Old, obscure anime for younger generations (particularly in circles outside of its native country) isn't something you just get into. Though the web has made things more accessible, there's plenty of barriers of entry, including the dreaded “why didn’t I know about this until now?”. Frankly, getting into "old anime" might be getting harder, since tastes change for the masses as time goes on. Still, it's not impossible, even if what this media has to offer is becoming more of an “individual” taste sort of thing. I was 16 when I fell in love with Phantasy Star 1 in the 2010s. Now it's 2023, I'm in my mid 20s and currently anime blogging about old OVAs. To be an anime fan isn't as obscure as it once was, but to willingly seek the weird, the mundane, even the terrible of the bygone eras is an expression for love of the medium and curiosity of the person. It's what brought this essay into existence.
Stop!! Hibari-Kun! is historic for a certain subject it dared to tackle, and to a point holds up well despite 40 years of social progress and reevaluation of shows from its era. Specifically, Hibari has caught the gleaming eye of a small group of people who like me, weren’t alive when it was airing. This show isn't talked about because "it looks cool" or "retro", but of what it chose to be about, how impressive it was for its era, and even how well it (mostly) holds up. For myself, I was always going to watch this series because I have another goal in mind, for many it's because Stop!! Hibari-kun! is about a transgender woman.
The first time I ever heard about the series was from a now deleted video essay the YouTube algorithm passed along late into the evening. There hasn't been too many essays on it in the English sphere since then, but normally Hibari’s gender is the focus of them. I've seen one person kind of go into the show and manga, but there's a reason behind my madness of making this post. The trans aspect of the show won’t be much of a focus in this writing. I have nothing new to add, nor know if I could do the discussion justice for today, let alone for another decade in another country I can't speak the language of. I just want to talk about the show's moving parts. That being said, you can't divorce the show without Hibari herself. Not just her gender, but how she goes about in the world. This essay isn't meant to skip over her being trans, as it’s more of taking a look at the crust of creation behind the show and manga. Thus, I'm going to assume most people only have vaguely heard of this series at best. I certainly didn't know what I was getting into besides Hibari's gender, because honestly, if it wasn't for her this show wouldn't be remembered.
It's not some hidden gem outside of her personality and historical placement. It's a fairly typical TV anime with some cool stuff going on. Hibari-Kun is actually a romantic comedy and gag manga. It's mangaka (Hisashi Eguchi) is willing to come up with some insane shit. Like, it was serialized in Shonen Jump and the anime is more wack, but these characters are constantly going ape shit and it makes the story a blast. Take the first chapter/episode for example; It's downright sad, the "main guy" Kosaku is watching his mother's final moments. The scene is played with the atmosphere of what it's actually like to go through that, but in the middle it he starts shaking his mom comedically begging her not to die and she's just like: 0o0 before passing on. Then it's earnestly sad again. The series isn't some dark comedy, it touches on death of a parent a bit more than just a minor setup for the plot. That crazy energy is always here, even if the subject matter is a bit lighter.
With his dad having passed away a few years prior, his mother's final wish was for him to live with a man she'd been friends within her youth. So, he takes up residence with the Ozora family. A cut-throat strict but kind father, his three cis daughters, and trans daughter. Also, they’re Yakuza. (Which is actually pretty big to the plot of the week stuff, though it's more played for laughs.) I chose to talk about the Ozora kids like that because in the show they'd label Hibari as their "son"/"brother". How people in her life treat her gender is a major focus of the story. At home her family use he/him pronouns but at school and in public everyone uses she/her. Her family keeps it a secret for the fear of getting hate crimed. There's even times when her sisters will switch out for her when Hibari's physical attributes are called into question. The main "gag" of the series is Kosaku being like "Hibari is a guy. Stop flirting with me you're a guy! Stop dressing in female clothes ahhh!" (Even though he totally wants her.) This could have gotten old real fast. With comedy being more of the focus, even if mostly deriving from Hibari's life, along with plenty of other characters, there's fresh plots to go around. This series is also short, so it never got the chance to evolve into something different or wear out its welcome.
Though mileage will vary between person, the execution of the jokes could have come off as cruel, as if the story is about making fun of Hibari for being trans. (And in a way making fun of trans people existing.) This show isn't a hugbox, and it is from another era, but you can tell Hibari is cared about with how the series is written. In this particular case it comes down to Hibari being a strong character. Not only physically, (she basically has superpowers in the anime) but her playful strong willed personality brings ease to the sometimes horrible shit. She's outspoken and a free spirit, she's a hedonist in her conquests and doesn't back down from what she wants. When someone tries to get in her way she laughs it off or fucks em' up. This is why the show works so well no matter if she's cis or not. She's entertaining to watch. Her and this style of writing go hand and hand perfectly. It just also happens to be a reason for many not turning off the show by episode two.
