Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is a manga series created by Aidairo and is still currently ongoing. The anime adaption was made into twelve episodes as of last year. Lerche did the animation while Masaomi Ando directed the series. Hanako seems to have found a fanbase in and outside of Japan....
A girl who just wants a boyfriend attends a school filled with rumors of the magical seven wonders. One of them is know as Hanako and will make your wish come true if you knock on his toilet stall..... She does just this as a boy appearing to be the same age as her appears in front of her....
I did give volume one of the manga a try. If I'm to be honest, it wasn't for me. I couldn't even make it through the whole volume because the story bored me with it's constant reliance on comedy and cute character models to appeal to a female audience. All the while, still covering that up with a dark concept. The anime did manage to hold my attention through all 12 episodes but only because I could stomach the random comedic moments in anime format a bit better. There still were times that I was taken out of the story due to the plot itching to always throw a laugh in a serious scene. This caused me to not take most of the characters seriously enough to actually care about them. Whenever they would go up against a ghost, I would kinda of just watch them run around until Hanako came to save the day. NeNe's character was constantly the butt of the joke because her legs were shaped like radishes, Kou was never really at full power, and Hanako actually had a good background story that was ruined by the anime's lack of time. Villains were villains then they weren't villains.... as the story tries to make you feel sorry for the aspersions that Hanako and Nene exorcised. What was even weirder was that the show didn't take on a true dark turn of events until Mitsuda's character was introduced. I started enjoying the show after that and even liked his character. Mitsuda's ark was literally the best part of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun. I'll even say it with my full chest if you want. Kou and Mitsuda's friendship was also more interesting than the flip floppy relationship NeNe and Hanako brought to the table. Mitsuda made Kou more relatable to the point that I cared a bit more about him toward the end. As you might have guessed, the anime has a ever ending type of ending because the manga isn't finished yet or wasn't finished at the time of production. I doubt that they will have a season two.
The animation looks like a cartoon that would be on the new age version of Cartoon Network. It's similar to slapstick humor drawn to cute character models. They had cute round faces, big eyes, and small fames. I could understand if not everyone would be interested in this series. I'm not completely either.
Toilet - Bound Hanako-Kun isn't a show that I would watch again. Even while I did enjoy certain aspects of the show, It's not a show that I would recommend to most people unless they like this sort of thing. I did really love the ending theme song.... Especially the piano intro.
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