Should you watch Kabukibu! if you want to watch a good school club anime? No.
There are many anime that do this in a masterful way, this one is not it. It tries to add both comedy and drama but ends up missing the mark on either. What it does do well, however, is the educational aspect. So…

Should you watch Kabukibu! if you want a basic introduction to what kabuki is, but want to be entertained at the same time instead of reading up on it? Yes.

I started watching Kabukibu! for exactly that reason. And the show does handle the educational aspect well. Watching the show, you learn a little bit about the 400-year history of kabuki, but it’s not being rammed down your throat in one go. The main character, Kurusu Kurugo, is very knowledgeable and will slip in a nugget here and there about the beginning of kabuki, some of its history, what the performances consist of, and so on. The show doesn’t go too deep; I think most of the things you learn while watching can also be found on a quick internet search, but seeing it played out makes it a bit more memorable through visualisation.

Kabukibu! can be funny at times, but mostly it seems a bit forced. There were also one or two moments where I (with my limited knowledge of Japanese) was able to pick up on a joke that was completely lost in translation. Of all the characters being played for laughs (the “fat” otaku Maru, the “feminine” dancer Hanamichi and Kaoru-senpai with her own fanclub existing of nearly every girl in the school) Akutsu is the one that works best comedically. He has an interesting backstory that backs up his personality as the overly confident “I’m a star!” tough guy with the soft heart and his funny moments don’t feel too forced.

Now, what bothered me most about this show and why I can’t give it a higher score, is the character development throughout the show. It’s so slow that when the show ended, it felt like it had only just started. It made me so sad because they have a cast of characters with such great potential. We’re fed these tiny details about the character’s backstories, like Tonbo, who was shown to have been bullied in school until Kurugo moved in next door after which they became best friends, but it’s not explored further. And there’s this great interaction between Tonbo and Kaoru that is never mentioned later in the show. Giving the characters more time to breathe and develop would have made this show instantly more enjoyable.

The two most interesting characters in my opinion, are Shin (Akutsu) and Jin (Ebihara). Both come from a kabuki background: Shin was taught kabuki by his mother but has sworn to hate it since his mother left for America, Jin has been training to be a performer since he was three years old and belongs to a long line of kabuki performers. They are complete opposites in every way and I think that the conflict between these two could have sparked really interesting character growth. But progress was always halted on Jin’s part and it left me feeling really unsatisfied at the end of the show.

Even though I gave this anime a fairly low score, I am hoping we get to see another season. I think the ending of this first season would be a great starting-off point for an infinitely better sequel!