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Just wanted to say Happy Father's Day everyone! Yeah, dads can be difficult sometimes, I know better than anyone, but don't forget to show your love and appreciation for him if he's still in your life! My dad is so stubborn sometimes but I know he loves all his daughters, including me, even if he fails sometimes or doesn't show it in the best ways. Speaking of shows, his little Yakuza show for Suzume was yet another fond memory of mine hehe 😋💖
Hugs, Hibari 💖✨
Stop!! Hibari-Kun 4: Swift As A Coursing River
And so we begin the first proper arc in Stop!! Hibari-Kun, introducing the Spartan Dragon. Mr. Oozora is fed up with these shenanigans, and by gum we're gonna make a man out of that wimply little sissy Hibari. Hell yeah brother, just needs a little tough love. Seriously, you and I both know Mr. Oozora knows it won't work, but I do think the little mini-arc early on does a lot to cement what our introduction set up.
Before that thought, let's take a moment to appreciate the pop art cover Eiiguchi gave. Many of these are very good. But I love this juxtaposition of the very aggressive title while Hibari stands in this crowd of other very fun, fashionable women. In...but still kind of apart from it. I like that Hibari gets to have this aspect, it's a very fine line to walk and if you wanna see why look at Kiku compared to Kamatari. Either it's too subtle or you come off as a really vain bitch. But like...if Kohsaku's "curse" is that he has the perfect soulmate the second he gets over one hurdle, Hibari's a victim of her own success. By being so cool and confident you can so easily pull off fitting in as a woman, it makes it hard to fit in with average women in general. More because of the "average" part.
That level of attention isn't fun when you're really worried about people seeing certain aspects you don't want them to. That's what makes the relationship with Tsubame so good. I don't expect a teenage girl in her time and place to be fully mature and never ever insecure her "brother" gets to be the cool, popular girl she's very much not. It's why I think Kiku's adorable, you try so hard to hide behind others but like the literal gag with Zoro the spotlight's drawn to you sweetiepop. Hibari's popular, but so much so she's very isolated from it. Yuzu in Skip & Loafer would later crush this story and honestly no, I don't think it's one where cis or trans matters that much. A lot of "popular" girls growing up had to get it from both sides; dudes being absolute jackals and girls trying to use you or cut you down over any flimsy excuse because you're pretty and popular so you don't have feelings like us "normies."
But Hibari is normal, which is a long way to get us to this great gag. Through a strange sequence of events, Kohsaku's proud assertions of heterosexuality after a lewd dream summon the real Hibari in a nightie who, probably moreso because she's used to this with three sisters, slips into Kohsaku's bed because she's so eepy and can't really process what's going on at this ungodly hour. You could have this exact bit with Ranma & Akane as silly wholesome fun and...that's what it is here. Mr. Oozora even gets over it pretty quickly when Kohsaku has a minute to calmly explain the situation which is awesome. How many times have you screamed at a rom-com where all our problems can be solved that way?
Which makes the entry of this goober all the more impactful. Enter the Spartan Dragon. The manliest Yakuza trainer around and nothing is manlier than Yakuza. Excepting Cho and Oryu the Red Peony of course they're lovely because their beauty shines in this gritty underworld. Actually scratch Cho, I think she likes being crass and a little sadistic.
Sorry, aside. We don't get much of the Dragon this chapter. Mainly because you know it's all about the setup. The mishap this morning was perfectly innocent and understandable and all but it was still a threat to a young man's heterosexual purity and a conservative old man's inheritance which would be solved via Kohsaku and honor both of your lady loves Oozora so why are we even doing all this? Which is, after all, the point.
Stop!! Hibari-Kun 1 - Humble Beginnings
I wanna enjoy this official release. I'll do these as the volumes come out. And because HxH is still on break they're getting my coveted "random late-night drop" timeslot. Here we are, actually able to support the official release for my #1 diamond in the rough, Stop!! Hibari-Kun. We won't be silly and artifical though. Even if I go chapter-by-chapter I'm going to assume you're cool with me approaching a 45yo manga from an appreciation point, how it relates to later trans depictions in manga, and poke at the clever way this silly gag manga plays with reader expectations. So we might vaguely gesture at spoilery things but I'll try to keep it contained to the latest official English volume release.
