Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

Episode 9

Manga-first viewers must have been frustrated reading my “Picture Perfect” arc reviews, huh? It took me forever to realize what was going on. When it came to Nene's limited time left, I thought we lost the plot weeks ago. So cue my surprise when I realized today that our current predicament ties directly into Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun's most urgent concern. I guess Mitsuba's wish and Tsukasa's antics were just red herrings after all. Hanako has been well in control of the situation from the start, and the moment of truth is just delicious. As carefully woven as a film noir, “Keep It Secret” draws from classic science fiction tropes to keep the tension building up until the final climactic moment. Humor and mystery combine to showcase Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun's specific flavor of fantasy worldbuilding at its best.

Nene thinks the answer to getting Hanako out of this fake world is getting as far away from the school—and that strange tower—as possible. But Hanako isn't so sure. You could cut the tension with a knife in this episode's first scene. The fisheye lens shot, which adds visual distance between Nene and Hanako, enhances the unsettling mood. The way the scene played up Hanako's hesitance to follow Nene, I wasn't sure if Hanako could physically cross the barrier of the school gate, even in this fictional world. There's a long, silent moment as Hanako looks toward the tower, hesitating to act even with Nene's hand in his. Knowing what we know by the end of the episode, it's obvious what's running through his head. He's weighing his affection for Nene, who has just opened up to him about the person she likes (who is Hanako himself), against the machinations of his plan. He knows that Nene won't get to “the end of the world,” as she puts it, but he can't say no to her.

Once he takes that pivotal first step, their adventure can begin in earnest as they sample the transportation options around town. Of course, Nene wants to begin by riding double on a bicycle, just like in one of her favorite romance manga. Even when she's trying to save her friends and the world, Nene always has love on her mind. I liked the way this episode portrayed Nene in her “daikon form” each time she got flustered, which was a lot, dialing down the temperature with humor each time—only to raise it again whenever Nene attempted another way out. This mix of serious plot and humor kept me on my toes. Each escape attempt ended with a familiar science fiction trope—each person's face is subsequently replaced with Shijima's. Though I've seen this trope in The Matrix, Ubik by Philip K. Dick, The Truman Show, and others, it was still effective as a chilling visual shorthand to represent each dead end. That crowd of Shijimas on the street made me uneasy as I realized how effortlessly the Fourth School Wonder kept Nene in her trap.

A question I still have after this fourth episode of the “Picture Perfect” arc is, who was wielding the helpful paintbrush? I was caught right up with Nene in a first impulse to doubt the brush whose holder I couldn't see… only to soon realize that the real danger was a character whose face I knew well. It all clicked into place for me along with that sharp crack of the brush in Hanako's hand. What makes Hanako-kun such an intriguing character is that there is always a part of him that remains unknowable. He's a paradox. Physically a teen but over fifty years old in his ghost form. Playful and kind, but a murderer. How could I have missed that in this fictional world, the character of the living schoolboy Amane might be a fiction as well? Sure enough, it's Hanako-kun as we know him under that innocent disguise, and he's anything but Nene's ally in this fight.

Kou and Mitsuba get way less screen time in this episode, but they appear right as things are getting good. Mitsuba senses something is amiss even seconds before Hanako appears but it takes Kou some time to switch from sheer relief over being reunited with Hanako to the dawning realization that Hanako's the problem—and has been the problem from the start. His intention to preserve Nene's life eternally in fiction is sweet but misguided. Still, where does Tsukasa fit into this puzzle? I still don't know where this is going, but discovering that this whole arc has been about Nene's fate, rather than another delay on that crucial storyline, has me completely on board.

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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.