DISCLAIMER: So yeah generally I wouldnt do this but Im about to tackle and talk about how I think this manga handles LGBT+ themes and so I feel like I should note that Im not a member of the LGBT+ community. Im an heterosexual cis guy so if you are a member and specially if you are transgender you might think this manga is more or less offensive than I thought and thats natural. If you do please let me know I wouldnt mind having a conversation about it and know other points of view. So Stop Hibarikun is the story of Kousaku Sakamoto who after becoming an orphan is adopted by the Oozora family which is a Yakuza family. Upon arriving Kousaku falls in love with the most beautiful of the four girls... until he finds out that she is actually a boy. This Weekly Shounen Jump manga is from 1981 and I want you to have that in mind this year marks its 40th anniversary. This is Jump before it was the de facto manga magazine this is Jump before the golden age of Battle Shounens before Jojo before Dragon Ball before Saint Seiya and even Hokuto no Ken. Yet dont misunderstand Jump was still part of the mainstream landscape of the manga industry just not as big as it would be in the years following the end of Hibarikun Which is why its so amazing to have transgender character as your main character. There was no precedence for this that I could find. Sure there were very few shoujos that did come out before it but in a Shounen manga? Hibarikun was definitely trailing new paths here. 600https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/1g7HfYQxDlNLj4I7t2A7A.jpeg And lets be real if you read Hibarikun or youre planning to read it right now theres only two possible reasons either you really like old manga or Jump manga and to get into some classics or you want to read more manga about the LGBT community... or both. Which definitely was the case for me. This review is written with that in mind. Firstly Im going to tackle how the manga handles those topics and how I feel if they did it well or not and afterwards Im going to discard that part and just focus about how the manga has aged and if its enjoyable to read in general. So... the hard part. Again the thing we should have in mind is that Hibarikun was released in 1981 and it definitely shows in how a lot of the cast talk about Hibari. These characters are consistently trying to make Hibari stop dressing as a girl thats why the title is Stop Hibarikun and every one that does know that she is trans calls her as he and of course that opens another can of worms which is Is Hibari trans or is s/he a crossdresser? The manga plays a heavy focus on the clothings that Hibari has often stealing from her sister. But Hibari herself always claims to be a girl so I see her as trans. And there is a video I found that talks a little bit more on the subject and its actually done by a trans person so Ill link that in the end of the review. The cool thing about Hibarikuns portrait of trans people is Hibari herself she is a badass very confident of who she is and never lets anyone else throw her down. Even when called a pervert a boy even asked to dress more manly or behave normally. Hibary always leaves the room with her head highup and she is overall just badass strong and the best character in the entire series. And this kinda holds true for the other very few LGBT characters that popup they are all strong and confident of their own identity and people throwing them off doesnt seem to make them want to stop from being who they are. And of course this is a great message. You should be true to who you are and if people dont like it fuck them. 400https://i.ur.com/Go9Wz8S.png However... its with everyone else that this manga kinda... didnt age well. Well that and some portrails of gay people looking like they are Mr. Slave from South Park... That also didnt age well but its so over the top it is and how again confident this SM Freddie Mercury clones are of themselves that I just think its not as offensive as it could be. But everyone else is constantly throwing Hibarikun down and drop lines that... they wont be appearing in western TV in 2021 Ill just say that. Im normal I like girls is said like twice. Again the constant threatening of Hibari as a he which to be fair in context it does come out as more of a denial thing from part of the family. And of course the absurd amount of times that they call Hibari and every gay character a pervert. Kousaku constantly saying that he wont let her drag him to her world of pervertedness. The reason why I might be willing to forgive this treatment is because its never shown as right but it also never is shown as wrong either. So its very ambiguous on that front. And if Im reading and Im siding with Hibari and thinking that she should remain as she is Im willing to bet a lot of kids from the 80s who originally read this manga probably sided with Kousaku and Hibaris father in thinking that she should just drop it. The ending doesnt help decide things for either side but Ill talk a little bit more about that in a bit. So in terms of this topic just do have in mind that it is a bit ambiguous and if Hibari is a great trans character everyone else definitely came out of the 80s. Now thats all cool but is the manga itself good? Can I use the ambiguous card again? No? Ok. 400https://data.whicdn.com/images/292768253/original.png Hibarikun is a gag manga a very old gag manga and that comes with two very big problems one is that most of the settings are kinda overdone already in other better gag and romcom manga. And the other is that theres definitely a lot of jokes that I dont get because Im not a kid in Japan in the early 80s. There are a lot of jokes that are understandable however and Im willing to say theres at least one or two that are funny per chapter which isnt that