Anime: Jigoku Shoujo

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

Notice: This review covers all three seasons of the franchise, as they are practically the same show.

Hell Girl is a mostly episodic show that aims to attract you with some of the easiest tropes anime have invented in order to sell. Those would be young people suffering, while doing the whole thing as fast as possible and with no cathartic endings so there will be as much SHOCK EFFECT (people screaming in agony) as possible to awe you, while in the mean time leaving you to stare at some haunting moe leading-chick as an extra bonus. This is the most interesting aspect of the trilogy, and if you don’t like it don’t bother even watching a few episodes.

So basically each episode is about some youth or kid suffering for some reason or another, by bullies, uncaring relatives, assholes, jerks, and other affiliated types of unlikable characters. Then they will find this site on the internet where you can ask for the person you hate to be taken to hell, with the price being your own soul going to hell after you die.

Any reasonable viewer at this point will wonder what kind of an idiot would sell his soul to the devil just to get a pitiful revenge on some random asshole. The answer is simple. NOBODY! But since the stories are short and the bad guys are presented as the incarnations of Satan himself, you are made to think that it is indeed worthy to waste these suckers, even if it costs your eternal soul. You don’t have time to think an alternative solution; the worst things happen one after another so fast and so hard that in just 15 minutes you scream KILL THAT BASTARD, YOUR SOUL IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN TAKING REVENGE!

Of course as soon as that happens, the show then tries to make you rethink what you just did. Was it worth it? Really, was it? You just killed someone, and condemned his soul eternally to the pits of hell, and you will join him when you die, and until that happens you need to live with the guilt, and the dreaded knowledge of where you will go when you kick the bucket.

And that is pretty much the concept of the whole franchise. It remains as such for most of the episodes, so it is reasonable to say the shock factor will start to get dull from a point on. It’s expected after a point on for the show not to be creepy anymore, as the mystery starts to be revealed and the repeating formula doesn’t work as it did at first. And as expected with any franchise that tries to outlive itself, eventually all the main characters become silly caricatures with less depth and far more fan service in a cheap attempt to keep you interested past the point they have nothing else to show in terms of personality.

It is true that some cases play around the premise, like NOT condemning a person or falling in for your own trap. The focus also changes as the seasons go by in pretty much the following way:
Season 1: Horror, episodic, no character development, waititng sadistically to see assholes being sent to hell.
Season 2: Mystery/detective, semi-episodic, the recurring characters expose their backdrop stories.
Season 3: Slapstick humor and moe-moe, silly cases without much importance, gets a rather big arc towards the end.
But aside from the aesthetic differences, nothing changes in the basic formula and it is always about condemning people to hell.

So what else is there in this show besides this SHOCK FACTOR (people running around in panic) that will eventually grow stale and become boring and just another generic softporn? Well there is also Ai and her assistants. She is an eternal loli responsible for taking all the victims to hell and pose all mysterious and charismatic with her unknown past. The second hook of the show is just waiting to see what is going on with her, what is her story and why does she do all that. And boy will you wait a lot for it. The first season is offering very little about her, while the second pretty much reveals everything in a the last episodes but doesn’t result to the whole revenge thing stopping. It goes on in the third season which by now has lost its mystery, and the SHOCK FACTOR (people jumping off rooftops in their despair) doesn’t work anymore. It is also cheerier and has more fan service so it clearly shows how it outlived its prime and just desperately tries to get a hold of you with retarded ecchi jokes.

Anyways, the story part of the franchise is piss poor and one should not try to watch it if he wants a great scenario with unexpected plot twists and complicating intertwining subplots. It’s just a Revenge of the Week show with different people every time as protagonists. As for the characters themselves, just like any other show heavily based on SHOCK FACTOR (people chewing their own hands while eye rolling) they are easily forgotten or overshadowed by the tragedy of the events they experience, so they are all nothing but plot devises rather than a likable cast you will care to cheer or boo. Also, you will never see again most of them getting involved in a later case, so it becomes even easier to forget them. And even if you try to like them for those few scenes they are part of, they are still quite stupid to be honest; like in most thriller shows they do some really stupid things just for the sake of the drama/tragedy to work in the worst way imaginable.

