English Dub Review: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun “Aoi and Akane”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Sumire reveals her cursed fate to Nene and Hanako, while Akane and Aoi finally have a real talk about their relationship.

OUR TAKE

Well, this episode sure was a lot of lore dumpage! And as expected, it seems that Sumire’s existence is in some sort of loop of how she died, apparently as a sacrifice that happened ages ago to keep the spirits at bay. She only got Nene switched out this time to finally communicate how this suffering has been to someone, but now she’s ready to be relieved of being Number Six’s Yoshiori. Thankfully, while Hanako is a little shit, he also does care about saving people when he can, especially if it would make Nene sad if he didn’t. So, he concocts a way to get her spirit out of Number Six’s boundary, which works! Though it turns out Sumire is only allowed to leave because the price of the ritual has already been paid. Back where we left Akane and Akane (or Aoi and Aoi), they finally have a heart to heart about their feelings after years of flirting. Aoi confesses that she has often felt alone and actually assumed Akane was joking about wanting to date and marry her, but he confirms he has been genuine from the beginning. Eventually they are saved by Teru, the more aggressive of the Minamoto siblings, and try to leave, but Aoi is left behind, apparently having already died when she entered the Far Shore.

We also learn from Teru that there seems to be more going on with the Wonder spirits than initially thought. While it seemed before that they were myths and rumors spread around the school brought to life by years of belief in them, apparently they may in fact be pillars holding up some doorway between the living and the dead that needs to be taken care of at some point. That’s a pretty big shift from what we were aware of about them before, and it may be a hint at what will be how this whole story concludes. Though for the moment, we still need to wrap up this current arc here, and with Hanako already aware that Aoi has passed, it seems he’s working on yet another plan to get her back…though it sounds like it may come at a big cost to him. So, I guess we’ll see how this whole arc wraps up, appropriately at the halfway point of this half of the season, next week. And if not, these last few sentences are going to seem rather silly!