimmick at first, the Dying Will Bullet, is pretty much retired after Tsuna gains the Rebuke Pills. It returns much more later in the story, where Reborn shoots Tsuna with it while he is in his Hyper Will mode. This helps him unlock the stage of his Dying Will mode.
• The Spartan Way: Reborn, Colonnello, and Lal Mirch all love to beat up their students. Future Hibari is this to Tsuna as well, with good reason.
  • Tsuna even lampshades this with Colonnello and Reborn: "He's even more Spartan than Reborn..!" (gets beat up).
• Spell My Name With An S: Nearly all Italian names are transliterated differently by translators due to Japanese Romanization but most of these can be resolved with a decent knowledge of Italian language like Lussuria^note Italian for lust, Colonnello^note colonel, Mosca ^note fly insect, and Mammon^note "Demon of Greed". Though one example fits as Chiavarone^note which is a real-life Italian surname/ Cavallone^note more or less "big horse", though it's a rather colloquial term are valid Italian words that fit Dino's theme.
• 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 resentment 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 seventh opening.
  • In the eighth 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 from afar and getting incredibly pissed at Yamamoto for being so friendly with him. Not to mention he even sneaked in a cruise ship just to follow him on his vacation.
  • Haru could be considered one at her very first appearances, from when she liked Reborn. Now her stalking transferred to Tsuna.
  • Levi is revealed to stalk Xanxus everywhere, even in his room.
• 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: Mukuro, he smiles even when his eye is bleeding or if he's annoyed by anyone, especially his apprentice Flan.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Gokudera's specialty is explosives, and he can set off hundreds of them at once.
• Straight Man: Tsuna is this when faced with everyday hi-jinks caused by Reborn or when he is faced with his guardians oddball personalities.
• Stylistic Self-Parody: I-pin's character design is lampshaded once, as it is noted that she lacks ears.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: The Millefiore has an ungodly amount of cameras scattered among Namimori, forcing the heroes to camp in on of their underground bases and have to use some form of illusions to hide their entrances. This also appears on the Melone base as there are cameras everywhere and one of their goals is to take out the server room to cut their feeds. The reason why no one suspected that they have a base underground is that Irie tries his best to delay the surveillance team from finding out their exact location until the time is right.
• Tagalong Kid: Lambo and I-pin at times. Enforced with Lambo as he is the official Lightning Guardian and was forced to fight many times. And if you look at it one way, Reborn can be counted as this since he is always the one shooting Tsuna his Dying Will bullets and commentates on whatever is happening.
• Taken for Granite: The sky flames property allows one to transform anything or anyone to granite. Just ask Rasiel and his butler.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Abused to a ridiculous amount. Characters would rather wait for their enemies to finish their monologues before thinking of attacking. Lampshaded by Gamma as he watches Yamamoto and Gokudera fight among themselves.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Yamamoto, Xanxus, Genkishi, Hibari, Chikusa and Adult Reborn. Verde has dark green hair, and is tall enough that he slouches.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Pretty much everyone with dark hair is this Fran also counts, despite the fact that he's quite short and has teal hair.
• Technicolor Toxin: Bianchi's poison cooking is usually purple with lots of purple smoke going off from it. In one episode, a cuisine she did even spins and glow like a Christmas tree.
• Teach Him Anger: This is pretty much what Reborn tries to teach Tsuna, which is part of his process of growing out of being a total loser and becoming a real man. The Dying Will Bullets, to put it simply, either put Tsuna into a determined, Unstoppable Rage, or give him a cold, calculating killer instinct. This is mainly played as having good results, with Tsuna gaining a backbone and the strength to protect his "family."
• Team Mom: Lussuria in some anime omakes and it's just as creepy as it sounds. Suzuki Adelheid is this for the Shimon Family.