The thing that eventually most will remember is the trippy visual effects; the whole show is filled with cinematics that boost three times the tragedy of each situation. It helps not to get bored right away with it, despite realizing its formulaic structure early on. It is still a show made by studio DEEN though, so chances are you will dislike it just for that. Despite being one of their better titles, it still looks amateurish in many parts and still bases its appeal on cute young and eventually sexualized people. And as usual, they are too lazy to draw faces properly or have fluent animation. They do increase the budget in each season but in overall, this is their standard treatment of “Hurr durr, too bored to draw but it has shocking stuff, cute people, and creepy colours all over the place, so nobody will notice.”

Hell Girl would be a great anime IF it had far more plot, and far less episodes. It was like a good punch line you heard so many times that it stopped being funny no matter how much they tried to flavour it. It is not a show I recommend, aside from a few episodes just to get the basic idea. Beyond that, I enjoyed far more other similar shows such as Hundred Stories or Mononoke. They lasted far less and had a lot more memorable cases and interesting characters.

And now for some excused scorings.

Jigoku Shoujo is about a girl named Enma Ai and the fates of the troubled individuals she has the duty of helping.
These unfortunate individuals is given a choice whether to accept Ai's help and send the person hurting them to hell, but with the downside of having to go there themself when they die.

Animation:
Some scenes are re-used numerous times, with my usual question beeing if there is a purpose behind it or if it simply depends on the laziness of the animation company (Studio DEEN).
That is something we'll never know, I guess, but even though these repeated scenes gets annoying after a while, they do fit the mood of the series at least...
I thought that was worth a special mention, seeing as how it annoyed the h*ll out of me at times...For the most part, though, I really liked the animation.
The characters are drawn nicely and their movement is smoothly animated.
Despite the sheer amount of individuals introduced throughout the series (at least two new every episode...), I had no trouble telling them apart and that is indeed a feat worth mentioning.
The backgrounds are also often interesting and beautiful portraits of nature, especially the cottage where Ai lives, with it's red sunset(?).

Sound:
Definitely a strong point of the anime. The seiyuu all did a magnificent job and I can't remember a single character with an unfitting/annoying voice actor.
Mamiko Noto (Enma Ai) and Yuji Ueda (Hajime Shibata) are both well-known seiyuus who gives the main characters a genuine feel.
The OP is decent except the 15 seconds of narration starting out every episode (it's the same for the whole series...), although not so good that I'll listen to it again.
I didn't care much for the ED, incidentally sung by earlier mentioned Mamiko Noto. It's similar to her performance of the Witchblade ED (Ashita no Te), both of them being silent, slow-paced tunes not quite to my liking...
The bgm is very important for this kind of show that depends heavily on the mood of the scenes. And it was good, there were no songs that diverted your attention from the scene at hand and most of the times the music served it's purpose for it's particular scene.
I especially liked the tune that was played when Ai ferry her victims to the netherworld, a spooky yet oddly sad tune...

Story:
Definately the weakest link of the anime, the story is totally focused on the second part of the anime (or maybe even the last third).
Honestly, the first 13 episodes are largely unneeded and makes me wonder how much better this series would have been if it had been only 13 insted of 26 episodes long.
The plot of the episode in the first half of the series is easily summarized:
Someone does something evil, another someone gets pissed off and summons Enma Ai, the pissed off person struggles whether to pull the string, condemning his victim and himself but they always come to the same conclusion in the end.
The circumstances differ in every episode but after a while I got so tired of this concept that I wanted to stop watching the anime...
I'm glad I didn't. Because after suffering through the first half, the series start to pick up it's pace and the last episodes are awfully good.
I won't spoil it for you, but you'll be glad to know that the background of Ai will be told, in these last few episodes.
The introduction of the new characters Hajime and Tsugumi halfway through the series also adds more depth and continuity to the show, something it was in desperate need of.

