Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

Episode 11

It's all coming full circle as Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun gears up for the season finale. School Wonder Shijima's motives were previously inscrutable, but her alter-ego Mei is finally giving us a peek behind the curtain. The big focus on Hanako's side of the story that I anticipated last week never arrived; in fact, he barely got any screen time despite his name being in the title. Instead, “Make It About You,” tells the story of two girls who are far more similar than they realize; both on the brink of death, both being preserved by a protector who means the best, but who is unwittingly hurting them. A narrative that bridges time and space, this penultimate episode humanized Shijima by drawing her in direct comparison to Nene.

The artistry of the strange tower at the center of the “Picture Perfect” arc is no accident. This bizarre structure, which I previously described as castlepunk, turned out to be Shijima's final work of art before her death. Through Mei, a past version of Shijima when she was still alive, the true story of this School Wonder unravels and reveals that everything we thought we knew about her was a lie. Cruel parents? Nope, they were super supportive. Suicide? Nah, she was hospitalized for an illness. Since the beginning of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, the underlying message has been “Be careful what you say, because words have meaning.” The callous gossip of Shijima Mei's nurses and classmates twisted her story into something far uglier and darker than reality. But Mei, the past version of Shijima doesn't know this; that's why School Wonder Shijima wants to kill Mei before she finds out. In Shijima's mind, she couldn't protect Mei, so it was time for a clean break. Does this sound familiar? Just look at Nene and Hanako. Like Mei, Nene doesn't have a lot of time left. Like School Wonder Shijima wants to stab Mei out of reality, and Hanako wants to keep Nene locked up in a fake world rather than die in a real one. In both cases, the protector doesn't want the protected to have to face reality. The way they go about it is misguided, but their intentions are good.

The comparison isn't exactly one-to-one because there aren't only two Shijimas. Somehow, this School Wonder is able to split herself infinitely, and sometimes unintentionally. When Tsukasa asks for some of her time and talent, Shijima creates a double rather than interrupt her artistic process. That cloning is deliberate. But the invisible Shijima who wields the paintbrush was created subconsciously. Some deeply set part of Shijima wants to help rather than hinder Nene and her friends, and it took the form of Mei's turquoise paintbrush (visible on her hospital tray) and assumed a life of its own. That's at least four Shijimas if I'm counting correctly, hailing from past and present, dreams and reality. What time is Mei from? When Nene attempts to climb the stairs with Mei and nearly falls through (it's no wonder this poor girl has a complex about her ankles), the implication is that Mei and Nene are from different times. Does Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun adhere to the parallel universe theory? Or is it one timeline, and Mei from further back than Nene? Her school uniform doesn't look as new as Nene's or as dated as Hanako and Tsukasa's, so maybe somewhere in between? It's hard to tell if Mei and Nene's lives ever overlapped. In the dream world, they are each one another's ideal companion, as they are both staring down impending death and have to figure out what to do about it—do they reconcile with their protectors? Do they face the music? Enveloped in Mei's mind, the girls' musings match the episode's ethereal, glowy lighting and otherworldly dreamscape.

The final shot of the episode is of Hanako-kun, looking at the world like a final boss as he stares morosely into the distance from his rooftop perch. But it's more complicated than that. Like School Wonder Shijima who only wants to protect past-self Mei, Hanako thinks everything he's doing is for Nene's sake. Nene, Mitsuba, and Kou have finally found an escape from this place, but can they convince Hanako to go along with it? This episode didn't make it any clearer whether Nene will get a happy ending to her story, but it did something stronger: it gave her all the cards she needs to accept her own future with her eyes open.

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Lauren writes about model kits at Gunpla 101. She spends her days teaching her two small Newtypes to bring peace to the space colonies.