Ok I've read all the reviews so far, and I'm up to the future arc and am still happily following it. So heres my piece of mind:
So many people say the first couple of chapters of Reborn suck, but i thought the first 2 volumes were great, nice character intros, funny situations, and my bro and i seem to be the few people who think tsuna in boxing shorts dying will mode is awesome, hes like the japanese characterisation of the mask, i think its hilarious and fun to see him do stuff. HOWEVER, volumes 3-7 were pretty much one shot manga torture. But I stayed through them because I was told a story happens later, which it does, and a cool one.
Ok, I will say there are flaws to the manga, it follows generic shonen situations, such as train, fight enemy one on one, lose, get saved by ally, etc etc. Also kyoko and haru, two of the female mains in this story annoy me to no end, as my friend puts them they're "kitchen bitches" and they're dull as an unsharpened HB to boot. But in saying that, the shounen forumlae is presented in a fresh way, using the mafia backdrop to add some difference. I personally have always liked gokudera and I love seeing the new and clever things he comes up with to win his fights. At the moment im hooked, really curious to see how the story goes.