Well, that’s that.  As ever this episode of Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun was enjoyable, but the truth is this mini-series is more about what it isn’t than what it is.  A massively popular remains out there, mostly and inexplicably unadapted.  And there’s no firm indication of when that will change, if it will at all.  I’ve said it before, but if this is all we get I’m going to be very disappointed.

This was a Halloween episode, which is certainly a natural fit.  Most of it involved Mokke – in fact, thinking on it almost all of Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun was Mokke-centric.  First we have Nene turning into a Mokke (though this will turn out to be an induced nightmare).  The idea is that Mokke are the building blocks of everything, which gets sort of deep.  Then we have a bit about a school for monsters, which works but is kind of odd in multiple ways.  None of it amounts to much – none of this series does – but it’s entertaining and pretty to look at.

I remain baffled by the lack of a second season (or reboot) of the parent series, and I’m happy to get whatever anime we get.  The existence of this series certainly doesn’t do any harm for our chances of getting more, but it’s no more than an amuse-bouche as far as Hanako-kun is concerned.  Let’s hope the main course is coming soon.