JIBAKU SHOUNEN HANAKO-KUN

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionJibaku Shounen Hanako-kun
TV SHORT ComedyHoukago Shounen Hanako-kun
ANIME ActionJibaku Shounen Hanako-kun 2nd Season

REVIEWS

• 

  desudesuanimu

  87/100
  aesthetic visuals and amazing art style

  The art style is so lovely and unique! Nene’s design is absolutely adorable and Hanako is one of my favorite characters of all time. He’s funny and mysterious and the two protagonists have this great chemistry. My favorite thing about the series ist the influence of supernatural, Japanese folklore, and mystery that are supported by amazing visuals. The manga is pretty to look at and entertaining as we follow Hanako and Nene to a world of dangerous creatures and mysteries. The anime also adapts the art style pretty well and makes use of darker colors and contrasts. The music and especially, the opening is amazing!

  
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  Honestly, I just want to print out all the artworks of the manga and tape my wall with them. The character’s eyes and clothes are drawn so well and I like their colorful hairstyles (Hanako’s hair is just dark but still love him). There’s also quite a lot of comedy in both the manga and the anime and it felt genuine. It didn’t disrupt the scenery and dark vibe but it did make the story a bit more light-hearted and a little less dark and disturbing. As a reader, I wanted to know more about Hanako’s past and what happened to him and while there are a lot of hints the suspense kept me going. I wanted to read and watch more.
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  The premise of Toilet-bound Hanako-Kun wasn’t something completely new but it is fun and presented nicely. The strong suit of this manga lies in its visuals and character design and as for the anime, it was great that they did their best to stick to the original art style. Some of the supportive characters didn’t feel that interesting to me but they were still well done and played their part. In my opinion, sometimes it’s the flat characters that make the other characters stand out more and that’s necessarily bad. The animation is great as well and conveys the atmosphere pretty well. I also liked how they drew the expressions and the background art is reminiscent of the manga. The voice acting is done nicely as well in both English and Japanese and as I mentioned before, the music was really good as well. 
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  The series was fun to watch and I’m hoping for the next season! As for the manga, I haven’t quite finished it yet but I love it so far and I recommend checking it out. Especially, if you’re into supernatural stories with funny moments and cute characters. You could say that it also includes some horror elements but I wouldn’t call it scary. Toilet-bound Hanako-Kun doesn't seem to be underrated per se but I still feel like many people don't know about it yet. I think that this may be one of my all-time favorite manga and I’d recommend giving it a chance.
  
  Thank you for reading!
  
  Patsie

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• 

  Tiredluny

  75/100
  Neat aesthetic and unique artstyle, but a cliche plot

  (Second review ever! I'm getting it now)
  Toilet-bound Hanako-kun is a fine anime. I don't dislike it, but don't love it either. The manga is really good but both of them suffer from the same thing, lack of depth in it's plot, so if you are here for a complex story this anime is not for you at all.
  First let's talk about things that I really liked:

  • fun situations
  • cool pacing and aesthetic
  • unique artstyle
  • well balanced chemistry between Hanako and Yashiro
  • interesting character dynamics and interactions

  Synopsis (from wikipedia): Kamome Academy is famous for its rumors regarding its Seven Mysteries and supernatural occurrences. Nene Yashiro, a first-year high-school student who loves the occult and wishes for a boyfriend, summons the Seventh and most famous Mystery, "Hanako-san of the Toilet", a girl who allegedly haunts the bathroom and can grant wishes for the right price. Upon summoning her, Yashiro discovers that "Hanako-san" is nothing like the rumors say; Hanako is a boy. With a turn of events, she is spiritually bound to Hanako and becomes his assistant, helping him destroy evil supernaturals and change rumors in order to maintain the balance between the spirit world and the human world.

  Now with that said time to beginn
  Let's admit it, what sold it is the gorgeous colors and artstyle, and they don't disappoint! It's a very unique experience watching it but I'm not going to lie, the animation itself feels static, with some shots that barely move at all. It's an artistic liberty they took and I fully understand that, but I can't help but find it kinda lazy.
  Aside from that, what I really like about this anime is it's aesthetic, and the art definetly contributes to that with amazing color palletes. All of its elements fit really well the whole mystical japanese legends theme and is overall really immersive.

  I just wish the plot made a good use of all of these elements and made a genuinely great anime, because it HAD the potential.
  The problem is that nothing emotional happens, aside from the main characters no side character is well developed (Mitsuba is an exception, and is not even that good). They introduce us interesting characters like Yako, Aoi and that spider dude just to forget about them. None of them are useful to the plot.
  In the end the story is overused and super cliche despite the solid start.

  This leads to another point I want to make, Amane doesn't seem threatening enough in this anime. I haven't feel hatred nor wanted to call him a bastard one single time. In the manga on other hand.... I hated him. And that's what makes a good villain.
  I feel like the anime had this need to make him look like a psycho uwu babey and kinda forgot to make him an evil asshole. If he works as antagonist? Yeah he works, just not that well.

  Aside from all that I don't have anything to critique. The comedy can be very funny at times and I love the characters.
  It is a light-hearted and weird universe and I like it.

