Imagine a good twin – evil twin story where the good twin may not be all that good; then add in the scenario of being trapped in a fantasy world where if you stay too long you lose your memories and it turns out that not everyone there is entirely fictional, including one or both of the twins. And if you want to escape you have to murder someone you don’t think deserves it, but there’s a mysterious “voice” Writing messages suggesting there’s another way out. But then the friend you got trapped with in this false reality is getting kidnapped by one of the twins but maybe it’s one of the one’s from the real world in which said twin is already dead (actually both twins are ghosts in the real world, but the evil one is considerably more malevolent and untrustworthy, although he was killed by the good twin).
Sound like a lot? It rather is, and this isn’t even quite everything crammed into one volume (#10) of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun, a manga story set in school that has quite a few supernatural inhabitants and several students who can see and interact with them. Even though the trapped in the world of a painting is something of a standard plotline for supernatural stories of this sort, the twin problems and the focus on both the main character Nene and her buddy Kou gives it something interesting to follow for character as well as plot. Kou’s perspective gets a lot more attention as he tries to figure out if he can kill his target, a former friend who died in the real world (as is now a ghost under the control of evil influence) but may or may not be sentient of some of this is the world of the painting. It actually does generate some real psychology and sympathy for both of them. Nene’s core series problem which ahs been hinted at before gets a big boost towards the end as well; supposedly she’s supposed to die within the next year, but maybe the good twin has a plan, unless it turns out Hanako is actually up to no good?
I like the character twists and lack of trustworthiness in a lot of the main supernatural characters, although Mitsuba, Kou’s target, is really irritating personality-wise. Not that he wasn’t before, but there’s a good deal more of him in this volume. This story is a pretty good ghost story, spooky and suspenseful, but not relying to much on violence or splatter horror.