Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae First Impressions: More Yuri Than I Remember.

Not that I’m complaining.

It’s great when you feel like more of the same is a good thing. Thogh Jigoku Shoujo is (except for a few stand out cases) awfully predictable, it doesn’t make the trip to the enventual ferrying at the end of the episode any less enjoyable. Itsuko (the avenging middle schooler) was understandably irrational; Wanyuudou had it right when he told her teacher that they’re just unsure at that age. Never give a middle-schooler the power to do anything, that’s what I‘ve never always say.

It’s great to see the return of the main cast (except for Kikuri, annoying little brat that she is -_-) and a new face in the form of Yamawaro (though that just leaves another backstory to be explained. Which is actually a good thing, now that I think about it). Ever since they announced a third season I’ve been wondering how they would explain the return of Enma and the introduction of possession and an identity crisis is hopefully  indication that this series will be focused more around the main storyline than the episodic ones. BGM’s just as dark and haunting as I remember, and the OP’s song was good (not as good as sNoW though ;_;) and the animation was crappy, but I’ve already been informed that the OP changes next episode, so I’m not displeased about that. In contrast, the ED combines Mamiko Noto’s soft voice with beautiful animation very well, and completely suits the tone of the series. Though the animation was average (as normal for this show), the art is so much better than the previous seasons, especially in terms of character designs and settings in general; there were some great moments, like when Yuzuki fell into the gleaming water and was about to have hot yuri sex with Ai and the (admittedly creepy) “birth” of Ai from the egg (or whatever the hell that thing was…)

I’ll definitely be blogging this series (it was one of my most anticipated before the season started and I gave up on subs) and hopefully the show as a whole can be more consistently good than its predecessors.

Also, I lol’d at Bee Ai.