Toilet-bound Hanako-kun Manga Volume 1 Review

-Written by: Liv

Take one part supernatural mystery, one part romantic comedy – mix that with shonen-style battles, cute artwork, and a potential murder charge and you’ve got…Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun?

There are “Seven Mysteries” in Nene Yasuhiro’s school. When Nene hears about the wish-granting spirit that occupies the third stall of the third floors’ girls bathroom, she doesn’t waste any time seeking them out. However, what she finds is a total surprise - the ghost is a boy! In exchange for her wish, she must become Hanako-kun’s assistant, for better or for worse.

Hanako-kun is trying to accomplish a lot and surprisingly, it works - for the most part. The artstyle is both cute, surreal, and sometimes creepy when it needs to be. There is such a unique charm to it, and still-shots are downright fascinating and beautiful. As much as I love looking at the intricacies of the full spreads, sometimes pages become a little too crammed with text and the action scenes become a little hard to follow.

The characters themselves are adorable and loveable, and the dynamic built between them leads to some pretty wacky scenarios. Every character in the main trio has something intriguing about them individually and their personalities are unique and compliment each other well. Volume 1 is a very strong entry to the series and I am interested to see how some of the backstory elements will conclude.

I had thought of picking this up awhile back, but with the anime starting recently, I was even more convinced that this was truly something I had to check out. Overall, I would say this is one series you don’t want to miss this season - whether in be in manga or anime form. If you’re a fan of cute art, dashes of fuzzy romance, intrigue, and fighting...giant...mermaids – I would definitely recommend Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun.