With so many long-shot older manga releases coming out this year from so many different publishers, it was legitimately hard to pick one to close out this year's Holiday Reviews. This one was special though, not just because of its place in the history of Weekly Shonen Jump but its place in the history of queer representation in manga, and that's absolutely something worth celebrating this Christmas.
STOP!! HIBARI-KUN (Sutoppu!! Hibari-Kun), by Hisashi Eguichi. First published in 1981 and first published in North America in 2025.
PLOT:
After Kohsaku's mother dies, he's taken in by Ibari Ozora, a Tokyo-area Yakuza boss. It's not long after he steps into their home that he meets the beautiful, charming Hibari. Hibari is trans, much to the despair of her father, her elder sisters, and Kohsaku. Hibari's not bothered, though, as she's both strong and clever enough to evade her father's attempts to make her more manly, the attempts of the local mean girls to take her down a peg, and keeping Kohsaku from chasing the cute girl managing the school boxing club.
STORY:
Hibari-Kun has a delightful, madcap sort of energy, the sort you don't really see in shonen comedies anymore. The closest analogues I can think of would be from contemporaries of Hibari-Kun like Dr. Slump and Urusei Yatsura, with its mix of sight gags, goofy side characters, comedic misunderstandings, and romantic polygons. It's a combination that has aged very well, even if there are a few gags with some incidental black characters that made me wince a little. I'm also impressed with its comic timing. The gags come at a steady pace throughout the whole book but none of them are ever presented in an obnoxious, overbearing fashion and none of them overstay their welcome.
That said, there's definitely a noticeable shift in tone around the midpoint when Kohsaku joins the boxing club. That's when the love polygon stuff really falls into place, with him and Hibari caught between Shiina (the class tough guy with the hots for Hibari) and Rie (who is the object of Kohsaku's affections, much to Hibari's consternation). Even then, Eguchi keeps things fresh by throwing in some of the other weirdos from the boxing club, lest things get too sentimental. Honestly, the most baffling thing about all this romantic entanglement is why Hibari is so fixated on Kohsaku. Yes, he's our viewpoint character and lives in her house, but he could not be more ordinary if he tried! The only impression he makes upon the reader is how much his protests of Hibari being a "pervert" is very much a He Doth Protest Too Much sort of situation.
There's one thing that Hibari-Kun never jokes about, and that's Hibari herself. She is confident in herself and her presentation, and if anything she is the ones who plays the jokes upon others. She's got some big Bugs Bunny energy, as she relies mostly upon trickery, deflection, and her own cuteness to get her way. She will occasionally use a bit of violence for those who push too hard or don't respect her space, but mostly she's just content to enjoy her life as the cute, popular high school girl she is, the true star of this series.
ART:
These days Eguchi is known for his elegant and fashionable illustrations (well...that and his recent plagiarism scandal). At first glance, Hibari-Kun looks very removed from his modern-day look. The characters aren't quite short and squat enough to be called chibis, but their big heads, big goofy reactions, and compact panel size certain suggest it. Eguchi makes good use of that space when it comes to comedy, filling the panels up with goofy faces or literally having Kohsaku burst out of the frame. Hell, sometimes he'll even insert himself into the comic as this squashed little gremlin in shades, doing some silly business in the background or commenting on the passage of time.
Despite this being a comedy manga, Eguchi still manages to add touches of glamour to this series. Hibari and many of the other young ladies sports all sorts of cute ensembles throughout the omnibus. There's all sorts of gorgeous illustrations of Hibari and others in the splash pages, in all sorts of different styles in both black and white and color. There's a shockingly well laid-out page of boxing in the second half, likely as the reference to the many classic boxing manga that the boxing team coach both references and is himself a reference to. There are spots of full and limited color pages scattered throughout the book. These glamorous touches go a long way towards giving Hibari-Kun its own unique visual identity, one that holds up to this day.
PRESENTATION:
While we've seen quite a few titles this month with slip covers, this is the only one to come with an obi strip over that as well. The obi strip shows the art as it looked back in the 80s, while the cover underneath features a much more recent illustration of Hibari (taken straight from the last Japanese re-release). Maybe it's a bit of overkill, but I guess that's one way to ensure that their audience doesn't feel duped by the difference in style.
I should also note that translator extraordinaire Jocelyne Allen worked on this book. Translating comedy manga is always a challenge and her work her is phenomenal. At the very least, this had to be a welcome break from translating all those Junji Ito books!
RATING:
This manga is published by Peow2. This series is complete in Japan with 4 volumes available. 1 volume has been released and is currently in print.
Today is the last day of our Holiday Review Giveaway! To find out more and potentially win a $25 Bookshop.org gift certificate, click the link above. The contest ends at midnight Central Time!
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