Category: Jigoku Shoujo

Short Synopsis: A girl and her father work for a guy who’s running for the national president. This episode proves that politicians don’t always go fair and square. Good: Kikuri… I guess. Bad: Just doesn’t live up to the previous episodes, who already weren’t up to par to their predecessors. Overall Enjoyment Value: 6.5/10 Yeah, that’s what you get with Jigoku Shoujo. Some episodes are totally amazing, while others are just standard, used to create a pattern. Still, now we’re this far into the series, standard episodes like this one aren’t as good as they used to be. Right now, the creators have to really do their best to impress me, which didn’t work for this episode. Still, I’m glad that they’ve decided to show their lesser ideas right now, so that they can save the best episodes for last. Kikuri was surprisingly good, by the way. I’m referring to the scene in which she dressed up as a nurse. Normally, her jokes have been rather “innocent”, apart perhaps from when she interfered to send someone to hell, though I don’t think that was a joke of her. Though seeing that she mocks even the doctors and sick people was quite a surprise. Doesn’t she have any boundaries?]]>

Short Synopsis: A Kikuri-episode. A former actor is determined to get revenge on his neighbours. Good: Great killing scene; nice twist in the ending. Bad: A bit of a boring antagonist this time Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 Hmm, dammit. This time, it wasn’t the usual formula which was the worst thing about the episode, it’s the antagonist this time. He just lacks a bit of depth, comparing to the other ones we’ve seen so far. I never really understood his reason, even after reading Memento’s summary. Okay, he’s pretty evil, though he doesn’t grab me like the most other antagonists of Jigoku Shoujo did. Still, that doesn’t mean that this episode didn’t have some very juicy bits. The background music was as good as ever, and Kikuri gets some development as well. I’m still not sure what the little brat is trying to do. And why does Ai approve of her so much? Could the spider have ordered her to take care of Kikuri during her missions? And what is Kikuri after? Does she want to take Ai’s place? It’s also a good thing that in this episode, people actually died. You don’t get to see that often in Jigoku Shoujo. People either die outside of the episode, they get sent to hell, or they just end up living, though badly hurt. The deaths in this episode made quite the impact. Especially the one of the mother. The death of the father had an especially nice after-effect, seeing as the antagonist suddenly disappeared, leaving the main character, the son of the mother and the father, with the blame of the murder. I just would have liked to see a bit more of what happened after this, though. We see the boy in a police car, but that’s all.]]>

Short Synopsis: A guy has lost his wife and son in a truck accident five years ago, and his daughter has been in coma ever since. But why would he want to access Jigoku Tsuushin? Good: Lots of Ai-airtime this time. Nice ending. Bad: This episode just doesn’t match up to the quality of the previous episodes. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 Dammit. Here I was expecting a huge episode, and then it comes with such a usual one. We have this guy who has this grudge against a number of idiots who tried to be on television while his wife just died. Right now, he’s feeling that his time is coming, and he at least wants the idiots to die before he does. In the end, he can’t kill the last of the idiots, so he lets Ai do it for him. Still, I do feel that this episode featured a turning point. No major one, but Ai and Kikuri were exceptionally present in this episode. Especially Kikuri was finally more than the annoying brat of the past episodes. She finally shows a bit of what she can do, and the effect this has on the different cases. I’m suspecting that the following episodes will continue to delve deeper in this. Ai also actually contributed to the research. Either that, or she wanted to try out being a waitress. I’m not sure what that purpose was, same with her, eating a snack at the Oden. Okay, it was amusing, and she looked REALLY cute, but the point…? Still, the ending was surprisingly good. Okay, his daughter waking up was unavoidable, though the creators actually found a good reason for her to wake up at that exact time. I also like how this episode put emphasis on the punishment of hell and the punishment of killing someone. The guy now has to live his life with two punishments: seeing his daughter find out that he’s a murderer, and if that wasn’t good enough, he’d have a nice and cosy hell for him as soon as he dies, which probably won’t take long. I’ve also been wondering… will Hell Boy return? And what about Hajime and Tsugumi? The fact remains that the final few episodes of this series will bring some kind of conclusion to this series. Though so far, we’ve got no clue as to what this might be, in contrary to the first season, which clearly focused on Hajime’s struggle against Ai. I’m suspecting Kikuri and the spider will be playing a huge role in this. Especially the spider. He’s been getting an awful little amount of development, though. I want to see more of him… err.. it.]]>

