Stop!! Hibari-kun!

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Japanese: ストップ!! ひばりくん!

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 4

Chapters: 53

Status: Finished

Published: Oct 6, 1981 to Nov 22, 1983

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Themes: Crossdressing, Gag Humor

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Eguchi, Hisashi (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 6.94¹ (scored by 1,742 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #9740²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3795

Members: 5,444

Favorites: 110

Resources

Wikipedia

6.94

Ranked #9740Popularity #3795Members 5,444

MangaShounen Jump (Weekly)Eguchi, Hisashi (Story & Art)

Add to My List

Volumes: /4

Chapters: /53

Edit
Synopsis

A teenage boy has now moved in the home of his mother's friend, because she had died a while back. It just so happens that the Yakuza family has four beautiful daughters, but one daughter, Hibari, who is more beautiful then the rest of the daughters, is actually a boy. Hibari just can't keep his hands off our hero and so their crazy yet happy lives go on.

(Source: ANN)

Edit
Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Edit
Related Manga

Adaptation:

Stop!! Hibari-kun!

More characters
Characters

Oozora, Hibari

Main

Sakamoto, Kousaku

Main

Ootori, Jun

Supporting

Kawai, Rie

Supporting

Oozora, Suzume

Supporting

Oozora, Tsubame

Supporting

Rikiishi, Joe

Supporting

Sakamoto, Harue

Supporting

Ootori, Wataru

Supporting

Banchou

Supporting

Reviews

Feb 10, 2019

lihanEAD

Recommended

TL;DR: it's good, Far better than a lot of other manga I've read.

very minor generalized spoilers for the rest of the review.

The question of a piece of art aging well is always a loaded one, that includes having to engage with an understanding and egagement of historical and cultural context.

To answer that question is to ask if the problem is miscellaneous content or it isn't just a few tweaks, but the skeleton of "Stop!! Hibari-kun!" itself that is the problem. this is an issue that I find as a casual reader to be conflicted about.
I've found that as a reader, you need to ... add that context, read between the lines and weed through excuses.

The art is fantastic, knows when to go big and strong, and when to pull it back and go light and cartoon-y. The premise of the manga itself is simple yet solid, and most of the characters are at their core, interesting enough to keep me coming back.
Unfortunately the manga has a few cultural hang-ups for the time of its inception, primarily when it comes to handling the themes of gender and sexuality.
Not exclusively, for example, "how NOT to draw a person of color".

The dynamic of Hibari as a trans woman in the early 80's, often comes down to her either simply being a gag in-and-of-herself or groundbreaking for her time with a few asterisks added, which can become a bit muddy at times.

She is dealt sympathy from the author at hand, but more often than not, not enough to be treated with enough sincerity, that she often gets undercut as a joke. She is herself a great strong fun character, but is at times confined to the frames of a gag-manga, that just gives her enough footing to stand out as something more than just a "man-in-drag" gag.

I do not believe that this was done in some intentionally malicious attempt, certainly because it doesn't read that way, but that for the author at the time of creating the manga, this was "simply the norm" of handling a character such as Hibari. Which I don't know how to feel about that type of excuse.

I find it to be lazy, for some ignorance is bliss/past is past, but the consequence of this years later, is that the manga nowadays' leaves a bad aftertaste hanging on several occasions, like a noticeable stain on a white t-shirt that you really loved wearing.

I don't regret having read and finished the manga, but originally just giving it a 6 as a score, and then moving on, in this case, left me feeling incomplete when it comes to how I feel about "Stop!! Hibari-kun!".
There's a great video essay on the manga/anime called "Stop!! Hibari-kun! and Trans Representation in Anime" by Hazel, which has taught me how to better deal with my feelings on the manga, on a whole, over time. It has made me go back and reconsider my original review.
Here's a link for it: ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa6MK_boub0 )

So reflecting back on it now, I believe I've been too harsh on it from when i first read it. I'll at least give you that. It is still absolutely worth a read just for the art and characters.

More importantly, often the original question of aging well and standing the "test of time" is loaded with boiled down guidelines of weighing pro and cons, understandably so, because it let's the brain shortcut through unnecessary engagement with content/art that outweighs being voids of empathy and consideration.

So if there's One thing "Stop!! Hibari-kun!" still definitely has, it's empathy.

Open

Gift

Oct 25, 2021

LinoTheOne

Recommended

Funny

Forty years ago Stop!! Hibari-kun! was firstly released, and Japan received its first manga trans protagonist, with an irreverent comedy and brilliant art by Hisashi Eguchi. An absolute avant-guarde piece that shocks me, because it is still relevant.

The 80s Japanese LGBT community portrait made by Eguchi is hilarious, but not disrespectful. The humor is neither black nor soft. Considering the time and the country, the approach is very unexpected, at such point that not even the European cinema had explored that theme that way. It reveals that Eguchi was very aware of the trans community's anguish, and of the way Japanese society treated it. But ...

