A bit of a breather episode here, after last week\u2019s thoroughly weighty affair. But Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun<\/em> has a way of throwing curveballs at you. Usually at the end of episodes. That\u2019s consistent with the frequent inconsistency between tone and content, a hallmark of the series. It pays to never get too confident in the direction you think it\u2019s heading, because that\u2019s when it\u2019s mostly likely to switch and send the train onto a different track altogether.<\/p>\n This was one of those eps cleanly cleaved down the middle, the first of the season. There were a lot of those in fact. The first chapter was pretty much WYSIWYG, a comic outing centered around zombie mokke<\/a>. But because they\u2019re mokke, of course, these zombies aren\u2019t after your brains but your candy. Though they will try and eat you if you don\u2019t have any. In fact this segment wouldn\u2019t have felt out of place as an episode of Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun<\/em> (and it was the perfect length, too).<\/p>\n This chapter was, however, a reminder that Teru is a pretty ominous figure in this cast. Seriously, the apples fell far away from each other with those two brothers. It\u2019s Teru who\u2019s responsible for the zombies, having been experimenting on a \u201cwild\u201d mokke<\/a> his moeblob sister brought home. The whole \u201cwillting<\/a>\u201d thing was pretty out there, but this part of the episode didn\u2019t demand to be taken too seriously. Just a bit of fun and Teru and the mokkes\u2019 first pivotal roles in a storyline this season.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the deal with the second chapter too. Mitsuba gets his first extended appearance, along with the rest of the broadcasting club cast. Natsuhiko and Sakura are whispering to each other, which unsettles Mitsuba. Then Tsukasa<\/a> \u2013 ever the troublemaker \u2013 exclaims that the pair of them are talking about how to get rid of Mitsuba, and the 3rd Mystery storms off<\/a> in tears, convinced he\u2019s found another place where he doesn\u2019t belong. Which is pretty much the story of his afterlife.<\/p>\n Whenever Mitsuba is involved, Hanako-kun<\/em> has an air of melancholy to it. In a cast full of tragic characters he\u2019s one of the saddest. Lonely in life, lonely in death, for Kou a symbol of his own failures as a friend. This material is pretty light in tone by Mitsuba standards but even so \u2013 stuff like the dropped hanky incident<\/a> cuts pretty hard. And then Teru shows up again, making sure we don\u2019t forget he\u2019s a pretty vicious bastard<\/a>. But for once Mitsuba gets a story with a happy ending (or so it seems) \u2013 Sakura and Natsuhiko were just trying to clear him out to set up a surprise welcome party<\/a>. Complete with cake and even presents.<\/p>\n But then there\u2019s Tsukasa. Whenever he\u2019s involved something nasty is usually going on. And while it\u2019s not clear yet just what that is, the bomb he drops at the end of the episode clearly sets up the next once. Who is this sempai of Mitsuba\u2019s<\/a> that he introduces \u2013 is she really the 4th school mystery? And in what way is she a \u201cpresent\u201d for Mitsuba who will make everybody\u2019s wishes come true? The only thing certain is that she\u2019s trouble, because if she wasn\u2019t Tsukasa surely wouldn\u2019t have bothered.<\/p>\n
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