Short Synopsis: Wanyuudo hitchhikes with a truck driver, who seems to have a grudge against an old man. Good: I love this show; Even though nothing really happened, this episode was amazing! Bad: How long must Kikuri (not Kirika) continue to ruin the incredible mood this anime sets? Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 Seriously, the past few episodes of Jigoku Shoujo have been one hit after another. And then to think that we’ve still got fourteen episodes to go, and something tells me that the creators are planning to save the best for last. This episode also was a special one. Not only is it a rare Wanyuudo-episode, it also is the first episode to hint about his past, when he was still a human. He seems to come from medieval Japan, probably after Ai’s time. In there, he once lead a carriage, carrying an important princess. This carriage then falls off the same cliff we see during this episode. It’s probably after this that either the spider or Ai found him, and recruited him, though we don’t get to see that part. The case this time focused a lot on atmosphere this time. I’m not sure what it is, but seeing two people talk, while driving a truck on a lonesome road works really well, and the first half of the episode really takes its time introducing the case. It’s was almost like Mushishi. Then, with the second half of the episode, this anime gets its Jigoku Shoujo-vibes back when Enma Ai appears in front of the truck-driver, whose little brother died in a car accident on a dangerous part of the road because an old man refused to move somewhere else, forcing the road to be built dangerously around his house. The old man, like usual, can’t really be called evil. He’s just an old man, who puts a huge value in his own principles. He’s been living inside his house for ages, it’s logical for him to not want to live somewhere else. Especially since he lost all of his family-members and is all alone, he just kept clinging on his house, which reminded him of his former loved ones. Even though he knew quite well about the dangers his decision caused. The episode ends quite interestingly. The old man dies from a heart attack, before the truck driver could reach him. Before he dies, he gives Hone Onna the message that he gives all his possessions to the boy who died, aka the truck driver’s younger brother. This was his way of repenting for the sin he committed in order to live in peace for his last few years. (On a side-note, I’m really looking forward to the thirteenth episode right now, seeing as most anime try to put in some spectacle at this point of the series. Especially with a concept like Jigoku Shoujo, it’s really easy to plan this. The first season already showed this when it featured an episode which focused at a guy, fifty years after he cursed someone).]]>

Short Synopsis: A girl who found a stray cat keeps getting harassed. Good: Beautifully paranoid. It really takes a while to understand what’s really going on. Bad: Absolutely none Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5 What a brilliant episode! After the past few episodes, I almost never expected this show to turn even better, but damn… it did it again. It perfectly developed its main character, Shizuko, combining it with some paranoid moments full of mystery. We have this girl, who’s just moved in to her new apartment. There, she finds a cat, and decides to adopt it. Little does she know that the cat belong to her neighbour. When the neighbour finds out, she starts making all kinds of strange phone-calls, and she starts harassing her in all kinds of anonymous ways. But that’s not even the real beauty of this episode. [SPOILER]Huge spoiler up ahead. Seriously, if you haven’t seen the episode, close this window NOW. You really NEED to see the episode first before reading it. Seriously! I’ve been depending on Memento’s summaries to fill in the small gaps of things I didn’t understand. I’m SO glad that I did this for this episode, because otherwise, I probably never would have gotten the real meaning of this episode. It’s basically one huge punishment-scene! We see the real Shizuka pull the string off the straw doll, and afterwards, we see an extra-lengthy punishment of her neighbour, who is basically being put in the same scene as she was! Brilliant! I kept wondering why Wanyuudo, Ichimoku Ren, Hone Onna and even Ai appeared so often in all kinds of different forms, but that totally explains it. When Kyouko, the neighbour, also gets carried to hell, it’s also great to see her side of the story. It seems that the cat has been the only friend she had for a long time. When she was asked why she didn’t just “talk to Shizuko” about it, she answers that she just didn’t think about that. It’s so interesting, she was so obsessed over her cat being taken away, that she didn’t notice the best solution. It’s now also really clear why Ren, Wanyuudo and Hone were lashing out at Kirika like that. They were in the middle of their play, while Kirika was trying to mess things up. ^^; It’s really too bad that so many people have dropped this in the first season. It’s starting to get more interesting by the minute right now. It’s such a pity.]]>

