It’s great to have the Hanako-kun franchise back on the anime scene, under any circumstances.  The first season was #2 on the 2020 year-end list, a very inventive take on a very difficult manga to adapt.  That said, the circumstances with Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun aren’t what I’d call ideal.  It’s a half-length series, and only four episodes.   And it’s based on what’s effectively a gag manga spinoff of the parent series, though it is penned by original mangaka Aida Iro.  I’m hopeful this is a precursor to a reboot or continuation of the main series, which is  long overdue given how massively popular the manga is (even overseas).

If you were served an appetizer as a main course, the odds are you’d still be hungry afterwards, no matter how delicious it was.  That’s kind of my take on Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun – I’ll certainly enjoy it for what it is but with one eye on the kitchen, waiting for the main course.  This series is a comedy-driven take on the premise, a gag manga in effect, and the anime very much falls within realistic expectations based on that.  It’s funny, and the production values are reasonably good for what’s effectively a short.  But it’s not even attempting to convey the depth or pathos of Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun, so it would be unfair to judge it as if it was.

What we have in the premiere are a couple of short vignettes with the characters in exaggerated versions of their familiar roles.  Nene is complaining about having to clean then bathroom every day, so Hanako promises to make it more interesting for her.  The mokke show their dark side, which is never a bad thing.  They decide they want to be one of the seven mysteries, so Hanako agrees to interview them for the position – with unsettling results.  The mokke never fail to deliver, and one imagines this format is ideally suited to showcasing what they have to offer, so we should be seeing a lot of them.

As for meat on these bones, there’s not all that much – it’s just fun and silly and over in the blink of an eye.  Ogata Megumi seems to be having a lot of fun camping up Hanako-kun in this setting, and that’s one of the delights of the premiere.  With only four episodes it’s hard to imagine this series is going to offer much substance at any point, so I’m not going to be expecting that.  As long as it entertains – and leads the way for something more substantial to follow – you’ll hear no complaints from me.