I hope this doesn’t come off as this series being some enlightened comedy. The jokes are hit or miss, a lot of the plots I don't like comes from the manga. When the highs are high, they're fucking great. (Most of these pertain to the anime adaptation.) The mediums are fine, there's a lot of interesting things in there. The lows... are pretty low. (Though that's more of a time capsule of when it was created.) I was honestly kind of shocked by a lot of it. On one hand they deal with Hibari's gender pretty good if given the caveats, but on the other hand they literally have characters that will pretend to be racial stereotypes, like bone in nose type of shit. (This stems from the manga.) Frankly, this show isn't going to be for most today even if we were to remove those elements. Besides trans people and me doin' my typical thing, unless you're really into comedy of that era, there's so much better to watch. You've probably heard of all of them. Though that's also the beauty of looking back on stuff like this. If we quantify art as popular equals good, only searching for the best, or even the craziest of the worst, we miss a lot. This isn't a declaration to watch this if it's not up your alley or if you're uncomfortable. I'm here to tell you about a show I watched and found a bit interesting. My mission statement (most of the time) is to appreciate what is not generally looked at, at least in the way I see it. This article is no different. For some this could even be seen as a “I watched it so you don’t have to.” Though I’d disagree with that statement, as there’s a lot left on the cutting room floor.
The earlier episodes cover 1-2+ manga chapters in the same event order. Not much is cut between original and adaptation besides little jokes. (Usually, fourth wall gags about them being in a manga.) A lot is added to fill the run time, which is beneficial to the story itself. With the manga being serialized in a magazine, they only had so many pages to try to make a full plot. The anime decided to use its extra real estate to explore characters more and just let them breathe. These aren't what we'd call "filler" episodes though, or even filler plots. Not only what the writers normally chose to add in was a lot deeper than just gags, the foundation that the story was built on was "of the week" plot that doesn't overarch. Thus, it makes inserting goofier anime only scenes a lot easier when it comes to story pacing. Take Sailor Moon's 90s anime, for example. Since it was running alongside the creation of the manga, so many episodes either had to change plots for extension or make its own to reformat a pretty tight source material. Because of the Manga’s plot structure, when there is "filler" in Hibari-Kun it's usually a lot less noticeable, harder to tell what is original and new. (Unless you read the source.) There's some episodes I would have never guessed was in the original manga.
Episodes 5-6 are the beach episode(ish). I assumed it was anime only. The part where they’re stuck in the train is, obvious bottle episode is obvious. Despite the change in the writing (or really pacing) from the last four episodes, everything else is adapted from page to screen pretty faithfully. Even with needing to extend the run time, someone on the 90s Sailor Moon anime made the call to change a lot of the plot elements. This includes character's whole personalities. The opposite of this choice happened for Hibari-Kun. No matter if it was a condition on adaptation or the script team just wanted to do it that way, it was a writing decision they went with. Unlike the team behind 90s Sailor Moon, Hibari-Kun’s anime had more time and material to work with at the beginning. The manga began releasing chapters weekly about a year before broadcast. If I have to take a guess, between its source’s schedule and the time gap before air, they had enough material to play with when they decided to make the T.V. series. I'd even say to a point this is confirmed. Some of the earlier episodes are adapting material from later in the run first, as in chapters 30 and 40. You'd never be able to tell without me saying this, or you looking into both versions.
I can't find any interviews about the production of the anime. Most likely they're hidden behind decade old magazines that I can't translate. (If they even exist at all.) My gut says they decided to do it this way because by then there's more characters to play with as the manga goes on. If they got them introduced early and had to start making their own plot, or needed stuff for anime only scenes, there would be more to work with. If that was the mindset it was a good call as this is what ended up happening in the latter half of the show. The only (loose) production info of the show I had access to while researching this comes from the development of the manga itself. At some point the mangaka couldn't handle the stress of the weekly deadline. When he was denied his request for a biweekly schedule they just outright cancelled it. At the time he didn't even finish the current chapter he was working on. (Though this was rectified later.)