  Conclusion, I would recommend this anime to you but I recognize it has it's flaws. Perhaps I'm being too kind because I'm emotionally attached to the manga but I'm trying to remain "professional".
  If you are interested by the artstyle, sure, go watch it.
  But if you are expecting a serious anime it isn't the right show for you.
  Byee~

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• 

  Aniosophy

  75/100
  Unfortunately, the story is nowhere near as consistent as its aesthetic

  

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  TL;DR: Not a bad anime, just, unfortunately, the only reason you should watch this is for the aesthetic.
  Intro:
  Guys, I really wanted to like this show more, from the trailers you might expect a rich intriguing mystery surrounding ghost and other supernatural phenomenon (at least I did), but unfortunately, that is not really what you get here. Of course, these are aspects the narrative tries to incorporate, but ultimately it is significantly brought down by an entire cast of characters who stay just as one-note as they begin, and by a plot that is so disorganized as it randomly meanders from one seemingly unconnected side story to the next, that any semblance of an overarching narrative is unfortunately lost in the clutter. I don't feel like this is an anime that necessitates a long review like many of the other series I have reviewed, thus I'm going to try to condense some areas and make this review shorter than usual, so here we go.

  

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  Story:
  The biggest glaring flaws regarding this series are connected to arguably the two largest pieces in any series, the characters and the story, so let's start with the latter one first. The biggest problem to me with the story in this twelve episode anime is that there isn't one, there genuinely is not a single narrative thread that is strongly maintained throughout the entire season. The show starts off with our main character named Yashiro, a first-year high school girl who decides to meet a well-known spirit trapped in the school who goes by the name Hanako-kun (hence the title), because this spirit is known for granting wishes in exchange for an equal price being paid, and after inevitable hijinks play out in the first episode, Yashiro inevitably falls into the debt of Hanako-kun and now must spend the remainder of her time (they literally do not say how long) working off this debt.

  So, you might think that naturally a straightforward premise like this might be followed by a straightforward narrative where Yashiro spends the rest of her time paying off this debt, and you would be absolutely wrong. This premise is almost immediately thrown so far back on the list of importance that it is never brought up again unless it is convenient to the plot. Instead, the show spends the majority of its time jumping from one side story to another, so much so that you would almost consider this series episodic, except for the random few times characters call back to previous events, reminding you that there is a set order to these otherwise unconnected side stories. It genuinely feels like the narrative of this season couldn't decide if it wanted to focus on a single goal, or be a conglomerate of a bunch of side stories, and instead, it fails at both of these tasks by not committing to either of them.

  

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  Characters:
  There is then also the characters, which are infuriating because of how little they progress throughout the entire season. Every main character in this series basically ends in the same place they began, maintaining the exact same personality virtually the entire way through. Of course, there are conflicts during this series that as expected invoke a variety of different reactions within all of our main characters, however, none of these changes last the rest of the season, since these conflicts are almost always immediately resolved in the same episode they arise in. Other than the ones that are intrinsically tied to the premise of this series, there are zero lasting consequences for any of the decisions any of our main characters make. For brief moments you almost think there are, but they are almost immediately undone by later events within the same episodes. In fact, the only thing more infuriating about all of this in regards to the characters, is that throughout the series there are hints that there could be more. Throughout the entire season, the narrative leads you on with little moments hinting that there might be more to these characters, but ultimately nothing comes from it, and that is the critical downfall for these characters in my opinion.

  

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  The Look & Sound:
  Like I said at the beginning, by far the most enjoyable and interesting part of this anime is its aesthetic. Everything from the thick black lines outlining almost everything, to the cutesy designs for all of the characters, to the bold color palette used to fill in everything on screen, everything about this anime’s aesthetic is extremely appealing to the eyes, and honestly, it is this aesthetic that carried the majority of my interest for this anime while I watched it. I really can't understate how influential the entire look of this anime was in convincing me to finish this series once I already started it. Throughout all of the times I became disinterested in the characters, or the times I became empathetic to the convoluted plot, the beautiful animation and aesthetic present throughout this entire season always kept me coming back for more.

  There is also the music for this series, and while it is by no means groundbreaking when it comes to the plethora of anime focused on high school, it does significantly enhance the aesthetic this series has the entire way through. While some might consider the music cliche at times, ultimately I felt it did add a nice layer of cuteness and light hardness in all the scenes that warranted it, while also enhancing the few serious or intimate scenes that are within this season, so in this regard, the OST executed it’s job quite nicely. The OP and ED were also nice additions to the soundtrack of this anime, the OP does a great job highlighting the playfulness throughout this entire season, while the ED highlights a slightly more somber note, which is typical in high school anime. To me personally, while the ED was definitely more typical and in some ways cliche considering this is an anime centering around a high school, ultimately I did find it to be the more enjoyable one of the two.

  

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  Conclusion:
  In the end, while I did quite enjoy the visual and audio aspects of this anime, ultimately its biggest flaws are the aimless narrative and undeveloped characters that are entangled with these aspects. Which is quite disappointing, I promise, like most people who started watching this while it aired, I went into this with pretty high expectations because of the very well put together trailers, however, the series ultimately didn't turn out the way I feel many of us expected it to. I don't necessarily think the plot or characters are so far gone that they cannot be salvage in future seasons, (so who knows, maybe in later seasons this show can become much better), but as of right now this is how I feel.

  All of this is why I ultimately finding myself giving the series a 75/100, and honestly the only reason that it is not getting a 70/100 is because I truly did really enjoy the aesthetic of this series, but an entire show cannot be carried alone on aesthetic. If you are willing to read the manga afterwards where it theoretically can fix some of these problems, or if you are into it just for the aesthetic, by all means, go right ahead and embark on this journey, but otherwise, I wouldn't particularly recommend watching this series. If you ended up enjoying it great, but as for me this is where it ends, so until the next review, じゃあね👋

  
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