The Summer 2025 Anime Preview Guide - Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 3

Now that they're out of the fourth School Wonder's clutches, Nene, Hanako, and Kou are back at school and ready to try and help Nene. But first, a more universal problem to deal with: finals and the school sleepover are right around the corner. Supernatural entities are one thing, but Nene wouldn't dare to have to deal with makeup classes if she can avoid it!

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 3 is based on the manga series by Iro Aida. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

In case you haven't noticed, we got some excellent-looking anime airing this season: Arknights: RISE FROM EMBER, DAN DA DAN season 2, CITY The Animation, and the borderline cinematic-looking The Summer Hikaru Died (marinated chicken, anyone?) to name the heaviest hitters that spring to mind. Yet despite how beautifully (and uniquely) stylized every single one of these shows is, episodes like this week's episode of Hanako-kun affirm for me that, in my opinion, Hanako-kun is the best-looking show we have airing this season. And to emphasize: more so than most seasons, that's not an easy feat.

I say this for a few reasons, but mostly because I think Hanako-kun makes the most of every single one of its visual ingredients: A+ stylization that gives the whole thing a strong sense of identity, the impeccable coloration (the color palette in the elevator alone—gorgeous, I live), the way it goes about shading, highlights, and textures, the way it plays with the weight in the outlines, and this week, we saw it massively flex its more-is-more design sensibilities that left me mouth agape. Surprisingly, we didn't see more of the Mokke hanging around, considering how start to finish this episode was total eye candy.

The content of the episode was cool, too. We finally get to meet Number 6! Aoi-chan is getting some time in the spotlight! There's a lot of cool backstory being teased—how neat! I don't want to understate that, even taking the visuals out of the equation, this was a good episode that moved the plot forward. I especially liked the part where Akane Uno Reverse'd Hanako by doing to him what Teru did to him only last week—how clever, and a real testament to how strong Hanako's feelings for Nene have become, considering how sly he usually is.

What I'm getting at is that this week was a perfect blend of style and substance from an anime that excels in both. I know the visual flair of Hanako-kun won't be everyone's favorite this season, but I'm pretty comfortable saying that it's mine. And there's nothing more exciting than looking forward to seeing next week's episode, not just because you want to know where the story goes, but also because every frame is a work of art unto itself.

Huzzah! After not too long a wait, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is back (again)! And what a way to kick off the newest batch of episodes; the first half is something on the sillier side, and the second is something to move the plot forward. And interestingly, the entire episode is pretty light on appearances by our titular bathroom-dweller.

The first half was probably my favorite of the two, though I enjoyed both. Our squad returned to the real world on the eve of finals, and Nene doesn't exactly relish the idea of potentially having to spend her summer taking make-up classes. Meanwhile, Teru and Akane-kun make a deal where whoever scores lower on their exams has to do a favor for the other, and you can probably guess how hard it makes Akane-kun catastrophize about Teru and Aoi-chan. Lighthearted, funny, and I imagine a much-needed breath of fresh air for people binging the show since the first part of season 2 was, admittedly, pretty dense by Hanako-kun standards.

Kudos to the translator for localizing Kou's study materials, by the way. I'm always extra-appreciative when on-screen text gets translated. And it seemed to be a pretty solid localization overall! I think I only have two—well, they're probably closer to nickpicks than full-blown criticisms. Firstly, it threw me off a bit that the numbers weren't quite aligned, although I understand that rather than matching the numbers, they were arranged in the order that English-speakers reading left-to-right would be inclined to read them unless they were in manga-mode.

As for the second half of the episode, it was no slouch either! Like I just said, the first part of season 2 was pretty eventful and we still have a lot of loose ends to tie up. That being said, I heard the phrase “School sleepover” and immediately assumed that if it was going to progress anything more substantially, it was going to be the budding romance between Nene and Hanako. School sleepovers, while not totally unheard of, are pretty unusual nowadays (something they mention in the episode) and it's hard to imagine what other possible justification there could be for such an unusual backdrop. So I was pretty surprised to find my expectations betrayed! I won't say too much at the risk of spoiling things, just that in classic Hanako-kun fashion, Nene is once again in danger—but this time, we've got hints that there might be something supernatural going on with someone else she knows. It was a pretty well-constructed second half, and left me pretty hungry to learn more by the end.