In a way the anime unwillingly follows its manga counterpart in that sense, but that's also where it differs. The show said: fuck it, we'll go supernatural. The manga said: fuck it, anything on the page for as long as we can. What I mean is the narrative of the Manga is about Hibari and her life. It also is about Hisashi Eguchi and his stress with trying to make this thing. As the pages go on, he becomes a character to a second narrative. It starts off pretty normal, just little (manga exclusive) excerpts in the back of chapters. One shows us his working desk, another has doodles about him shaving his head. This is really not too out there especially for serialized lighthearted comics. As time goes on, many chapters will just feature him talking in detail about how he's rushing to get a chapter done. These parts are a bit hard to explain besides these sections get longer and longer. What was once a one off page is now its own comic. taking pages away from the thing we're supposed be reading. Now for me, this is more interesting. (Except for that awful shrimp one.) They’re not too out of place with the vibe of Hibari-Kun, but also I’m lenient since I know why this happened.
I'm not going to outright say he was doing these segments that required less drawling detail to save time. (And frankly he didn't have time to save anyway.) If I had to take another gut guess, from the writing in these portions he was having writers block and just needed anything, quick. Though this did make an interesting final product, I don't want to understate how bad weekly schedules are or underplay the stress he was going through. After this he became a freelance illustrator with a successful career. It sucks Hibari-Kun! got stopped!! early from this. I'm not sure if it’d ever evolve to be a favorite, but we're shit out of luck to find out.
Episode 8 is where they have to start stretching individual manga chapters since they're only adapting one maybe two at a time. (Usually when they did multiple chapters in an episode it’s because the source was a multi-part story.) With episode 14 they combine 36 and 38 into an original script. If this was a regular blog of mine I could easily go episode by episode talking about the differences and if I liked it or not. For my goal with this writing, that'd kill the pace. Still, using one episode to showcase the smaller differences of what a script writer can do vs the original mangaka is not only necessary for you to understand my thought process, but for a better understanding of the show itself.
Episode 10 is a manga adaptation that involves Kosaku’s childhood best friend coming to see him. When he left for Tokyo these two decided if he didn't get a girlfriend in a year he'd have to shave his head. Well, he doesn’t have one, since he won't accept Hibari's undying (for some reason, I don't get it) love for him due to her birth assignment. She convinces him to pretend they're dating. The three go out and it's pretty awkward. Especially cause the friend is a little too concerned with if his homie been getting laid or not. Eventually, after Kosaku fails to kiss Hibari, they go back to the house (in the manga) and confess everything. The friend tries to bone Hibari and the chapter ends. (Someone trying to get laid is almost always a plot point in this show, it’s not anything insane in context.)
The anime version keeps the general plot structure. The beginning is now a dream sequence, a symbolic expression of the boy's rivalry showcased by them fighting as different pop culture references. There's a narrator (something this show doesn't utilize.) that brings said rivalry of the duo to the center stage, more than just the set up for the plot. There's some extension to the conversation Tsubame and Kosaku have, she mentions her own childhood friend and that they used to bathe together. We get an extended scene of the boys rivalry (that's only a panel in the manga) showcasing how dedicated they are to their fight. (This makes my next couple of sentences funny when you know this was a peeing competition.) These two moments are silly, yet subtly show the script is shooting above being just gags. Presenting these moments with more intimacy in a friendship. More than a competition, there's history. It's an interesting choice to ad her talking about that experience, specifically while he's talking about his friend. (And it's played straightforward, almost dreamlike.) This combined with the beginning and ending keeps the theme of the feeling of friendship, and even love, to the forefront. To expand on that, "love" is a shortcut for how we treat those around us and the care these characters build with one another.
One of the running jokes in both versions is this guy has an accent. They actually had to, even in the Japanese version of the manga, "translate" it. This was kept in the English translation, reading as a thicc suthern axsent er sumthin'. The joke about their accents is in the anime, the "translation" is displayed on colored screens, like you'd see in the original TV broadcast of Bakemonogatari. The biggest difference between anime and manga is the "author" (I’m assuming they mean the script writer.) stops translating at some point. I can't tell if this guy still has the accent in that version, as I can’t pick up Japanese dialects well. Speaking of the friend, in the manga he's dress like a bartender you'd see in an old saloon. White button up shirt, red bow tie, black vest. In the anime he's dressed like a cool 80s dude with Dave strider glasses. Not sure if this was the character design department or the script writer, but my hunch is both as he comes off more like (pretending to be) a "cool guy" in the anime.
