The main reason we consider Hanako-kun a love letter to motion manga lies in the nature of the visuals. The art and animation of Hanako-kun make use of minor movements in each shot or scene, but it doesn’t feel stiff or strange because the movements are fluid despite being very basic. We have many shots in which there are only one or two things in motion in the shot with a lot of camera panning and zooming. Due to the fact that the motion of the animation isn’t the main attraction when it comes to the visuals, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun has stellar character designs, backgrounds and use of colour that may lead it to being one of 2020’s best visual exploits in the anime medium.

Having said this about the motion, we still have to commend Hanako-kun for being able to make some incredibly striking scenes, especially in more dramatic moments. This gives the show a contrast from its general feel yet even in these moments, we can feel how the scenes retain a static impression with minimal yet effective animation.

Building on the previous point about the minimal movement in each Hanako-kun scene, we have to mention the other truth about this show: each different shot has a very comic-book feel to it as the image is presented with quite a bit of camera panning from scene to scene. This gives the viewer the feeling that each scene is being scanned the same way a pair of eyes would scan the page, looking at smaller details and taking in the whole picture at once. Even the way in which some of the visuals of the characters against the backdrop are punctuated with shots of the background in between gives the anime a visually stimulating aesthetic.