Sunday, June 17, 2018

Stop!! Hibari-kun! Episodes 25-30

So here's some more Hibari-kun hijinks and mayhem, episodes 25-30. This batch includes the wrap-up of the Kurikara Detectives arc (thank goodness) as well as the last episode adapted from manga chapters. In between are stories featuring youngest sister Suzume, old man Ibari, and the recurring joke that the prettiest women in the series are cross-dressing men.

The references and parodies are almost non-stop now, filling in for the absence of compelling stories.

Ep25. The end of the Kurikawa Detectives arc.

  • Kawahana Hiroshi is a parody of "川口浩探検隊" Kawaguchi Hiroshi's Expedition, which is full of staged bits and jokes. The parody name replaces 口 (mouth)  with 鼻 (nose), hence the close-up of his nose.
  • Shimizo no Jirocho was a 19th century yakuza.
  • Akagi no Chugi refers to another yakuza, Kunisada Chuji.
  • Momotaro is a popular hero in Japanese folklore.
  • "Ribahi" is "Hibari" spelled backwards in hiragana (りばひ vs ひばり).
  • Ribahi's pet sharks, Taro and Jiro, are named for two Huskies, from a pack of 15, that were abandoned in Antartica in 1957 and survived a full year on their own.
Ep26. Yakuza baseball! What could go wrong?
  • "Burning fighting spirit" was the stock phrase of professional wrestler Antonio Inoki.
  • When Ozora and Umiushi are fighting, they're depicted as monsters from Daimajin.
  • Geronimo knocks down Hibari's home run with Ultra Seven's iconic attack (around four minutes into the linked clip).
  • Kosaku's memories of his middle school baseball career are a parody of Star of the Giants. Hoshi Hyuma was the protagonist of the series.
  • The umpires listed on the scoreboard are different kanji that all spell the same thing - wani, or alligator/crocodile. 
The preview for the next episode is clearly from a VHS source. The original cel masters must have been lost.

Ep27. Ibari falls in love with the beautiful owner of a coffee shop. Queue recurring joke.
  • The "Three Wise Gators" are of course a parody of the Three Wise Monkeys.
  • Kosuki is reading Chuunen Jump (Geezer's Jump), a parody of Shounen Jump (Boy's Jump).
  • North Pole Story is a parody of the 1983 film Antarctica, starring Takakura Ken and Oginome Keiko.
  • The stars of Flascodance (i.e., Flashdance) are Jennifer Chiefs (literally Jennifer Typhus) instead of Jennifer Beals and Michael Youri instead of Michael Nouri.
  • "It's tough being a man" is from the series Otoko wa Tsurai yo.
Ep28. Suzume-chan takes on some juvenile gangsters.

  • Morita Kensaku, the Kid Delinquents gang, and Shadow Boss are from Eguchi's Hinomaru Gekijou.
  • The monsters in the picture are from Ultraman: white full moon monster Lunatick, center kidnapper Alien Kemur, red friendly monster Pigmon.
  • "Unbaba" may be a parody of the Japanese professional wrester Giant Baba.
  • "Ghosts don't come out in winter." In Japan, telling ghost stories is a summertime activity.
Ep29. Kosaku falls in love with the wrong girl,  yet again. The last episode taken from manga material.
  • The attack of the Korukyu Boxing Club is set to West Side Story's "Cool."
  • Yakushimaru Hiroko was an idol in the 1980s. She played the lead in Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, a story about a high-school girl becoming heir to a weak yakuza group.
  • Sayuri's "I fell in love at first sight with a pervert" is a 5-7-5 haiku in Japanese.
Ep30. The Phantom Thief Mouse Kid strikes!
  • The butler is modeled on Klaus Nomi, a German countertenor who died in 1983. 
  • "My name's not Shibari. Actually, it's Hibari." A play on the shitsuji (butler) / hitsuji (sheep) joke. Shibari is Japanese rope bondage.
  • The Ibaru/Neone/Rux/Gambar sign is a parody of Subaru and its real car brands back then: Leone, Rex, and Sambar.
The staff is the same as for the previous mini-batch. Moho Kareshi translated; laalg checked the translation, added additional signs, and decoded many of the references. Yogicat timed; I edited and typeset. Juggen styled the OP and ED; and Nemesis and konnakude QCed. M74 encoded from a remastered DVD box.

You can get this group of episodes at the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. Only five more to go... and the batch, of course.

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