YEN PRESS
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
MANGA-KA: AidaIro
TRANSLATION: Alethea Nibley and Athena Nibley
LETTERS: Jesse Moriarty and Tania Biswas
ISBN: 978-1-9753-3287-7; paperback (January 2020); Rated “T” for “Teen”
178pp, B&W with some color pages, $13.00 U.S., $17.00 CAN
Jibaku Shōnen Hanako-kun is a Japanese manga series by AidaIro, the pen name of an artist named “Aida” and a writer named “Iro.” It has been serialized in Square Enix's shōnen manga magazine, Monthly G Fantasy, since 2014. Yen Press is publishing an English-language edition of the manga as a graphic novel series, entitled Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun. Yen originally published the first volume as an eBook in August 2017.
Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 5) introduces Nene Yashiro, an occult-loving girl entering her first year of high school at Kamome Academy. This school is also infamous for its “school ghost stories” known as the “Seven Mysteries.” “No. 7” of the Seven Mysteries is the ghost story of Hanako-san of the Toilet. Said to occupy the third stall of the third floor girls' bathroom in the old school building, Hanako-san, the ghost of former female student, grants any wish when summoned.
“Hanako-san, Hanako-san...are you there?” Nene Yashiro calls out, as she ventures into the haunted bathroom. The Hanako-san she meets there, however, is nothing like she imagined. Kamome Academy's Hanako-san is actually Hanako-kun, a boy!
[This volume includes bonus manga, “Teach Me, Hanako-kun: Ideals Arc,” and “Translation Notes.”]
Yen Press launched the print edition of the Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun manga this past January. The publisher initially released the first volume of the series as an eBook back in 2017.
Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun Graphic Novel Volume 1 shows all the signs of being a narrative that is very early in the story. Nene Yashiro and Hanako-kun have potential, but, at this point, creators AidaIro don't focus much on character development. They zero in on introducing the supernatural world of this series and on bringing in the first supernatural adversaries that the heroes will face.
The art is playful in style, and the graphical storytelling is shadowy and abstract, which heightens the atmosphere of the supernatural and of the otherworldly. The translation by Alethea Nibley and Athena Nibley conveys the sense of young characters still learning their stations, even in the case of Hanako-kun. Vol. 1 also ends with a killer of a cliffhanger, and that makes it likely that readers will heavily consider returning for the second volume.
7 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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