Tsuna is the shounen hero who'll be immediately aghast when asked to do something actually heroic. Then, after much fuss, he'll fail the first test. Maybe the second one, too. And yet somehow, he'll still save the day with absolutely no clue as to how he did it. Afterward, he'll insist vehemently that no one ever put him up to such tasks again, only to be promptly pulled into the same situation with exactly the same results—or better.
But he still won't have a clue as to how or why.
And this pretty much sums up not only the events of his life, but also his attitude toward things.
That loser complex is amazing. -Reborn
The first time you see Tsuna, he's getting hit in the face with a basketball like a loser. It's an occurrence that is all too common in his life. He even has a nickname to go with it: No-Good Tsuna. Toss him a can of soda and he misses the catch. Save him from a giant turtle attack and he trips after he's saved and ends up in the hospital with a broken leg. What luck, you say? What luck, indeed. He has none of it. He's no good at school; no good at sports; no good at life.
And he candidly admits it.
Tsuna sees himself as a loser. He acts like a loser, so everyone around him treats him like one. Inversely, everyone treats him like a loser, so he thinks he's a loser. They don't expect anything from him, and he doesn't expect anything from himself either. It's an endless cycle. He doesn't seem to mind it much as being a loser actually means he's more normal than most of the people he knows. It would be a lie, however, to say he didn't mind at all. Of course, he minds. It bothers him, but he doesn't think he can do anything about it.
Instead, he chooses to cling to this poor image of himself—even if it's that of a loser because at least that's something. But y'know, he's a normal loser! Emphasis on normal, and less of it on loser, please. Normality is what makes all the difference to him. His weird friends and family more often than not embarrass him, and there are a few instances in the canon where he wishes he were anywhere else, or he pretends not to be associated with these weirdos. What Tsuna wants to be is Mild-Mannered Loser Tsuna, who minds his own business, and not Superloser Tsuna, who's involved in troublesome world-saving affairs. Or even worse, troublesome attention-catching affairs.
[Your] lack of ambition is also placed first among all the bosses. -Fuuta
Wanting to maintain his status as an ordinary loser is not much of an ambition, if you can even call it that. That's because Tsuna doesn't seem to have much ambition in the first place. He doesn't aim to grow up rich or to do anything astounding. He doesn't particularly want to grow up to be anything at all, really—and he certainly doesn't want to be a mafia boss, god forbid!
At first Tsuna only goes to school so he can catch glimpses of his crush, Kyōko Sasagawa. No, really, that's the only reason. In one chapter, he notices she's not at school and decides to cut, because what's the point if he can't see her? Later on Tsuna goes to school because it's fun and he has friends—but he still doesn't care about learning or studying. His incentive to study remains steadily at zero, and he's still mediocre at everything even now. In all of Tsuna's life, he has never scored 100% on any test. He's flunked every test since his enrollment. He takes supplementary classes for art. Art. He also takes supplementary classes for just about everything else. What else is there to do for someone like him except to float aimlessly through life and eventually become a lowly salaryman? At least, that's the way he looks at it. Or did look at it.
He doesn't have the self-confidence to be ambitious in the first place. There are numerous instances where he claims how impossible it is for "someone like him" to do this or that in the Daily arc. And it's not like he stops there either. In every arc, there will most likely be a moment where he'll think or say something along that line. He's more confident now compared to before, but it is still not much. To be honest, he's 100% more confident in his friends. Dying Will has let him discover better parts of himself, but he's still in the process of finding out more. If anything, the whole of Katekyo Hitman REBORN! is just the start for him—the very tip of a coming-of-age story.
I don't want to lose... to such a cruel person... -Tsuna
He's not ambitious, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything he strives for. He didn't at first, but this changed. Throughout the series—right until the very end of it—you see him striving to protect his family and friends. He fights to protect not only their welfare, but their happiness and their freedom to do mundane every day things. His resolve to protect them shapes him into a stronger person. Above all else, Tsuna is an extremely kind boy and a good person. Wimpy, yes, but his inability to turn down requests shows his inherently kind nature. (It also shows that he's a terrible pushover and a doormat, but that's because he's too nice sometimes. And because he's a wimp.)
