地縛少年花子くん (Toilet Bound Hanako-kun) | Volume 3 Reading

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Welcome to 地縛少年花子くん :toilet: Volume 3

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This is the third volume of 地縛少年花子くん. The First volume was read as part of the Beginner Book club. You can find the original post for the book club here:

Beginner Book Club Hanako home thread

This isn’t exactly an official off-shoot club, more like a relaxed thread where people who decide to continue the series can discuss and ask question on the book. There is no strict schedule so feel free to drop by anytime you want and read at your own pace!

The Story So Far

Summary

Yashiro Nene walked into the girl’s toilet in the old school building one day hoping to summon the ghost of a girl called Hanako who is rumored to grant any wish you ask for. To her surprise it turns out Hanako is actually a boy?! Through some mischief Hanako and Yashiro are now bound together by a curse of a mermaid. If Yashiro gets wet, she begins to develop fishy properties :fish:

Last volume Hanako, Nene, and Kou were able to escape the Misaki Stairs boundry and save the students that were trapped inside. Nene managed to find and break No. 4’s Yorishiro, a pair of old scissors given to No. 4 by Misaki sensei. Feeling bad for No. 4 after destroying her precious Yorishiro, Nene gave her a new name and a new rumor.

We also had a few laughs with the confession tree which forced people who confess under it to become a couple. And finally, Minamoto senpai tries to destroy Hanako-kun, but his younger brother manages to stop him. Hanako says he can’t move on, he still has something he needs to do.

Quietly a ‘handsome’ boy who bumps into Nene drifts along a corridor, a black origami crane floats by, and in the library, a mysterious girl offers to tell Nene about the seven school mysteries.

What’s up with the black origami crane ? Who’s the mysterious girl that meets Nene in the library? Find out in this volume. :books: :spider:

Buy the Book

Physical | CDJapan | Amazon JP

eBook | BookWalker | Kobo | Kindle

If you haven’t used Amazon JP before, note that you will need a separate account.
CDJapan has (slow) economy shipping options available so is usually cheaper.

Anyone done with this volume?
  • Yes
  • Not yet

0 voters

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Once I started reading book 2, I somehow couldn’t stop until I put the third book down. Now I need to buy the next few volumes. At first, I didn’t like many of the characters at first (originally wasn’t going to keep reading, even though I had books 2 and 3 already) but they grew on me.

Spoiler on the growth of Minamoto Kou~ so read at your own risk, lol

I really love how Kou-kun has grown from this set-on-revenge kid from volume one to a really cute supportive character to Yashiro. This is especially true in the later chapters after Yashiro learns from Tsuchigomori-sensei about Hanako’s origins.

Cannot wait to see what volume 4+ brings. :thinking:

2 Likes
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Yeah volume 3 really pushed the story forward. And I’m just realizing this now as I’m finishing volume 16, but its actually way more important than i initially thought.

Amane/Hanako’s story really caught me off guard the first time i read it. The doughnuts part was really cute but the cliffhanger at the end was really cruel i think :weary:. Next volume is also really good in a break your heart kind of way so look forward to it :joy:.

I’ll try putting up the thread for volume 4 soon.

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Yes! I’m really loving the story tbh. Like, the characters have definitely developed and I am here for it.

definitely here for more hanako stuff. I may have watched the anime all in one night and now I hate myself for spoiling what is gunna happen but I’ve noticed the anime doesn’t have as much as the books do. It def cut out that whole scene of teru attacking hanako in volume 3 for sure which I think was really great dev?

Have you also read the 0 story? I picked it up at the bookstore today along with volumes 4-8 (we’ll see how fast I read through these ones :joy: ) but apparently it has some pretty early chapters sort of as a “prequel”. Wondering if I should read it before volume 4 or after. rofl

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I do have volume 0. I’ve read it and it has 2 stories in it. The first is the prototype that would later become hanako-san. It’s basically a one shot that has all the characters of hanako-san and the same basic premise but isn’t actually part of the story. I’m assuming this was the one-shot the author wrote and then later decided to turn into a full series. So it doesn’t matter when or if you read it because it has no impact on the story, tho it does have some interesting ideas that i wonder if they’ll be implemented later into the story.
The other story in volume 0 is also another one-shot about zombies that i found very cool too.

