Category: Jigoku Shoujo

Ooh! An episode which deviates from the standard Jigoku Shoujo-episodes. As usual with these kinds of episodes, it offers a very nice perspective. For the first time in the second season, we’ve got a cast of male characters, instead of the usual females. The victim this time is an otaku, who’s being bullied by the resident streetpunk. Still, for the first time, we actually see someone refusing the straw doll. He hates the guy, but he actually isn’t willing to go to hell for it.

Then it seems that the streetpunk has troubles of his own. There’s this high school girl he’s fallen in love with, though his superiors have taken her hostage, planning to rape her. Because of this, he sends the guy to hell. Still, the fact remains that he’s an idiot. The twist of the episode was a bit forced, though. He had to die right after his revenge was carried out.

Wanyuudo also got his moment in the spotlight, though in a different way from Ichimoku-ren and Hone Onna in the second and third episode. Wanyuudo behaves more like the resident old guy, who keeps complaining how people nowadays lack any sort of respect and dignity. While he is right about one point – some humans really need to get a smack in the head – he doesn’t look at the normal people, or the fact that evil in humanity has always existed.

This episode and the previous episode both dealt with a person, unable to make the right decisions, in contrast to the second episode, in which we dealt with a pure victim. The main character is Shuuichi. He’s married to a woman who lies in the hospital. In the past, he did a number of very stupid things: he got involved with a shady owner of a host club, and especially one job ended up wrong, with this owner forcing him to kill an accomplice for money. In the end, he ruined his life because of this, and he never even got the money.

Because he wants his wife to enjoy the best treatment in the hospital, he’s forced to work continuously and borrow money from others, in order to pay for her expensive one-person room. He keeps all this a secret from his wife, for better or for worse. He calls for Jigoku Shoujo, and then it indeed seems that he’s aware of the things he’s done, and he’s actually someone who believes he deserves to go to hell. That’s why he doesn’t have the doubts that all of the other characters in Jigoku Shoujo had. He, however, makes one big mistake in his greed. He decides to blackmail his antagonist, before sending him to hell, in order to get the money in the end. The latter ends up telling Shuuichi’s secret to his wife. Because of this, she’s broken and has some kind of brain attack.

The twist of the episode: Shuuichi obviously sends the guy to hell after he’s seen what happened, and he believes that going to hell and working hard enough to pay back his dept will be enough to attain for the sins he committed. Well, that’s not the only thing: when his wife regains consciousness, she seems to have forgotten him.

Also, what’s up with the little girl? Why is Ai so nice to her? What did Ai’s grandmother mean with “I hope he’s happy”? Why is she such an annoying brat? Where did she come from? How many questions can I ask about her!?

I like the new focus of Jigoku Shoujo. Now that Tsugumi and Hajime have buggered off, it’s time for the three dolls to get a bit of depth. Each episode, one of them feels attracted to the case, and starts to investigate. Last episode, we had Ichimoku Ren, this episode, we have Hone Onna. The next episode will probably focus on Wanyuudo. I’m wondering if Enma Ai will also have such an episode.

This episode focused at the love of a teenage girl who went out of control. She’s been living right next to a guy ever since she was born. Over the years, she fell in love with him, but she was too afraid of change. Because of this fear, she just accepted that he suddenly got a girlfriend, and she actually supported him. She even gave him enough cash to fly away with her to Hawai. Her own reason for this is incredibly biased: if she confessed to the boy she loved, the two would get closer and closer together, which would eventually lead to the two of them breaking up again, and she hates to move further away from him. But, because she’s probably been watching too many soap-operas, she forgets the most important thing: if the relationship with his new girlfriend does work out right, the two of them will be moving in together at one point, and they’ll be starting a life on their own. Away from the girl.

Still, things go way differently when the girlfriend appears to be a two-timer, breaks up with the guy, and the main character makes the guy fall out of a window, two or three stories down, which kills him. Afterwards, it gets even clearer how immature this girl actually is: she wastes her afterlife for a moment of pleasure when the hears the ex-girlfriend talk bad about her ex-boyfriend (reference to Gintama 07), moves in to another apartment, and meets up with another guy who looks just like the previous one. With a bit of luck, the exact same cycle will be starting all over again. It just shows how fragile the feelings of girls like her are.

