Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

Episode 4

Why does it feel like I'm the only one concerned about Nene's fate? Last week I predicted that episode three's fetch quest prelude to a kiss was the calm before the storm, a gentle chaser before things started getting real. Imagine my surprise when this week delivered a similarly low-stakes summer festival interlude in which characters were more concerned with having fun than any challenges that lie ahead. There was never a dull moment amid all the supernatural comic mischief, and we got a new Hanako lore drop. A visual feast of illustrated festivities and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun's trademark vivid color scheme, “Summer Lights” was full of the show's textbook charm. But after the second episode's shocking reveal, I expected the second season to up the ante, and I'm still waiting for that to happen.

Nene is going to die. But don't worry about that. Look how adorable she looks all gussied up in her summer yukata! When Nene is looking for a way to cheer up Kou (since ironically she doesn't realize she's the cause of his depression), the delightful Mokke Moving Company has an equally adorable solution, all for the price of a piece of candy: why not take him to the summer festival? Hanako has an even better plan—he'll take his pals to a supernatural Tanabata festival beyond the boundary, so all three of them can attend. It's worth rewatching the scenes that show the festival; each frame is charmingly cluttered with illustrated festivities, and each background character has an elaborate, unique design. I will never get over this story's dark fairytale feel. Better yet, Nene can pay for her food and fun with mermaid scales, which our cursed heroine has in spades. Much like the Mokke have at least put their lost item retrieval talents toward a greater purpose, she's finally found a practical use for her occult aspects.

The crowded visuals tell stories even when the plot briefly slows down to Kou and Nene's simple quest for tanzaku, the colorful bookmark-shaped paper cards on which Tanabata celebrants write wishes and hang them on bamboo trees. Rumor has it that if one writes their wish on all five colors of tanzaku, it will come true, and given the way rumors work in the world of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, shouldn't such a rumor be more potent at a supernatural event? This is the only time in this episode that a character makes an effort toward saving Nene's life—and even then, Kou has two wishes since he's trying to save Mitsuba, too! It's hard to enjoy the festivities when the clock is ticking, and nobody seems to be doing much about it.

The fun and games come to a crashing halt when Nene nearly gets run over by a ceremonial cow. Somehow she gets jolted back in time to a midcentury summer festival that Hanako-kun, or Amane as he was known in life, happens to be attending. He's a little younger than his death year, maybe 9 or 10, so Nene plays the big sister type, wiping his mouth after they eat and chastely kissing his forehead, all the while unaware of Amane's growing crush on her. It made me realize that what makes it possible for me to ship Hanako and Nene, despite Hanako-kun's youthful appearance, is that in the present he has the filthy, sardonic mind of a much older man in that body. In this episode, depicted as a boy who innocently yearns to become an astronaut, there's no romantic chemistry—as to be expected. Nene sees him as a sweet little boy, and he still is one. Her soft heart may be her undoing, though. When she gives Amane the final tanzaku he needs to make a full set, Amane changes his wish to want to be reunited with Nene someday. Did that wish doom them both? Even after the run-in with the Clock Keepers, I'm unclear on how time travel works in this universe, or whether Nene's jaunt to 1964 even happened.

Let's leave off with that creepy next episode preview, which delivered more suspense than the entirety of this episode. There have been two chill episodes in a row, but next time, surely, in “Mokke of the Dead / The Melancholy of the New Number Three,” Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is about to pick up the pace. Even if the Mokke are up to their usual shenanigans, this renewed focus on a School Wonder marks a return to the main plot. The show has spoiled us with cuteness lately, but without the darker side of this fairytale, half of its appeal is missing.

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