#I just forgot to use their au name (stopgap)

[jellobubblelol]

Here have a bunch of Jash Junction doodles from April-Now (I promise it looks better than the tumblr compression makes it look)

[mininecro]

Current Hibari characterization is butchered by the tyranny of the masses. Will you adapt? Or will you perish like a dog? *read more link* *10k meta essay*

how to write hibari????? I can't seem to grasp his character so any tips? 

show me the hibari meta. im ready 

i hate all of you

Entry level: 

Hibari's tendency towards animal metaphors isn’t ever made clear - he obviously considers them animal metaphors, considering his ‘bite you to death’ and how he frames crowds as herds, but their actual extent is up in the air.

However, what we do know about it is that Hibari uses the “herbivore” moniker specifically for cowards. If he hates someone who isn’t a coward, he gives them a title or nickname (like with Yamamoto, Reborn, and Gokudera, who he refers to by their most identifiable traits, Dino, who he gives a sarcastic nickname, or Xanxus, who he just straight-up insults). If he respects someone, he refers to them by their name. He does this to Yamamoto later in the story, and his future self does this for Tsuna. 

At no point does he ever refer to someone as a “carnivore”, because he respects brave warriors, and if someone is brave and strong enough to earn his good favour, they earn the privilege of being taken seriously, by being referred to as their given name.

Hibari currently refers to Yamamoto by his full name and Kusakabe Tetsuya by just his name. He might be taken to referring to Reborn and Shouichi by their names if endeared to them. It’s unclear how he’d refer to Gokudera. He’d never refer to Xanxus by his name because their desires are fundamentally at odds.

There’s a notable exception in Tsuna, who Hibari doesn’t really respect, but understands enough about his strength that he’s unwilling to call him a herbivore. Tsuna’s ingenuity and raw power outranks his “cowardice”, so Hibari would prefer to call him a Small Animal. Hibari also loves small animals and wants to care for them, so this is also pretty gay

I haven’t reread the series in a while so I’m missing a few details. But you know

Intermediate Level: 

He is just as much of a theatric edgelord as Mukuro is and thats why they can never get along. They both eat that “mortal enemies who cannot stop until the other is defeated” except they fundamentally misunderstand what the other considers a “mortal enemy” - Hibari’s objective is to Win, while Mukuro’s objective is to control, and both of them just misunderstand each other to be on the same page. If Hibari Won, he’d completely blow Mukuro off, because his mental dramatic character arc has been completed. Hibari and Mukuro are the edgy version of the Gokudera/Yamamoto dynamic and it’s a greatly underutilized comedy routine. How dare Amano reduce it to 1 panel in the Rainbow arc, like a coward

ANYWAY, Hibari is a fucking chuunibyou and since no one believes me I’m back with receipts

Volume 2, chapter 16:

Hibari talks a lot. He has something to say every time he’s prompted. It’s incredibly important to him that he’s the most important thing in the room and he has the respect of everyone around him, and having a dominant personality is key to that image. The difference between him and a Fucking Chuunibyou is theoretically nothing, but in execution it’s more that he makes good on his threats. 

But they’re still theatrics, because immediately after asserting dominance, he does this: 

His goal was just to dominate everyone with the minimum possible effort. Tsuna got smacked, so he’s been Adequately Dominated, but the other two fought back, so they needed to be knocked out. Since knocking out is dangerous, though, he’s made sure to take care of them afterwards.

Hibari isn’t a wild animal or anything. He meticulously cares for anyone he “bites”. If they’re fine, like Tsuna ends up being, he’s like “yeah, just sit on the couch for a second and rest for a little bit”. It’s only after Tsuna crosses him again that he goes back to violence. 

Hibari isn’t a rampaging delinquent, he’s a selfish asshole who associates violence with control, and that’s why he’s an abuse survivor in all my shitty AUs

But back to the theatrics and him being a chuuni fuck

Volume 6, Chapter 43: 

hhHFHAHGAHGSKJGKGSGKSHFAH

Hibari just, clearly likes peaceful time alone? Looking at the trees? There’s no reason for a human being to say shit like this without blinking unless they think it sounds cool. Hibari curates his self-image meticulously. 

Before I move on to exaggerate the point, here’s some other micrometas:

hibari is attractive enough to be sexually harassed by Hetscum, King Of The Restraining Orders, making him one of the only few characters explicitly handsome, which is important because Amano draws everyone hot and I need some sort of justification for the cold sweat I broke into when I saw 10YL Hibari for the first time

(also he looks like a pretentious nerd in these early chapters so its worth noting in general)

Hibari’s entire character arc is literally the fact that he has the exact same problem. It’s possible that the reason Dino pisses him off so much is because he feels embarrassed at the implication of hypocrisy. 

The fact these 2 expressions happen in abrupt sequence is so fucking funny I love him (also, proof again that he isn’t a wild violent animal intent on abusing others - being contradicted doesn’t anger him, he just assumes Winning will solve the problem, because, I’m sorry to say, Hibari is not a thinker, which I’ll get to later)

BACK TO THE CHUUNI ISSUE

Volume 5, Chapter 38: 

And then he doesn’t do anything to Tsuna.

