Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun (Japanese: 地縛少年花子くん, Hepburn: Jibaku Shōnen Hanako-kun) is a Japanese manga series by Iro Aida. It has been serialized in Square Enix‘s shōnen manga magazine Monthly GFantasy since 2014. It has been collected in thirteen tankōbon volumes. The manga is licensed in North America by Yen Press. An anime television series adaptation by Lerche aired from January to March 2020. (Wiki)
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!
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.
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.
The series was fun to watch and I’m hoping for a next season! As for the manga, I haven’t quite finished it yet but I really 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 really 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
Desudesuanimu 