Kabuki-bu!

This was one of those series which caught my eye when I was checking out the PVs for Spring a couple of months back. Right now, I can safely say that it has hardly disappointed me and even exceeded my expectations. Kabukibu is a story focusing on a youngster, Kurogo, who is incredibly passionate about kabuki (classical Japanese dance-drama), as he aims to gather people to form a kabuki club, hence the title of the show. The plot is not in any way unique; it's probably not the first time you will have heard of an anime where some guy decides to form a cluband tries to persuade everyone around him to join. However, in place of the plot's simplicity, there were other areas which made the show appealing. First of those which comes to mind would be the comedy. While humor can be pretty subjective from person to person, I found myself really enjoying the comical aspect of the show. The jokes they made didn't really feel forced, most of them felt casual and really things which everyday high school students would do and say. Apart from that, it was also really interesting seeing how Kurogo goes about trying to persuade the others to join him in doing kabuki. Imagine if you were asked to participate in a club which focuses on performing a 400-year-old traditional art form which supposedly has no part to play in modern society. You'll probably decline the offer, wouldn't you? That's exactly how everyone reacted to his proposal at first. And that was just the first of his troubles. Honestly, the ending is predictable and there's nothing to hide, Kurogo was always going to be successful, but this story is about HOW he will accomplish it. That is precisely what's intriguing about the show and makes you want to watch on every week. Another element of the show I would like to touch on is the characters. What I really love and what I feel really makes the show is the interactions between the characters. It wasn't a one-man show where one know-it-all character goes "Leave this to me, I'll carry everyone". Stuff happened. There were conflicts, some of them even somewhat unexpected, and the characters had to talk to one another in order to solve them. The characters themselves were not unique individuals per se, but together they formed one unique group of people striving towards a common goal. Although the show did not address every single character, I felt they generally did a good job for those they focused more on. The backstories were not too complex to understand, and simple enough for viewers to sympathize with the character involved. Overall, I liked the characters a lot and couldn't really bring myself to dislike any one. With regards to the seiyuus, at one glance you can see that while the cast isn't exactly star-studded, they are all adequately experienced. While it was certainly a challenge for them to try and voice lines in the kabuki style, I feel they did a great job. It actually helps that they aren't adept at kabuki lines, because after all, the characters themselves are mere amateurs, just like the cast. Checking the synopsis of this anime out, I'm sure you'll start to wonder things like "But I'm not interested in kabuki, will I be able to get into this show?" I can safely assure you that you do not need to have any background knowledge of kabuki in order to watch this. In fact, it's quite the opposite; watching this show could be what gives you the background knowledge of kabuki instead. Of course, if you're already interested in kabuki, you're definitely going to enjoy this anime. Nevertheless, that is not a necessity. I went into this show not knowing much about kabuki (heck, I don't even know much about Japanese traditional arts), but still wound up enjoying myself watching it. Dare I say, it has even got me interested in kabuki to the extent that I would give it a try if I had the chance to. I'd personally give this anime a 7, or at most 8... but that's just me. I hope reading this can help convince you to ignore the bad ratings and give this anime a chance, because I feel that it truly deserves more attention and love!

