Kurogo Kurusu, a 15-year-old high school student, has a passion for kabuki and hopes to establish a kabuki club at school. Things are not easy as they seem when he realizes that he needs to find students to join him.
Kabukibu! (カブキブ!) is a light novel series written by Yūri Eda, with illustrations by Ishinoya. The series was published under the Kadokawa Bunko label from August 24, 2013 to November 25, 2017 for seven volumes. An Animated Adaptation by Studio DEEN, with original character designs by CLAMP, premiered on April 6, 2017.
Kabukibu! contains examples of:
- Attention Whore: Everything Shin does, whether forming a band or joining the kabuki club, is because he always wants to be center of attention.
- Butt-Monkey: After joining the kabuki club, Shin is subjected to a lot of physical comedy.
- Camp Straight: Turns out this is Hanamichi's real personallity and the "macho" façade was beacuse a previous girlfriend of his didn't see him as a man but as a sister figure.
- Honor Before Reason: As much as he dislikes the drama club president's mistreatment, Kazuma refuses to leave the drama club because he think it would a jerk move to leave before the upcoming school festival. Reading Kurogo's script makes him change his mind.
- Informed Deformity: Maruko is commented on to be "Short, fat and ugly". Aside from the lack of height, neither of the other two things look even remotely accurate.
- Jaded Washout: Hanamichi is used to be a passionate dancer, even getting accredited when he was only ten, until some unmentioned incident caused him to give up on dancing.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: Kaoru, which makes recruiting her into the club difficult because kabuki is an all-men discipline.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The cheerful, impressionable Kurogo is red and the calm, rational Tonbo is blue.
- Technician Versus Performer: The kabuki club has a duel with the drama club to see who can use the auditorium's basement for the Kochi festival by performing "The Medicine Pebbler." Yane from the drama club delivers her lines as quickly and efficiently as possible, without skipping a beat. Shin, on the other hand, uses a heartfelt and emotional performance. The kabuki club wins.
- The Stoic: Tonbo rarely emotes.
