REVIEW: ‘Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun’ Season 2 Episode 5 — “Mokke of the Dead / The Melancholy of the New Number Three”

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 5, “Mokke of the Dead / The Melancholy of the New Number Three”, feels more like its spin-off series After-School Hanako-kun. These two stories focused more on scenes with characters who’ve been overlooked throughout the season so far. The first story is less consequential than the second. By the end of the episode, it leaves off with a major cliffhanger—revealing the Fourth School Wonder.

The first part of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 5 begins with an artistic animation choice to shoot most of it in black-and-white, with the shadows being vibrantly colored and the edges maintaining dark and heavy lines outlining each person. This opposes the show’s regular animation style, which predominantly uses vibrant colors in the background and its characters and emphasizes shadows with lighter color tones.

Immediately, it worked with the theme of this episode’s story because it parodied either the game The House of the Dead or the classic George A. Romero film Night of the Living Dead. In the fitting tonal fashion of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun, the zombies plaguing Kanome Academy aren’t zombies who want to eat brains or bite their flesh. The students turn into zombies who crave candy. As you may have guessed, the culprits are the mokke—and someone else that won’t be spoiled here.

The first tale might not advance the plot but it puts your through a rollercoaster of emotions. On the one hand, this part of the episode has nothing to do with the main plot to save Nene Yashiro from her impending death. On the other hand, the animation style is creative and pays homage to the aforementioned inspirational works.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 5 plays with new animation styles. 

In addition to having a fresh stylistic animation choice for this side story, it was a great way for Teru Minamoto and Nene to bond in a way they don’t get to during the chaos of the main plot. Here, Teru and Nene save the day together in a way where the characters use their cunning to figure out how to cure the whole school of what they call the zombie outbreak, “the Will-ting.”

Despite her feelings for Teru, Nene isn’t playing the role of damsel in distress. She contributed to helping find the cure with her thorough experimentation. Teru’s quick-thinking worked hand-in-hand with hers to end the candy-craving apocalypse.

It presents Teru in a new light, too, because he’s always the stuck-up, one-note, serious brother who’s trying to exorcise apparitions without a second thought. While Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 5, “Mokke of the Dead,” ends on a happy note for Teru and the others, the next part has Teru resort back to his ways of being the serious older brother exorcist. But it kind of makes sense.

Mitsuba continues to miss his life as a human. 

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 5, “The Melancholy of the New Number Three,” re-introduces audiences back to the supposed antagonists of the show. Kou Minamoto’s friend, Mitsuba, who died, is still dreading his forced role as the new Third School Wonder. It doesn’t help him feel better when his posse is Hanako’s younger, conniving identical twin brother Tsukasa and Tsukasa’s lackeys Sakura Nanmine and Natsuhiko Hyūga.

Other than the reveal of the Fourth Wonder, the exchange between Teru and Mitsuba is the only other significant plot point of this episode. It’s possibly teasing a bittersweet end for Mitsuba’s storyline in the near future. When Mitsuba is moping around and talking to himself about missing being a living human, Teru finds him and nearly kills him. Or rather, exorcise him.

Teru’s main argument is that apparitions who cling to becoming human again are usually the most dangerous ones. It’s a fair point, considering there are many ghost stories and horror films to back up Teru’s claims. Take a look at The Grudge/Ju-On: The Grudge. However, knowing what we know about Mitsuba and Kou’s relationship and how Kou is trying to save both Nene and Mitsuba makes this interaction more heartbreaking. Teru goes as far as stabbing Mitsuba with a sword meant to slay apparitions.

Kou moves closer to saving Mitsuba and Nene. 

Luckily, Natsuhiko saves Mitsuba in a way that breaks up the show’s tension and returns Teru from his apparition-slaying frenzy. When Natsuhiko and Mitsuba return to the broadcasting room with Tsukasa and Sakura, Tsukasa reveals he captured the Fourth Wonder—a young student with short pigtails. Mitsuba’s last line of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 5, “I’ll make everyone’s wishes come true,” is both ominous and hopeful.

This line can be taken as ominous because Mitsuba could be working to make himself human again, and he may force the Fourth Wonder to help him. However, it is also hopeful that Kou may rescue the Fourth Wonder and potentially get his wish to save Nene and Mitsuba.

Perhaps the Fourth Wonder has to do with granting wishes. It might not be in the same way as Hanako, but it might be a different way. It could be possible that the Fourth Wonder will be able to sew an apparition to a living or dead body, which would allow Mitsuba to live in the world of the living again.

While Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2 Episode 5 begins as a side story, it cleverly weaves a plot thread for what’s to come for both the protagonists and antagonists. The story should soon be back on track in advancing the main plot — especially now that a new School Wonder has entered the fray.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Episode 5 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.