In any dangerous situation, even when he's scared for his life, his first priority is to protect the people he cares about. It's the easiest and toughest decision he can make. He often looks to others to lead or for advice, but when it comes to the people precious to him, he'll take the lead and make even the most painful decisions. "I'm not gonna let you die," he says firmly to his tutor Reborn in the Curse of the Rainbow Arc, after coming up with a strategy to save the Arcobaleno babies. On his own, Tsuna's first instinct is flight rather than fight, but put him in a situation where his loved ones are in danger and he'll fight with all of his will—his dying will, his living will, his everything to protect them. To him, no one person is any more important than the next. For example: when Kyōko, his crush, and Haru Miura, one of his more wacky and troublesome friends, are poisoned and Tsuna only has enough antidote for one of them, he decides "it would be just as bad no matter who died!" Later, he lets himself get beaten up and even goes so far as to agree to stab himself for their sake. If anything, this protective trait makes him a brave coward. The thought of stabbing himself utterly terrifies him, but it is not a task he's willing to ask of his friends. Not when they have already tried to protect him numerous times before. In a nightmare situation, Tsuna shows he can rise to the challenge.
This kindness is in no way limited to only those he cares about. He's just as soft-hearted and forgiving when it comes to his enemies. During the Kokuyo arc, he worries over his enemy's subordinates. Even though Tsuna claims he doesn't want to lose to Mukuro Rokudō because of his cruel disregard for his own men, Tsuna shows concern for Mukuro's life at the end of the battle. Former enemies, even people who've murdered countless others, eventually become "those that [he's] exchanged blows with and battled against before, and thus know wholeheartedly [he] can rely on."
When Tsuna's in his protective mode, he's more serious than ever. He has a calm wariness to him, and he's concentrated on his resolve to protect. His eyes become sharp, focused at half-mast. He stands firm and ready. He is quite different from the usually wide-eyed and clumsy Tsuna, who generally hunches over in fright or shies away from trouble.
I want to live life at my own pace. -Tsuna
Although Tsuna willingly fights to protect his friends and family, he dislikes violence. And with it, he dislikes the mafia. He's extremely unwilling to have anything to do with the mafia. Tsuna fights for his friends so they can live their lives peacefully, having snowball fights or just hanging out together. He doesn't want to complicate things or put anyone in danger by having the mafia involved. His reaction to Reborn's insistence that he become the next Vongola head is DENIAL, DENIAL, REFUSAL, DENIAL. When it comes to his aversion to mafia business and strange business and Reborn business (which is sometimes also strange mafia business), he's very frank about his thoughts on the matter—not that it helps much since no one ever listens. Jerks.
That's also an example of his stubbornness. Tsuna is incredibly stubborn when he wants to be. When he sets his mind on something, he'll see it all the way through. There are just some things he is absolutely sure about, especially when it comes to his family or his allies. He's shown "a face that has no intention of losing" when the chances of winning were worse than zero. His resolve to protect those around him is just that strong.
Tsuna's the type of person who wants to pass on anything weird/dangerous/abnormal/embarrassing/mafia (which is an adjective in this case) in life. He would take an indefinite rain check for all of those if he could. Unfortunately enough, most of the people in his life are weird/dangerous/abnormal/embarrassing/mafia. When he's forced to deal with these things, he complains and moans about his unlucky life. Usually Reborn quickly shuts him up with a brutal kick to the face. Even now, he fears Reborn's Spartan training style. A typical day features Tsuna making horrified faces at the crazy shenanigans that come his way. This makes him appear very high-strung to onlookers. It's quite common to see him screech out "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" when faced with something overly bizarre or horrifying. (Note: not /hi/ like the greeting, but pronounced as a stretched /hee/, a squeak of absolute fear and horror.) There are also times when he accidentally lashes out at his friends in his irritation, but he always apologizes afterward.
At the same time, Tsuna also admires his weird friends. They all have something they want to work toward and accomplish. They all try their best even if by doing so they cause problems for him. He gets irritated at times, but he really does marvel over how great they are as friends. He's incredibly proud of his friends, especially Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto. They inspire him to try harder as a person, and they make him feel like he's not such a loser after all.
As stated previously, Tsuna doesn't aspire to become anything, so he settles on being No-Good Tsuna. While that's true, it's not the full story either. When Tsuna was a child, he expressed the desire to change. Even then, he thought of himself as a useless person. He wrote in his report that he wanted to change and to become a giant robot when he grew up. Giant robots are typically heroic symbols for children. In a way, this symbolizes his desire to become a hero of sorts. Along the way, however, Tsuna forgot that people could change—that he could change—and sunk into the false comfort of constant uselessness. When Reborn and his friends enter his life, Tsuna begins to change unconsciously. He's still changing now and for the better. This change means he's learning how to truly accept and be himself, which sometimes means being a loser and a klutz and a no-good student, but at other times means being a protector and a friend (even if his friends drive him insane). It doesn't mean he wants to be a hero, though admittedly that would be nice. Tsuna's not a hero. But he'll do a heroic deed without thinking anything of it. He's just stupidly humble like that.
