地縛少年花子くん (Toilet Bound Hanako-kun) | Volume 5 Reading

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Welcome to 地縛少年花子くん :toilet: Volume 5

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This is the fifth 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:

Volume 4 drew back the curtain a bit on Hanako (see also Amane’s) past, and the victim he stabbed to death, who turned out to be none other than his younger twin brother Tsukasa! Not only that, Tsukasa is also a ghost but not the sweet kind?!

Mitsuba Sousuke, a ghost of a gentle boy, prickly on the outside, yet hiding a sweet core, opens up to our reliable kouhai Kou-kun in volume 4. Mitsuba died but was not able to move on, and Kou being Kou decides to help him pass on. One thing leads to another and Kou has successfully befriended the amateur photographer. But just as things look to be going well, Tsukasa appears and ruins everything by turning Mitsuba’s ghost into a disfigured monster. With no way to save Mitsuba’s soul, Hanako and Kou have no other choice but to eliminate his entire existence. :sob: :broken_heart:

P.S: Some annoying fish get turned into sashimi by Tsukasa.

In this volume take some time off :mantelpiece_clock: and maybe drink some tea :tea: as the curtain pulls back on the next major arc of the series in volume 5!

Buy the Book

Physical | Amazon JP | CD Japan

eBook | BookWalker | Kobo | Kindle

If you haven’t used Amazon JP before, note that you will need a separate account.

Anyone done with this volume?
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  • Not yet

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Are you writing all of these recaps? Because they are extremely entertaining.

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Yes i am :rofl:
Glad someone was reading them

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I’m only now realizing that your avatar is Mitsuba! From one of my favorite panels in the manga so far!

Edit: Wait I was thinking of this one. Which seems like the same scene? Tough not to smile at this one.

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Now I’m going to read them too :high_touch:
Hanako didn’t resonate with me enough to read the manga itself, but I was interested enough to read about further development of the story, and your summaries are really fun :heart: I didn’t notice them before when I was skimming the topics, thanks @jhol !

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Do you mean the anime? Because I wouldn’t say the first volume or two of the manga was enough to keep me really engaged but due to @z3aabi’s endorsement and some beautiful art I pushed through it. Three onward has been great though so it might be worth giving it a shot. I suspect that’s why we didn’t have the interest for an official scheduled offshoot club (that and because the character dialects make it a bit more inaccessible than a typical beginner club pick).

I haven’t seen the anime yet so I don’t know how good the adaptation is or what arcs it covers.

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Nope, I meant manga vs story summaries :sweat_smile:
I managed to read until 50% of the 1st volume and then googled some summaries (and they didn’t convince me to keep going) :stuck_out_tongue: And since then I was checking from time to time to see how the off-shot club was doing. So I was just happy to notice that @z3aabi is also doing (very adorable) summaries. :sweat_smile:
Sorry, but you’re not going to recruit me here :upside_down_face:

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I would never try to do such a thing…

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Can I just: book 5, chapter 1 spoiler:

夏彦先輩 (Natsuhiko-senpai) in the last part of that first chapter V5 made me laugh. Just the fact that Yashiro doesn’t realize it until they’re yelling 待って in unison. And then her reaction like ??? what???
(I currently don’t have the book in front of me so I’m not 100% sure of the exact phrases they use, or the kanji for ‘senpai’ so please forgive me)

edit: fixed what they said, lol, and for ref: pg 29!

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I wasn’t convinced of the manga, and I wasn’t going to really follow through after the first manga, but it really picks up after the first one, which is probably why we read through them so quickly, lol.

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I’m finished w/ this volume. I gotta take a small week-ish break before picking up 6 (it’s packed to go to America with me for the winter holiday, so I won’t be able to read it until after the 18th). I do have to say this story is cracking me up.

lil spoiler on my love of hanako-kun’s antics:

I love the fact that they’re looking for #1 and Hanako just straight up is like “sorry let me in” @ yashiro and just yeets into her body like no big deal. Then when they’re searching and they find #1 “Present”, he’s like ‘oh I knew since he punched me out of her body’ basically lmao

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Wow I just realized I forgot to set the thread to watching. A little slower than intended but I’m nearly done with volume 5! I’ll probably be picking up 6 sometime next week, too. Natsuhiko might be a new favorite character of mine. His obstinate choice to continue opening doors was hilarious, as was his refusal to admit he’d been abandoned. The Mitsuba arc was gold emotionally and now the tea party arc comedically.

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I forgot to mention this but we are now officially in uncharted waters when it comes to what the anime adapted. The clock keepers arc was completely skipped in the anime. I’m sure you’ll realize why in the next volume. Which reminds me that i now have to put up the thread for volume 6.

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The thread for volume 6 is now up!

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Finished 5 at last! I’m really curious to learn more about Hanako’s past at this point.

Unfortunately since I decided to joint the Saikawa and Moe bookclub I might need to put Hanako on a bit of a hiatus again until I finish up some other stuff. I really like it but the character dialects do make it difficult to breeze through at the pace I would like to.

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Actually, probably going to push through and finish the arc first. That probably makes a better breakpoint than the volume.