His Everlasting Winter; Her Fleeting Spring
By DramaticRaddish
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Since it was recently spooky season, I've been catching up with my favorite feminist queer symbolism horror manga: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun.
Inspired by the little mermaid, it follows Nene Yashiro, a hopeless romantic who's tragically desperate to get validation from the patriarchy, and Hanako, a mysterious ghost boy who can pull a butcher knife out of himself, rgu style. At the beginning, Yashiro is even willing to curse herself into being a mermaid, if it means she can have a relationship. However, she backs out of putting the other half of the curse on her target, after which Hanako saves her by taking it himself. Eventually, Yashiro grows to value her own agency too. Against all efforts to save her, she's determined to live her life the way she wants, in the world the person she loves is in, even if that world is cruel to her. However, Hanako believes supernaturals have no future. After all, God told him his sins would be forgiven if he maintained the boundary between humans and supernaturals. That's why he's trapped haunting the girl's water-closet, as the 7th of the school's 7 mysteries: Hanako-san of the Bathroom.
Pansexual naruto and his nonbinary ghost boyfriend are going through the horrors too. Mitsuba believes he needs to be a real human in order to experience real relationships, but Kou wonders why they can't be together anyway.
These supernaturals, always believing what they really want is impossible to achieve, and settling for something else…
TBHK is endearing horror about bonds tied across the near and far shores, and what it means to do something for bonds versus for yourself. It has the forlorn intimacy of The X-Files, the sense of wonder of a Makoto Shinkai movie, lore more intriguing than an adventure series, friendship portrayed like every character is a little bit in love with eachother, the irony of a Shakespearean tragedy, foreshadowing that will turn your stomach, and art you could hang on a wall. It's probably the most unique media I've engaged with in the past 5-10 years, at least it's given me the most unique feelings. If I could wipe my memory to experience it for the first time again, I certainly would, and that's a rarity from me. It's the kind of series I desperately want to share with the people I love.
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prince andy the first (tomboy liker #1)