Kabuki-bu!

At first it looks fine and slightly interesting, but after episode 1 it starts to get boring. Since the series revolves around Kabuki, we all or at least some of us know it's a classic style of Japanese dance-drama crap that is shi... can be boring. The mc tries to make a Kabuki Club at school but this character is annoying AF sometimes. He basically shouts out these Kabuki lines in public... the anime is based on this weird shouts with make-up... sorry this is just my emotions. Anyway it's not the studio fault, it's just the plot. There might be people out there ... who love it but for most of us it's just another anime about weird club activities, it's probably predictable too.

I give the green light to watch but don't go in this expecting a calm kabuki club in a school, shit will happen and Cringe will happen too. I'm personally not gonna enjoy watching the rest.

After I make preogress I will update.

I decided to watch this after rewatching Chihayafuru (both seasons). So, unfortunately, I can't help but compare the two? Why?

Both MCs are obsessed with a Japanese art form that is difficult for most to understand and dedicate themselves to. It is about them trying to start a club and recruit members for people to partake in the art form. Kind of. Competitive karuta, which is what Chihayafuru is about, isn't an art per se, but it's based on Japanese poetry.

I preferred Chihayafuru much more. Here are the reasons:

STORY (7/10): Well, the synopsis and my comparison covered that.

ART (7/10): Clamp isn't known for pretty. ... Which is fine because xxxHolic is one of my favorite anime. Chihayafuru is josei so...

SOUND (7/10): There's only three tracks in Kabukibu: the opening, the ending, and this one instrumental piece. All of them are great, but only three?! Okay, there was this one scene where a different piano piece was playing, but it wasn't outstanding. It's only getting a seven because and op and ed were so catchy and the one instrumental piece that was being repeated was quite moving.

CHARACTER (5/10): To continue with anime comparisons, the MC's best friend is like a mix between Kyouya and Mori-senpai from Ouran HSHC. He's taciturn, intelligent, diplomatic, and tech-savvy. I think my word count is higher than his in the anime. Two members are basically Mikorin and Kashima from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. The one like Mikorin is a feminine male. The one like Kashima is also a female mistaken for a beautiful male and is also in Drama Club, has a fan club, and is the lead for most of the Drama Club's productions. The reluctant and arrogant character kind of reminds me of the Queen in Chihayafuru, like how she sticks her nose up at team tournaments, he believes that a kabuki club run by amateurs is insulting since he comes from a kabuki family. Overall, the supporting characters weren't too memorable. Also, it lacked a balanced focus on the characters.

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THE MC. He's so dull! Yes, Chihaya was obsessed with karuta, and Daddy Bear, but she had character. She was an airhead in addition to being a karuta nut. Throughout the seasons, she encounters opponents who are basically her teachers. They help her grow. This MC though, I don't remember his name tbh, just cares about kabuki. He's not even good at kabuki. What the hell?

ENJOYMENT (6/10): Despite my biggest complaint, it was still interesting to learn about kabuki. The music was decent. The anime wasn't comedic so that was a let down because my favorite genre is comedy and this could have easily weaved it in.

OVERALL (6/10): To be fair, Chihayafuru had 25 eps per season so it had the chance to be fleshed out. This only had 12 episodes. Give this one a try if you're interested in kabuki. But afterward, totally watch Chihayafuru for some actual conflict and character development and a variety of good music.

Kabukibu is a story I went into with high expectations. One of my favorite anime stories of all time is Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, and while I didn't expect this to rival that work, the concept of another anime whose main focus is an archaic form of Japanese theatrical storytelling was something that greatly interested me. This may have been a bit of a mistake, because at the beginning of this story I felt that my expectations were far too high. However, as the story progresses, we do manage to get some things that I find very interesting that gives the work its own reason ... to exist. Let me explain.

STORY -------------- 7/10
The story itself is rather generic. It is about a group of classmates interested in an activity, and their struggles and attempts to do said activity. This can be easily compared to other works of this genre, or even idol shows, or as I tended to think of it, a sports series. Sports stories have lots of training before bigger events, giving the characters a chance to grow and evolve as they attempt to improve. Kabukibu does something similar in that characters have their progression and conflicts in between these moments of Kabuki, but herein lies one of the problems with the story.

The Kabuki sections themselves are rather short when they appear. The longest performance happens near the end of the series itself, and this may cause a problem when it comes to getting viewers interested in the art of kabuki. We have a performance that may get people interested about halfway through the show, but that is also rather short for the buildup the show gives it. Personally, I think the show could have used more long-form kabuki performances, like the one that happens in the last episode.

Outside of the Kabuki performances, later on in the series the story brings up some interesting questions about the act of kabuki theater itself, and this was honestly one of the most interesting parts of the series. I don't really want to bring up spoilers, but there are some interesting questions that are brought up by the kinds of people who are interested in a 400-year old art form.

ART ------------- 5/10
Kabukibu is pretty generic in its art style, and there's not a huge amount of good animation moments. In fact, I can more frequently remember moments of poor or reused animation than good moments of animation. I would forgive this if we had more kabuki moments, but sadly the fact that there aren't a great amount of kabuki performances means that it feels like a show on a budget. I will say the final episode has to have some of the best animation in the show with its final kabuki performance, but I wish that this happened more in the series itself rather than only giving us this good animation in the end.

SOUND ------ 6/10
I don't have much to say in this department. Voices were decent, and the OST frequently used a leitmotif that gave the story a nice sort of theme to it. The sounds of the tsuke and the shamisen during the kabuki sections were great, and it also has a good opening, but nothing related to the sound in this series will really stick with me.

CHARACTER --------- 7/10
Characters start out pretty boring and generic, but later on they are given interesting and enjoyable interactions. Tonbo in particular is a character I really enjoy. The characters really follow the main sorts of archetypes you would expect from a show about a club, but again their interactions and development are given unique and fun touches.

ENJOYMENT ------------- 7/10
While I didn't really like it coming into the series and it felt boring to sit through, once I hit around Episode 5 I was finally more interested, and the last episode was exactly what I wanted from this show. It asked questions I didn't really expect it to and gave realistic answers that also continue to raise questions about the art form itself. It's pretty interesting by the end. I was hoping it would be better animated, especially during the kabuki sections, but I did like one or two of the cast by the end.

OVERALL ---------- 6/10
There were some problems, especially going into it. I don't think this series is going to convince people that aren't already at least mildly interested in Kabuki to look into Kabuki. I don't think I will be doing so, and I wouldn't blame others for feeling the same. It's slow-paced and feels oddly focused at times, but by the end manages to deliver something I was really looking forward to, and on the way brought up some concepts and ideas that were really fun.