What happened to the toilet bound Hanako-Kun anime?

Important takeaways

  • The hype for Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun didn't match the original, missing critical plot points in the first season.
  • The reboot was not well received due to little maintenance of fan excitement between seasons.
  • The anime industry changed a lot with the rise of seasonal anime, older fans and changing viewing habits.



Series

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

Director

Masaomi Ando (Season 1) Yohei Fukui (Season 2)

Studio

Lerche

When the first season of Toilet bound Hanako-Kun anime came out, it took over the anime mainstream. It went viral on social media, has over ten million copies in circulation as of February 2024, and even dominated online meme spaces for a while after its release. That said, the first season premiered in 2020, over four years ago. What has happened since then?

It's been a chaotic set of updates since the first season was released. Many viewers simply missed the attempted reboot last fall, and the announcement of a second season of the original anime slated for release next year. So why doesn't the hype online seem to match the hype of the original season of Toilet bound Hanako-Kun? Other supernatural comedies like Jujutsu Kaisen and Dandadan performs well, so why not Toilet bound?


Family

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2 Coming January 2025

A special event held in Japan saw the announcement of a sequel to Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun coming in January 2025.

The hype was not sustained during the break

Little was done for fans between seasons

Toilet Bound Hanako-kun Reboot

When it comes to the original show, very little has been done to keep the tension up between seasons. When season two comes out, the first season will be nearly five years old. There is only so much Japan-only merchandise or events that can be released during this time to prevent fans from getting bored with the show between seasons. With the sudden rise in popularity of anime, especially when it comes to seasonal anime, shows can easily be left to be too far apart.


The reboot was not as big a hit with fans, despite being made by the same producers and team as the original season. After school Hanako-Kun had only one-tenth of episode-logged viewers watch the anime through MyAnimelist on part one compared to the original first season, and even fewer episode-logged viewers watched for part two of the reboot. The interpretation of interviews led many reporters and fans to assume that this was a complete reboot.

“After School Hanako-Kun, Lerche's first installment of his Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun 'reboot project', will hit Japan's airwaves…”

It was more of an extended edition of the original first season, but due to the English language marketing calling it a “reboot”, this update of the show was ignored or rejected by fans who didn't know what it was. A “revival” would have been a better translation, but it's a little too late to fix that.


The first season lost manga fans

A rushed first season missed critical plot points

Featured toilet-bound Hanako-kun reveals new image for season 2

Even when the first season of Toilet bound Hanako-Kun came out, manga fans were vocal about missed plot points that would be crucial to events theorized to be in the second season. Different events were placed in different parts of the anime's timeline, and even several arcs explaining the backstory between Hanako and other spirits, as well as important character growth arcs for the main trio. So why were these critical elements dropped entirely in the first season?


Originally, the first season came out as a way to promote the manga. It wasn't meant to be a full-fledged adaptation of the manga series, but like a large majority of seasonal anime, it's meant to pay attention to the cheaper-to-produce, time-sensitive nature of an anime series. The popularity of the original season changed the producer's plans regarding it, but then they had to fix the plot holes and missed elements, hence the aforementioned reboot.

The state of the anime industry, then and now

The landscape surrounding Anime has changed drastically

Urban Legend Anime-Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

When the first season aired, the anime industry was just starting to change. The industry was knee-deep in Isekai craze, the COVID-19 pandemic had just entered its first round of shutdowns, and everyone was at home with nothing to do. This caused an anime craze that launched it into the cultural zeitgeist as genuine entertainment in English-speaking markets, ultimately normalizing the anime medium and catapulting Crunchyroll into the top 3 subscription services at the time. During this time period, with limited activities and anime booming in popularity internationally, fans were more willing to watch large volumes of anime.


Keeping up with seasonal anime is usually popular with the younger crowd, although people of all ages will watch them. A large part of Toilet bound Hanako-Kuns fan base is now older. They have graduated from high school or college and now have jobs or responsibilities that take up time that didn't before. Older anime fans have to pick and choose what they watch in their spare time now, which tends to stick to ultra-mainstream or ongoing series, leaving little room for current anime fans to go back to an anime from four or five years ago which is not not active in online spaces.


Toilet bound Hanako-Kun's second season will likely bring back some of the audience from season one, but will anyone else be watching? Not much has been said about whether the second season will follow the reboot, or the original first season, which will make it difficult for new anime fans to get into the franchise. Even so, however, the anime's unique art style and lovable cast may be able to break through and recreate the hype Hanako once had… but only time will tell.

Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun: Season 2 will premiere in January 2025on Crunchyroll

Toilet bound Hanako-Kun

Nene and Hanako-kun's ghost want to stay out of trouble at Kamome Academy, but goons follow them wherever they go.

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