REVIEW: JIBAKU SHOUNEN HANAKO-KUN (MANGA)

Long time no see! I just realized how neglected the review corner was, and decided to fix that by writing about the latest manga I got hooked up with. Mostly, because it has an upcoming anime airing on Jan 09, so I decided to do a bit of promotional work for this underrated series.

"Yashiro Nene wishes for a handsome lad to fix his sights on her. Sadly, she’s shut down every time she confesses. This boy-crazy lass, who also likes horror tales/mystery stories, chooses then to go full mythbuster and turns to one of the Seven Mysteries of her school for help: Hanako of the bathroom, who is said to guarantee wishes to those who summon her; of course, it comes with a price because Capitalism™

However, it turns out that she is a he. Despite that little detail, the other things said are true and so Hanako-kun agrees to help Nene to fulfil her wish. After a serie of failed attempts to woo her crush the normal way, which ultimately ends with Nene pressuring Hanako into giving her a supernatural exit and then realizing how selfish she’s being, how little to none effort she put into making her crushes notice her, and backing down.

Unfortunately, what means to be a noble act is a major stupidity on her part, because she had already ingested a mermaid scale (and was supposed to give a matching one to her crush, which she didn’t do) and so Nene ended bearing a curse who would turn her into a fish. The worst part is that Nene knew about the curse beforehand, because Hanako warned her not to eat the damn thing when she found it rummaging through his stuff.

Hanako takes pity on the poor fool-turned-fish, and offers her a new bargain: turning Nene back to a human in exchange for her becoming his assistant, which she hasn’t much choice but to accept at this point. Hanako then eats the other scale meant for her crush, weakening the curse as it splits between them and allowing her to regain human form- however, she still will appear scales (and sometimes turn into a full fish) when coming into contact with water.

From there on, Nene starts working as Hanako-kun assistant and becomes acquainted with the School Seven Mysteries. Literally."

It sounds like a pretty standar set-up for a romantic comedy, but don’t be fooled even if some sites label the manga as ‘shojo.’ Despite the author’s unique artstyle, which falls within the ‘cute’ realm, Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun isn’t for the weak of heart. Or for people with a white & black only mindset, for that matter.

Beginning aside, the plot itself spins around the Seven Mysteries and Hanako’s own backstory. As it turns out, Hanako governs over the other sixth mysteries and basically keeps them it check, least humans in school get hurt. It is later revealed that spirits and mysteries are forced to act within their rumours bounds; therefore, whatever the rumour says, it will happen.

Another interesting fact is that Hanako attended the school in the ‘50s, but died young from unknown causes after murdering someone (he was an abuse victim when alive, so it’s heavily hinted that it could’ve been in self-defense, but the truth behind the incident remains hidden. so far, we only know the victim and the case gets even more complicated after that). Hanako deeply regrets what he did, and made a deal with God to become a mystery as a way to redeem himself; he believes than just dying would’ve freed him, and that he deserved punishment, thus he decided to work hard in order to pay for his sins.

The characters in the series are pretty gray, and they all got their good and bad sides; I’d say the cast is beautifully well-rounded. That said, the manga is full of triggers: mentions of suicide, depression, bullying, murder, etc. The well-executed bits of comedy is what actually eases the tension moments.

If you wish for everyone to get a happy ending, turn around and leave. Because there’s a son of a bitch who won’t let that happen. This advice also applies if you can’t stand angst in huge dosis.