The end of Toilet-bound Hanako-kun volume 3 left us with a reveal of a supernatural that looks just like Hanako. As it turns out, it’s the one that leaves him shaken, since that’s his brother he apparently killed! What does this mean? Well, Nene won’t quite get those answers from Hanako just yet, but rather from the ones aiming to change the school mysteries themselves. What will she learn from them? Aside from her soon understanding that she just can’t stop indulging in sweets and talking about Hanako behind his back!
After the encounter with Hanako’s brother, volume 4 has us spend time with the mermaid kingdom folks while Hanako spends some time alone. This means Nene’s got another decision to make, and maybe consider not taking the offer that seems far too good to be true. Kou also ends up getting his own arc, this time with a ghost who immediately dislikes him in Mitsuba. But as Kou spends more time with Mitsuba, the more he realizes he actually knows him, and vice versa as Mitsuba starts becoming more comfortable around Kou — only for an unexpected appearance by Hanako’s brother shakes the two up.
Volume 5, however, somewhat goes in a different direction if you’ve watched the anime. At the start it doesn’t appear so, as we formally meet Sakura Nanamine, the third year who told Nene to find the next school mystery, The Four P.M. Bookstacks, a few volumes ago. While on the surface Nene blabbing about her situation to Sakura may be warranted — and the appearance of tea and sweets is a good selling point — cozying up with a group that turned you into a fish, scared you into fainting, and when you wake up inside a room you find yourself sitting down with water underneath so you wouldn’t escape suggests it might be best to be on guard!
But through this we start learning more about Sakura, who says she’s in the same situation as Nene, Hanako and his relationship with his brother (who’s also in this group), the useless hot senpai Natsuhiko, and Nene learning how useless that hot senpai is when they both are surrounded by doors…lots of doors!
After this, we are then thrown into a new arc, and a new school mystery. But if you saw the anime, heads up — it’s not that school mystery! This one not only involves a trio, but a trio that controls aspects of time. This starts affecting a number of students, some who are more chill about it than others. This was interesting in that we got to know more about Nene’s friend Aoi from someone who seemed like a minor character, but turns into a big deal since he’s one of the school mysteries.
But it’s also interesting in that the anime chose not to adapt this. Can only assume this was made due to time and probably not knowing if they could make more of this series, and it’s also possible the studio wanted some sort of continuity based on how volume 4 ended rather than introduce someone new in the show. Still, it’s kind of unfortunate since it does actually involve a school mystery, and his reactions border on concerning but also someone that turns out to be more important than expected.
In general though, this series continues swinging between dark and humorous without an aspect feeling off, and that’s very commendable. Like, we got the reveal of what Hanako fears, he needs time to himself, but let’s make sure we can make these fishes from the mermaid kingdom appear so we can see how Nene responds to their request and not have it feel out of place. The care by Aidalro to balance the two, and doing so through its story and also visually, is really good. That’s why Toilet-bound Hanako-kun is always a fun read, and worth looking forward to whenever a new volume comes out.