Ballsy choice to open fire with a comical scene about your teenage protagonist losing his mother. Which is honestly great because we need to immediately set the tone for a story like this to work. Hisashi "Candy" Eiiguchi knows what he's doing, remember he's a seasoned veteran for this series. It'll be his swan song as a steady mangaka. Stop!! Hibari-Kun's success hinges on one aspect; showing, not telling young male readers that Kohsaku's plight is devoid of sympathy. At least when it comes to Hibari. I do wish we spent a little more time on his journey dealing with his mother's death though. I would love nothing more than a full anime reboot where Eiiguchi just has to do character designs and pitch the overall narrative. Let it be the couple together telling an adopted kid their story...
There's a real "two-peak" structure to this first chapter. Because it's the first beat Kohsaku's mom dying still carries some weight. But the comedy makes it clear we're not telling a story that's going to be a drag. I mean, there will be drag but not the story itself. We move on quickly to Mr. Oozora. The father of four and so many more wayward young men in his Yakuza family.
Yakuza shit immediately makes this series cooler. Let's take a moment and wax nostalgically for the brighter days slipping in a 20% cooler would do numbers here... Okay, but yeah it doesn't take long before we're doing slapstick and waving guns around and honestly I love it. It may not be about Space Girl but Stop!! Hibari-Kun is no less wacky than similar contemporary Urusei Yatsura. I think it also helps set the tone to introduce us to Mr. Oozora first. See him outside of being the father in this fun family. This is going to end up being a pretty rare scene for selling him as an actual threat. I think it works. Mr. Oozora may be a bit of a prude but he's an important character for this manga to work and honestly he's pretty fun.
Now, I think this serves a purpose. A narrative purpose our dear, sweet Chrysanthemum runs on. After all this wacky stuff...is it really that big of a deal Hibari's trans? Oh, and for the record let's clear this one up easy...the reason Eiiguchi was for a time reluctant to call her that was because for his generation that terminology would typically be reserved for someone who already medically transitioned. There's an anime-only episode that, how the fuck they got that past the censors is a mystery to me but it plays with the concept. I don't even really care about his explicit intentions, SHK is what you could call an Unbuilt Trope. The reason it would do so well today is the reason you can't replicate its formula today. Too many existing cliches. There's something organic about Hibari's world modern attempts at inclusion rarely capture.
It proves to me that most people's hangups are from overthinking things. I think Eiiguchi more stumbled into accuracy by virtue of not having that "filter" of established norms. So all that's left is to think about how, plain language, a presumed brother emerging as another sister would affect the family dynamic. Sure, something like Kyou Kara Yonshimai can do this...as a very limited niche interest. This girl got to be the hostess of Weekly Shonen Jump. Hibari to me is the accidental icon. This weird concoction of a gag manga produced something that resonates because without that safety net of existing shorthands and conventions the reality of that situation isn't too hard to guess. Means Hibari sinks or swims solely on her own charm which, well...
It's also worth pointing out even if we've had good depictions later...they don't tend to get to be the "main" character these days. Which, remember this was popular so it's not really organic trends demanding stupid nonsense like Nuriko in Fushigi Yuugi. It's kinda why I see Kiku the way I do in Wano, yeah playing the game where her sum total of secondary actions still add up to a towering narrative presence and hiding behind a more marketable foil is the type of shit you have to pull to keep young men from getting "triggered" by thinking their comic went too woke. All in all, great offering that hooks you immediately. I'd point to SHK as an example of a first chapter that delivers everything you need it to. If you sit there and read this first one at a newsstand, you wanna know where the hell we go from here and we can already see a lot of what will make this one work on a visual level to boot.
