Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

Episode 12

Really? That's how we're going to end Season 2? This week's episode of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun was devastating, and not in a good way. This knockout fantasy show wrapped up the seven-part “Picture Perfect” arc with all its usual visual style and flair, but when it was time for the plot to deliver anything conclusive, it dropped the moon-shaped ball. With six episodes of set-up coming before it, I was expecting more substance to this denouement. Even though it eschewed the opening sequence, there still wasn't enough time for this episode to address the big questions. What will happen to Nene? Are we back at square one? This episode left the biggest question of the last twelve episodes unanswered while simultaneously allowing other elements to fall into place too easily to feel well-earned. While this episode was as beautiful and atmospheric as ever, it left me unsatisfied and grateful for the announcement of a much-needed sequel series coming this July. Another five-year wait for more Hanako-kun would be agony.

Shijima's world may be fake, but the Fourth School Wonder sure knows how to set a compelling stage. On the fantastical steps of her towering castle, our crew finally encounters the emergency escape—the full moon. It's a poetic solution for the exit to mirror a place that exists outside of our world, and yet is the subject of so much of human imagination and mythology. It's also a dramatic backdrop for Kou and Hanako's final battle of Raiteijou vs kitchen knife. With Shijima coming in clutch to “erase” Hanako's Haku-joudai, this might be their most fairly matched fight yet. But in true Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun style, this impactful shonen manga battle is just a distraction while Nene and Mitsuba Solid Snake their way to the exit. With a little help from Brush-chan-sama, Nene can ride a bicycle up to the moon—a reference to the classic film E.T. But when Hanako sabotages the bike and they take a tumble, they land softly on some clouds. It's gorgeous and dreamlike, but the increasing fakeness of the world feels overly convenient. If this world hasn't followed the laws of physics this entire time, what stopped Nene from ripping a hole in reality and escaping that way?

My frustration with the “Picture Perfect” arc, which I understand is a fan favorite section of the manga, is that I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. First, it seemed as if Shijima was the villain, then Tsukasa, who summoned her, then Mitsuba, whose heartfelt wish summoned him. In the end, the final boss of the second season of Hanako-kun is, well, Hanako-kun. There's no shadowy figure lying in wait further behind the curtain. This was all Hanako's plan to protect Nene, to preserve her in this fictional world like a pressed flower. But Nene isn't a flower, she's a person. She has her own ideas about how to live her life. “I'll wear a perfect white wedding dress someday!” she tells Hanako during their emotional heart-to-heart in the clouds. Nene isn't ready to surrender to her fate. She'll fight for her future until the very end. I liked the way her way of fighting is with her voice, and her voice ends up being a far stronger weapon against Hanako's defenses than Kou's staff. The most effective moment of the episode is a narrative echo, where Nene asks Hanako once again to grant her wish.

It's with show-typical humor that the episode balances its melancholy moments with levity. Even as Hanako sadly leaves his wish during his lifetime (to visit the moon) in the fake world, he sends Nene there instead and grants her wish—a comic moment in which Nene in her daikon form plops unceremoniously into the bicycle cart. It was always in Hanako's power to save her, and the ease of his rescue made this arc feel overly slow. Likewise, when Shijima hands her yorishiro to Nene to destroy just like that, I couldn't help but feel that this moment would have had more impact directly following the reveal of Shijima's past. Nene is all smiles back in the real world with her friends, but for how long? If the Clock Keepers really can help her out, why didn't they mention that, oh, I don't know, during the Clock Keepers arc at the very beginning of the season before this all went down? And who is this ominously named Sixth School Wonder, the Grim Reaper? I'm not thrilled with this less-than-conclusive season finale. Still, the show's consistent quality, beautiful visuals, and specific balance of humor and emotional impact mean that July and the return of Hanako-kun Sundays can't come soon enough.

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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.