The Winter 2025 Anime Preview Guide

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

Kamome Academy has seven wonders—including Hanako-kun, a ghost who lives in the girls' bathroom and grants wishes. And also, Hanako-kun looks for the other members of these supernatural seven wonders alongside a student who got cursed named Nene Yashiro, and a young exorcist named Kou Minamoto. And in doing so, they learn a lot about the supernatural underbelly of their school.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 is based on a manga series by Iro Aida. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu on Sundays.

I know I say this a lot, but all good ghost stories have something a little bit sad about them. That's something that Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun has been remarkably aware of, even if this first episode of its long-awaited second season doesn't lean into it very much. But I still think it's important to remember it. It's certainly something the ending theme acknowledges, with its wistful images and melody – and we could also say that the very idea of the Clock Keepers, Kamome Academy's First Wonder (or Mystery, in the manga; I have a hard time remembering which terminology to use) hints at. In this episode, we see that at least one Clock Keeper can move time forward and stop it in its tracks, which opens the possibility of it being turned backward. And just think of what that could mean for Hanako-kun and Mitsuba.

That's one of the strengths of this series as a whole and this opening episode in particular: the possibilities that each new discovery or reveal opens up. Like the first season, this one seems set to mask its tragedy with Hanako-kun's seeming goofiness, which is beautifully demonstrated by two scenes of his fingers wiggling. No, seriously, two gorgeously fluid moments focus on the movements of his fingers, and they both serve to highlight the duality of the story. The first is when Nene knocks on the door of his bathroom stall in the old school building – we see his fingers slowly curl around the edge of the door in tried-and-true horror fashion. Then later, when he takes over Nene's body to lure out the First Wonder, his fingers make wiggly grasping motions, as if he's going to grab Aoi's chest, a scene that's meant to be much sillier. When held up side by side, these two small moments capture the way that Hanako-kun hides his true self, putting on a good show to mask what he might really be feeling.

It's a distillation of the series' themes, and it works very well, especially given that the revealing of the Clock Keeper is both completely expected and still treated with the gravity that the unmasking of a Wonder merits. The overall look of the show continues to help with that. AidaIro's manga art has a very unique and distinctive look, and while the anime doesn't fully capture that, this episode still does a decent job, particularly in the choice of muted colors for almost everyone and everything. Aoi alone is brighter than the others, which is an interesting choice, and the whole thing still gives off the impression of being drawn in stained glass, if that makes sense. My only issue is Hanako-kun's eyes, with his pupils always near the top of his irises.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is off to a good start in its second season. The opening theme gives a pretty good hint as to how much of the manga this will cover (and I approve, even if I think it's going to stop just short of a key plot point), and I'm looking forward to watching it play out with movement and voices.

At what point does “late night” become “early morning?” For me, 5am has usually been my go-to divider; it's the hour when the earliest early bird restaurants and coffee spots start opening up, and the employees of the less-early-but-still-the-sun's-not-always-up-when-they-open ones are waking up and getting ready for their shifts.

It's been a full five years since we've been graced with a proper season of Hanako-kun (although don't get me wrong: I think After-School Hanako-kun is really charming as well). So I'm delighted they spent a brief moment recapping the first season. As a general rule of thumb, while recaps are usually helpful, they should be required for anything with at least a full two-year gap between seasons—let alone five.

I eased back into the colorful and stylish world of Hanako-kun and the school's seven wonders pretty quickly. And sure, while the recap was helpful, the episode's style and substance still feel quintessentially Hanako-kun. Firstly, this has always been such a visually outstanding series—the animation and style both act in tandem to deliver such a cool-looking show.

As for substance, Hanako-kun and Co. are tracking down another one of the seven wonders. And from the jokes to Hanako-kun's antics, everything still feels incredibly familiar. Speaking of Hanako-kun's antics, there's a scene where Hanako takes over Nene's body: was that Nene's voice actress Akari Kitou doing a Hanako-kun voice actor Megumi Ogata impression, or vice-versa? Either way, I loved it, and whoever it was did a great job. There was a fun story about the first of the seven wonders, and the episode leaves off at a great point—after revealing an admittedly-kind-of-predictable-but-I-still-thought-that-was-fun twist—for the next episode to pick up from.

