Sep 24, 2021
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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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