I decided to watch this after rewatching Chihayafuru (both seasons). So, unfortunately, I can't help but compare the two? Why? Both MCs are obsessed with a Japanese art form that is difficult for most to understand and dedicate themselves to. It is about them trying to start a club and recruit members for people to partake in the art form. Kind of. Competitive karuta, which is what Chihayafuru is about, isn't an art per se, but it's based on Japanese poetry. I preferred Chihayafuru much more. Here are the reasons: STORY (7/10): Well, the synopsis and my comparison covered that. ART (7/10): Clamp isn't known for pretty.Which is fine because xxxHolic is one of my favorite anime. Chihayafuru is josei so... SOUND (7/10): There's only three tracks in Kabukibu: the opening, the ending, and this one instrumental piece. All of them are great, but only three?! Okay, there was this one scene where a different piano piece was playing, but it wasn't outstanding. It's only getting a seven because and op and ed were so catchy and the one instrumental piece that was being repeated was quite moving. CHARACTER (5/10): To continue with anime comparisons, the MC's best friend is like a mix between Kyouya and Mori-senpai from Ouran HSHC. He's taciturn, intelligent, diplomatic, and tech-savvy. I think my word count is higher than his in the anime. Two members are basically Mikorin and Kashima from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. The one like Mikorin is a feminine male. The one like Kashima is also a female mistaken for a beautiful male and is also in Drama Club, has a fan club, and is the lead for most of the Drama Club's productions. The reluctant and arrogant character kind of reminds me of the Queen in Chihayafuru, like how she sticks her nose up at team tournaments, he believes that a kabuki club run by amateurs is insulting since he comes from a kabuki family. Overall, the supporting characters weren't too memorable. Also, it lacked a balanced focus on the characters. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THE MC. He's so dull! Yes, Chihaya was obsessed with karuta, and Daddy Bear, but she had character. She was an airhead in addition to being a karuta nut. Throughout the seasons, she encounters opponents who are basically her teachers. They help her grow. This MC though, I don't remember his name tbh, just cares about kabuki. He's not even good at kabuki. What the hell? ENJOYMENT (6/10): Despite my biggest complaint, it was still interesting to learn about kabuki. The music was decent. The anime wasn't comedic so that was a let down because my favorite genre is comedy and this could have easily weaved it in. OVERALL (6/10): To be fair, Chihayafuru had 25 eps per season so it had the chance to be fleshed out. This only had 12 episodes. Give this one a try if you're interested in kabuki. But afterward, totally watch Chihayafuru for some actual conflict and character development and a variety of good music.

The way I would describe this anime is…half decent. There’s nothing really new here and nothing really terrible either. I liked the idea of it. A boy named Kurogu really wants to start kabuki club as he sees it as dying art and wants to bring it to a younger audience. The thought of learning about a new bit of culture and seeing all the cool costumes for used for Kabuki was a nice thought. And the kabuki is interesting. From what I’ve gleamed it uses pretty simple stories like a band of thieves or too people in love and uses fantastic costumes,specific, almost dance like movements and sound effects to bring it to life. And all that was fun. It’s just the rest of it that fell flat. None of the characters are that interesting. I can’t even really remember their names. Kurogu is the basic overeager boy who is always happy and lives with his mother whom he for some reason calls by her first name which is kind of confusing; I did like that he never let anything stop him from achieving his dream and he apparently sucks at the thing he loves so much and Tonbo is the quiet, nerdy, tech guy who just does whatever Kurogu asks of him. For the rest of the characters after the initial conflict of getting them to be in the club are just kind of there afterwords. Kaoru for example, is a great actor but she’s in the drama club and also a girl so they have to find a way to borrow her from the drama club and have a girl in kabuki which doesn’t really happen apparently unless they’re a love interest. And she’s shown to be an amicable girl who just wants everyone to get along. And you’d think after finally wrestling her away from the stubborn manager of the drama club and even going through a competition to get her in the kabuki club she’d be a bit more of a focus. But she almost never talks after that and other than one episode there's no more conflict between the two clubs. The same for Hanamichi. They work really hard to get him into the club even though at first he scares them and it goes through this whole thing of him being a tough guy who’s secretly a softy, but then he’s just a side character after that and they do nothing with him afterwords. He also changes from tough guy to gay stereotype so quickly, there was no really point to it in the first place. Maruko is my favorite character be far. She makes the costumes as well as cosplay outfits. She’s so sarcastic and just basically hates being there it’s really funny. But once again she stuck in side character land. It could have done so much more with them instead of just more focusing on trying to get the one guy to join the damn club he doesn’t want to join. Jin and Shin were the most interesting; Jin mostly because the show seems to be focused on his joining the kabuki club and he gets the most development due to it. Jin is really amazing at kabuki but thinks people in the club are just doing it for fun and looks down on them for not taking it seriously. He’s overly polite and a perfectionist which sometimes gets him in trouble such as when Kurogu and Tonbo show up at his house he can;t just kick them out and instead offers them tea which is kind of funny. He’s trying to work hard to be as good as his famous kabuki actor grandpa and gets into conflict with his father for the former not being around a lot and Jin’s not being a regular boy. As for Shin, he’s a good kabuki actor with a apparently famous kabuki actor as his dad who tragically died. But instead of wanting to be like his father, he wants to be a rock star. Shin is loud and obnoxious, basically you're typical anime rocker dude. Something that's stands out a bit is that he has to live with grandma because his mom married a man that lives in the U.S. and moved there. That brings me to the second problem with this anime besides underdeveloped characters. Seriously issues are never taken seriously. Jin doesn’t get along with his dad and constantly fights with him? Never bring it up again. Kurogu’s mom is never home? Oh he’s fine! He has Tonbo! Shin’s mom abandoned for a man and moved to America which upset him so much that when she does come back to see him perform he wants nothing to do with her and gets depressed enough to not want to leave his bed? Get over! We have a show to do! And it works! These issues are brought up and then brushed aside almost immediately like they don’t’ matter but they do! It’s like the story writers wanted character development but didn’t understand how to deal with the fall out and it’s infuriating to see characters who are suppose to be friends say that the other characters problems are basically stupid and don’t matter. My last point is about the voice acting. It’s atrocious. Well two parts are really and that's enough to make me hate it.. Hanamichi’s voice starts out fine. It fits the design they gave his character. But then once he joins the club, he’s given this high-pitched girly voice that doesn’t match at all and starts acting like the gayest stereotype imaginable and it’s grating. I don’t know why he couldn’t keep his old voice. The second part is when they actually do kabuki. Every time the club started putting on a performance I dreaded it. Not because it wasn’t well done. The costumes were great, the sets were cool, the interactions backstage were fun to watch, but the voice they use for it made me want to jab a screwdriver into my ear drums. It made me miss the moments of them just talking about the plays or just hanging out eating lunch. Which those parts were fun, don’t get me wrong. I liked all of the characters practicing and figuring out what plays to do and who does which part, or having them just hanging out and being friends. Hell, the most interesting episode was watching them update a play so that younger audiences would get it. But kabuki is the main focus so it was just constantly me pulling my headphones halfway off so I would have to listening to it that much. And I get that it’s apparently the actual voice used for actual kabuki performances but my God, it felt like someone was yelling directly into my ear and doing it in such a slow, agonizing manner like people who think that the deaf will hear them if the talk slower and more exaggerated. It drove me insane. Overall I’d give Kabukibu a D. The setting is whatever, it’s just Japan, the animation is smooth, the characters are underdeveloped, I don’t really remember much about the music, the only conflict is getting Jin to join the club and every other one is brushed under the rug, the art-style isn’t anything new and the voice acting is annoying as all hell. I wouldn’t re watch it, or hope for a season two and kind of wish I hadn’t watched it in the first place; even if I did learn a bit about kabuki. It’s just one of those anime that you watch and soon enough, forget about.

