Spring 2026 Anime Impressions 6: Kill Blue. A legendary hitman turns back into a middle schooler. Great pacing, great action, and a perfect balance of comedy and seriousness!

I had read up to volume 2 of the original manga before, and since it was interesting, I was looking forward to this!

Points of interest

The legendary hitman Juzo gets his body shrunk by a drug and becomes a student...
It's a cliché, but it's fun!

I thought the premise of an adult turning into a child (who is a child on the outside but an adult on the inside) was a common trope, but
I can't think of many examples off the top of my head (only Conan comes to mind).
You might think it's a cliché, but you don't see it that often.

This time, Juzo, a man in his late 30s, turns young again, becomes a middle schooler, and starts attending middle school.

The awkwardness of a man in his late 30s (with kids and a divorce history) attending a Reiwa-era middle school, along with the generation gap, makes for some comical scenes, which is fun in its own right.
(I also wouldn't know how to handle things like having to join a school LINE group lol)

Since Juzo was raised as a hitman from elementary school, the depiction of him finding middle school classes incredibly fun is also genuinely sweet and entertaining.

He's having so much fun studying that he's doing prep and review... (lol)

The battle scenes are great

The battle scenes are also great, and the gun action is cool.
Both the adult version and the middle schooler version.
The scene where he fires three shots in quick succession without a pause is nice.
Juzo shows no mercy to villains, but then again, he is a hitman on the inside...

Since school life is the main focus, there are many comical scenes, but when perverts or kidnappers appear and he takes them down, he does it smartly and decisively without even breaking a sweat or losing his breath, so
the balance between comedy and seriousness is just right.

Overall impressions

Good balance of comedy and seriousness
The gap between the protagonist, Juzo, and the Reiwa-era students is funny
Great battle scenes
The characters are full of energy!

Honestly, I think it's a very well-balanced work.
It has battles, gags, heartwarming stories, and the characters are unique and easy to watch...

The anime adaptation is good because it expands on scenes that weren't in the manga with anime-specific direction.

The action scene where Noren is on the truck bed when she's kidnapped was handled in detail in the anime, which was great, and
Juzo's reaction when he ate ramen was like something out of Food Wars! (lol)

It's still early, so not all the characters have appeared yet, but many interesting characters will show up in the future, so I recommend it to anyone who likes shonen manga.
(It was in the PV, but the pacifier has too much destructive power, right... (lol))

I think this is a work that both young people and those around forty can enjoy!
I might write more impressions later!

You can read a preview, so please check it out.

Fujimaki-sensei is the author of Kuroko's Basketball and Robot x Laserbeam, and
it was interesting to see these three having a conversation.

Rising Impact has been adapted into an anime, and I'd love to see an anime for Robot x Laserbeam too.