Okay I cannot believe I have yet to recommend this anime/manga to anyone yet. I will make this simple: I love this series.

Sawada Tsunayoshi is a loser. His self esteem is terrible, he is bad at sports, and his social skills suck. So how do you think he felt when the mob underworld's greatest hitman tells him, due to *ahem Complications, that he is to be the next boss of one of the world's most powerful mafia families? Vongola the 1oth, or Juudaime as he becomes known, is to be the world's best mafia leader and the Hitman Reborn will see to that. What's worse is that Reborn is a one year old child with a fondness for hitting Tsuna in anyway, shape, or form. So now it is up to Tsuna to build his own generation of the Vongola family and to become a strong enough leader to take over when the 9th dies. Obviously Tsuna as a weakling, a coward, and a pacefist is against being the leader of a mafia crime family, but he doesn't have much of a choice so whenever he needs that extra boost he gets shot... no seriously. Reborn shoots Tsuna with what is called the "Dying Will Bullet" and a direct shot to the forhead will result in Tsuna completing any regret he may have with 100% focus in the period of 5 minutes before the effect wears of. If, however, Tsuna has no regrets, he dies. But that is not all the dying will bullet is capable of. Depending on the area the bullet hits, it will do different things. So with this little trick up his sleeve, Tsuna can't lose... sorta. Of course, being next in line for a mafia family means alot and I mean ALOT of people trying to kill you. Half of them even become allies. So what lies in store for Tsuna? What is the secret of Reborns skills? To fully find out, go watch it.

Well that is a very very very simple explanation of this series. It gets much more complicated and diverse as it goes along, but it's worth sitting through. The dialogue is good, the characters are strange and fun, and there is never a lack of originality in this anime/manga. The arcs in particular are as long as those in bleach, so be prepared to be in a certain battle/struggle for long periods of time. Other than a few confusing plot twists, this series is definatly my favorite animes of the moment and worth the 80 some hours it will take to catch up to the subs.

P.S: My costume for Otakon this year is actually from this series.