STOP!! HIBARI-KUN!

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME ComedyStop!! Hibari-kun!

REVIEWS

• 

  MasterCrash

  55/100
  A mark in trans representation in manga, but how does Hibari-Kun hold up 40 years later?

  __DISCLAIMER:__ So, yeah, generally I wouldn't do this, but I'm about to tackle and talk about how I think this manga handles LGBT+ themes, and so I feel like I should note that I'm not a member of the LGBT+ community. I'm an heterosexual cis guy, so if you are a member, and specially if you are transgender, you might think this manga is more (or less) offensive than I thought, and that's natural. If you do, please let me know, I wouldn't mind having a conversation about it and know other points of view.

  So, Stop!! Hibari-kun! is the story of Kousaku Sakamoto, who after becoming an orphan is adopted by the Oozora family, which is a Yakuza family. Upon arriving Kousaku falls in love with the most beautiful of the four girls... until he finds out that she is actually a boy.
  This Weekly Shounen Jump manga is from 1981, and I want you to have that in mind, this year marks it's 40th anniversary. This is Jump before it was the de facto manga magazine, this is Jump before the golden age of Battle Shounens, before Jojo, before Dragon Ball, before Saint Seiya and even Hokuto no Ken. Yet, don't misunderstand, Jump was still part of the mainstream landscape of the manga industry, just not as big as it would be in the years following the end of Hibari-kun! Which is why it's so amazing to have transgender character as your main character. There was no precedence for this that I could find. Sure there were very few shoujos that did come out before it, but in a Shounen manga? Hibari-kun was definitely trailing new paths here.

  

  And lets be real, if you read Hibari-kun or you're planning to read it right now, there's only two possible reasons, either you really like old manga or Jump manga and to get into some classics, or you want to read more manga about the LGBT community... or both. Which definitely was the case for me. This review is written with that in mind. Firstly I'm going to tackle how the manga handles those topics and how I feel if they did it well or not, and afterwards I'm going to discard that part, and just focus about how the manga has aged and if it's enjoyable to read in general. So... the hard part.

  Again, the thing we should have in mind is that Hibari-kun was released in 1981 and it definitely shows in how a lot of the cast talk about Hibari. These characters are consistently trying to make Hibari stop dressing as a girl, that's why the title is "Stop!! Hibari-kun!" and every one that does know that she is trans calls her as "he", and of course that opens another can of worms which is "Is Hibari trans or is s/he a crossdresser?" The manga plays a heavy focus on the clothings that Hibari has, often stealing from her sister. But Hibari herself always claims to be a girl, so I see her as trans. And there is a video I found that talks a little bit more on the subject and it's actually done by a trans person, so I'll link that in the end of the review.
  The cool thing about Hibari-kun's portrait of trans people is Hibari herself, she is a badass, very confident of who she is and never lets anyone else throw her down. Even when called a pervert, a boy, even asked to dress more manly or behave "normally". Hibary always leaves the room with her head high-up and she is overall just badass, strong and the best character in the entire series.
  And this kinda holds true for the other, very few, LGBT characters that pop-up, they are all strong and confident of their own identity and people throwing them off doesn't seem to make them want to stop from being who they are. And, of course, this is a great message. You should be true to who you are, and if people don't like it, fuck them.

  

  However... it's with everyone else that this manga kinda... didn't age well. Well, that and some portrails of gay people looking like they are Mr. Slave from South Park... That also didn't age well, but it's so over the top it is and how, again, confident this S&M Freddie Mercury clones are of themselves that I just think it's not as offensive as it could be.
  But everyone else is constantly throwing Hibari-kun down and drop lines that... they won't be appearing in western TV in 2021, I'll just say that. "I'm normal, I like girls" is said, like twice. Again, the constant threatening of Hibari as a he, which, to be fair, in context it does come out as more of a denial thing from part of the family. And of course, the absurd amount of times that they call Hibari and every gay character "a pervert". Kousaku constantly saying that he won't let her drag him to her world of pervertedness.
  The reason why I might be willing to forgive this treatment is because it's never shown as "right", but it also never is shown as "wrong" either. So it's very ambiguous on that front. And if I'm reading and I'm siding with Hibari and thinking that she should remain as she is, I'm willing to bet a lot of kids from the 80s who originally read this manga, probably sided with Kousaku and Hibari's father in thinking that she should just drop it. The ending doesn't help decide things for either side, but I'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit. So, in terms of this topic, just do have in mind that it is a bit ambiguous, and if Hibari is a great trans character, everyone else definitely came out of the 80s.

  Now, that's all cool, but is the manga itself good? Can I use the "ambiguous" card again? No? Ok.

  

  Hibari-kun is a gag manga, a very old gag manga and that comes with two very big problems, one is that most of the settings are kinda overdone already in other, better gag and romcom manga. And the other is that there's definitely a lot of jokes that I don't get because I'm not a kid in Japan in the early 80s. There are a lot of jokes that are understandable, however, and I'm willing to say there's at least one or two that are funny per chapter, which isn't that bad of a ratio. But on the other hand, there is a barrage of jokes, and some of them are really bad and they are re-used a LOT, and it drains you. Some of them are so bad that are funny, and I'll admit I found a lot of the very outdated gay representation did make me giggle, because it's also done so over the top. But it's overall more miss than hit.

