Anthracycline antibiotics are important antitumor agents in clinical use and much attention has been paid to the synthesis of these antibiotics and related compounds. In this article, authors explain new and facile cycloadditions of homophthalic anhydrides and application of these reactions to highly regiospecific syntheses of naturally occurring anthracycline antibiotics and related anthracyclines. This review contains the following items with 57 references; [1] Cycloaddition of homophthalic anhydrides; a) thermal cycloaddition, b) strong base-induced cycloaddition. [2] Synthesis of anthracyclines; a) 4-demethoxydaunomycin and daunomycin, b) 11-deoxydaunomycin, c) adriamycin-type anthracycline, d) optically active anthracyclinone, e) amino sugars. [3] Synthesis of D-ring heteroaromatic analogues of anthracyclines.