(Not to mention, Tsuna is also stupidly oblivious in the strangest ways. He can see through all of Reborn's disguises, but he still can't indentify who adult Reborn is.)
He has a lot of trouble thinking of himself as a leader, and he relies on Reborn frequently to guide him. Reborn annoys him and irritates him to no end, often pushing him to do things he doesn't want to, but he's at a point where he can't quite let go of this reliance yet. As the catalyst for his growth and the people in his life, Tsuna trusts Reborn deeply, even if he doesn't always agree with him. He's growing slowly but surely into his position, and while he does, Reborn will remain both his teacher and his partner.
In contrast to Reborn, who Tsuna trusts deeply, Iemitsu Sawada is someone he struggles to connect with. Tsuna has a very strained relationship with his father. If there are any dark spots in his life, it would be this. In Tsuna's own words, he considers his father "an embarrassment of a man." He was never there for Tsuna or his mother, and Tsuna resents him for it. He also resents the man for being better and stronger than him despite being just as much of a no-good loser as Tsuna is. He doesn't respect the type of man his father is and he doesn't want to acknowledge him. When his father comments that fighting Tsuna is boring, it unsettles Tsuna so much his Dying Will fizzles out and he drops his fighting stance. His father's disregard affects him deeply and their relationship explores a more complex and vulnerable side of Tsuna that's not seen much in the series.
It's embarrassing to say, but… somehow… I'm automatically sure that you'll just… help me… For some reason… I kinda see you as family… -Tsuna
When Dino first meets Tsuna, he says that he doesn't seem ambitious. "You look unlucky, too," he adds, "Your disposition to be a boss is zero." Well, even on the last chapter, he's still not ambitious and he's still plenty unlucky. He hasn't changed all that much, really. But Tsuna is beginning to shape up to be the kind of boss Vongola needs, though good luck getting him to realize it. Tsuna used to correct Reborn for calling his friends his Family (specifically Famiglia). He would always insist: "They're not my Family, they're my friends…" If anything shows Tsuna's growth throughout the series, it's the moment he admits to Gokudera and Yamamoto that he thinks of them as family. Not quite in the way Reborn wants it to mean, but it doesn't make Tsuna's dedication and loyalty to his family any less fierce. He'll never abandon them and he's already the kind of boss that will die for them. His trust in his family and allies is absolute.
no subject
But he still won't have a clue as to how or why.
And this pretty much sums up not only the events of his life, but also his attitude toward things.
-Reborn
The first time you see Tsuna, he's getting hit in the face with a basketball like a loser. It's an occurrence that is all too common in his life. He even has a nickname to go with it: No-Good Tsuna. Toss him a can of soda and he misses the catch. Save him from a giant turtle attack and he trips after he's saved and ends up in the hospital with a broken leg. What luck, you say? What luck, indeed. He has none of it. He's no good at school; no good at sports; no good at life.
And he candidly admits it.
Tsuna sees himself as a loser. He acts like a loser, so everyone around him treats him like one. Inversely, everyone treats him like a loser, so he thinks he's a loser. They don't expect anything from him, and he doesn't expect anything from himself either. It's an endless cycle. He doesn't seem to mind it much as being a loser actually means he's more normal than most of the people he knows. It would be a lie, however, to say he didn't mind at all. Of course, he minds. It bothers him, but he doesn't think he can do anything about it.
Instead, he chooses to cling to this poor image of himself—even if it's that of a loser because at least that's something. But y'know, he's a normal loser! Emphasis on normal, and less of it on loser, please. Normality is what makes all the difference to him. His weird friends and family more often than not embarrass him, and there are a few instances in the canon where he wishes he were anywhere else, or he pretends not to be associated with these weirdos. What Tsuna wants to be is Mild-Mannered Loser Tsuna, who minds his own business, and not Superloser Tsuna, who's involved in troublesome world-saving affairs. Or even worse, troublesome attention-catching affairs.
-Fuuta
Wanting to maintain his status as an ordinary loser is not much of an ambition, if you can even call it that. That's because Tsuna doesn't seem to have much ambition in the first place. He doesn't aim to grow up rich or to do anything astounding. He doesn't particularly want to grow up to be anything at all, really—and he certainly doesn't want to be a mafia boss, god forbid!