I think I’ve already said this before, but in my opinion, the power of Jigoku Shoujo comes from its formula, and its ability to deviate from this formula. Each episode, there are a few things which you know will happen. Each episode has a basic set of ingredients. But apart from these ingredients, you can see a lot of different elements, some big, mostly small. The fact that the episodes in the second season so far all ended with some kind of twist only makes this better. I really can’t get enough of these stories. ^_^

When the first season started, there wasn’t really a main character in this series. We just had Ai, her dolls and the main character of the case. Then, when Hajime and Tsugumi appeared, they sortof became main characters, as a lot of the series was followed through their eyes. Now that the second season has started, and Hajime and Tsugumi have disappeared, the focus suddenly shifts towards Ai’s dolls: Hone Onna, Ichimoku Ren and the other guy (what was his name again?). A nice focus, and with a bit of luck, we’ll be able to find out about their backgrounds a bit.

This episode deals with the relatives of someone who’s been kidnapped, raped, killed, thrown in a trunk and thrown at the bottom of the lake. A great touch of realism, as cases like these occasionally happen in real life as well. The focus entirely stands at the victim’s older sister, and I think the creators decided to dedicate the time they had on this girl, and not on the culprit. I wonder if the episode would be too fastly paced if his background was explained. Ah well, it’s the creators’ decision, and the results remain awesome.

Because we only follow the victim’s sister, we can really follow and try to understand how she feels after something like that happened to her, not knowing what really went on. Sumire(her sister)’s spirit tries to tell her this, and in the end gets the message through. I especially loved the ending. The bastard has been sent to hell, she knows that Sumire’s death, but she still continues to search for people who might’ve seen or heard something about her.

Finally, I’ve been waiting for the second season of Jigoku Shoujo. And I’m glad to say that the first episode didn’t disappoint at all. The show immediately starts with an incredibly touching, though shocking first episode. If this series keeps up with the same quality, we’ll be in for something amazing. ^_^

The case: a girl is getting bullied, but she doesn’t know by who. The bully goes pretty far, caterpillars are put inside her pencil box, knits have been put through one of the sleeves of her jacket, her books are trashed and hateful things have been scribbled on her shoes. One of the teachers tries to help her, though in the end, the teacher appears to be the actual culprit.

The things I liked about this episode were the dramatic moment. Jigoku Shoujo features beautiful and very detailed character art, and knows how to use it. Especially during the climax, when the teacher grabbed the girl’s hair and tried to restrain her looked gorgeous. Also at the beginning of the episode when the case is introduced, we see the girl come in with ruined shoes and books, and in the background, there’s laughing. The property destruction and abuse is just one part of this girl’s sadness. I think the way her classmates reacted also is a huge factor in this story.

This also was the first time Hone Onna turned into the doll. Up till now, Wanyuudo played that role. I also noticed that Ai was more impatient than usual. It probably has to do with the fact that she changed a bit after she met up with Hajime and his daughter. The dolls realize this, and investigate for themselves. I like the fact that they actually discovered what really went on, though we don’t get to see the moment they realize this. I also liked the doll’s sarcasm when they were punishing the teacher. I think they somehow enjoy extracting revenge at times. ^^

As the fact remains that this episode actually had an open ending. There’s one girl who attempts to help the girl who’s being bullied, by giving her a hint that her teacher was the one behind the bullying. But at the end of the episode, we see the two of them together, and then the latter girl appears to use the same kind of knits as the ones who were used to edit the girl’s sweater. It may just have been that the teacher stole the knitting machine from the classmate, but why would she bother? I actually think that the classmate also did some of the bullying, but at one point, she got scared and backed off. Probably because she found the teacher was going way too far.

Also, this episode introduced another important character. She looks a bit like the younger version of Ai, but all we got was a small shot of her, smiling. I’m also glad to hear that the musical score for the second season has become even better since the first season.

Well then, there were a few flaws in this episode, though. The reason for the teacher is never really stated, but that’s normal in Jigoku Shoujo. It clearly chose to focus on the victims and not on the bad guy. And I also like this degree of mystery to the ones sent to hell. Also, things may have been a bit too dramatic to be normal. I mean, there is no way a person would go so far in real life. But that doesn’t matter. I love this show. ^^

And it’s over! The ending definately was interesting. It doesn’t belong to the collection of amazing endings, though I did enjoy it. A lot.

Especially the first half of the episode is worthwile. I’ll say it again: WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD!

The spider! The spider was behind all this. He forced her to become Jigoku Shoujo, in order to repent for her sins. Anyway, Ai isn’t satisfied, as Hajime, who indeed is a descendant of Sentarou, hasn’t been sent to hell yet. She then uses Tsugumi, she gives her the black doll with the string, she shows her the accident at which her mother died and tries to make her paranoid. Tsugumi actually believes this.

