REVIEW: ‘Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun’ Season 2 Episode 2 — “The Three Clock Keepers”

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2, “The Three Clock Keepers,” is one of the most shocking episodes to date. With the three Clock Keepers revealed, a big truth comes out. Episode 2 really shows the mastery of storytelling and character development from the authors of the manga Aidalro. It also shows how well Studio Lerche is adapting the story.

Episode 2 immediately continues when Hanako (Megumi Ogata) attempts to drop a chandelier on Nene Yashiro’s (Akari Kitō) best friend, Aoi Akane, in order to weed out one of the Clock Keepers. Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2 confirms that Akane Aoi is the new manifestation of the second Clock Keeper Genzai, who is able to stop time. When Aoi is safe and sound, Akane and the rest of the protagonists head to the nurses to drop off the unconscious Aoi.

At the nurse’s office, Akane details his backstory of becoming a Clock Keeper. After getting rejected by Aoi to go out with Akane, he sees a glass pane shatter over Aoi, and he runs over to save her. It is revealed here that Mirai is the culprit, and Kako appears to offer Akane the “power over time,” which would allow him to save his childhood crush. Akane learns later on that he’s annoyed the Clock Keepers did that just so they could recruit him through a contract ending when he graduates high school.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2 shows Akane as a very observant and opinionated character. He calls out Hanako as someone similar to the Clock Keepers, and rightfully so, as Hanako is also a Seven Wonder who roped Nene into his contract with her.

Kou Minamoto (Shōya Chiba) also scolds Hanako for using drastic measures to lure out a Clock Keeper here and also agrees with Akane’s observation of Hanako’s mistreatment of Nene. Akane goes on to insult Hanako about being a murderer when he was a human being, stating that “dead people can’t come back to life,” and thus, they can’t really change their personalities. Akane is adamant in saying that apparitions don’t really care about the living.

Despite the smoke and shade Akane throws at Hanako, Hanako is even more amused. Ultimately, the bunch agree that Mirai is the culprit they have to capture—right as she stirs up more trouble by turning more students old. Funnily enough, Mirai is in the candy bag the Mokke were eating through as the others were making plans to capture her.

Mirai is shown to be a toddler who is very quick and elusive while everyone tries to grab her. Kou manages to restrain her but speeds up his age, too. However, Kou only becomes a few years older, as Hanako points out. It must be because of his exorcist lineage that Mirai’s powers are lessened. Mirai gets away through the hallways, and Nene jokingly runs into the hallway, asking Mirai to make her hotter after seeing an aged-up Kou.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2 proves Nene is the smartest of the bunch, regardless if her plan is related to catching a hamster. Akane throws more shade at Mirai’s stupidity and lack of intelligence, comparing her to a mouse both mentally and physically. It’s very condescending, but it’s these comments that Nene gets the idea. Based on what Akane and Nene know about Mirai, she explains they’ll lure Mirai into a trap using candy.

The team executes the plan successfully, with Kou using his lightning trap to cage Mirai; it’s also surprisingly huge. He explains that he’s almost as powerful as his older brother Teru because Kou is older now, but he admits he is still not as skilled. This implies that exorcists get a little magic buff as they get older, but it still requires the magic-user to know the skills to execute the plan well.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2 proves Nene is the one to watch out for.

In Akane’s condescending fashion, he stops time within the cage, explaining that Kou’s “pathetic” ten-second cage is now a solid five-minute cage with his additional time powers. While Mirai is unaffected by Akane’s time-stop power, she is contained. That’s until she jumps at Nene and tries to speed up her age too. Unfortunately for Mirai, her powers don’t work on Nene, and her fast-forward power ends up knocking Nene unconscious instead. This is where Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2 drops a major truth bomb.

Mirai points out that her power didn’t work on Nene because Nene mustn’t have any lifespan left to fast-forward. This shocks Kou and Akane but strangely not Hanako. The third Clock Keeper, Kako, appears and immediately changes Kou back to normal, as he has the power to turn back time. Hanako doesn’t sugarcoat the truth that he knew that Nene only has less than a year to live.

