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<\/a>No question there are many parallels between Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun<\/em> and its stable-mate, Kuroshitsuji<\/em>. Largely I think of the commercial aspects of the two series \u2013 how successful they are, and who their target audiences are. But they have Lewis Carrol in common too, seems to me. It was Black Butler<\/em> that did the literal crossover (the \u201cCiel in Wonderland\u201d OVA) and it has something of Carroll in its look and sensibility. But in terms of structure and visual aesthetic, I think Toilet-bound Hanako-kun<\/em> is even closer. Nene\u2019s adventures through the looking glass \u2013 and the strange creatures she meets there \u2013 are psychedelic in a very reminiscent way.<\/p>\n<\/a>The extent to which this current setting is not \u201creal\u201d as Kou and Nene see it becomes ever-more clear. It\u2019s not just students \u2013 Tsuchigomori-sensei and Yako-san<\/a> seem to be normal (well, living) adults. Eventually Kou and Nene track down Mitsuba and force him to come clean about what he knows. Which is that this world is \u201cfiction\u201d \u2013 and if the two of them want to know more about it, they should enter the strange tower and ask the being inside it.<\/p>\n<\/a>As suspected, Shijima-san of the Art Room is indeed a school wonder. Wonder #4 in fact, as she introduces herself. Right after feeling up Nene\u2019s legs and marveling at her daikon-like ankles<\/a>. The tower, she says, is both her art studio and her museum. She\u2019s quite a cheerful apparition, though she seems genuinely surprised to hear her guests didn\u2019t come to tour the museum. And even more when Nene announces that they want to go back to their own world. But it\u2019s easy-peasy, Shijima-san says. Just take Yugi Amane and Mitsube Sousuke and kill them.<\/p>\n<\/a>Apparently this wonder\u2019s ability is to make fiction \u201creal\u201d (as we were told in the cold open last week, pretty much). But fiction needs a central character(s). And this one is built around Amane and Mitsuba<\/a>, Shijima-san says. Kill them and the world will collapse in a jiffy. She even helpfully conjures up some weapons out of a painting<\/a> to help make the job easier. But best hurry, she says, because if Nene and Kou linger too long in this fiction they\u2019ll lose their memories of where they came from.<\/p>\n<\/a>There are two parallel story tracks running here. The pathos in this situation is obvious. How can these two sweet kids kill Mitsuba and Amane, even if they\u2019re \u201cfake\u201d? That\u2019s compounded by the fact that they pair of them are miraculously alive when that should be impossible. And Amane is relentlessly cheerful and bright \u2013 \u201cjust as he would probably be if he were a real boy\u201d, Nene muses. Rejecting a fake world even if it seemed happier for them would be one thing, and not an easy one. But actually killing them inside it? That\u2019s an order of magnitude more horrific.<\/p>\n<\/a>But then there\u2019s the matter of \u201cwhy\u201d. We\u00a0 don\u2019t know the full details of Shijima-san of the Art Room\u2019s nature yet, but it\u2019s been implied that she creates fictional worlds upon request from students. Would she actually create one of her own volition? And if so, why this<\/em> one? No, Occam\u2019s Razor suggests that \u2013 like most artworks hanging in museums \u2013 this one was painted on commission. And we get our first clue as to who the patron is as the kids are preparing to go up onto the roof and watch the Perseid meteor shower<\/a>, when Tsukasa shows up<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>Where he goes, you know the dbs from the Broadcasting Club<\/a> are close by too. And in fact our actual<\/em> first clue was probably Mitsuba knowing something about all this, because if they\u2019re involved so is he. And so it is \u2013 it seems the plan is to \u201ctrap\u201d Kou and Nene inside this fictional world. But why is that? Natsuhiko seems disappointed that Shijima-san gave away the way out so quickly, but Sakura appears to be not at all worried. Hovering all this, for me, is an interesting larger question. Is it possible the divide between what any of these people consider real and fiction may not be as clear cut as we might assume?<\/p>\n