Short Synopsis: Hone Onna seems to have normal human friends. One among them is a cute little idiot named Tetsuro. Good: Great direction, a real pitiful case this time. Bad: The toilet with teeth could have been better Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10 Oh, my. That was very interesting. We have a Hone Onna episode this time. It seems that a year ago, she met a guy in the train who wanted to recruit her for a movie he was making. The guy is named Tetsuro, and he’s quite the idiot. He keeps running after women and he acts like a little kid at times, and most importantly, he never learned to take responsibility. He keeps relying on his wife, girlfriends and Hone Onna for everything by using his cute puppy-dog eyes. I don’t believe he really has any evil intentions at all. He’s just an ignorant fool, without any realization of the things he does. I guess that that was the reason the women stayed with him. Still, in the end, this ignorance sent him to hell, when he accidentally messed up the car of a guy who’s probably been having a hard time, making this the final straw. Especially when Tetsuro splashed him with hot coffee afterwards. I wish we could have seen more of this guy, but I guess it would have hurt the episode. Right now, the mystery surrounding Tetsuro, and how he could ever be related to Jigoku Shoujo was very interesting. The strange thing is, that I really liked Tetsuro as a character, despite him being a huge idiot. He indeed was too cute to stay angry at. That’s what made his being-sent-to-hell scene also so great. Especially since Hone Onna had to say goodbye to a dear friend of her. Actually, three dear friends of her, since she decided to cut ties with his wife and girlfriend as well. I just wish the creators chose something better than a giant toilet with teeth to begin with. Also, why was Ai blushing at the beginning of the episode? I’m also glad to see that Kirika is getting better with every episode progressing. She was actually funny this time, when she appeared in a frog raincoat, flying away with a green umbrella in front of Tetsuro. Wanyuudo has been getting surprisingly little attention, by the way. There was one episode in which he stood in the centre, the one with the punk guy. Apart from that, it’s either been Ichimoku Ren and Hone Onna. Also, will Ai also get a few episodes in which the case relates to her? In any case, I have to say that the second season is well on its way on becoming better than the first one. It’s only been episode ten, and we’ve already been treated to some wonderful cases. I was beginning to worry a bit after the first six episodes, but the quality suddenly made a huge leap in the right direction with the seventh episode.]]>

Short Synopsis: Something is seriously wrong between a sister and her brother. Good: Awesome antagonist this time, extremely creative. The confession-scene was great. Bad: The usual formula, unfortunately. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5 Holy god… during the first scene of the episode, we get the impression that this story is about a girl with a big-brother-complex. Well, it appears to be tad different from this. Okay, get this. We have this girl, who has a brother. This brother: – Likes to cook for her. – Works as a model. – Buys fancy dresses… – …only to wear them HIMSELF and dress up like a girl. – Is in love with his sister. – Seduces all of his sister’s new boyfriends away from her, IN GIRL-MODE. – Suddenly tries to hit on her. Okay, individually, these things aren’t that bad. Okay, some may be a bit annoying, but it’s NOTHING like when you actually start combining all of them. This is one crazy guy, and I can imagine why his sister would hate him. It’s interesting, since she’s yet another girl who’s using Jigoku Shoujo to run away from her problems. I wonder what would have happened if she never got into contact with Jigoku Shoujo in the first place. How would she have solved the problem then? If I had to guess, she’d use her own strength to stop him somehow, but would that be before or after he went too far? Still, I loved the ending in this one. It showed that this girl is well aware that she sent her brother to hell, seeing as she’s really missing him. It had to be a difficult decision for her. It seems that in the end, she chose for the easy way out.]]>