Hanako goes on to explain that it makes sense why Nene was able to contact him in the first place since only those with gifts, like Kou and those close to death, could see him. Almost immediately after telling everyone this mind-blowing insight, Hanako instructs Kako to turn back time to the morning before the incident. He adds that the incident shouldn’t have happened if Mirai hadn’t interfered.

Before Kako does so, Kou strongly voices his opinion that he’s going to save Nene from that fate no matter the cost. Hanako tries to explain that everyone has their due date, and they all have to accept that. Hanako even goes as far as to reference Kou’s best friend Mitsuba, who was killed in a car accident, to connect the dots so that everyone has time to go. This is a very mature conversation for a middle schooler to grasp, but it also fuels Kou’s resolve because he says he doesn’t want that to happen again.

As if the twists weren’t enough in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2, Akane admires Kou’s resolve to do the unthinkable and stops Kou’s time during Kako’s reset of the time back to the morning before the incident. In a peculiar way, Akane tells Kou that he’s trying to gain Aoi’s love, which is impossible, so it’s similar to Kou doing the impossible, too.

Kako resets the time, and Kou is the only human who remembers everything. Everyone tells Nene they solved the incident without her. While life seems to carry on for Kanome Academy, Nene is left with more questions. Again, she’s very intelligent in wondering what the Clock Keepers’ weakness or yorishiro is.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2 builds out its story for setting up this impending ticking time clock on Nene’s lifespan. But it also fleshes out everyone except Nene. Kou realizes his true powers, and also has more agency now that he has a purpose to save Nene. It’s cool to see a preview of one of Kou’s bigger magic spells when he gets older.

Akane is another character in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2, whose character gets more fleshed out for the better. He’s not simply a guy who constantly asks his neighbour Aoi out on a date; he is willing to become a Clock Keeper to save Aoi’s life. Also, he’s a hard-to-read character who is mostly condescending about people, but he makes good points about how Hanako is using Nene and got roped into a contract with Hanako in a similar way that Akane got into a contract.

Akane is also stuck on the concept that apparitions can’t change who they are from when they were living. This is one of the many theories from ghost stories, where spirits continue to haunt the living until they can finish their business with the living or find some resolution to how they died.

Akane brings up the point that Hanako killed someone in their current life, so he can’t be trusted. It’s a closed way of thinking about people, but it’s easy for him to reach this conclusion about not trusting Hanako. He’s also trying to help Nene and Kou by stating the obvious to get them to realize that.

New moments from Hanako reveal how perplexing his character is.

Speaking of Hanako, he is another perplexing character. In his argument with Kou, he explains that there’s not much to tell Nene. He elaborates further by sharing that he told Nene to live out her remaining days to the fullest is doing her a favor by allowing her not to know when her time is up and allowing her to make her choices as anyone else should.

This is the same Hanako who used a human life and dropped a chandelier to attempt to lure out the Clock Keepers. This conversation muddies the waters, making it unclear how much Hanako values human lives and if he cares about living people despite being an apparition himself.

Hanako also adds a small comment at the end of the conversation that implies he has tried to save someone before. All of this is to say that he does have a heart somewhere, despite what Akane and Kou believe about him being an apparition without a human moral compass. Hanako is also unfazed by insults thrown at him, and he’s never vindictive towards people. Is it that he has a strong will, or he just doesn’t care enough about hurtful words when there’s a task at hand? Or is he strictly protective of Nene like Akane is of Aoi?

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2 solidifies the exemplary work of tackling these adult themes of death when the characters are so young. It’s very similar to how Made in Abyss has young children going through the worst outcomes. Episode 2 is a great example of subverting expectations, too, where many stories would’ve also wiped out Kou’s memories. But now, Kou has a mission to achieve for the series going forward.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 2 is a perfect episode full of fun moments and shocking twists that build out character motivations and backstories. Nene, Hanako, and Kou will have intense conversations as they navigate this newfound piece of information.

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