Not really a master piece, but this is what I would call a hidden gem. So yes, 6-point-something MAL score is definitely less than what this show deserves. So, the premise of the story is an optimistic boy loving something and want to spread that love by gathering member to make a team, or a school club in this case. Sounds cliche, right? Yes, even the most of the characters are the usual mix-ups: The Optimistic Guy, The Super Smart Guy, and even The 'Refuse Doing Something Because of Some Dark Issues But Ended Up Doing It' Guy. Some people might think this is just another boring,cliche slice-of-life. I also thought that at first. I even almost dropped it. But after watching about third of the show, after about 3-4 episodes, I started to like the characters more, started to appreciate this thing called kabuki that they're trying to explore more, started getting curious about what they'll do next. The plot doesn't really develop much more even until the very end. But I think, the interesting point of this show lies in its characters. For the MC, we have the ever optimistic little guy, Kuro. Barely has any personality in the early episodes, I found out that he is much more a realist than I thought he was. He's so stubborn, but he knows when he needs to give up and is quick to make decisions if something doesn't go according to the plan. He also has his moments where his confidence deflates, and I realized much later that many of the characters has something 'hidden' beneath their first impression personalities. Another thing that I like about this show is that it touched some topics that many people actually struggle in real life (such as confidence issues, femininity/masculinity issues, body image issues, abandonment from parents, people's expectations) without making it overly dramatic, and even showed that the characters themselves can overcome the problems. All in all, yes, it's not a master piece or something. But definitely a worth watching in my opinion.

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio

Producers

Themes