Nene, Hanako, and Kou venture into the Misaki Stairs to rescue Nene’s friend Aoi. Needless to say, it’s not easy since they’re facing “Misaki”. And for these three, they’ll need to start taking things seriously if they want to escape from this one unharmed.
*Hanako tosses Nene into a bottomless waterfall with a smile on his face while Kou enters a life-or-turns-into-doll struggle with No. 2 of the school Seven Mysteries.*
…Well…
This volume of Toilet-bound Hanako-kun completes the Misaki Stairs arc that began in volume 1. In this how power is established (it’s hard to fight in one of the Seven Mysteries’ domain) and why Nene is key to helping Hanako-kun is shown here. As a (former) human who’s gotten involved in these supernatural mysteries, she’s able to provide assistance and help in areas where Hanako-kun can’t because the spirits know who he is. From what happened to her in volume 1 and how it ends here, she certainly is not the same person as before.
Well, maybe a bit since she still wants to fall totally in love. This gets proven during the confession tree story, where a bunch of students confess under a tree and are soon a couple. When Hanako tells her to meet him at that tree, she looks forward to it despite him not being her type — and learns that maybe she got her hopes up (since, duh, supernatural stuff is happening!). Despite that, the two manage to open up to each other, which gets Nene to realize she knows nothing about Hanako at all.
That will certainly continue for the most part, if what happens in this volume and the anime means anything. There is a major mystery concerning Hanako and his past, and it revolves around a murder. He’s not shy in posing this question to both Nene and Kou as they believe he’s a good spirit; but at this point, he’s not willing to open up any more than that. The anime does get into why, but it drips the information until really explaining it much later in its run; good chance the manga will do the same.
For now it doesn’t have to give us everything if the rest of the manga is as solid as this is. The story continues to be fascinating in how these school mysteries keep getting changed and how Hanako and Nene have to change them back. There’s Kou and his brother who keep noticing that things are getting dangerous and it has to be solved. Then there’s a student Nene meets at the end of this volume, along with another person she has met, that have their reasons for involving themselves in the school mysteries.
And then there’s the art, which is the clear standout of this series. Toilet-bound Hanako-kun‘s art certainly can play up a scary mystery, but between Hanako-kun’s happy-go-lucky expressions or Nene’s face displaying disdain when the type of boys she likes is called into question, it manages to all look appealing. Aidalro also continues to show the range between going from those to making even emotional moments with the characters compelling.
Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun volume 2 manages to finish off an arc, provide interesting character development and tease a meeting with people who will definitely impact the entire crew. With appealing art and fun characters so far, there’s much to look forward to as the manga continues.