Characters:
I've already mentioned there are many characters in this series. Well, I'll say it again, there are LOADS of characters in Jigoku Shoujo.
Well, the people do get ferried to hell all the time, so it may not be too surprising, but I'm still not used to this concept...
Getting to know and like new characters in every episode, then watch them make really horrendous decisions all the time and then disappear is not rewarding in the long run.
It is nice that there is a wide variety of characters though, despite the fact that none of them seem to mind spending an eternity (= forever) suffering in hell for whatever reason they seek revenge.
Ai and her entourage is rather anonymous and says the same things every episode for the first half of the series, no character development as far as the eye can see.
I did like the characters Hajime and Tsugumi whose back-story, along with Ai's, got revealed in the last three episodes.
The people following Ai never gives you any clues to their past except that they were once "saved" by her.
I have to admit that the mystery of Jigoku Shoujo & Co really is vital and can't be revealed earlier but seriously, 23 episodes with barely no explainations for anything and then suddenly everything during the last three...that's a little too much.

Value:
The first thirteen episodes are episodic and thus, perfect for rewatching. The problem is that they are not nearly as enjoyable as the second part, which contain the revelations, beeing unsuitable for rewatching.
Another thing that would keep me from watching this again is my anger towards almost every decision every character makes, with the exception of Hajime.
I think they are stupid most of the time, and although it makes the anime interesting to watch when the characters doesn't do what you expect them to, it's also frustrating to watch.
Watching it a second time takes away the suspense but I would probably still feel the irritation, leaving this anime with little rewatch value.

Enjoyment:
Like I've mentioned, this anime is a mixed experience. Combining nice esthetics (animation and sound) with lacking story and some major character flaws makes it only moderately good.
The first part is hard to endure, beeing more than a little repetitive but the second part makes up for this with engaging plots and some major revelations.
I particalarly enjoyed the back-story of Ai, Hajime and Tsugumi...it is both emotional, sad and regretful considering how things turned out for these individuals in the end.
I also let it slip that the characters made me feeling somewhat irritated and uneasy. They took the prospect of spending an eternity in hell pretty lightly, something I'm unable to understand.
It also portrays the human race as rather disgusting, most people being hateful, weak, vindictive or downright evil.
It may seem like a lot of negative feedback, but I really did like this series most of the times.
There is a lot of suspence in the episodes, an interesting take on people in general and some really engaging characters.
And for those thinking of watching this show, don't be discouraged during the first part...if you make it through that you'll be rewarded during the second half...

Hell girl is very different from many horror series before, it doesn’t go for the shock factor. In fact, it focuses more on drama and character development than on frightening scenes. So this is quite an interesting show to watch. (Contain Spoilers!)

Animation:

The animation is simply breath taking. The level of detail is not all that high, especially the background, so in many way, this could be quite a disappointment for people who expect gores and explicit scenes. However, I am very certain that this was done on purpose to help highlight all the characters in the series, as very different from the background, the characters are nicely drawn and rendered, the detail work on Enma Ai’s Kimono is simply superb. Even though I said the backgrounds are not detailed, but they are all fantastically drawn, especially the sunset scene where Enma meet her next “victim”. When Enma drag her victim to hell, the scene design were often very elegant that it makes her character shine. So overall, the animation well deserves a high score of 8.

Music:

I really enjoyed the OP and the entire soundtrack. It has created a very nice, somewhat tensed atmosphere very effectively. However, the soundtrack has been resued too many time, the suspense, tension and horror music has been used again and again, so it has lost its appeal later on in the show. Now, to voice over. The overall voice over is pretty standard, not bad in any particular way, but it is not outstanding either. Some of the voice over acting was a bit over the top, especially when those one-off characters got send to hell.

