REVIEW: ‘Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun’ Season 2 Episode 1 — “Hanako-kun of the Bathroom”

The mokke and everyone’s favourite daikon girlie is back to team up with their Seven Wonders-busting crew in this fan-favourite supernatural comedy anime by Studio Lerche. Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun (Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun) Season 2 Episode 1, “Hanako-kun of the Bathroom,” spares no time recapping the first season’s events.

High school student Nene Yashiro (Akari Kitō) and the Seventh Wonder of Kamome Academy Seven Wonders Hanako (Megumi Ogata), along with third-year middle school student/exorcist Kou Minamoto (Shōya Chiba), continue to destroy the yorishiro of each school Wonder.

Having destroyed the Second and Fifth Wonder’s yorishiro, their source of power, Nene and her crew are closer to finding the traitor within the Seven Wonders that Hanako claims are amongst them. Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 1 does a great job of providing a recap in an artistically re-enacted way. Nene explains the major plot points from season one through a puppet show. This is a key benefit for a first episode since the first season aired almost five years ago.

While its spin-off After-school Hanako-kun came out with short episodes to fill the main series’ gap years, Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 1 shows off all the crisp animation fans adored from season one. The clarity and detail are just as good as the first go-around. The mokke are always in the background, up to their own thing, for viewers who love watching them try on new clothes and bump into each other.

The trio gets ready to find the First of the Seven Wonders.

The story continues with Nene, Hanako, and Kou searching for the First Seven Wonder because they notice strange rapid aging is wreaking havoc in Nene and Kou’s school lives. Unfortunately, Hanako explains that he hadn’t seen the First Wonder for a long time. The First Wonder is the Three Clock Keepers who guard the clock tower of Kamome Academy and control time. The Clock Keepers are dangerous because they can easily kill students off by aging them faster than normal.

The first Clock Keeper, Kako, controls the past and can rewind time; the second, Genzai, can stop time; and the third one, Mirai, can speed up time. Based on the rapidly aging stories Hanako hears, he assumes it must be the Mirai’s mischief. Nene, Hanako, and Kou set out to find clues about the whereabouts of any of the clock keepers. The main lead is that Nene’s best friend, Aoi Akane, is one of them.

The confrontation between Nene and Aoi is where things get interesting from an animation and story aspect. There’s a unique use of Hanako being able to force Nene’s soul to leave her body so he can possess her body. What makes this scene of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 1 cool from an animation standpoint is how her soul lingers by her body.

Nene’s body is a fascinating blend of Hanako’s character design mixed with Nene’s body after Hanako takes it over. Nene is very cute here as she wants her body back, and whenever she’s screaming, her ghostly character design resembles an anime-style ghost emoji.

Hanako is smart to take over Nene’s body as he tries to seduce Aoi, forcing her to reveal her secret. You read that right, seduce. This gets a little weird and sexual, but the scene goes by a bit quickly to get to the next story beat—and for the better. It’s a bit strange to depict these young high school students being this hyper-sexualized. Regardless, this ordeal reveals a new male character, Akane Aoi, who is Aoi’s neighbor and childhood friend who keeps asking her out.

Despite Akane’s attempts to ask Aoi out multiple times a day, Aoi keeps rejecting him and will do anything to protect her. Multiple times, Akane protects Aoi throughout their lives, which is shown through the cutely drawn memories of Aoi. The classic white filter and bordering show this well. The introduction of Akane makes him out to be an obsessive psychopath-stalker type of person who seems to be endearing to Aoi but creepy to the other characters and audience. By the end of the episode, Akane’s shallow backstory gains some depth—providing some mystique to his motives.

With Nene, Hanako, and Kou confronting Akane, one of the Clock Keepers, the next episode should end with some exposition as to what’s been happening to the students at Kamome Academy and who’s doing it. Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun has a lot of mystery-solving elements like a Sherlock Holmes tale, so chances are that Akane is not the culprit; it might be one of the other Clock Keepers. But, like most mysteries, the truth is not always so simple.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 1 is a strong start back after 3 years away.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 1 gets off to a strong start, showing off a wide array of animation techniques and transitions to improve the viewing experience. Each change-up in animation style clearly outlines the examples and memories of each character’s story, whether using flatter character models or a crayon-esque look to the flashback.

Putting Aoi’s life in danger is not only clever writing from the mystery angle but also when it comes to story-pacing. These five or so minutes of built-up tension drive the episode home to offer up an action scene.

The beginning and end of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 1 establishes the following story threads sufficiently. The episode teases a lot more exposition required to unveil the rest of the Clock Keepers later on and most likely hints at more about Hanako’s backstory, too.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 1 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.