At first Tsuna only goes to school so he can catch glimpses of his crush, Kyōko Sasagawa. No, really, that's the only reason. In one chapter, he notices she's not at school and decides to cut, because what's the point if he can't see her? Later on Tsuna goes to school because it's fun and he has friends—but he still doesn't care about learning or studying. His incentive to study remains steadily at zero, and he's still mediocre at everything even now. In all of Tsuna's life, he has never scored 100% on any test. He's flunked every test since his enrollment. He takes supplementary classes for art. Art. He also takes supplementary classes for just about everything else. What else is there to do for someone like him except to float aimlessly through life and eventually become a lowly salaryman? At least, that's the way he looks at it. Or did look at it.
He doesn't have the self-confidence to be ambitious in the first place. There are numerous instances where he claims how impossible it is for "someone like him" to do this or that in the Daily arc. And it's not like he stops there either. In every arc, there will most likely be a moment where he'll think or say something along that line. He's more confident now compared to before, but it is still not much. To be honest, he's 100% more confident in his friends. Dying Will has let him discover better parts of himself, but he's still in the process of finding out more. If anything, the whole of Katekyo Hitman REBORN! is just the start for him—the very tip of a coming-of-age story.
-Tsuna
He's not ambitious, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything he strives for. He didn't at first, but this changed. Throughout the series—right until the very end of it—you see him striving to protect his family and friends. He fights to protect not only their welfare, but their happiness and their freedom to do mundane every day things. His resolve to protect them shapes him into a stronger person. Above all else, Tsuna is an extremely kind boy and a good person. Wimpy, yes, but his inability to turn down requests shows his inherently kind nature. (It also shows that he's a terrible pushover and a doormat, but that's because he's too nice sometimes. And because he's a wimp.)
In any dangerous situation, even when he's scared for his life, his first priority is to protect the people he cares about. It's the easiest and toughest decision he can make. He often looks to others to lead or for advice, but when it comes to the people precious to him, he'll take the lead and make even the most painful decisions. "I'm not gonna let you die," he says firmly to his tutor Reborn in the Curse of the Rainbow Arc, after coming up with a strategy to save the Arcobaleno babies. On his own, Tsuna's first instinct is flight rather than fight, but put him in a situation where his loved ones are in danger and he'll fight with all of his will—his dying will, his living will, his everything to protect them. To him, no one person is any more important than the next. For example: when Kyōko, his crush, and Haru Miura, one of his more wacky and troublesome friends, are poisoned and Tsuna only has enough antidote for one of them, he decides "it would be just as bad no matter who died!" Later, he lets himself get beaten up and even goes so far as to agree to stab himself for their sake. If anything, this protective trait makes him a brave coward. The thought of stabbing himself utterly terrifies him, but it is not a task he's willing to ask of his friends. Not when they have already tried to protect him numerous times before. In a nightmare situation, Tsuna shows he can rise to the challenge.
This kindness is in no way limited to only those he cares about. He's just as soft-hearted and forgiving when it comes to his enemies. During the Kokuyo arc, he worries over his enemy's subordinates. Even though Tsuna claims he doesn't want to lose to Mukuro Rokudō because of his cruel disregard for his own men, Tsuna shows concern for Mukuro's life at the end of the battle. Former enemies, even people who've murdered countless others, eventually become "those that [he's] exchanged blows with and battled against before, and thus know wholeheartedly [he] can rely on."
When Tsuna's in his protective mode, he's more serious than ever. He has a calm wariness to him, and he's concentrated on his resolve to protect. His eyes become sharp, focused at half-mast. He stands firm and ready. He is quite different from the usually wide-eyed and clumsy Tsuna, who generally hunches over in fright or shies away from trouble.
-Tsuna
Although Tsuna willingly fights to protect his friends and family, he dislikes violence. And with it, he dislikes the mafia. He's extremely unwilling to have anything to do with the mafia. Tsuna fights for his friends so they can live their lives peacefully, having snowball fights or just hanging out together. He doesn't want to complicate things or put anyone in danger by having the mafia involved. His reaction to Reborn's insistence that he become the next Vongola head is DENIAL, DENIAL, REFUSAL, DENIAL. When it comes to his aversion to mafia business and strange business and Reborn business (which is sometimes also strange mafia business), he's very frank about his thoughts on the matter—not that it helps much since no one ever listens. Jerks.