bad of a ratio. But on the other hand there is a barrage of jokes and some of them are really bad and they are reused a LOT and it drains you. Some of them are so bad that are funny and Ill admit I found a lot of the very outdated gay representation did make me giggle because its also done so over the top. But its overall more miss than hit. The story itself and the characters are the best part of the manga I find Hibari very likeable and theres a miriad of fun supporting characters. Kousaku has a cool growth throughout the series in how he sees Hibari and how he slowly starts accepting her more and liking her more even if he doesnt realize it. And theres characters like Jun a lesbian girl who likes Hibari who appear just for a couple of chapters but definitely make them so much better. And then theres bad characters like the dude whos entire joke was that he was an upperclassman and he kept appearing on the school activities and it wasnt funny at first and it wasnt funny at the 100th. But the worst character in the entire manga is one Hisashi Eguchi. Now that name may or may not be familiar to you but if you checked the name of the mangaka youll notice that is the same. 400https://.mandarake.co.jp/webshop/01/00/533/0100101533/01001015339.jpg And before I criticize it I need you to know a thing about me. I love 4th Wall breaking jokes. I just do. Every time I see a character acknowledging that they need to rush because the chapter is ending I laugh I laugh like a baby who just saw his mothers face appear from under a pair of hands Im the kind of guy who thinks Deadpool is peak comedy. I know its not that funny but it is for me. So why? Why does the 4th wall breaking comedy in Hibarikun not only is the worst thing in the manga for me its also the worst thing in general. Like I have as much rage for these jokes as I do for Jonathan Joestar you may not get that but its a lot of hate. And there are funny 4th wall breaking jokes but they are so rare and there are so many that it breaks me. It really does. Every time I see the authors avatar pop up I want to punch him. And he doesnt just popup there are chapters where we have 2 3 4 pages of him. Not the story just him making jokes about the editors and the fact he hates deadlines and it... its bad. Its really really really bad. It feels like the author wants to make the story about himself. And there are good biographical manga but they arent inserted in other manga. I want to read Hibarikun not EguchiKun sorry I dont care about your alligator jokes with your editors. Just show me if they are going to see Hibaris chest or not. PLEASE. And by the way chapter 52 is just him theres no Hibari. I wanted to punch him so bad. And Eguchikun I do have a question. If you know how to draw really well why dont you? Seriously the manga covers of the complete edition are fantastic the chapter covers are fantastic. It shows Hibari in really fashionable styles a lot of them clearly influenced by Boy George fitting and Cyndi Lauper which Im all for because I never told this to anyone I think but if fashion had ended with Cyndi Lauper Id be a happy man. Most of the manga however looks bad. And its not bad as in bad art. The mangaka again clearly knows how to draw well and he draws a very simplistic but readable and sometimes cute style which fits the gag genre. But he also draws a lot of these ugly huge headed characters like 90 of the manga is in this style and its just so ugly and I dont know why he does it. Maybe he thinks its funnier but Ive reached the conclusion that his sense of humor is mostly really bad which wouldnt be a problem if this was not a gag manga. 400https://i.ur.com/6tZxEfv.png Finally the ending of course. And from the side notes I can tell that Eguchi just gave up on the manga due to not handling the harsh deadlines of Jump and so the manga abruptly ends on chapter 53. Eguchi never really drew that one thinking it was going to be the last but it was and has been since 1983 and since then he mentioned that he doesnt mind leaving it as is. And taking a moment from my rage bit on Eguchi this does give a better look at some stuff he did. Again Hibarikun chapters went out its way to give some 4th wall breaking jokes about not dealing with deadlines and it wasnt just jokes. These deadlines can break a lot of mangaka and I deeply respect all that worked in that regime no matter how bad a manga is theres always a lot of effort put into it. And the final chapter... works. I dont want to spoil it but thematically it serves as a pretty decent open ended finale. Its not the best and most things dont get resolved for obvious reasons but the final chapter is actually a recall to the first so it does work. But of course that comes with a problem when having in mind again the representation of the LGBT community. An ending where Hibari gave up and went back to being a boy would definitely end up being a misguided and bad portrayal of trans people as just a phase or something to be corrected. And an ending where everyone accepted Hibari for who she is would definitely serve as a great and progressive manga about how we should accept trans people for who they are instead of trying to mold them to the norms. As it stands however Hibarikun doesnt have any message in favor or against trans it just shows a trans person living with people who want to change her for a bit and then ends. 500https://i.ur.com/CRrudXh.png Hibarikun is an interesting manga to read if you have in mind when it came out and some of its themes but overall its not the best. At the end of the day it is a gag manga that lacks jokes that are genuinely funny but its not without some merit and the story for how short it is can definitely be enjoyable at times. Link to the video I mentioned earlier: https://www..com/watch?v=oa6MKboub0