Tsunayoshi Sawada

Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada (沢田 綱吉) is the protagonist of Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Although at first a cowardly and useless junior high student, Tsuna is suddenly thrust into fulfilling the role as the tenth generation Boss of the Vongola Famiglia, the most prominent Mafia Famiglia in the world, forcing him to gather his own Guardians to eventually battle for the survival of the world. His character development from a weak individual who easily gives up to a leader dedicated to and willing to fight for the protection of his friends, family, and Famiglia is a critical element of the series. Although he himself does not wish to have anything to do with the Mafia, he nevertheless finds himself thrust into numerous battles, so far involving escaped Mafia exiles, a rival group of elite assassins within the Vongola, ten years in the future, the Millefiore Famiglia, a rival Famiglia in the process of eliminating the Vongola which ended with Tsuna defeating the rival Famiglia's leader, Byakuran, a battle with the Simon Famiglia, former ally of the Vongola, caused by the first generation Mist Guardian Daemon Spade's meddling, and the Representative Battle of the Rainbow, a battle fought to free one Arcobaleno from their curse, Tsuna fighting for Reborn.

As the protagonist of the series, Tsuna appears in all the series' video games, as well as special appearances in both Shōnen Jump compilation games, Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars. He also appears in the Hidden Bullet light novels, albeit in a minor role. On July 8, 2008, Pony Canyon released a character CD containing media from both his and Reborn's voice actors.

Personality
At the beginning of the series, Tsuna is a junior-high student known in school as "No Good Tsuna" for his poor grades, wimpy attitude, bad luck, and lack of athleticism, a fact which Tsuna freely admits.

Tsuna is generally depicted as comically horrified by the outrageous actions of those around him, generally causing him to become nearly hysterical, especially by Reborn's training methods. His lack of confidence and tremendous lack of luck generally contrast humorously with the positions of leadership and external pressure Reborn puts him in. Despite his title, he seems an earnest individual with great potential; unfortunately, Reborn discovers that often the only way to force Tsuna to fulfill this potential is to put him in a life or death situation.

Although told by others that he is to be the 10th generation Vongola Boss, Tsuna is generally unwilling to take part in anything that has to do with the Mafia. He always denies the fact that he is a going to be Mafia Boss and tries to avoid anyone and anything involved with the Mafia, clinging to any element of an ordinary life he can, even stating that his Guardians and subordinates are just his friends and upperclassmen. Later, though he dislikes the violent history inherent in the Mafia, stating that he would rather destroy the Vongola Famiglia then to accept such a heritage, Tsuna is grateful for the friends he has made since meeting Reborn. He cares a lot for his Famiglia and puts himself in the way of danger and even death in order to protect the members.

Tsuna's personality has developed greatly since the beginning of the manga, from being a cowardly, useless individual who gave up easily, to an individual of great resolve to do whatever he must do to protect the companions he has made. Later, he is depicted as being comfortable with leadership, as the others in his Famiglia look to him for decisions he dispenses without hesitation.

The Tsuna of the future is said to be deceased, having been gunned down; however, not without making arrangements for the future. It is later revealed that the bullet used to gun down Tsuna was just another special bullet (similar to Dying Will Bullet) that replaced the normal bullet in the gun, the deed done by Shoichi Irie. Presumably, the future Tsuna has now settled comfortably into the role of the tenth Vongola Boss.

There have been many similarities between Tsuna and founder of the Vongola Famiglia, Giotto, including physical appearance, fighting techniques, and weapons used. Both of their personalities are likely to be very similar as it has been shown that they have similar goals and ways of standards; for example, neither had problems with appointing Guardians from outside the Famiglia or accepting past enemies into their Famiglia.

Daily Life Arc
One day, the hitman Reborn came to Japan from Italy in order to train Tsuna for the role of the 10th Vongola Boss. Tsuna was chosen because he was the great-great-great grandson of the First Vongola Boss, who had moved to Japan a long time ago. In the arc, Tsuna always faced trouble caused by either Reborn or his associates with Tsuna saving the day through his Dying Will Mode. It is in this arc that he meets and befriends most of the people that would be his future Famiglia. His Famiglia in this arc was made up of only Gokudera and Yamamoto. He befriended Gokudera when he saved Gokudera from his own attack that had not yet been perfected. Yamamoto became Tsuna's friend when he talked him out of jumping off the roof of Namimori Middle School. The attempt was not shown in the anime because in it, they became friends after a volleyball game. Tsuna also started to bond with Kyoko, becoming friends with her and making a girl named Haru have a crush on him.