  The story itself and the characters are the best part of the manga, I find Hibari very likeable and there's a miriad of fun supporting characters. Kousaku has a cool growth throughout the series in how he sees Hibari and how he slowly starts accepting her more and liking her more, even if he doesn't realize it. And there's characters like Jun, a lesbian girl who likes Hibari, who appear just for a couple of chapters but definitely make them so much better.
  And then there's bad characters, like the dude who's entire joke was that he was an upperclassman and he kept appearing on the school activities, and it wasn't funny at first, and it wasn't funny at the 100th. But the worst character in the entire manga is one Hisashi Eguchi. Now, that name may, or may not be familiar to you, but if you checked the name of the mangaka you'll notice that is the same.

  

  And before I criticize it I need you to know a thing about me. I love 4th Wall breaking jokes. I just do. Every time I see a character acknowledging that they need to rush because the chapter is ending I laugh, I laugh like a baby who just saw his mother's face appear from under a pair of hands, I'm the kind of guy who thinks Deadpool is peak comedy. I know it's not that funny, but it is for me.

  So why? Why does the 4th wall breaking comedy in Hibari-kun not only is the worst thing in the manga for me, it's also the worst thing in general. Like, I have as much rage for these jokes as I do for Jonathan Joestar, you may not get that, but it's a lot of hate.
  And there are funny 4th wall breaking jokes, but they are so rare and there are so many that, it breaks me. It really does. Every time I see the author's avatar pop up, I want to punch him. And he doesn't just pop-up, there are chapters where we have 2 ,3 ,4 pages of him. Not the story, just him making jokes about the editors and the fact he hates deadlines and it... it's bad.
  It's really, really, really bad. It feels like the author wants to make the story about himself. And there are good biographical manga, but they aren't inserted in other manga. I want to read Hibari-kun, not Eguchi-Kun, sorry, I don't care about your alligator jokes with your editors. Just show me if they are going to see Hibari's chest or not. PLEASE. And by the way, chapter 52 is just him, there's no Hibari. I wanted to punch him so bad.

  And Eguchi-kun, I do have a question. If you know how to draw really well, why don't you?
  Seriously, the manga covers of the complete edition are fantastic, the chapter covers are fantastic. It shows Hibari in really fashionable styles, a lot of them clearly influenced by Boy George (fitting) and Cyndi Lauper, which I'm all for, because I never told this to anyone I think, but if fashion had ended with Cyndi Lauper I'd be a happy man. Most of the manga, however, looks bad. And it's not bad as in, bad art. The mangaka, again, clearly knows how to draw well, and he draws a very simplistic but readable and sometimes cute style which fits the gag genre.
  But he also draws a lot of these ugly huge headed characters, like 90% of the manga is in this style and it's just so ugly and I don't know why he does it. Maybe he thinks it's funnier, but I've reached the conclusion that his sense of humor is mostly really bad, which wouldn't be a problem if this was not a gag manga.

  

  Finally, the ending, of course.
  And from the side notes I can tell that Eguchi just gave up on the manga due to not handling the harsh deadlines of Jump, and so the manga "abruptly" ends on chapter 53. Eguchi never really drew that one thinking it was going to be the last, but it was and has been since 1983, and since then he mentioned that he doesn't mind leaving it as is.
  And taking a moment from my rage bit on Eguchi, this does give a better look at some stuff he did. Again, Hibari-kun chapters went out it's way to give some 4th wall breaking jokes about not dealing with deadlines, and it wasn't just jokes. These deadlines can break a lot of mangaka and I deeply respect all that worked in that regime, no matter how bad a manga is, there's always a lot of effort put into it.
  And the final chapter... works. I don't want to spoil it, but thematically it serves as a pretty decent open ended finale. It's not the best, and most things don't get resolved for obvious reasons, but the final chapter is actually a recall to the first, so it does work. But of course that comes with a problem when having in mind, again, the representation of the LGBT community. An ending where Hibari gave up and went back to being a boy would definitely end up being a misguided and bad portrayal of trans people as just "a phase" or something to be corrected. And, an ending where everyone accepted Hibari for who she is, would definitely serve as a great and progressive manga about how we should accept trans people for who they are instead of trying to mold them to the norms. As it stands however, Hibari-kun doesn't have any message in favor or against trans, it just shows a trans person living with people who want to change her for a bit and then ends.

  

  Hibari-kun is an interesting manga to read if you have in mind when it came out and some of it's themes, but overall it's not the best. At the end of the day it is a gag manga that lacks jokes that are genuinely funny, but it's not without some merit, and the story, for how short it is, can definitely be enjoyable at times.

  Link to the video I mentioned earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa6MK_boub0

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