Locations mostly change for the inner part of the episode, and general little things not worth deep diving into. One of the biggest changes, so much it's the title of the episode (not its parallel chapter) is about ABCD. ABCD from what little I can gather (And what the show explains.)is it's basically like our bases euphemism my country uses for sex. First base, second, so on. Apparently it's normally ABC, no D (which is pregnancy in Hibari-kun.) Though this concept is also in the Love Hena anime too. There, D is full on sex where C is, let’s say “leading up” to it. Hibari-Kun and Hena came out two decades apart. I'm not sure if this difference is from a change in slang, TV guidelines, or a writing decision. I tried to research if it was real or made up for the show, mostly coming up empty handed minus three websites. (The first result being the Love Hena ABCD fandom page.) Thus, I don't feel comfortable talking about this outside of the show, but also because I don't plan to make this writing not safe for work. What I also can't find is if ABC was used in the original manga. The translation I read uses bases. That being said, I know for a fact that they don't stop in the manga to give a whole lesson on this. It does in a way add to the rivalry thing. By putting in as much focus as they did it heightens the importance to the competition. It's less "Oh, typical Hibari episode. Haha.". Rather, it ups the ante that most anime rivalries try to strive for. I think it was a good choice on a narrative scale. Guess what? This gets referenced again throughout the show periodically. I don't know if the script writer was asked to put this in or if he decided to do it on his own. This also means I’m not sure if the rest of the writing team liked it enough to keep using it as the show went on or not. I have a feeling the script writer might have made the call to explain this, or at least in the way they went about it.
The ending is where everything cultivates, being the biggest difference between both versions. They never go back to their house; the kissing scene in the park runs longer and gives more time to build up the tension that's well played off. In the manga, when they don't kiss Hibari is just like ":/" but in this version she gets a little upset and says, "I don't want to be kissed if you don't love me." The boys confess neither have a girlfriend, settling everything. With the added scenes at the beginning of the episode, and how the scene is directed, this brings payoff to the softer tone of their friendship. (Vs “lol” the original went for.) As the bud leaves, he sweetly states Hibari seems like a really cool gal and sees how much she loves Kosaku. It's really touching in any show, double so for this show where most of the time (and in the original version) someone would be like "Damn she free then? Hey baby how about we date?" Considering the tone of the show generally follows the manga, especially in these early parts, it's really touching. The soft sunset was a wonderful touch to the feeling of the scene.
This isn't the only episode that creates anime only sweet moments. Episode 17 makes one of the biggest adaptation changes, putting the passing of the Ozora kid's mother not on Christmas eve but in the day of this episode. The part where Hibari and her dad drink together was in the manga, but they just do that. In the anime there’s an original plot about Hibari being upset over her dad loving Kosaku's mom more than hers. At some point she learns her dad's perspective on his past and how much he cared for her mom. At the end the drinking scene is mostly the same from its manga counterpart. Putting it after they patch things up repurposes it into a moment between a parent and child growing closer.
I brought episodes 10 and 17 up because they’re good examples (for writing in general) of sticking to the source material while changing it in a way that adds more to the story. Though there is a bit of selfishness to also picking episode 10, even if it aligned perfectly with what I wanted to express. The script for the ABCD episode was written by my favorite author, Takeshi Shudo. (Of Pokemon and Minky Momo fame.) The reason why I watched Hibari-Kun now and not in 100 years is because I'm doing research for another piece on his writing. When deciding to make this article I made a promise I would not derail this post into being just about his penmanship. (Which there’s plenty still left unsaid.) I'm revealing this because there's no reason to hide it. It's also fair for his name to get mentioned since his episode was brought up in detail. He only ever wrote one episode for Hibairi-Kun, he's also the only writer with that count. Every other script writer worked on at least two episodes or more if Anime News Network is giving me the correct information. Over half of the episodes were done by two people (Hiroshi Toda, Shingeru Yangawa) I'm not familiar with their other work, but between them, (along with Tokio Tsuchiya who did six episodes) and mostly sticking to the manga, I see how this anime had a consistent feel script wise. All three of them wrote the final episodes. (35 going to Tsuchiya.) This show is only thirty five episodes and if it was able to continue I'm sure more people would have came in. I just find it interesting how tight knit the writing was. My assumption of what Takeshi Shudo wrote was pretty spot on since I can generally tell when he wrote something. But for everyone else I'd assumed a lot of the early episodes were originals until looking into it. I think that speaks a lot to what they were going for at least on the writing side. My inclusion of this isn't to say, "look how Takeshi Shudo stood out." His episode stands out for his individual writing talent, but it also fits right in with the rest of the episodes. It's not like Sailor Moon episode six where it's awesome but is its own thing unlike the rest of the show. Or the dinosaur episode doing that in a bad way. (Even though I love it.) All of this is to give an idea of how the manga and anime split. I just used the best of my ability to explain it.