Then the infamous scene occurs, at which Tsugumi’s saved by Hajime who enters just at the right time, but let’s ignore that, shall we? Hajime then finally begins to break down, and Tsugumi comforts him. A bit overdramatic, but it works. Tsugumi was too cute at this once more. Ai sees this, and she decides to cease hostilities. She takes a moment to destroy Sentarou’s temple, and she leaves, along with her dolls, in order to just play Jigoku Shoujo again. Like I said, it was nothing special, but I definately enjoyed this ending.

This also gives a lot of room for the second season of Jigoku Shoujo, which has been announced. There are a lot of unanswered questions left, like who the hell was the spider? What is the meaning of the candles, which get shown at the end of each episode? Where did the grandmother come from? And does Hell-boy make another appearance? I wonder whether Tsugumi and Hajime will continue to try and stop Ai. The tension concerning the three of them certainly has died, so there has to be something else to take their place, while the two of them get to play another part. In any case, I’ll definately be looking forward to the next season. Does anyone have an idea when it starts to air? The concept just so totally rocks.

Like expected, this episode deals with Ai’s past. And holy god, it’s even better than the previous episode made it seem like. We start with the aftermath of the previous episode. (WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS COMING UP)

Ai goes berserk, and manages to hit Hajime and Tsugumi. The dolls try to stop her, but they fail. A huge lightning strike follows, demolishing a nearby tree, and sending Ai on the way to hell. She exits with saying that she doesn’t care about herself again. Hajime and Tsugumi, meanwhile, fall into a spring, and they enter Ai’s past. They get to see a vision of what turned Ai into Jigoku Shoujo.

Could it have been done better? I really don’t think so. Emna Ai really has the most awesome backgrounds ever, along with Ginko and Alice. For starters: Ai was being viewed as a monster back in her childhood-days. These ideas were based on total nonsense, but when an idea slips in, it isn’t possible to get it out of the villagers. Her only friend is Sentarou, and the two of them played together a lot. Sentarou protected Ai as much as he can, though he often loses his temper when she gets called names. Sentarou’s father also is a special person. He’s incredibly weak, so he can’t go and do work on farms. He volunteers to make straw slippers for the villagers in order to repay them. He also encourages Sentarou to play with Ai.

Then, Ai gets the message that she has to be the next victim in the ritual of Sending Seven, in order to appease the mountain god. Sentarou suspects that the villagers chose her on purpose, in order to get rid of her, which might actually come very close to the truth. They however, rely on their stubbornness and authority to ignore these facts. Sentarou gets even agrier when he hears this.

At the day of the Sending Seven, Ai’s parents come to Sentarou and beg him to help her. During the ritual, they hide her inside some kind of temple, and try to make the villagers think that she actually died. An interesting note: when Ai was picked up from her house, the ones who came to take her only thought about themselves, and acted impatiently. This shows that they really wanted her gone.

Anyway, the plan works, and for six years, Sentarou hides Ai in a well disguised place. He heads for her every night, and the two grow up together, and they begin to feel more and more for each other. Until one night, at which the villagers discover him, and the true awesomeness starts.

In these six years, the village has been dying. Harvests have been bad, and everyone’s complaining. When everyone finds out what happened, they immediately blame the cursed Ai for bringing misfortune to the village. Everyone demands the mistake to be corrected, by killing Ai once more. All they use are incredibly selfish arguments. Sentarou tries to do something, but none other than his father is the one who stops him from doing so. Ai gets chased and beaten down by the villagers, including them trying to drown her.

Later, both Ai as her parents have to be burried. They’re blindfolded, and all three of them get hit by a plough. When the villagers think they’re all dead, the bodies get thrown into a pit. Ai, however, remained alive, and she wakes up and sees hears Sentarou. Sentarou, however, is put under such enormous pressure, that he gets forced to be the one to burry her. Ai sees this, an then (while covered in blood by the way, an incredibly sad sight) she gets filled with hatred as the villagers finish filling the hole in which she lies with earth. Talk about horrifying scenes!

Anyway, a couple of years later, Ai arises from the earth, goes berserk and sets the village on fire. Sentarou sees this, and he flees. Tsugumi and Hajime wake up. Tsugumi doesn’t understand why Sentarou acted the way he did. Hajime, however, does. Does this have something to do with his former relationship? Anyway, as Hajime and Tsugumi didn’t get sent to hell, Ai hasn’t been finished either. We end the episode with her opening her eyes again, in a boat leading to hell.

