I go back and forth over whether Amane understands more than he’s letting on, which is a testament to Ogata Megumi’s performance.
– Some Guy
“Picture Perfect” extends its lead as the longest arc so far in Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun. And probably as its most “serious”, in the plot sense. There are a lot of fate threads tangled up here, and a lot of hands involved in painting this picture. We know who’s holding the brush – Shijima-san of the Art Room. But it’s been made pretty clear that she probably wasn’t the instigator of all this, and certainly isn’t the only one manipulating events behind the scenes. The question now is whether the hints dropped about who was might in fact have been a misdirection.
The first real clue of the eventual turn the story would take comes when Nene tries to run away with Amane-kun. He’s hesitant about going “outside” – leaving the school grounds. At first I thought maybe he would disappear if he did, and that in fact all her creations were self-aware to that extent as a sort of self-preservation mechanism. But no, Amane could leave just fine – he just didn’t want to. That distinction implies a much greater level of self-awareness, and that would certainly turn out to be the case.
At first things seem relatively normal, apart from the runaway bike situation. But when Nene tries to drag Amane onto a bus and the driver morphs into Shijima-san (though Amane says he can’t see that), it’s pretty clear this isn’t going to be easy. Her idea is sound in a sense – since they’re in a painting, there theoretically has to an edge, an end of the world. But it gets shaky after that, not that this is ever put to the test. Nene seems to assume they if they go off the end of this fake world, they’ll end up back in the real (to them) one. But what if they just disappear into the void? I mean, there’s really no way to know for sure. Maybe the art girl is doing them a favor.
But no, in the end it goes in a different (though to me not totally unexpected) direction. First, a mysterious floating brush appears and starts writing messages, promising to help them escape. Nene is distrustful at first, but as usual easily swayed (slicing one of the Shijimas in half does the trick). The brush says that there’s another way out of this world, no killing needed. A secret door. It’s about to tell them where that door is when Hanako-kun (we may as well call him that now) intervenes. And in the process makes it crystal clear that he’s no passenger on this ride.
This development answers one big question and raises another (well, several). We know now that “Amane” is in fact Hanako and has, seemingly, been so all along. Like Mitsuba, aware of what’s happening. But who the heck is the brush? That could all have been a Shijima thing, to mess with them or for some other reason. But perhaps there actually is a secret ally out there attempting to help. No obvious candidates spring to mind but it could be several characters we know. As for Hanako, what’s his role here – when we know the broadcasting club asswipes and Mitsuba were aware of the truth as well?
Hanako knocks Nene out and takes her back to the school. There, Mitsuba goes into a panic when he sees him, though Kou is blissfully unaware of why. And then at least part of the truth comes out – Hanako’s reason for either starting this or playing along. Forget himself (or Mitsuba) coming back to life – it’s Nene’s lifespan he’s worried about. “Less than a year” is a phrase we’ve heard over and over. Fated and unassailable. But in this fiction, Hanako says, that holds no sway. Nene can live forever in fact – and maybe, him with her. From his perspective the argument justifying this fiction is pretty strong – three lives restored where soon there would have been none. But somehow you know it’s really not that simple. And I don’t think Kou is going to be swayed by that argument anyway.