• Theme Naming:
  • The Varia is 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) are named from herbs and even Lal Mirch's name means "Red Pepper."
  • Parts of the Simon Family's names have Earth-related words in them when translated.
• Third-Person Person: Haru, Lambo, and I-Pin all speak this way.
• 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 Yuni's gone from this world, and Byakuran's complaining about how she was a toy, and his plans were ruined...
  Tsuna: "Why do you think Yuni had to do this...? You ruined our world. That's why Yuni... That's why Yuni DIED!! Byakuran! I... I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!!!" Cue Tsuna curbstomping to the point he kills Byakuran. That's right, present Tsuna killed Byakuran!
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Yamamoto always uses the back of his sword when he's fighting since he doesn't want to kill anyone. Squalo always calls him out of this. The only time where he is willing to break this rule is when Daemon Spade revealed everything he had done to the Shimon and Vongola Family.
• 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. Reborn even lampshades this in an early chapter.
  • Kyoko, Haru, and Chrome hang out together in nearly every scene.
  • Kyoko seems to be aware of Haru’s feelings for Tsuna but it doesn’t seem to bother Haru at all if Kyoko gets close to Tsuna, but whether Kyoko likes him that way or not is still very unclear.

• Time Travel: Lambo's Ten Year Bazooka can switch targets to their future selves for 5 minutes. The entirety of the Future arc is this, combined with parallel worlds.

• Token Evil Teammate: Mukuro Rokudo has explicitly stated that the only reason he is working with Tsuna and his group is so that he can eventually steal Tsuna's body and is fine with killing his enemies. In a similar vein, Mukuro's counterpart from the first generation of Guardians, Daemon Spade, was stated to be a backstabber.
  • Despite what some fangirls will tell you and the fact he's almost always accompanied by an adorable bird pet, Kyoya Hibari isn't a much better person than Mukuro and Daemon. However, the first Cloud Guardian, Alaude, was said to be similar to him in his younger days but he got better (despite remaining cold and aloof), so it's possible Hibari might grow up as a decent person. As it stands, however, Kyoya is not one, even in the future.
• Token Mini-Moe: Bluebell, Yuni, Chrome to an extent (since she's the youngest of Guardians, save Lambo). Subverted with Luche.
• Token Romance: Tsuna’s crush on Kyoko seems to be thrown into the story for the sake of Romance and nothing else.It doesn’t help that they rarely interact, making Tsuna’s crush on her seem very one dimensional.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • After about 9 volumes of absolute fail and Tsuna being the physical Embodiment of Suck, No-Good Tsuna finally took multiple levels in badass. This was due to the unveiling of his Hyper Dying Will Mode, in which he becomes a calm, cool, level-headed fighter that can do things from lighting his hands on fire to flying. It gets even better in the Future Arc, where after receiving a Mind Screw, courtesy of the Vongola Boss Right of Passage accompanied by the claustrophobia and lack of air of Future Hibari's hedgehog dome, Tsuna gets another level in badass. Tsuna takes even more levels in badass once he upgrades to the Vongola Gear and gets the Oath Flame in the Inheritance Ceremony Arc and unlocks the Ultimate Dying Will Mode in The Curse of the Rainbow Arc.
  • Yamamoto is very subject to taking multiple levels in badass. Even Reborn has expressed that the unfailingly naive nice guy is actually a natural-born killer, and will probably be very good at being a Professional Killer. This is surprising to the rest of the cast because Yamamoto is the nicest guy in the world who fought using the back of his sword during the important battle over the Rain Ring. Even in the future, he was borderline on being an One-Man Army. He's taken yet another level in badass as he gained a Cool Box Weapon that carries around three swords and is able to defeat a Funeral Wreathe easily.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Gokudera, turning from a lone wolf who doesn't care about anyone but his boss to someone who will fight to protect the family. Arguably Hibari, as shown from the future at least. And anyone that Tsuna fights and defeats will become more friendly with him and to others as well.
• Tournament Arc: Every arc after the Kokuyo arc involves some sort of tournament to settle a dispute. The Future arc is the only arc out of the four that isn't really a tournament arc, although they do hold a short one later on in the arc.
• Tracking Device: Glo Xinia was able to put one in Chromes's bag, which is how the Millefiore discovered their base. Fortunately Hibari caught sight of it and lured the main attack force into a trap.
• Tranquil Fury: Hyper Dying Will Mode.
• Training from Hell: Poor Tsuna, he is usually trained like this by Reborn and his other mentors, though it's justified since he only has a little time to master his powers before his next fight.
• Trigger-Happy: Reborn oh so much. Xanxus brings out his guns whenever he is upset or irritated.
• Troubled, but Cute: Gokudera.
• True Companions: The story shows how the Vongola family becomes this, where Tsuna gains his reliable guardians that he can trust with his life.
• Tsundere:
  • Gokudera to anyone other than his Boss, where he becomes dere dere to him.
  • Lal Mirch qualifies too, at least towards Colonnello.
• Übermensch: Hibari, though he prefers to limit his ubermensch-ing to his beloved small town.