That's also an example of his stubbornness. Tsuna is incredibly stubborn when he wants to be. When he sets his mind on something, he'll see it all the way through. There are just some things he is absolutely sure about, especially when it comes to his family or his allies. He's shown "a face that has no intention of losing" when the chances of winning were worse than zero. His resolve to protect those around him is just that strong.
Tsuna's the type of person who wants to pass on anything weird/dangerous/abnormal/embarrassing/mafia (which is an adjective in this case) in life. He would take an indefinite rain check for all of those if he could. Unfortunately enough, most of the people in his life are weird/dangerous/abnormal/embarrassing/mafia. When he's forced to deal with these things, he complains and moans about his unlucky life. Usually Reborn quickly shuts him up with a brutal kick to the face. Even now, he fears Reborn's Spartan training style. A typical day features Tsuna making horrified faces at the crazy shenanigans that come his way. This makes him appear very high-strung to onlookers. It's quite common to see him screech out "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" when faced with something overly bizarre or horrifying. (Note: not /hi/ like the greeting, but pronounced as a stretched /hee/, a squeak of absolute fear and horror.) There are also times when he accidentally lashes out at his friends in his irritation, but he always apologizes afterward.
At the same time, Tsuna also admires his weird friends. They all have something they want to work toward and accomplish. They all try their best even if by doing so they cause problems for him. He gets irritated at times, but he really does marvel over how great they are as friends. He's incredibly proud of his friends, especially Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto. They inspire him to try harder as a person, and they make him feel like he's not such a loser after all.
As stated previously, Tsuna doesn't aspire to become anything, so he settles on being No-Good Tsuna. While that's true, it's not the full story either. When Tsuna was a child, he expressed the desire to change. Even then, he thought of himself as a useless person. He wrote in his report that he wanted to change and to become a giant robot when he grew up. Giant robots are typically heroic symbols for children. In a way, this symbolizes his desire to become a hero of sorts. Along the way, however, Tsuna forgot that people could change—that he could change—and sunk into the false comfort of constant uselessness. When Reborn and his friends enter his life, Tsuna begins to change unconsciously. He's still changing now and for the better. This change means he's learning how to truly accept and be himself, which sometimes means being a loser and a klutz and a no-good student, but at other times means being a protector and a friend (even if his friends drive him insane). It doesn't mean he wants to be a hero, though admittedly that would be nice. Tsuna's not a hero. But he'll do a heroic deed without thinking anything of it. He's just stupidly humble like that.
(Not to mention, Tsuna is also stupidly oblivious in the strangest ways. He can see through all of Reborn's disguises, but he still can't indentify who adult Reborn is.)
He has a lot of trouble thinking of himself as a leader, and he relies on Reborn frequently to guide him. Reborn annoys him and irritates him to no end, often pushing him to do things he doesn't want to, but he's at a point where he can't quite let go of this reliance yet. As the catalyst for his growth and the people in his life, Tsuna trusts Reborn deeply, even if he doesn't always agree with him. He's growing slowly but surely into his position, and while he does, Reborn will remain both his teacher and his partner.
In contrast to Reborn, who Tsuna trusts deeply, Iemitsu Sawada is someone he struggles to connect with. Tsuna has a very strained relationship with his father. If there are any dark spots in his life, it would be this. In Tsuna's own words, he considers his father "an embarrassment of a man." He was never there for Tsuna or his mother, and Tsuna resents him for it. He also resents the man for being better and stronger than him despite being just as much of a no-good loser as Tsuna is. He doesn't respect the type of man his father is and he doesn't want to acknowledge him. When his father comments that fighting Tsuna is boring, it unsettles Tsuna so much his Dying Will fizzles out and he drops his fighting stance. His father's disregard affects him deeply and their relationship explores a more complex and vulnerable side of Tsuna that's not seen much in the series.
-Tsuna
When Dino first meets Tsuna, he says that he doesn't seem ambitious. "You look unlucky, too," he adds, "Your disposition to be a boss is zero." Well, even on the last chapter, he's still not ambitious and he's still plenty unlucky. He hasn't changed all that much, really. But Tsuna is beginning to shape up to be the kind of boss Vongola needs, though good luck getting him to realize it. Tsuna used to correct Reborn for calling his friends his Family (specifically Famiglia). He would always insist: "They're not my Family, they're my friends…" If anything shows Tsuna's growth throughout the series, it's the moment he admits to Gokudera and Yamamoto that he thinks of them as family. Not quite in the way Reborn wants it to mean, but it doesn't make Tsuna's dedication and loyalty to his family any less fierce. He'll never abandon them and he's already the kind of boss that will die for them. His trust in his family and allies is absolute.