Story and Character:

The biggest problem of this show can be found with the story and character development. Essentially, Jigoku Shoujo is pretty much your monster of the week kind of show. So after the first few episodes, it can get extremely tedious to watch. Secondly, the series has failed to develop any meaningful characters, including the main character. Bits and pieces of their past has been reveal from time to time, but too much efforts were made to create episodic storyline that the entire show has stray further and further away from the main plotline. This is really a shame as the creator has managed to come up with some rather original revenge story that can made one’s blood boil, and develop these one off characters extremely well. So I was kind of expecting the studio may manage to get their act together later on in the show to focus more on main character development. In the end, they did manage to create a very heart touching background story for Enma Ai, but unfortunately, it was too little to late to help to bring some much needed drama valve to the show.

Value and enjoyment:

Jigoku Shoujo is quite an interesting series. It has some of the most vibrate and beautifully designed graphics I’ve ever seen. The music is quite good and despite the story constantly stray away from the main plot thus lead to fail character developments, it is still entertaining to watch. In the end, I will conclude that this is quite a promising show and deserve to be watch.

Alright well the previous reviews before me are fairly informative about this anime so some of the stuff I say will probably be a bit similar. Anyhow I felt that it would be good to write a review based on the entire anime since the others didn't. Soo The basic story line is outlined as pretty much an episoide based anime where each episoide you find sort of a new story. Usually at the beginning you find someone with a problem and wants revenge so that person calls Jigoku shoujo "Enma ai" to take revenge for them. Most of the episoides this happens fairly smoothly and the person is sent to hell. A few have small twists and near the end some episoides are based on other things.

Frankly you can probably count how many episoides that don't have the basic pattern... maybe 4 or 5? Don't know exactly but its few enough that its a special event when its different :P.

Animation
So the animation isn't outstanding but some parts of it are well done. The backgrounds are definitely the thing they put the most effort into. Most scenes are mixed with lots of movement and colour that it looks really nice. They also mix some cg into some scenes for different weather effects etc. On the other hand some things kind of get annoying such as many scenes done where Jigoku shoujo lives. They tend to repeat ALOT of scenes to get the epsoidic effect across. The other problem is definitely the lack of emotion from pretty much any of the character working with Jigoku shoujo and herself included.

Sound
The sound is very suitable for almost any case. They have a really nice ost and opening and ending. I really have nothing to complain about. The voice acting was done fairly well too such as the emotionless empty jigoku shoujo voice! VERY fitting.

Story
Heres where mixed feelings come in. Is there really a story in this anime.... or is there not. Yes there sort of is a story and no there really isn't. If you want to base this anime on a main theme and plot that runs throughout the series the closest thing you can get starts at episoide 9. When they introduce the journalist and his daugther. You COULD say that the main story is his goal to try and stop the "revenge" and try to figure out who Jigoku shoujo is. This of itself isn't really developped much till very end. Most of the time hes having trouble himself figuring out if hes doing the right thing or not. Thus you can also say there isn't really a story. More like little lessons for people in each short story. Most of the time is focused on the troubles of people not the main arc anyway. On the plus side you get a many very interesting situations that merit revenge. Only a few that don't but all in all it was done quite well.

Character
Here is where the anime lacks the most out of everything. Since they base this anime mostly on short stories.... you never get a feel for characters really. Sure the journalist and his daughter are sort of developped here and there. But its not enough time spent on them to make it a job well done. The main crew doesn't really get much work either.... You only really find anything about Jigoku shoujo during the last 3 episoides. Even then not much is worked out with a shaky ending too. What surprised me more was the weird spider they had during the whole series that started talking during the end. Either way MANY characters lacked i.e. lead characters. On the plus side some of the side characters weren't too bad.... They had some of them that did get enough time to put some depth and feeling. Although you never really see any of them again it was still alright.

