The End Of Jigoku Shoujo (At Least Until The Third Season Comes Out In Autumn)

I’m tired of this show being so f**ked up and fantastic at the same time.

Beware, spoilers for both seasons.

If you’ve been following me this past week, you will have noticed a couple of Jigoku Shoujo posts. As you’ve probably surmised, I was marathoning the series; I’m not sure how I managed to do it, but I raced through all 52 episodes in a little over a week. I really wish there was more to do in my town than bowling and poker -_-.

Anyway, starting off with the first season, though I felt that that was the weaker of the two doesn’t mean it was that much inferior. Being the first season, it had to use its first episodes to establish the formula of the show and the way people were sent to hell. As such, it used a lot of the same situations and circumstances, and there weren’t many twists. But just because the cases introduced were always predictable, doesn’t mean they were any less enjoyable. In particular there were ones that truly made you empathise with the characters, such as that of the teacher who was corresponding with the student under the false names of Anemone and cheppo. It managed to create more detailed characters than in the regular cases where someone is hated, Jigoku Shoujo is called and then that hated person goes to hell. Included in this is Tsugumi and Hajime. Their overarching plotline pretty much sustained my interest throughout the entire first season. Hajime’s struggles to make Ai see the error of her ways, as well as stop people from attaining their vengeance at a horrible cost, were frustrating to hope for and watch fail time and time again.

It’s testament to the nature of human beings that we cannot forgive, or at the very least tolerate, those who have wronged us, malicious as they may be. The finale of the first season partially made up for this,  especially due to the nature of the finale of the second.The resolutions which Hajime and Tsugumi came to were beautiful, and the way they managed to make Ai come to terms with her long buried hatred was great to see as well. I also loved the way how Hajime did’t give up on trying to inform people about the truth of Hell Correspondence; his book helped in an ever so small way in creating a sense of justice at the end of the second series. Other than this overlap , there were many other cases more complex than the average formula, and though such cases were few, their existence, combined with the fantastic way Ai’s past was conveyed, sweetened the cocktail of entertainment that was the first series. This was helped even further by the second. With this, the creators of the show, secure in their knowledge that the concept was a sucess, could really develope both the episodic cases used in the show and the characters of Wanyuudou, Ren, and Hone-Onna. This series was much better than the first for it; there were many twists and surprises that were unpredictable but practical, which made the show more engaging to watch.

When I first heard of this show, I thought it was a very interesting idea; I was more interested in the torture and gore that would occur rather than the people themselves (heck, it’s the same reason I watched Higurashi). But as soon as I saw the first episode and learned of the rules and of compensation, I realised how deep the series would go. The amount of conflict that has to take place in a person’s soul must be immense once they learn of the nature of Hell Correspondence; to want to curse a person to hell is one thing, but to actually send them while also knowing that you shall go when you perish is creates a much more powerful dilemma.

The psychology of this seems really complex to me, so I’ll just look at one of the biggest things which was f**ked up and fantastic about the series: the nature of injustice. I like to consider myself a good person, I’m no saint, that’s for sure, but I think I have a good sense of right and wrong; more than anything I truly hate to see bad things happen to good people. And, of course, that’s pretty much the basis of the series. In many cases, even when the string on the straw doll is pulled, there’s no true solace for the wronged person; they’ll stll be going to hell, no matter what they do in this life. It’s the price they pay for trying to get out from the oppression from evil people. And that’s just messed up. Why should they, driven by such hatred so as to call upon Enma Ai, also be sent to hell? You could then say they have the oppurtunity to refuse this, but would they really? These people do not wish to struggle further to be freed from their tormentors, they just want their suffering to be over, and as such, when backed into a corner, they’ll take the easiest way out. In that type of case, it’s human nature to go for the immediate solution regardless of future repercussions. Outside of this, there were also the few cases of people who went to hell who truly did not deserve it, either due to misunderstanding or just plain maliciousness of the vengeance- taker.

But enough about psychology. Looking at the series as an anime, it’s a really great series. It probes the depths of human nature and the problems with vengeance with surprisingly unique cases that don’t seem to overlap in similarity (too much). The BGM is well-done throughout the whole series, with a couple of standout recurring tracks that never fail to conjour up the right feeling for a scene. The animation isn’t as well done, though; there are times when it is really detailed (mostly for the main characters) and times when it’s way too simple. However, overall, it had unique style and designs, and animtion in general isn’t too important for me as long as it conveys the atmosphere of the show and its people well. The concept and seperate plots are great, and the characters well-developed in most cases. It was a pleasure to watch, and now all that’s left is to look forward to the third season: Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae, which I’ll probably blog when the time rolls round. Though where the series will go now after the disappearence of Ai is anybody’s guess.

Overall Series Rating: 8.5/10

Yes, this post is completely full of Ai love.

Any complaints?

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