Open

Gift

Apr 3, 2021

strategian

Recommended

This is a fantastic gag manga that makes for an easy and enjoyable read, with a few little flourishes that have helped it stand out 40 years on from its serialisation. It is very much a gag manga, it should be noted. There are overarching plot elements but they're very light - almost every chapter is self contained and every chapter is mostly a vehicle for a smattering of very silly over the top gags. The mangaka brings an incredibly distinct and fun character to the manga: his style of humour is erratic and constantly throws in varying styles of gag, whether it's an absurdist ... reference to some oddity, a (very beautifully drawn) parody of other genres, very aloof fourth wall breaking or just the typical expressive and stylised reaction panels.

Two things, though, distinguish Hibari-kun (actually probably 3 - but I'll discuss that tertiary thing later...): its art and the romantic undertones. The art is, I think, unanimously accepted as being a cut above. While it generally trends towards 80's comedy manga hyper-stylisation, scattered in every chapter are more detailed panels which, along with the chapter covers, reveal the artist's true capacity to draw his characters in a charming and beautiful way.

There's more to say about the second though. Obviously, the conceit of the manga lends itself towards romantic escalation: the character of Hibari is just so beautiful, despite being a boy, that he is irresistable even to the heterosexual characters. This is the source of much of the comedy (though less than you'd think), the characters being conflicted over their attraction to him. But what makes it interesting to me is that it's not something like 'Pretty Face', where we have a beautiful make constantly appealing to other men and horrified at this. Hibari actively enjoys the attention of men - he's gay, basically. And he's not really the butt of any jokes. He is constantly expressing his attraction to our male lead, Kousaku, who rebuffs him. There isn't really much humour beyond Hibari making advances on Kousaku, who is horrified and has an intense negative reaction - this is in almost every chapter and the dynamic never really changes.

I'm not stating this as a critique but an observation of why I think it becomes strange. You eventually just become desensitised to Kousaku freaking out and it stops being funny and it just seems like an actual romance. But because it's an 80's gag manga, there's absolutely no chance of that going anywhere. Which is sad, obviously. Eventually you just wish Kousaku would nut up and raw Hibari.

Unfulfilled romantic aspirations aside, all else I really have to observe about this manga is that it's a bit mean. That can't be counted as a critique, it's a subjective and maybe oversensitive thing - but to explain: yes, Hibari is a gay character who's 'empowered', beautiful and confident, etc. But every other character who might be a little different, like him, be they gay, makeup wearing men or crossdressers, are freaks. Unlike Hibari, they are the butt of jokes. The mangaka isn't really celebrating androgyny or gender transgressions, he's celebrating Hibari, because he's beautiful and flawless - if you're a boy who wants to be like him and you aren't beautiful, don't bother bub, you're just gonna be a joke!

Which brings me on to that third point of note I mentioned earlier. This manga gets hype now for 'positive transgender representation'. This is completely moronic. The only person who could read this manga and come away with this interpretation had it before they started reading it. This is not Wandering Son. It's a puerile, silly gag manga for horny teenage boys with a crass and silly sense of humour. Hibari is not a boy who wants to become a girl, he does not have gender dysphoria because his body is how he wants it to be. None of the difficulty or struggle of being a sexual minority is present, he does not struggle with social rejection or adaption. And, as I have said, those who transgress boundaries without having Hibari's singular beauty are joke characters, weirdos and creeps.

Hibari himself is an unusual character. Essentially, he's a fantasy made to appeal to the audience of young boys, who can self insert as the fairly bland and good natured Kousaku. Hibari is a beautiful girl everyone wants, who also is never the butt of the jokes, dotes on Kousaku constantly and saves him from violent situations. But he's a boy. Nowadays, there's an entire genre dedicated to catering to these fantasies (and increasingly a subculture of people), but it's fun to imagine just what the reaction of the magazine's core demographic would be to this concept. Presumably, not dissimilar to the manga's protagonist - but would they be as obstinate for as long as him?

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Weekly Shounen Jump English Translation Wish List

by AcidTyphoon

40 Entries · 12 Restacks

Transfeminine Manga part 1

by Keizakomu

50 Entries · 124 Restacks

Transmasculine Manga part 1

by Keizakomu

50 Entries · 116 Restacks

More recommendations
Recommendations

View All

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Stop!! Hibari-kun! Chapter 53 Discussion Stark700 - May 5, 2015	9 replies	by princesjelyfish »» Jan 2, 2:12 AM
Poll: Stop!! Hibari-kun! Chapter 45 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 24, 2015	1 replies	by removed-user »» Apr 4, 2021 7:05 PM
Poll: Stop!! Hibari-kun! Chapter 49 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 28, 2015	1 replies	by removed-user »» Apr 4, 2021 6:45 PM
Poll: Stop!! Hibari-kun! Chapter 12 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 1, 2015	1 replies	by removed-user »» May 14, 2020 2:07 PM
Poll: Stop!! Hibari-kun! Chapter 1 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 19, 2014	2 replies	by SIOPAOBUN »» Jan 29, 2018 8:20 PM

Stop!! Hibari-kun!
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Resources

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Edit
Related Manga

More characters
Characters

Reviews

Interest Stacks

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Stop!! Hibari-kun! Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Resources

EditSynopsis

EditBackground

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

EditRelated Manga

More charactersCharacters

Reviews

Interest Stacks

More recommendations Recommendations

More newsRecent News

More discussionsRecent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Stop!! Hibari-kun!
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Edit
Related Manga

More characters
Characters

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion