New Anime

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun) 2 – 20






Another absolute gem of a Hanako-kun episode to mostly be ignored (or at least not discussed). This series has been on an incredible run lately – some of the absolute best material of the entire series, and that’s a high bar. It strikes me that G Fantasy is incredibly lucky to have its two signature series adaptations built around a truly incredible seiyuu. Sakamoto Maaya’s work speaks for itself (and of course her Kuroshitsuji partner played a prominent role in this episode). As for Ogata Megumi, her work in this series is sort of in its own category. Stylistically Ogata and Sakamoto could hardly be more different, but they both manage to pull off virtual perfection with a brilliantly-written character(s).

At the heart of much of this episode, however, is Kou (and Chiba Shouya’s work deserves much praise as well). Kou is a figure I find particularly poignant – he’s so guileless and (sorry) pure. He and Nene both, and they’re together for a few moments at the start of the episode. They stumble upon the little boy we saw last week, and she decides that it must be a descendent of Hanako-kun’s (I’m not even sure how that would work). Kou-kun has other ideas but Nene has the bit in her teeth. She scoops the toddler up in her arms and declares that she’s taking him outside, though he warns her that he’s not allowed.



That’s the last we see of Nene for this ep, anyway. The child declares that she was “taken”, but that Kou can leave if he wants to – that’s allowed. He briefly considers it – going outside and phoning his brother for help – but decides he can’t risk never being able to find his way back in. The path is forward, to rescue Nene. The boy – who Kou correctly assumes to be Yagi Tsukasa – more or less invites himself along for the trip. Even if Kou-kun declines to hold his hand

What follows is more or less a trip through Kou’s subconscious. And while the idea if going inside the head of a 14 year-old boy sounds terrifying, Kou is so transparent that it’s nothing of the sort. What the Red House does, as Kou soon figures out, is grant wishes. Food, a cool weapon for rescuing senpais, you name it and it’s on offer. Yagi-kun keeps asking uncomfortable questions about who Kou loves – when the house offers up Sousuke, Tsukasa accuses Kou of two-timing. But it’s when Kou’s mother shows up that these questions get really difficult.



What Kou desires is heartbreakingly Kou to the core. Mitsuba’s forgiveness, for starters. Friends who understand him. And the return of his mother, who passed away when he was nine. And it can happen, Tsukasa says, if Kou walks through a certain door – but it would mean Nene never coming back. Kou lacks the guile and deceptiveness to easily see through it in others but he’s no fool – he realizes this is a trap, a curse. He knows the world isn’t supposed to work that way – his mother is gone, and in a different way than Nene is.

Salty at Yagi-kun seeing all see desires, Kou asks to see his. Tsukasa mulls it for a moment, then goes through a door himself. He shows Kou a vision of two little boys, twins. One of them is ill, so ill that the doctor tells their mother (Koshimizu Ami) within the other’s earshot that he only has a month to live. But live he does, and we next see a birthday celebration with their father (Ono Daisuke) – where they each receive a very familiar-looking teddy bear. The older twin tells the younger than he loves him, and the younger leaves the room. A voice calls him, a voice from a hole in the floor of their bedroom. A wish has been granted, and a sacrifice must be made as payment.



This, almost certainly, is the tragedy at the center of the entire premise. Other than Amane’s cryptic comments about how we wound up becoming Hanako-kun, details of what happened to him in life have been sparse on the ground. He spoke of his crime being that he killed his brother, and now we may have an idea of what he meant by that. It seems pretty indisputable that the tiny Tsukasa offered up his own life in exchange for Amane’s, and whatever evil power lurks in the Red House facilitated the exchange and trapped him inside it forever. But beyond that, many questions remain.

One could speculate on the blanks remaining to be filled, of course. Did Yagi Amane discover the truth of what happened to Tsukasa somehow, and take his own life as a form of misguided repentance? And what is the relationship of this Tsukasa, perpetually four and trapped in the cursed house, and the adolescent trickster working to foster havoc at the school in support of the Broadcasting Club? I’m content to wait as long as it takes, because this is character-driven exposition at its very best. And the work Ogata-san put in here as Tsukasa was really exceptional – which is no more than we should expect from her at this point.






















































The post Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun) 2 – 20 appeared first on Lost in Anime.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.