REVIEW: ‘Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun’ Season 2 Cour 1 Is An Unorthodox Story of Life & Death

Studio Lerche does it again for Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2, bringing the mangaka Aidalro’s unique art style in vibrant colors to tell a deeper mystery, a rom-com occult story. Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 expands the genre through its distinct style of silly gags and developing its complex character relationships. The ending provides a natural course for Nene Yashiro (Akari Kitō) and her friends for the future. It also displays the animators’ hard work for the past five years.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 continues following the occult-loving high schooler Nene. In Season 1, she accidentally bonds with Kanome Academy’s mischievous ghost, Hanako-kun (Megumi Ogata), when she knocks on the bathroom stall door in the girls’ bathroom asking for a wish. In Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2, Nene, Hanako, and her exorcist-in-training underclassman, Kou Minamoto (Shōya Chiba), embark on a supernatural journey to keep the peace between the spirits and the students.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2’s theme focuses heavily on what the apparitions believe, that they know what the living want, and how the living characters come to terms with the reality of their situation. These concepts envelop the powers of the twin brothers, where Hanako grants wishes for the living while Tsukasa Yugi (Megumi Ogata) grants wishes for the dead. Even with some pacing issues, the spotlight on Nene and Hanako’s growing bond and the addition of more agency to the series’ side characters enhance the overarching storytelling of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2.

In a different fashion from the first season, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 is broken into two to three arcs. The first arc introduces the First Wonder(s), the Three Clock Keepers, and Teru Minamoto’s friend and vice-president of the high school, Akane Aoi (Shun’ichi Toki), one of the Three Clock Keepers.

The characters grow in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2.

The main takeaway of the first arc of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 gives Kou more agency as he learns about Nene’s fate and that she will die in less than a year. Kou is written as a weaker sidekick for Nene and Hanako in Season 1, but the first couple of episodes force him to step up when Nene doesn’t know about her impending death. He finally realizes his new mission is to save his best friends, Nene and Mitsuba Sōsuke (Daiki Kobayashi).

The second arc begins to slow down the pace of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 but isn’t egregiously filler material. Episodes 3 and 4 wind down the intense pacing after the big reveal that Nene will die soon and instead focus on Kou figuring out how to save his friends.

As Kou works on a solution to save his friends, Hanako and Nene develop a deeper bond. When Nene stumbles into an alternate universe of a past summer festival, she learns more about Hanako’s life when he was alive in 1964 and known as the young boy Amane Yugi. Amane reveals he wants to be an astronaut when he grows up, which is a running theme the show keeps reminding us about.

The third arc begins in the latter half of Episode 5, which centers around Mitsuba and introduces the Fourth Wonder, Shijima Mei of the Art Room (Kana Hanazawa). For the rest of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2, Nene and Kou devise a plan to escape Shijima’s fake world as they learn more truths surrounding their closest friends.

Studio Lerche is at the top of their game with the second season’s eye-catching animation.

The color palette is unparalleled by any modern series. Where the real world uses warmer color tones, the fake world in the third arc utilizes cooler colors to contrast the fictional world with the real one. Using colors to contrast the real and fake world works for the storytelling of the second half of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Season 2. 

Hanako fights tooth and nail to keep Nene in the sandboxed world because she’ll be able to live forever in the perfect world crafted by the Fourth Wonder. While unorthodox, the commentary presents the idea that a fake world is safe with sunshine and rainbows and the real world is grim and unpredictable.

However, Nene fights hard to convince Hanako that keeping her in the fake world is not the ultimate solution to her upcoming expiration date. She tells him there’s another solution waiting in the real world, going as far as wishing she’ll live until she’s 90—knowing Hanako grants wishes to the living. Nene learns all about the mistakes of trying to outlive death in a fantasy world through the Fourth Wonder, which is a smart way to weave another character’s backstory as a solution to the main plot.

Sometimes, the series beats around the bush with what the characters say to one another. Third Wonder Mitsuba and Kou still have unresolved issues. Kou admits to Third Wonder Mitsuba that he wants to save the Mitsuba who once lived, but the Third Wonder explains that’s impossible. Kou also intends to help Third Wonder Mitsuba find happiness, but Kou doesn’t have the solution.

While Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun isn’t known for being an action-packed anime, there are stints of monumental fights. Kou distracts Hanako by fighting him so the others can figure out an escape route to the real world. When fights occur in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2, the stakes never feel too high.

Hanako never kills anyone, especially not Nene’s friends. But there’s a specific human element when characters in the series resort to fighting. Each person fights to get their point across or to stop another character’s action from interfering with their decision. Primarily, fights occur as a last resort when characters are misunderstood.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 charms its way through some rough pacing patches with animation eye candy drizzled everywhere. For a series that only has 12 episodes, there’s a lot of time to flesh out characters. Despite having some fluffy material to pad up the season, the subtle hints sprinkled into these fragmented moments feel rewarding by the end.

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