• Umbrellas Are Lightning Rods: Inverted and weaponized with Levi, who always carries 8 umbrellas that can shoot lightning.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance:
  • Tsuna doesn't look like his father and instead looks exactly like his ancestor Vongola Primo, except with brown hair and Tareme Eyes, and he resembles him even more in his Hyper Dying Will form.
  • Another example that makes a lot less sense is Xanxus to Vongola Secondo, considering that he isn't even supposed to be related or have any real Vongola blood in him. Some characters even remark his temperament, abilities, and even looks are identical to Secondo.
  • Yuni, Aria, and Luche all resemble each other to the point of Generation Xerox
  • Hibari to Arcobaleno Fon, to the point where I-Pin's crush on Hibari comes from his resemblance to him. In a Haru Haru Interview in the manga it is revealed that Hibari and Fon are related which also explains why Hibari became Fon's representative during The Curse of the Rainbow arc.
• Undying Loyalty: Gokudera towards Tsuna is this trope, completely and totally. Heck, his whole character song seems to be a tribute to his undying loyalty towards Tsuna.
  • Arguably, Squalo qualifies as this for Xanxus. Not only did he wait 8 years for Xanxus' return, but he grew out his hair and puts up with crap that would make an abusive boyfriend seem like a pleasant alternative.
  • Levi is this to Xanxus as well, more than Squalo. At least Squalo will get angry when Xanxus throws crap at him. Levi, on the other hand, will wear every injury Xanxus deals to him like a medal and even refuses to heal them.
  • Genkishi to Byakuran, after he healed him of his incurable illness, to the point he gladly betrayed the Giglio Nero family for a chance to serve him. Too bad the other only sees him as a toy and ordered him to be killed when he is no longer entertaining.
  • Also the Real Funeral Wreaths are this to Byakuran as he saved them from horrible fates. Zankuro even showed his loyalty by burning his village with lava and even bathing on it.
• 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 Rain Ring Battle, 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 moments in the series.
  • How exactly did Xanxus manage to regrow the arm he lost in the fight with Jager? Mammon made illusions of it and the other's organs until the can be able to get organ transplants.
• The Unintelligible: I-Pin. Why, that's not even Chinese!
  • Averted in the anime, where she speaks Japanese (albeit badly).
• Unfortunate Names: Shitt. P. She prefers to be called Shittopi-chan cause of it.
• Unknown Rival: Lambo.
• The Un-Reveal: Reborn finally gets nailed by the Ten-Year Bazooka... but no Adult!Reborn. Still 68 more episodes to go if you're watching the anime. Future Tsuna as well, where his face is always hidden in scenes he appears in.
• 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:
  • Xanxus has an epic one when Tsuna is matching him in power and speed. Even more so when it's revealed that Tsuna can do the Zero Point Breakthrough technique, the same one the Ninth use to freeze him.
  • While normally calm and polite, Byakuran finally loses his cool after Yuni's Heroic Sacrifice, complaining that Yuni 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.
• Villains Out Shopping: In the first filler arc, Belphegor and Mammon disguise themselves as Namimori students and takes Kyoko, Haru and Hana out shopping twice.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Mukuro got interested to Tsuna after their fight, which is a factor as to why he accepted the Mist ring.
• Virus and Cure Names: Tsuna becomes afflicted with demonitis. The cure is its opposite, angelitis.
• Vocal Evolution: Compare the earlier episodes to the latest ones. Special mention goes to Tsuna, Gokudera, and I-Pin.
• Waterlogged Warzone: At the first phase of the rain ring battle, Yamamoto and Squalo fight in an ruined building with puddles everywhere. The two take advantage of the water to execute their combos.
• Weirdness Censor: Nobody questions that there is a baby wearing a suit and shooting bullets at a young teenager, with said teenager ripping out his clothes and going to a berserker rage. But they do notice Tsuna in his boxers when he is in the Dying Will State and he gets to be called a pervert many times.
  • Kyoko, Haru, Nana, and Hana think that Gokudera and Lambo's weapons are toys (it helps that Gokudera's dynamites exploded into confetti when the girls saw it). And that all the smoke and gunfire (and I-pin exploding) that happens around them are fireworks.
• Weirdness Magnet: Apparently everyone from the mafia has some sort of weird quirk and Tsuna is always the one to deal with them every single episode.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Checkerface will do anything to keep the Tri-ni-sette safe, even if he has to trick really strong warriors to take the curse of the Arcobaleno in order to protect the world. When a third option appears that will not hurt anyone, he is more than welcome to try it out.
• Willfully Weak: Chrome, thanks to her wanting to depend on Mukuro instead of creating her own organs.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 62 of the manga. Up until that chapter, 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 Shōnen.
  • Chapter 314: Byakuran is back.
  • Chapter 354: Byakuran and the Funeral Wreaths are back! Yuni has been resurrected! YUNI AND BYAKURAN ARE TEAMING UP!!