Still, what role does the grandmother have? She hasn’t been shown at all during these flashback scenes. How did the dolls end up in hell in the first place? All questions, waiting to be answered in the last episode. The flashback was just amazing. This also explains what happened in the previous episode a bit better. Ai somehow seemed to have forgotten why she became Jigoku Shoujo in the first place, and thought that Hajime and Tsugumi could help her to understand this, and tell her what happened to Sentarou. The both of them are probably related to Sentarou in some way. The question remains: how?

No case this time. In fact, I think that the nurse from the last episode was the last person to be carried to hell. The last three episodes will probably solve Emna Ai’s problems, and this episode gives a really awesome start. And then to think that we’ve got two episodes left!

This episode basically consists out of two parts. In the first part, Ai invites Tsugumi to the place everything began. She and Hajime take about three quarters of the episode reaching that place, while at the same time they get to know what really went on in Ai’s past, and how exactly she became Jigoku Shoujo. Everything seems to be the fault of a boy named Sentaro, and a ritual named Sending Seven. Our two protagonists stop at a local inn. During the evening, when Tsugumi pays a visit to the local hot springs, Ai suddenly shows up. That really was a scary experience, especially if you combine this with the look Tsugumi had during this visit.

We also see the reason why Ai contacted Tsugumi in the first place: in order to discover what happened to Sentaro, and why she became Jigoku Shoujo. Apparently, she didn’t know this as well. She finds the answer, though. And it’s horrifying. The Sending Seven involved offering a girl at the age of seven, to the gods in order to please them. Ai was this girl. In order to be sacrificed, she needed to be burried alive. She got burried by Sentaro. When Ai finds this out, for the first time in the entire series, she loses her temper.

During the second part of the episode, Hajime and Tsugumi arrive at the place with the Sakura-tree, only to be confronted by an extremely scary-looking Emna Ai. Seriously, when she’s gloomy over the entire series, when she never smiles, or shows any kind of emotion, and then to see her angry like that, truly was SCARY. She didn’t even need to pull the Higurashi-emo-face in order to achieve this.

Her dolls manage to find out in just in time, and manage to temporarily save Hajime and Tsugumi from being sent to hell themselves. At that time, we also find out that Ai’ll be sent to hell herself if she uses her power for her own, personal gain. She then again comes with the statement that she doesn’t care about herself (*shudders*), and she finally manages to avoid her dolls and hit our duo. What happens afterwards? We need the next episode in order to know that.

This episode surely had some incredibly awesome parts. Especially seeing Ai angry for the first time was just absolutely terrific, not to mention if you combine it with her absolute opposite of egoistic type of character. My guess is that the two of Hajime and Tsugumi are the only descendants left of Sentaro, which makes me wonder about Hajime’s parents. Nothing is mentioned about them in the previous episodes, is there? And what is the role of the grandmother?

Ah well, two episodes left. The ending promises to be awesome. It’s just too bad of the irregular releases of the show. Then again, irregular releases have a good point and a bad point. The bad point is that you have to wait so damned long before another episode gets released. The good point is, however, that whenever it’s released, the episode suddenly becomes uttenly incredible. This episode certainly was no exception to this.

I just love Jigoku Shoujo. This episode was again totally incredible.

We start off with Tsugumi who has another vision. This time, involvind a plane descending and a couple of random sceneries including a hospital. She tells Hajime about it and the two set off. The victim this time is a nurse who works at this hospital. Hajime investigates a bit and comes to the conclusion that we have a horribly nice person here. Everyone likes her. Tsugumi still choses Ai’s side, but has problems with it.

Hajime keeps searching, and finally finds someone who holds a grudge against this nurse: the widower of a woman who died in the hospital. He was cornered, so he decided to blame another party, which ended up being this nurse. Hajime pays him a visit. Meanwhile, Tsugumi has her worst attack yet. She begins screaming afterwards. It was just too horrible to see.

That was the good part. Now the awesome part begins. It appears that this person’s never heard of Jigoku Shoujo in any way. So that means that another person holds a grudge against the nurse. Before we’re able to figure out who it is, it’s too late and she gets sent to hell. Tsugumi was just too sad to see. If it wasn’t even enough, she ends up connecting with Ai at the end of the episode. Apparently, there was some boy in Ai’s memory with which she used to share lots of happy memories. Combine this with episode twenty, in which only the words of killing your family managed to penetrate through her memory, and we’re in for some incredible final three episode.

I so LOVED this episode. Especially Tsugumi. She just keeps getting better and better. And better. It’s aweosme to see her struggle like that. What is the right thing to do: revenge or no revenge? I can hardly wait for the last episodes.