Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

Episode 17

I wasn't expecting Number Six's backstory to include the Japanese equivalent of the “Indian burial ground” horror trope, but here we are. It turns out that Nene's school is so weird because it was built on the site of an ancient village that practiced ritual human sacrifice. What that means for our heroes is still unfolding, and in fact, “Aoi and Akane” was more concerned with interpersonal relationships than anything else. This episode showcased three very different romantic couples with differing levels of toxicity. Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is a great guide for getting yourself out of a time loop, but perhaps not for wooing the person of your dreams.

I knew this episode was going to be a lot when it went without a revelation that Sumire has been living in a private time loop hell for ages. Over and over, Sumire relives her death as a sacrifice, completely estranged from her betrothed Number Six. It's a miserable enough existence that Nene can't help but ask—to comic effect—what Sumire sees in that dude. There's certainly something off here: Sumire wears the seal that identifies her as Number Six's yorishiro—his most precious thing—but he never goes to visit her? It simply underlines the unpleasantness of Sumire's role as a yorishiro in the first place. A yorishiro is supposed to be an object, like artistic Number Four's sketchpad. The idea of a human yorishiro, after so many that were objects, is dehumanizing in itself. It's not only Sumire's current predicament that leads Nene to ask, however. Even in Sumire's memories that Nene witnessed, Number Six is always aloof and slow to show affection. When they finally reunite, perhaps the time loop will have worn Sumire's affections down, or it'll be the culmination of the slowest slow-burn in history.

As questionable as Sumire and Number Six's romance may be, their toxic vibes have nothing on Aoi and Akane. I previously wrote that Aoi “seemed unreachable,” and in this episode, we learn that feeling is intentionally cultivated. I could confidently add Aoi to the list of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun characters that need to go to therapy even before the casual bombshell she dropped about her dad having a secret second family. (Can you still do that on one income anymore?) No wonder this girl has issues around romance! No matter how many people tell her she's pretty or smart, she thinks they're lying to her the same way her dad is. Aoi is in no place to accept or reject Akane's feelings while she's dealing with this heavy stuff. And then Akane goes for the jugular: he lies that he hates Aoi to make her cry, because he'd rather make her feel bad than feel nothing at all. Akane was trying to show Aoi that relationships are a two-way street, but he did it with mind games, and that's not what people who love each other do. One thing it did show us is that Akane knows Aoi a lot better than she gives him credit for—though even he was blindsided when she disappeared after their considerably sweeter conversation about a date at the zoo. When Aoi said she liked giraffes, then asked Akane what he liked, I could tell immediately that “you” was the wrong reply. In a dating sim, he would have had to restart from the previous load. Their relationship is still repairable, but Akane is going to have to stop coming on so strong or he'll just scare Aoi away (or get himself stabbed again).

However, even whatever Aoi and Akane have going on is preferable to what's going on with Hanako and Nene. I knew the elevator shortcut out of the time loop was too good to be true. When Nene returned to the world of the living and Aoi remained in the Boundary, Hanako was oddly relieved because it solved the predicament of Nene's shortened lifespan. Number Six would take Aoi instead, Nene would live on, everybody's happy (citation needed). Only, as soon as he said it, Hanako's skin cracked in a very upsetting way. When Nene's life is assured, will Hanako disappear? I'm not 100% sure on the mechanics; all I know is that alarm bells are ringing in my head. Just when I thought the stakes couldn't get higher, it turns out Nene's wasn't the only survival I needed to worry about. Short on answers and big on interpersonal drama, it was a banner episode of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun for those of us who love mess.

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Lauren is a freelance journalist with a focus on anime fandom. Both of her kids are named after Gundam characters.