Short Synopsis: A boy whose mother is nearly committing adultery calls the Jigoku Tsuushin.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
(A small note: I’ve decided to pull the “highlights”-bit from my entry introductions. I just have too much trouble for each episode to come up with something to say in it)
A surprisingly quiet and focused episode for this series. The whole themes of sending someone to hell who doesn’t deserve it still remains, but for once the main character spends a lot of time trying to figure out whether it’s worth it to send a random guy to hell, just because he’s toying around with his mother.
What we have here is a typical mother’s boy. His parents are starting to live apart from each other: his mother is irresponsible and only thinks off buying pretty kimonos, while his father is out all the time and takes out his frustrations on his wife. Very down to earth flaws… when compared to all the emo teenagers of the past few episodes (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, of course ^^;).
For once, I also felt that the main character in this episode was smart. At least for a Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuaganae-main character anyways. Sure, he does send a random guy he dislikes to hell, but in the end he does come out as a bad character: he feels regret, and yet is willing to move on despite the screw-up he made. He realizes that it’s his mother’s nature to want to be surrounded by guys who tell her she’s great, and I understand how Hone Onna could sympathize with the mother.
I think that at this point, Yuzuki should become the next Tsugumi. In this episode, she got enough chances at trying to save the next victim of Enma Ai, but she took none of them. Where the main guy learned from his mistakes, you should suspect that the same is going to happen to Yuzuki. In any case, it would be great for her to become more than just a simple bystander. While I’m normally in favour of main characters who simply play as bystanders, it shouldn’t be that their roles become completely oblivious. I mean, has she actually done something useful in the series?
