Summary
Stop!! Hibari-kun! was pretty much Shonen Jump's flagship series, motivating Toriyama to create Dragon Ball. Toriyama wants to end Dr. Slump early, leading to the creation of Dragon Ball due to editorial decisions. Hibari-kun inspired Dragon Ball's character designs and led to the representation of transgender characters in the manga.
Dragon ball, created by Akira Toriyama, is one of the most famous series that has become a great work of popular culture. But before Goku and Vegeta, Toriyama created another very famous story: Dr. Slump. The story of the absurd adventures of Arale Norimaki, which began in 1980 in Weekly Shōnen Jump, was inspired by the golden age of gag manga in the late 70s, and quickly became a mainstream hit for the magazine. . However, then there was another series that was even more successful than Dr. Slump: Stop!! Hibari-kun!.
In a recent interview shared by Manga Mogura RE on X, Stop!! The author of Hibari-kun!, Eguchi Higashi, and Torishima Kazuhiko, former editor-in-chief of Shōnen Jump, talked about how the manga is so popular that it could become the magazine's flagship series. This caused the editorial board to consider Toriyama's desire to stop writing Dr. Slump.
However, Higashi could not keep up the weekly publishing rate, so Toriyama could not abandon Dr. Slump as soon as desired. However, this was the beginning of an agreement that eventually resulted Hibari-kuna series that plays a pivotal role in the legitimate representation of transgender characters in manga,unintentionally helping Dragon Ball survive.
Stop!! Hibari-kun! Unintentionally contributed to the creation of Dragon Ball
The deal saw Dragon Ball born
The reason Akira Toriyama stopped writing Dr. Slump isn't just out of concern about the series' decline in popularity; he wanted to end Arale's story just six months after starting it. Toriyama had a headache because this series had an automatic chapter ending. He originally didn't want to draw a manga with a female lead so he wanted to end it. But things won't be that simple for him because the series is still popular and neither Shōnen Jump nor Shueisha will allow it. Until Stop Hibari-kun started.
Hibari-kun has been the most dominant person in Shōnen Jump since the beginning. With Hibari-kun growing strong, there is a possibility that Toriyama could escape Dr. Slump, but this did not happen because the editor-in-chief refused Higachi's request to publish the manga every two weeks and he began to miss deadlines. The inability of a popular manga like Hibari-kun to lessen Toriyama's weight as a mainstay of Shōnen Jump motivated him to continue his efforts until he reached an agreement with the editors, and he was allowed to complete Dr. Slump in exchange for creating a new original comic series.
Toriyama was trying his best to come up with ideas and after several months of pitching the story, he created Dragon Ball, thanks to Torishima suggesting that he should use his passion for Kung Fu movies. In an interview published in MiyearnZZ Labo on TBS Radio's After 6 Junction with Toriyama's editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, he said that in his haste to help Toriyama with a new story, he asked him to write a fighting manga, something completely different from what he was used to. to write as a comedy manga artist, but it was worth it in the end and Dragon Ball was born.
The creator of Dragon Ball and Stop Hibari-kun influenced each other
The author of Stop Hibari-kun, Hisashi Eguchi, is the most representative person in drawing cute girls.
There is no doubt that Hisashi Eguchi was deeply inspired by Toriyama's revolutionary art and Dr. Slump's drawing style when he began writing Stop Hibari-Kun. The similarities in the drawings are striking and both stories have a playful sense of humour. There are even cameo appearances by Senbei, Arale and Taro in Dr. Slump as a yakuza gang member in episode #13 of the anime Stop!! Hibari-kun!. Higuchi said that he put all his effort into drawing Hibari-kun as cute as possible, which made him famous for drawing cute girls.
The female characters of Stop Hibari-kun are especially beautiful, drawn with a soft, feminine appearance. Higashi is deeply inspired by the true beauty of women, drawing female characters in a very attractive way without exaggerating proportions. He was also one of the first artists to accurately portray characters in fashionable clothing in weekly manga. This inspired Akira Toriyama when designing the female characters in Dragon Ball, as Bulma's design resembles the drawing style of the female Hibari-Kun characters and could easily be considered an older version of Suzume, Hibari's younger sister.
Hibari-Kun's story is still relevant after 40 years
Eguchi Hisashi is one of the most beloved manga artists and illustrators in the industry.
Stop!! Hibari-kun! definitely a revolutionary manga, based on themes such as gender identity and showing it off really naturally in a magazine aimed at young men like Shōnen Jump, achieving first place in surveys, and all of this happened in the early 80s. Even if some of the jokes don't stand the test of time, which is to be expected after forty years, the core of the characters remains respectful and charming.
Hibari-kun almost becomes a positive character about a transgender girl, but with the cultural limitations of the time and is a bit limited due to being a slapstick comedy. The final chapter of the series before its cancellation even introduced a transgender man. Eguchi addresses Stop Hibari-Kun like any other romantic comedy, presenting Hibari with naturalness and sophistication but also as a strong woman with a lot of personality. Hibari is resolute, sure of who she is and not afraid of anything, which makes her one of the most important transgender symbols in the manga world.
Eguchi Hisashi, thanks to Hibari-kun, became a beloved manga artist, greatly contributing to the development of popular art in Japan with his work as an illustrator, and he also is the original character designer of the legendary movie Perfect Blue. Stop!! Hibari-kun! has influenced other shōnen manga artists, besides Toriyama. Hirohiko Araki, author of Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, wrote a work very similar to Hibari-Kun before creating Phantom Blood.
Stop!! Hibari-kun! is certainly a milestone gay manga, but the fact that it contributed to the birth of Dragon ball is a surprising and little-known piece of manga history.
Source: MiyearnZZ Labo, Manga Mogura on X.