Hanako is normally spacey, gentle, innocent seeming. Imagine Phoebe from Friends if she were more innocent and endearingly kind and sweet hearted. Hanako the drag queen is usually dressed in ethereal ancient Grecian dresses, long hair that brushes the floor, flower or leaf crowns. Hanako is plump and cherubic and loves to wear large fairy wings, since his full drag name is Hanako: the Singing Flower Witch of Hokkaido. He's supposed to depict a magical creature.
After the drag queen owned French patisserie cafe French Cup is bombed and he's caught in the crossfire with his wife and is unable to protect her, his personality takes a 180. He's much more harsh and you see how smart and sharp he really is. You learn that his Hanako personality isn't an act, but a way that he prefers to be in order to cope with the terrible realities he's had to face as an older queer man who grew up in rural Japan. After this new trauma, he's unable to use that coping mechanism. It's supposed to be jarring to the reader, and it hits hard.