My specialty lies more in writing, but it'd be a crime not to mention the beautiful art this series is gifted with. The manga chapters are very plain for obvious they had one week reasons. Still, it does what it needs to do and Hisashi Eguchi's art style is gorgeous. Where it stands out is when he gets time to just draw. The original style of Hibari-Kun is more of a pop art thing. Lots of limited bright colors (especially with how the manga is colored in the version I read.) It's very cute, Warhol-esque. The new title pages he drew for the 2009 edition are really cool. Bringing up sailor moon again, it's mangaka Naoko Takeuchi, has such a sense for fashion she displayed all throughout her version. In the 90s anime there’s some “unique” choices for their clothing since they rarely adapt that manga’s fashion. You can tell when a character designer understands fashion and likes it in real life. Hibari's anime is kind of both. Sometimes they'll adapt the clothes, other times they'll go with an outfit that'd look out of place in the manga. Now I love the outfits in the show and in 90s anime sailor moon, I also don't know shit about fashion. The contrast stands out even to someone such as myself.
The anime didn't have the biggest budget, so some of it can look wonky. Sometimes Hibari looks like she's an alien (and it's great.) It's a personal belief of mine that anime should look a bit "wonky" anyway. Though I'll save further explanation for a more appropriate time. That said, this show never looks ugly, even when it's low budget. In the baseball episode (26) Hibari and Kosaku are sitting on a hill watching the team practice. The background looks like it normally does in an anime. When they cut to the field the background looks like it's a joke scene done in MSPAINT. I love this so much. Most of the time it puts its resources to the right stuff, but also it's obvious the art team has a high interest in showcasing cool looking animation. The high comedy scenes are nuts, as in expressive and quick. The action scenes they go all out. The end of episode 13 was done so well, no spoils on my end. That just ruled. Another thing I love is the textures they used in the paint. The biggest example is the sky. Sometimes it's just painted flat with blue, but other times it's almost this shimmering effect, it's really nice. The show isn't some sakuga or aesthetic champion, but I like it. Especially when it gets silly.
An example besides "it looks pretty", in the manga the white alligators are more of a metaphor until Hisashi's life becomes its own plot. In the show they extend their role not only as visual gags but eventually become characters doing funky little things and even join the plot properly. Talking about stuff like this is why I wanted to make this post. Maybe I just notice these types of things more and my Takeshi Shudo disposition puts me in a different spot. This is what I appreciate from anime, just seeing what stuff a bunch of (you could call them, in a way) outsider artists cooked up. Even if I can only go "that looks cool" or have to reverse engineer and take a guess on why they did something, it's all fun. Of course, as an (aspiring?) writer myself, I guess this is why I'd focus on these things. Also, wouldn't you want to talk about how in episode 32 Kosaku dreams about living in the Heian era (According to the episode list on Wikipedia) and it devolves into the town trying to kill this little alien guy and the whole thing ends up being an E.T. parody?
Most of my time with this series I'd say was positive, though there's plenty of it that was not my thing. I actually hate the rival girls as they drag down the show. Romance stuff has never been to my taste and it gets old when Kosaku's boxing club friends can’t take the hint and leave their crushes alone. I was even worried that the show was going to overstay its welcome. After finishing some episodes, I was like "that was mid" and other times "yeah!" I only like the ending of episode 13, the rest of the episode was a slog. The anime made a lot of it more worth watching, but I at least could get past these parts in the manga quicker. Stop!! Hibari-Kun! isn't some 10/10 or even 8/10 for me, but it's all the things that add up that make it interesting. How this thing was put together is fascinating, comparing and contrasting not only its source material but other TV anime productions is what I'll remember it for. This article is like a souvenir.
Here's another fun fact with no good place to put it: Episode 22 of the anime features the captain of the volleyball team gaining a crush on Hibari and working through her feelings. Also, her mom is cosplaying as the gayest Rhett butler I've ever seen for a play and her brothers are leather daddies. In the manga the ending has her pissing her pants because Hibari serves a ball so hard it goes through the wall. In the anime everyone finds out about her family and she decides to never go outside again. Hibari takes her place in the big game and the gal realizes if Hibari isn't ashamed of her family, why should she? In the manga she comes back and her mom is like "GAY RIGHTS" (literally) and is writing love letters to Hibari for her baby gay daughter. That's the real shit to me. This little shit. The wacky shit. (Though her mom is really sweet, actually.)