Also, don’t worry about having watched the manga, because somethings were reshuffled and the anime didn’t adapt the story arc starting volume 5 (for good reason) so you’ll be excited to know that volume 5 onwards (except for volume 7 which was covered in the anime) is all new.

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I’m about halfway through volume 3. It’s also grown on me a ton since volume 1. Volume 1 wasn’t bad per se, but aside from (maybe) Nene, by the end none of the characters had really found their footing (especially not Minamoto). I’ll be finishing up another book in the next few weeks so hopefully I can give the next few volumes the binge they seem to deserve (or at least do better than the chapter or two per week I’ve been managing so far). I’m excited to see what the rest of this volume has in store.

Best fight scene so far:

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Such admirable determination from Daikon-Legs.

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And these facial expressions are wonderful.

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Oh, that’s great. I do notice most manga series have stories that are usually cut from anime and it definitely happened with the teru-vs-hanako fight scene from volume 2 sob so I’m glad there’s more things in the upcoming books that will definitely keep me going. Hoping for more development of the characters for sure. :crossed_fingers:

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I love the expressions too. I don’t have an image for it but the one of Hanako on pg. 57 when he threatens Tsuchigomori and Yako is hilarious.

I think I can try to read a little slower, too, if we want to have more of a discussion about what’s going on or to have more of a “discussion” / weekly chat of some sort? (Not that I’m complaining; I’m currently reading two other manga and a book from the intermediate book club all at the same time rofl) ← totes optional, also totally okay with going at the two volumes in three days pace I was running this week.

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At one point i was so into it i was reading a volume a day until i ran out of volumes to read. (i think it was around volume 5). I’m just worried about how quickly I’ll have to put up the discussion threads at that rate :rofl::rofl:

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:joy: :joy: :joy:

I can be patient if that’s the case! I think I should be okay for now. I have volumes 0 and 4-8. My local GEO seems to have up to 15, too, but I didn’t want to walk out of there with all of the volumes they had on the shelf. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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The thread for volume 4 is now up!

Hanako Volume 4

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Finished volume 3! I’m officially sold on reading the whole series. I just need to decide on whether to get the rest of the series in print or continue on my iPad. The art is so great that I’d like to have the physical version unmarred by low-quality scans but it’s tough to beat the e-reader convenience and lack of shipping fees.

This volume kept up the great art quality and humor and added a lot of depth to the storytelling and character development. I’ve been excited to read volume 4 ever since @z3aabi said it was the point of no return. I can’t promise I’ll be able to match your guys’ volume per day paces but hopefully I can start to accelerate a bit as some of my other reading commitments and WK reviews start to settle down.

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I know what you mean and the art only gets better. In fact it’s so good my collection also has the English and Japanese versions of all the available volumes plus the art book, volume 0, and the short story collection! :sweat_smile:
Part of the reason why i adamantly try to hold myself back and only read the paper volume is because the art looks so much better in print.

But yes, starting next volume i think the real appeal of Hanako starts to sink.

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I haven’t even started v4 yet. I’ve been rereading Yu Yu Hakusho in Japanese, and it’s taken my attention away because it’s my favorite series. I can try to match your pace for v4 if you want! I don’t mind reading two things (or more) at once, lol.

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Turns out I’m really busy working for the next two weeks, and I’ll likely have to spend the next week or so after that playing some catch-up with some other reading, so I might have to hold off on the next volume. If I can catch up at some point I’m down to match your pace but please don’t wait for me if you’re eager to go.

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Just pulled the trigger and bought volumes 4 through 16 on Amazon! Shipping’s not quite so bad when you’re ordering a truckload of books at once it seems. I’m sick of these crappy Bookwalker scans, especially with artwork this nice.

1 Like