Strange as it might sound, the shots where the floor was really visible in this half, in particular, really highlighted for me just how much I love the visuals of this anime. Specifically, the coloration and the way this show goes about it. I don't usually use words like “blocky” as a compliment, but Hanako-kun really makes it work and I love it.

Something I admire about both anime and original manga of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is the way it never lets you forget that underlying the silliness is a series of tragedies. Hanako-kun and Mitsuba are dead. Yashiro is at constant risk of dying. This is, at its core, a ghost story, and all ghost stories are inherently tragic. Does that hold even truer for tales of sacrifice? With this story arc, we're about to find out.

Although Aoi-chan has been in the story since the beginning, her role hasn't always been well-defined. There's something about her, but just what that is isn't clear. Now that Number Six has joined the party and stolen her away, we know at least part of the answer: Aoi-chan is descended from a human sacrifice, and that's a role that Number Six seems keen to revive. His comment about how his (adorable) minions are supposed to have erased her memories and personality from her present life implies that she's the latest reincarnation of a soul who has been sacrificed before, possibly in an ancient ritual surrounding Obon when it was known as Urabon. Akane-kun and Yashiro aren't going to let this come to pass, but we should probably worry about Yashiro's numbered days and the advent of a human sacrifice storyline.

Although this episode is a lot of set up, it never feels like it. Even if I hadn't just finished reading a book with a creepy old-fashioned elevator in it (Into the Dark by Jordan Hawk; highly recommend the whole Outfoxing the Paranormal horror series), I think I'd have found this one creepy. Hanako-kun says that the elevator exists outside reality; when they're in it, Akane-kun and Yashiro are “nowhere,” which is an alarming concept. How can you be “nowhere?” Does it mean that you no longer exist? Hanako-kun's not too worried about it – it's Akane-kun's threat to Yashiro's lips that spurs him to action, which may indicate that it's not necessarily a dangerous place in that being outside of reality could be beneficial for Yashiro's limited lifespan. But he's also willing to sacrifice others to keep Yashiro safe, which makes him inherently untrustworthy in situations like these. At this point, I'd argue that Yashiro comes before his duties as Number Seven, although he may not agree with me.

With its blend of unsettling imagery and a clear sense of longing, this episode continues to show why Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is such a good story. It may be a tragedy underneath it all, but it's not a hopeless one…even if right now things aren't looking good for Aoi-chan.

Can I just say how happy I am that the next part of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun came to us so quickly? After the first half of season two defied my expectations of where it would end – I was banking on the end of the arc that's just starting – I wasn't disappointed so much as a little sad. But now we're back, and really, it's a good thing that the first half took the time to really adapt the prior storyline properly, because from this point on, everything becomes much more closely intertwined.

Essentially this episode has two distinct plots: the lead-up one in the form of exams and the story proper, which opens with the school sleepover. This being this show, the sleepover is nothing as innocent as it sounds; instead, Number Six references the Urabon ceremony. Urabon is when one prays for the happiness of the deceased, and as far as I can tell, it's an older, more formal way of saying “Obon.” Before the sleepover commences, there's a scene of girls in the past weaving yorishiro for the gods, and surprise, surprise, one of the “traditional handicraft” activities at the sleepover is the exact same form of basket weaving. Clearly there's much more going on than even Akane-kun knows, and it's very suspicious that Hanako himself is absent when Number Six arrives – some of the Mysteries are ghosts (or started that way), so this may be a tricky time for them to be around.

This part of the episode also does a bang-up job of showing how Nene, Akane-kun, and the others involved with the Mysteries live in a parallel world of sorts. Nene hearing the flute may be unique to her situation, but Akane-kun can see Number Six when he first appears, as well as the changes that sweep over the hallway. But when Aoi-chan wanders over, all she sees is a normal school hall, with Nene and Akane-kun acting a little weird. It's not until Akane-kun tries to save her with his powers that she wises up…although maybe the better way to look at it would be to say that it changes when Number Six notices Aoi-chan. She's always been eerily good at predicting via rumor – maybe there's a reason for that?

The story is going to get intense in this cour, not that it's ever been particularly chill. There's even more beneath the surface of most of the Mysteries and ghosts, so buckle up – or maybe grab some basketweaving materials to ward off the darkness to come.