Honestly, I don't like the term filler because it's most often used as an outright negative descriptor. Or in better terms, brands an episode as poor quality writing just because it’s not part of the original story. Remember what I said about those two Sailor Moon episodes earlier? This is why I've made the conscious decision to stick with the term "anime only" because it doesn’t denote quality, just the episode’s origin. This being a comedy show there's not giant "plot episodes". With this in mind it’s wild how little there is a pure anime only episodes, particularly early on. (And if they'd been able to continue, it might have stayed that way.) Episodes 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 34, 35 are Anime Only. I'm not even counting episodes that come from the manga that got changed around a bunch, though they could have been put on this list.
If you notice, a lot of these are in the back half and it's not because they ran out of material, there's plenty of later chapters they didn't adapt. (Or kinda did, as said before.) My guess is they were gonna run this show longer than they ended up going. I'm sure if more manga was made less anime episodes would have been created about them becoming a detective agency and getting stranded on an island after the one they went to ended up being the back of a monster that died. (That's not a joke.) I don't think these episodes are bad for being anime only and considering my feelings towards the manga. I'm highlighting how the production seemingly went. Or at least just what I noticed because it's interesting. They actually make the detective agency work as a plot point, even though in show the characters stop because they suck at it. I wish I had more resources on the anime's production but plots like this have happened in other anime, so it's not some amazing thing. Really funny that's what they went with though. One of the questions I had leading up to watching episode 35 is if they knew or not that it would be the final episode. Like, would they have to stop cold turkey or would they know in advance and could plan a little bit to do anything. (Since the manga really did Stop!! Hibari-Kun! all of a sudden.) Happy to say they got to make an ending for it.
This is backed up by Hibari thanking everyone for watching and outright saying it's the last episode in the ending of 35. What they decided to go with (no spoilers) for that final anime adventure is pretty out there for the tone of the series (though they did slightly start building it up in the 11th hour.) Still, this only worked the way it did because of Hibari herself. I can tell it's rushed and probably not the way anyone wanted to end it, but it works well for what the anime built up to. (Supernatural elements are not in the manga.) An example of this build up is episode (33) where Hibari and Kosaku switch bodies and talk about how to fix it with a guy who is interested in the occult. They slip in a few other moments in 34 but even with the small prep, episode 35 just goes "Hibari is kinda magical btw" and then the show is done. It's a silly episode that kind of comes out of nowhere, but I like it. They gave it their best shot to do something that felt grand with what they had. I'm not sitting here telling you how it shit the bed, so that's pretty cool. Of course, I'm also not trying to imply it's batshit crazy in a phenomenal way as well. I appreciate them trying to pull out one last big wacky plot ending. It was fun.
It's a shame the manga didn't originally get something, anything. For about almost three decades that was it, but in the 2009 omnibus edition he finally gave it a conclusion. A kinda what if. They end up having another dude stay at their house. This guy is a passionate, feisty person that looks and acts like many a hot head 70s anime/manga protagonist. He's pretty hilarious and maybe you called it like me, that the twist is he's trans as well. (FTM) It's actually interesting to see him mention he's on hormones, since those were never brought up in the original run. Not sure how different he'd been if written in the 80s, but I think he could have added something. A story like this rides and dies on its characters. He fits in well.
The last thing we get in the manga is called "bonus track" which has a lot of unused panels from chapters and other goodies. It's really cool he kept all this stuff for so long. Personally each version of the ending works for their story. Never say never, but I don’t think there will be a continuation by anyone, anime or manga wise. Of course, this is my opinion, but it doesn’t need a remake. The story (both versions) is a time and place thing, while Hibari herself is pretty timeless with her energy. As time goes on and people like me spread the word there will always be someone checking out this series, even if it isn't one of the "classics". Since 1983, plenty of anime like it (writing wise) have come and gone. What makes Stop!! Hibari-kun! so memorable to many is who she is and how well the subject of her being trans is handled, specifically with how she deals with the world around her. Though that wasn’t the focus of this writing, I am in that camp as well. Hibari is awesome. For the show telling her to stop in the title, she won't. That's beautiful.