Kokuyo Arc
Students from Tsuna's school started to get attacked by an unknown group, and Tsuna was assigned to find and to defeat them. When he found that the Gang attacked based on Fuuta's ranking of the strongest people in the school, he realized that Gokudera was their next target. He quickly ran to warn Gokudera, only to find him having already beaten Chikusa. Chikusa, having figured out that Tsuna was the Vongola Boss, he quickly attacked. However Gokudera protected Tsuna, severely hurt himself in the process. Chikusa then continued to attack Tsuna, only for Yamamoto to protect Tsuna too and forced Chikusa to retreat. They then took Gokudera to the school hosptial, and Tsuna blamed himself for not moving in time and forcing Gokudera to protect him. Reborn then told him that the group was Kokuyo Gang, a gang that was exiled from the Mafia and had escaped from a prison. Reborn then read a letter by the Ninth, which told him to destroy the gang or face death. Tsuna then leaves with Gokudera, Reborn, Yamamoto and Bianchi to the gang's hideout. When Yamamoto is attacked and forced into a one on one match with a gang member named Ken, Tsuna states he should not have brought Yamamoto, as Yamamoto was still playing baseball. That made Reborn kick Tsuna into the fight, forcing Yamamoto to protect Tsuna again and defeat Ken. Afterword they take a break, only to be attacked by M.M. He watches as Bianchi defeats M.M., only for Birds to step forward. Birds reveal his plan to have the Twins attack Haru and Kyoko, unless Tsuna is beaten by his comrades. Tsuna desperately asks Gokudera and Yamamoto to punch him, only for Bianchi to do so, but he states her punch did not hurt at all. Birds then states for Tsuna to stab himself with a secretly poisoned knife, or Kyoko would be hurt. Tsuna, remembering all his friends have done for him, thought that it was nothing for Kyoko. Just as he is about is to stab himself, he sees Dr. Shamal on the screen, and stops as Shamal saves Kyoko and easily defeats one of the twins. Birds says Haru is still in danger, only for him to see Haru protected by Future I-Pin and Future Lambo. Reborns then kicks Tsuna, allowing Tsuna to punch Birds, and then Gokudera defeats Birds. Fuuta then reveals himself and states he now follows Mukuro, causing Tsuna to follow him in the woods. He then mets Mukuro, but does not know who he is. Tsuna then returns to his comrades to find Lancia, who he thinks is Mukuro, eventually beginning to fight him. Tsuna then enters Dying Will Mode and defeats Lancia after a hard fight; however, after the fight he states that Lancia is not evil, suprising Lancia, that he tells Tsuna, he is not truly Mukuro and that Mukuro has messed up his life. Lancia is attacked by Chikusa, only furthering Tsuna hate towards Mukuro. They then enter the main building where Mukuro is; they then meet Chikusa where Gokudera stays behind to fight Chikusa, allowing Tsuna and everyone else to leave. They meet Fuuta, where he attacked Bianchi, with Reborn stating he is being controlled. Tsuna is able to break Mukuro control of Fuuta, causing Fuuta to faint. Mukuro then attacks, showing Tsuna is hopeless outclassed, until Gokudera with Hibari. Hibari then continues in Tsuna place, seemly defeating Mukuro, only for Mukuro to wake up, and shoot himself. Bianchi then wakes up, and attack both Gokudera and Reborn, with Reborn realizing that Mukuro shoot himself with a special bullet, that allows him to possess anyone, that has been cut by his trident. Mukuro then attacks Tsuna with Gokudera, Bianchi, Chikusa, and Ken's bodies. Tsuna realizes that Mukuro is pushing the bodies to their limits and not caring, and begs him to stop, only for Mukuro to reveal his plan is to take Tsuna's body, to control the Vongola and then destory the Mafia and then start WWIII to destroy the world. Tsuna, feeling desperate, asks Reborn what to do, and Reborn states, do what you feeling tell you to do. Tsuna then states he wants to beat Mukuro, causing Leon to create the Rebuke bullet and the X-gloves. After being shoot by the bullet, he hears everyone rebukes of himself, transforming him to Hyper Dying Will Mode and his X-Gloves to their combat mode, allowing him to defeat Mukuro. He then hear Mukuro past from Ken and Chikusa, causing him to lose his hatred of Mukuro, and feels sorry for all three of them when they are taken by the Vindice, but is happy when the Vongola arrive and provide medical attention to him and his comrades, till he collapses form pain of entering his Hyper Dying Will Mode.