Overall, this was a strong way to open the season. When there's been such a long gap, it can be tricky for anime to thread the needle of throwing people right back into the show's universe while also catching them up on past events. But Hanako-kun is such a unique show that it can't help but be memorable, so I don't doubt that it'll successfully figure this out—which, in case I wasn't being clear, I think it has. This is the anime that, going into the season, I was the most excited to watch. And while the season is still young, I think it's safe to say that after having seen the first episodes of most of the other shows I plan on watching, it's so far still the one that's left me feeling the most eager to watch more of. …Although I'm not so sure I'll be waking up at 5 am to do so again.

Fans of the supernatural mystery series Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun have finally seen their patience rewarded! Five years after 2020's first season, girls' bathroom-haunting Hanako and his schoolgirl assistant Nene Yashiro finally return with a story that was missed out from the first adaptation, much to the consternation of fans at the time. This particular arc, “The Three Clock Keepers,” should slot in nicely between episodes nine and ten of season one.

After such a long time away (short spinoff series After-School Hanako-kun notwithstanding), I'm glad this episode elected to start with a cute puppet-theater recap explaining the characters' identities and roles. Once more, Hanako-kun is animated by studio Lerche, with the same strong aesthetic as before. The iconic character designs remain cute and large-eyed, with thick black outlines contrasting with the storybook-like backgrounds. I wonder if there's been something of an upgrade to the animation? Much of the first season's impeccable style was in service of masking the very limited movement. Hanako-kun is apparently very popular in Japan, so it wouldn't surprise me to hear if the show received more resources.

Central to this arc is a mystery around three spirits with the power to control time – one can rewind time, one can pause it, and one can fast-forward it. All clues initially point to Nene's rumour-obsessed friend Aoi, especially as she seems to be holding onto a secret she's desperate to share.

The whole concept of high schools having “seven wonders” is completely alien to me, and its prominence in many other anime and manga leaves me cold. Hanako-kun at least attempts to do something interesting with the trope, and the odd mix of cutesy characters and edgy supernaturalism is reminiscent of Dark Gathering (though thankfully not as disturbing). That opening track goes much harder than expected, though, so I wonder if this season might have Hanako and friends exploring darker depths as it progresses.

Leave it to Hanako-kun to make a fashionably late arrival to the Winter season. Out of all of the new shows coming out this January, Toilet Bound Hanako-kun's return was easily one of the most anticipated in my household, and I am happy to say that the little stinker did not disappoint. It may have taken a few years, but finally, we all get to dive back into one of the loveliest looking and creatively crafted supernatural anime around.

One of the best things about this premiere is that it makes for a pretty great jumping on point for new viewers and fans who haven't been keeping up with the manga, despite the lengthy hiatus between the seasons. Sure, Nene's little puppet show recap isn't going to replace checking out the first batch of episodes - which you should definitely do if you missed out on them back in '20 - but you still get pretty much everything you need to know in this premiere to keep up with the new adventure. As Nene has learned, Kamome Academy is chock-full of spooky rumors and wonders that threaten to mess with the land of the living. Along with her exorcist pal, Kou, Nene uncovers the truth of these mysteries by enlisting the aid of the most famous and powerful of the Seven Wonders that lurk in the halls of the Academy: Hanako-kun, he of the toilet-boundedness and the sharp knives. Thankfully, despite the changeup in directors, this season of Toilet-bound Hanako-kun is just as vibrant looking and full of character as before, making it an absolute pleasure to just sit back and watch.

The rumor we're starting with in Season 2 has to do with the time-manipulating Clock Keepers, and the mysterious connection they have with the school's two Aois. If this premiere has any nits for me to pick, I guess I could argue that it spends so much time reestablishing the status quo that we only really get to the hook of the Clock Keepers mystery at the very end of the episode. That's not much to complain about, though, when we're getting fun sequences like Hanako's attempt to stoke the fires of jealousy in Akane Aoi (the simp) by possessing Nene's body and getting very intimate with Aoi Akane (Nene's gal pal). I have no reason to doubt that this new storyline is going to be just as fun as what we got in Season 1, which means that Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is bound to be one of this season's must-watch programs.