Short Synopsis: A fake website for Jigoku Shoujo has appeared on the web. But why? Good: Gotta love the plot twist. Bad: This really needs to get subbed. Why isn’t it getting subbed? Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 Why did I ever lose faith in this series!? It’s awesome. That’s what this episode definitely showed. I think that one of the best things of this show is its repetition, even though most people seem to be turned off by it. Because it’s so repetitive, it builds up a certain pattern for each episode. When it starts playing with this pattern, the show turns really interesting. That definitely became clear with this episode. It already starts out well when it doesn’t really feature a clear main character. We have our antagonist, Baba Shouko. But there’s no real protagonist. We switch a bit around between different characters, we have a student who’s being bullied by her, a teacher who’s seeing her students suffer, a student who gets blamed and expelled for creating the fake Jigoku Shoujo website, Hone Onna and, of course, Jigoku Shoujo. Each one of them gets about an equal amount of development. But then the real goodness begins when the teacher invites the expelled student to send Baba Shouko to hell with the real Jigoku Website. It seems that the teacher had called upon Jigoku Shoujo herself in the past, when she was still a high school girl, seeing as she hated Baba Shouko herself at that time. Still, she chickened out. Now that she ended up in the same school as her, she actually tries to USE one of her students to send Baba Shouko to hell. Brilliant. Especially taken into account what happens next. Baba Shouko herself appeared, and reveals that she actually doesn’t have any evil attentions at all. She’s just your usual strict teacher who wants to make her students good members of society. I like that kind of teacher, seeing as kids these days are getting ruder and ruder by the minute. She kindof reminds me of Ro from Saiunkoku Monogatari. But yeah, at the time, the children probably won’t acknowledge this. And some cases will never come to understand it, see the teacher as an example. The question also remains: did Baba Shouko cause all of this, and more importantly, is she guilty? It’s true that she was the reason that Kuriyama-sensei turned out the way she did, but Kuriyama herself also is to blame, because she never saw the real meaning behind Baba’s behaviour. Still, can you really blame someone for not understanding something quick enough? Still, the fact remains that Kuriyama tried to use one of her students, while Kuriyama actually sent someone to hell. That’s another thing I love about this show. There’s almost no character who behaves ethically correct all the time. The previous episode was an extreme example of this as well. Also, you have to love the attempts to stay out of the copyrights by turning “Google” into “Deegle”. It’s actually quite a cute name. ^^; I’m also glad that Kirika is improving. I mean, she still is the annoying brat, but she was actually quite funny in this episode, and she actually listened to Ai. I’m really beginning to wonder why she’s in this show in the first place. I mean, she has to have a reason, doesn’t she?]]>

Short Synopsis: The mother of a son who died can’t recover from the shock, and drags her entire family into it. Good: The ending.. oh my GAWD! Bad: The little girl still is kindof annoying. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 Today’s experiment: can I watch Jigoku Shoujo raw. Conclusion: yes, I can. I missed some details, but it isn’t any worse than with other series. I just got a bit too fed up with the huge period of downtime from the subs. Normally, I can wait, but lately I actually caught myself losing interest in this show due to lack of updates, and we can’t have that, can we? That’s another advantage of being able to understand raws. ^^ This episode also really reminded me again why I love this series. It really manages to portray people on the brink of insanity. This episode definitely was one of the better ones, since all the important characters had enough development for once. Both the mother, the daughter, the son and the father got a nice amount of development, causing them to dive into insanity. Seriously, we’ve got ourselves a messed-up family this time. We first have this son who’s being bothered by his overly protective mother, and because of that, he decides to send her to hell. It’s freaky, though awfully realistic. I can imagine pubescent males who hate their mother, and what happens if you give them a very easy and clean way to kill her? But if that wasn’t good enough, his mother keeps clinging to him, even after his death. This breaks up the entire family. The father probably is the most normal person in the family, seeing as he keeps getting bothered by his wife, though he’s too afraid to say something. Because of that, he starts drinking more and more. Though I liked the daughter most. Mostly because of what happened at the end of the episode. She actually killed off her entire family, and we see her smile in front of an empty breakfast table! Even her father! That girl really is crazy. I love it how Jigoku Shoujo actually focuses on anti-heroes at times. It’s great, I’m back in love again with this series. ^^]]>

Hah! The best episode in the second season so far, for the first time in these six episodes, the creators really managed to make me sympathize with this case. They managed to put down an touching case about a rather overweight boy with health problems, which forces him to attend classes in the school hospital. Because of this, his mother acts overprotective, his father yells at him, he gets bullied in the middle of the class, people laugh at him, and because of this, he rather lost his will to live. Then he ran into one girl, who didn’t laugh at him. Ever since, he’s been stalking her.

I liked how at first, the guy appears to be some kind of stalking idiot, who’s been obsessed over a girl for no reason. But as the episode progresses, we get to know him more and more. After a while, it really becomes clear that he doesn’t have any friends, and has given up on socializing with others. Then the arrival of this girl came as a real godsent.

Though the real good part of the episode came when he finds out that the girl is in danger. His only solution is to ask Ai, though she refuses. This means that if he wants to save the girl, he has to act on his own. In the end, he’s too scared, and the girl gets raped. Only the day after, he finds out that because he didn’t interfere, the girl sent the bad guy to hell herself, and he’s finally decides to start acting on his own. Great twist, loved it. Awesome episode.

I also liked the small girl during this episode, even though she mostly served as comic relief by calling Hone Onna and Wanyuudo Grandma and Baldie. It’s good for them to have a bit of comic relief, as it does develop them, in a away.