• With Friends Like These...: Xanxus and Squalo have a Vitriolic Best Bud relationship. Tsuna considers his guardians as these at first.
• Wild Card: Hibari. He makes it clear that he doesn't want to crowd with other people. That said, he will be there when the family is in a pinch.
• Will They or Won't They?: Despite both Tsuna/Kyoko and Tsuna/Haru being controversial pairings due to the fact there was very little to no buildup between them, a lot of fans hoped that this plot point would be resolved at the very least. It doesn’t.
• Winged Humanoid: Invoked by Byakuran. Definitely some major God-complex going on; heck, there's even a fanmade character song for him titled "God Complex"...
• The Worf Effect:
  • Basil, a supposedly elite member of CEDEF, is the only person other than Tsuna, Primo and Iemitsu to fight in Hyper Dying Will Mode, but he's lost every battle that he's been in.
  • 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 ever-loving 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 thanks his Charles Atlas Super Power, though the last one is subverted as of Chapter 325.
  • Out of the three main arcs he has been in Squalo has been presumed dead in every one of them, always to show how evil (Xanxus) or strong (Zakuro, Jager) the enemy really is.
  • Iemitsu, who took down Tsuna after his many levels of badassery with just one punch was defeated by the Vindice to show how powerful they are compared to the cast.
• Work Off the Debt: Tsuna and Haru has to work off the payment after Bianchi and Reborn ditched them at Yamamoto's father sushi place. Unfortunately for him, almost everyone made the debt worse.
• World-Healing Wave: An extreme case, since the Arcobaleno don't just restore one world magically; they need to fix every parallel world in existence after Byakuran utterly destroys all of them, aside from the one he's finally defeated in.
• 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 extremes.

• 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 Are Not Alone: Tsuna grows out of his loser status and gains a lot of confidence for himself thanks to Reborn enforcing that he has friends that will support him every step of the way.
• 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 Said You Would Let Them Go: In Chapter 253.
  Byakuran: The next time we play Choice, I will allow any agreement that favors you.
  Shouichi Irie: ...I'll take you up on that now. I request a rematch of Choice!!
  Byakuran: I'm sorry, but 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.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Illusions work this way, as if one believes that it's not real they will not be affected by it. But a skilled illusionist can confuse someone to the point where they wont know what's real or not.

---