Toilet-bound Hanako-kun

## Toilet-bound Hanako-kun *Toilet-bound Hanako-kun* is one of the most visually distinctive manga of the modern era — a supernatural school story with the aesthetic of a fairy tale picture book and the emotional weight of a ghost story that takes its characters seriously. Nene Yashiro summons the ghost of the legendary "Hanako-san of the Toilet" at Kamome Academy — and discovers that the rumored female ghost is actually a cheerful, mischievous boy named Hanako who haunts the third-floor girls' bathroom. After a wish goes wrong, Nene becomes bound to Hanako as his assistant, helping him maintain the balance between the living and the spirit world. The school harbors Seven Mysteries — powerful supernatural entities that govern the boundary between humans and supernatural beings — and Hanako, the seventh of these mysteries, is their keeper. AidaIro's art style is unlike anything else in manga: candy-colored, intricate, almost Art Nouveau in its detail, creating a world that is simultaneously whimsical and deeply melancholic. Beneath the comedy is a tragedy about a boy who died young and can never move on. The anime adaptation by Lerche (2020) is visually faithful; the manga is ongoing and explores the mysteries in much greater depth.