REVIEW: ‘Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun’ Season 2 Episode 3 — “Lost and Found”

Everything is fine and dandy for Nene Yashiro (Akari Kitō), but the rest of the Seven Wonder-busting crew has different agendas in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 3, “Lost and Found.” With Nene not having long to live, Kou Minamoto (Shōya Chiba)  struggles to deal with this truth. Nene is happy and jolly, unaware of her short lifespan, and searches for Hanako (Megumi Ogata) to show off her love letter. But, for some reason she can’t find Hanako-kun anywhere.

The heartbreak following the news that Nene is going to die soon continues. It’s gut-wrenching to see Kou’s genuine emotions as he trains and looks for ways to save Nene from her grim fate. This is almost as emotional as Peter Parker erasing everyone’s knowledge of his real identity, even his friends, in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Kou is the only human burdened with this revelation, or is he? He even visits the Fifth Wonder, the 4 O-clock Library, Tsuchigomori (Kenjiro Tsuda) to get advice on how to save Nene.

Despite Tsuchigomori being annoyed at Kou’s request for something inevitable, he tries to help by escalating other matters. The 4 pm Bookstacks contains books about every student’s past, present, and future, whose door is only accessible at 4 pm. Tsuchigomori manages the books, which come in three colors: white books record the living, black books record the dead, and red books contain the future and are forbidden to read. Tsuchigomori shows Kou Nene’s white book, revealing what will happen to her.

Kou copes with the news about Nene in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 3.

Kou reads the white book and sees, “Nene will share her first kiss with Hanako.” Immediately, Kou flushes red and quickly runs to find Nene to potentially stop this from happening since he clearly cares for her. The only other person to know Nene will die soon is none other than the best exorcist of Kanome Academy, Teru Minamoto (Yuma Uchida).

Nene passes by the student council room to ask Akane Aoi (Shun’ichi Toki) of Hanako’s whereabouts, only to find Akane trapped in a small square the size of his body with an ofuda talisman stuck to it. Akane explains how Teru was mad about the trouble caused by The Clock Keepers on the same day. This is a really interesting continuity drop for the episode, telling the audience that this is still the same school day that the first two episodes of this season covered.

In one of the last scenes of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 3, Teru implies to Akane that he knows Nene will die soon and will do nothing to stop her impending destiny. This sets up more conflict between siblings as Kou, Teru’s younger brother, is doing everything he can to save Nene.” Again, Kou is very naive about many things in life, being the youngest in the core cast. But you can’t help but root for him to try to save Nene, especially since the trauma of losing his friend Mitsuba.

The fun part of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 3 is watching Nene visit and get visited by previously-introduced spirits/Wonders. Yako (Yukana), the Second Wonder of The Misaki Stairs, confronts Nene about how Nene changed the rumors of her Boundary. For the most part, Nene dusts off her change because she knows it’s for the better and has already taken care of Yako’s yorishiro. So, Yako’s threats are empty.

Hanako and Nene’s relationship takes a step forward. 

Kodama (Ryōtarō Okiayu), aka The Confession Tree, is the supernatural being that annoys Nene in this episode. Kodama is still the size of a broccoli, living as a potted plant now as a punishment for meddling in too many school romances. When Kodama sees Nene, he instantly insults her by calling her “thick ankles.” This is a funny moment because Nene threatens to snip Kodama into even smaller pieces, making this one of the only times Nene actually has the power to kill something.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 3 spices things up with Hanako and Nene’s first “kiss.” Through their relationship we realize that Hanako is trying to be vulnerable again. Hanako’s feelings are beginning to leak through his hard-to-read facade, which is making it clearer that an apparition may be able to be considerate of a human life.

This final scene solidifies how much Hanako and Nene care for each other and presents a bittersweet theory about their future. If Nene dies, technically, she can be with Hanako for eternity. But if she lives, the relationship could get weird when she grows up, and Hanako stays the same age physically speaking. This could lead to Nene ending up dating Kou in the future, regardless of whether she has a one-sided crush on his older brother.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 3 highlights how some of the humans and spirits are dealing with Nene’s impending grim fate. While Nene remains left out of the information about her short lifespan, this major fact will eventually leak out. This is a significant episode for setting up many potential conflicts in the near future.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 3 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.