Stop!! Hibari-kun!

Probably the story that I saw with the most quantity of subtle, serious sub-subjects while still going all out on a "comedy" running gag show! Which (the "comedy" running gag show) is obviously a materialization of the two main characters trying to cure themselves from inner frustations of the rejection of what they are, but that are stuck in facing the crude reality that people around are stuck in repressive stereotypes that don't want to evolve and care around. So why would they care about living along the decorum while everybody are being socially decided to be worst?! I think this the message of this ... very descriptive masterpiece series! Insanely great from the start until the last of the 35 episodes as even the musics are real bangers.

As a trans lady living in 2021, when I heard about Stop Hibari-kun, I had to watch. Not gonna lie, this series is one of the more complicated (for me) animes I've watched yet. It was equal parts awesome and dreadful.

As far as characters go, Hibari-chan is amazing. She's everything a trans girl aspires to be and more. She reminded me so much of our generation today. My character rating for this review is ONLY of Hibari. Every other character deserves a 3 or below.

Literally everyone else in the series was either passively transphobic or outright racist (including Hibari's father and the ... family bodyguard). I was not expecting to see the racism and that was very hard to look past when looking at the series as a whole. Also, I kept hoping I'd see a payoff in the final episode of her family finally acknowledging she is a girl. That didn't happen, this was made in 1982. The director may have been an egg and this was his attempt at reconciling that, idk. I rated the overall story for this review, as a 3. Only because it felt like the entire point of the series was transphobia.

I gave it a MAL rating of 6, but only because of Hibari. Otherwise I'd probably rate it a 3 or 4 due to the problematic nature of the other characters.

I wish a sequel would come out showing Hibari a few years later, who is now goth, and how she was traumatized by her racist family and upbringing. I would watch the hell out of that.

If you are strongly bothered (like most of us) by racism and transphobia.. I'd pass on the show. I watched it for um, science, but would never recommend it.

Stop! Hibari-kun has a great premise revolving around an LGBT character (a crossdresser), and that aspect of it works out great. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else works against the show's premise. Disregarding the low-quality art style of the series, Hibari and Kosaku are great characters, and it would've been fine to leave it at just that; however, instead, Hibari is given three sisters and a variety of token cast members which seek to insert "funny" jokes. Unfortunately, the jokes and even plots rarely ever make sense. There's a continuous "running gag" about Hibari's father seeing a white alligator in his dreams and many jokes seem ... to feature cutaway fantasies so poorly constructed it's sometimes hard to tell what's actually happening, or how it was even meant to be a joke. For instance, in episode 9, the coach is talking to some kids about respecting nature, and out of nowhere, they become Native American caricatures speaking gibberish for a few seconds and revert to the scene afterward. Many jokes are also about guns, violence, Kosaku not liking Hibari (which oddly, only occasionally works to the show's benefit), and Hibari's dad almost dying/having a serious medical condition after overreacting. However, this isn't what does the show in, at least for me: all of these things, while not passable, would ordinarily not be a deal-breaker. No, instead it's the fact that the series relies on stereotypes to progress not only its characters, but the episodes themselves. At least one episode is dedicated to finding a way to make Hibari more manly, and he almost gets sexually assaulted by the end of the episode. Another example would be Hibari emotionally manipulating his own sister and bribing a little boy to go on a date with him...without even telling the boy of his true identity. Sadly, despite the show's great LGBT lead, I can only give it a 3/10. It's a shame, this type of show had great potential, especially for its era.