- TL;DR: Not a bad anime, just, unfortunately, the only reason you should watch this is for the aesthetic. Intro: Guys, I really wanted to like this show more, from the trailers you might expect a rich intriguing mystery surrounding ghost and other supernatural phenomenon (at least I did), but unfortunately, that is not really what you get here. Of course, these are aspects the narrative tries to incorporate, but ultimately it is significantly brought down by an entire cast of characters who stay just as one-note as they begin, and by a plot that is so disorganized as it randomly meanders from one seemingly unconnected side story to the next, that any semblance of an overarching narrative is unfortunately lost in the clutter. I don't feel like this is an anime that necessitates a long review like many of the other series I have reviewed, thus I'm going to try to condense some areas and make this review shorter than usual, so here we go. - Story: The biggest glaring flaws regarding this series are connected to arguably the two largest pieces in any series, the characters and the story, so let's start with the latter one first. The biggest problem to me with the story in this twelve episode anime is that there isn't one, there genuinely is not a single narrative thread that is strongly maintained throughout the entire season. The show starts off with our main character named Yashiro, a first-year high school girl who decides to meet a well-known spirit trapped in the school who goes by the name Hanako-kun (hence the title), because this spirit is known for granting wishes in exchange for an equal price being paid, and after inevitable hijinks play out in the first episode, Yashiro inevitably falls into the debt of Hanako-kun and now must spend the remainder of her time (they literally do not say how long) working off this debt.

So, you might think that naturally a straightforward premise like this might be followed by a straightforward narrative where Yashiro spends the rest of her time paying off this debt, and you would be absolutely wrong. This premise is almost immediately thrown so far back on the list of importance that it is never brought up again unless it is convenient to the plot. Instead, the show spends the majority of its time jumping from one side story to another, so much so that you would almost consider this series episodic, except for the random few times characters call back to previous events, reminding you that there is a set order to these otherwise unconnected side stories. It genuinely feels like the narrative of this season couldn't decide if it wanted to focus on a single goal, or be a conglomerate of a bunch of side stories, and instead, it fails at both of these tasks by not committing to either of them.

- Characters: There is then also the characters, which are infuriating because of how little they progress throughout the entire season. Every main character in this series basically ends in the same place they began, maintaining the exact same personality virtually the entire way through. Of course, there are conflicts during this series that as expected invoke a variety of different reactions within all of our main characters, however, none of these changes last the rest of the season, since these conflicts are almost always immediately resolved in the same episode they arise in. Other than the ones that are intrinsically tied to the premise of this series, there are zero lasting consequences for any of the decisions any of our main characters make. For brief moments you almost think there are, but they are almost immediately undone by later events within the same episodes. In fact, the only thing more infuriating about all of this in regards to the characters, is that throughout the series there are hints that there could be more. Throughout the entire season, the narrative leads you on with little moments hinting that there might be more to these characters, but ultimately nothing comes from it, and that is the critical downfall for these characters in my opinion. - The Look & Sound: Like I said at the beginning, by far the most enjoyable and interesting part of this anime is its aesthetic. Everything from the thick black lines outlining almost everything, to the cutesy designs for all of the characters, to the bold color palette used to fill in everything on screen, everything about this anime’s aesthetic is extremely appealing to the eyes, and honestly, it is this aesthetic that carried the majority of my interest for this anime while I watched it. I really can't understate how influential the entire look of this anime was in convincing me to finish this series once I already started it. Throughout all of the times I became disinterested in the characters, or the times I became empathetic to the convoluted plot, the beautiful animation and aesthetic present throughout this entire season always kept me coming back for more.

There is also the music for this series, and while it is by no means groundbreaking when it comes to the plethora of anime focused on high school, it does significantly enhance the aesthetic this series has the entire way through. While some might consider the music cliche at times, ultimately I felt it did add a nice layer of cuteness and light hardness in all the scenes that warranted it, while also enhancing the few serious or intimate scenes that are within this season, so in this regard, the OST executed it’s job quite nicely. The OP and ED were also nice additions to the soundtrack of this anime, the OP does a great job highlighting the playfulness throughout this entire season, while the ED highlights a slightly more somber note, which is typical in high school anime. To me personally, while the ED was definitely more typical and in some ways cliche considering this is an anime centering around a high school, ultimately I did find it to be the more enjoyable one of the two.

- Conclusion: In the end, while I did quite enjoy the visual and audio aspects of this anime, ultimately its biggest flaws are the aimless narrative and undeveloped characters that are entangled with these aspects. Which is quite disappointing, I promise, like most people who started watching this while it aired, I went into this with pretty high expectations because of the very well put together trailers, however, the series ultimately didn't turn out the way I feel many of us expected it to. I don't necessarily think the plot or characters are so far gone that they cannot be salvage in future seasons, (so who knows, maybe in later seasons this show can become much better), but as of right now this is how I feel.

All of this is why I ultimately finding myself giving the series a 75/100, and honestly the only reason that it is not getting a 70/100 is because I truly did really enjoy the aesthetic of this series, but an entire show cannot be carried alone on aesthetic. If you are willing to read the manga afterwards where it theoretically can fix some of these problems, or if you are into it just for the aesthetic, by all means, go right ahead and embark on this journey, but otherwise, I wouldn't particularly recommend watching this series. If you ended up enjoying it great, but as for me this is where it ends, so until the next review, じゃあね👋