I don’t even have to comment on this. Hibari’s just a weirdo

Volume 34, Chapter 330:

Hibari has, at this point, witnessed Tsuna recover from a snapped neck and kill god. He saw this with his own two eyes. Tsuna asserted dominance over the closest this series has to the literal devil, eater of dimensions, and he only a few chapters earlier explicitly told Tsuna that he respects him so much that to defeat him in battle is a grand ambition of his and complimented him on his ingenuity and specialized power.

Hibari is lying here. He is lying through his teeth. He has finally entered tsun territory. He knows this conflict is important to Tsuna and is affording it to him, but because he painstakingly maintains self-image, he has to make it out to seem like he’s doing this for entirely selfish motives. “Wait for you to be killed”? What could that possibly afford him? Nothing, but it sounds cool, so that’s what he goes with.

it’s worth nothing that he’s functionally identical to Mukuro in this respect, except while Hibari communicates that he cares for Tsuna through Manly Warrior Affordances, Mukuro straight-out attacks Tsuna and compensates for his feelings with constant hostility. Both are funny but Hibari’s is full of more warmth and companionship so that one’s the best.

Anyway, god I forgot how cluttered and ugly the paneling had gotten during this arc

Chapter 335:

It’s not as if he’s giving Tsuna special treatment, either, because he does the exact same “I could...BUT I WON’T” half-hearted dismissal when he comes upon a somewhat exhausted Mukuro. Everyone knows that Hibari hates Mukuro and wants to fight him, but Mukuro has just defeated the enemy as an ally, so he chucks a tonfa at him and says “reaction time is shit, get some sleep”. Hibari was slighted by being defeated, but he has garnered respect for Mukuro, but he can’t tolerate having these opinions concurrently, because he’s incredibly straight-forward and it doesn’t mesh with his “character”

Look at his dumb face. He’s entered Full Tsun.

Expert level: 

Hibari is super fucking Autistic and loves his friends

I mentioned before that he’s not a thinker. It’s not as if he doesn’t try - his observational skills are actually pretty good, and he composes a lot of reasonable conclusions based on the evidence he’s provided. For example, after fighting Daisy:

But he often falls into logical stopgaps, and his method of resolving these are...less than ideal.

Situation: Hibari meets with a conflict to his worldview, image, or judgement

Conclusion:

He hits it until it stops being a problem.

Hibari is like a Sims character that will scream at the wall that used to hold the door they were about to walk through for 30 minutes instead of rerouting. He doesn’t care about being crossed, because he can easily understand it and control that variable, but he is hideously offended by contradiction. If his worldview is challenged, he gets pissed off.

This is the primary reason he and Dino struggle to get along - the entire basis of teaching Hibari is the assumption that Hibari isn’t already right about everything. Dino has to challenge everything about Hibari’s preexisting notions, and Hibari hates him for it. Dino’s lessons excel the most when he feeds into Hibari’s view of things, which is why the 2 things that got through to him by the end is “anger is power” and “flexibility is strength”.

Hibari’s forthright, carefully maintained image also affects how he communicates with people. He talks a lot, sure, but it’s usually to talk at people about how fucking cool and above them he is. He rarely actually communicates his interest in others, which is why him talking to Tsuna about what he likes about him is so important.

It’s also why this tiny panel-and-a-half is one of the best Hibari moments in the series:

Since when?? Have you respected Yamamoto?? He’s given zero indication of being fond of him until now. There’s absolutely no basis for this immense respect he’s solemnly presenting. He’s been mostly scornful of Yamamoto during the Daily Life arc. Hibari says this with such assuredness that he definitely thinks that liking Yamamoto Takeshi is in line with his character, unlike with Tsuna or Mukuro, who he also secretly grew fond of but is unwilling to admit as much, but Hibari just flies this like a fact.

Hibari Kyouya is fully capable of being friendly with others, but he struggles to operate outside of camaraderie. He definitely cares for Kusakabe, and they grew close over the years, but the first thing he says when he sees Kusakabe (10YL) “herding” up with a bunch of unconscious teenagers is “you’re fired”. 

Again, great basis for my AU fanfic where he’s an abuse survivor, especially when Mukuro, a canonical abuse survivor, has the same problem (with a different way of coping), but it also says a lot from the perspective of someone with Autism - he wants to become close to others, but communicating basic ideas like that is entirely beyond him. Hibari only operates in his comfort areas, and is hostile to being forced out of them. 

And yet Dino, who is the only character besides Kusakabe who has spent a significant amount of time around him, described Hibari to be similar to his ancestor, and when he gives reasons for that conclusion, he also mentions...

And this is observable! Because Hibari's reactions are missing from scenes he has no engagement in, like this one:

We can actually pick out scenes where he mentally checks off people as “worthy”, like this one:

This is also where it’s more apparent that Hibari respects strength/bravery. Shouichi is obviously a cowardly mess of a person, but when he says “we are WINNING”, Hibari makes note of him.

Anyway in conclusion Hibari is a gay autistic chuuni and I love him. Here’s Hibari getting mad at Squalo for being around without permission, something he previously expected of his friends

“mu.”