Jigoku Shoujo – 58

Short Synopsis: Two girls get a crush on Hone Onna.
Highlights: Talk about an elaborate punishment-scene.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
This episode was really typical of the third season of Jigoku Shoujo: two girls are fighting over the love of Hone Onna, one using more subtle tricks, while the other blatantly threatened the other. The second one then ends up sending the first one to hell, and the next day she’s forgotten her crush and fallen in love with someone else.

If there’s one thing I’m worrying about this season, then it’s the lack of variety when compared to the others. It really seems that this third season is set in a high-school, and so it will be about conflicts between students and teachers, while the first and second season also like to show problems between adults at times (the lovable idiot, for example). I also wonder, since Jigoku Shoujo is basically confined to one area this time (since she can’t really move anywhere because she’s bound by Mikage), what are other people doing with their revenges? Does the website simply not work? The first season had this as well, and it’s an annoying plot-hole in an otherwise excellent series.

In any case, the ironic thing about this episode is that it’s basically Hone Onna who set up the two girls against each other. One oft he girls was awfully shy, but Hone Onna gave her a bit of courage, after which she started making the life of her rival miserable, getting sent to hell afterwards. Again, there’s a hidden meaning beneath this: adults meddling in teenaged business isn’t always the right thing to do. From a teenaged perspective, in any case.

This episode aso showed the first hint of an overall storyline: it’s now clear that Mikage is proving to be not the best vessel for her. Let’s see how this evolves throughout the series.