Value and Enjoyment
I think there is some value to this anime. It does teach some lessons about life and its ups and downs. The only problem I have with it is that it seems too easy. In life you don't get an easy solution as in calling someone to take revenge for you. They did put a negative effect to this revenge but still its WAY too simple. Either way you can still learn some stuff from the stories soo its not soo bad. If you were to ask if I enjoyed this.... I would say yes cause it was a fun watch. Although the first 8 episoides were painful to watch..... the last 14 or so I watched all together soo it was alright. Although by the end I started skipping over the annoying parts they kept repeating i.e. the contract part... and the boat to hell. That got REALLY REALLY repetitive by the end. Soo the lesson is DON'T watch it all together!!!!! Anywho I guess this is for someone that wants to watch something with less main story more side stories. Less action and movement too. I must say it definitely is a drama like other people have said. Soo yeah give it a try if you have nothing better to watch too!

Quite a hard title to rate, at least for me that is. Thats mainly due to the reason I expected something else, something totally different. First of all, to avoid mistakes into choosing this title, it may be labeled as horror, but it absolutely aint one. Hell girl is more of a drama, with some (very) minor thriller elements.

I had high expectations of this title, mainly because I was interested in the description, and because it was a horror flic and I had hopes for it to be very scary. However, even though those expectations werent met, Jigoku Shoujo appealed to me on a whole other level, so I still enjoyed it to some extent.

Animation:

The animation is one of the hardest things to rate in this anime. By far, the environments are absolutely great, with a lot of atmosphere packed into them. Titles like these, taking place in the present world, tend to offer a lot of the same looking environments, but this title does an excellent job by creating a lot of emotional backgrounds, wide in variety. Especially the sunsets look absolutely stunning. However, the animated characters arent all that special. The quality of the animation tend to slip here and there, and the characters (especially the women imo) all seem to have the same (empty) expression (due to their eyes). Also, the animation seems rather dull in comparison with the background. The only real exception on this is the "main" character, Enma Ai (aka Jigoku Shoujo).

Sound:

If you rate this anime as a drama title, the music is nothing short of excellent. The beginning theme, which has a calmness to it, is just perfect and the overall soundtrack has some really nice tones. The soundtrack also has some typical japanese elements in it, like small bells as instrument, which fits in greatly. The seiyuu also do a pretty well job, none of the characters voices seemed out of place and none of them sounded irritating.

Story:

The story is not exceptional. This anime is extremely episodic and actually only starts to develop during episode 23, with only very little hints to the plot in earlier episodes. Every episode has its own little story about a person itching to take revenge on someone and Enma Ai being the one who takes that revenge. The makers of this title did a thorough job into giving the viewer all kinds of revenge, the different aftereffects it can have and even one episode about what happens to the person who took the revenge, since everyone who lets Enma Ai take the revenge will be sent to hell as well when they die.

Eventually, around halfway of this title, a journalist is introduced with a girl who can apparantly see Enma Ai whenever she appears in front of the person wanting to have revenge. When the journalist actually sees one of those revenges in progress he decides to try and stop Enma Ai, by trying to talk people out of taking revenge. Eventually at the end of the anime the backstory about Enma Ai will be revealed and why the girl can see Enma Ai.

Characters:

The characters arent that special, on the contrary. Even the characters who do receive a lot of screentime suffer from lack of character development. The helpers of Enma Ai, namely Ichimoku Ren, Wanyuudo and Hone Onna, are just what their role depicts; helpers. Nothing is revelead about them why they help Enma (apparantly Enma helped them out of hell or something), or why they are down there. Same goes to the grandma talking to Enma every once in a while, apart from a shadow behind a screen nothing else is known. When the journalist and his daughter are introduced to the story, and at the end of this anime their past is revealed, but apart from that no real character development takes place. Instead of that, the anime mainly revolves around the character wanting to take revenge and the character the revenge is directed to, and their problems. Mostly these problems are pretty severe (with a very persistent stalker in one episode and an abused kid in the other).

Value & Enjoyment:

I have enjoyed this show pretty much since, even though its serieus shortcomings, the episodic nature has been pulled of rather well. I dont know if I would recommend this title, but I do know its certainly something worth to watch at least once. Apart from that, I do know for sure I wont rewatch it, it aint that good unfortunately.

Storyline:
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There exists a rumour about a site only accessible at midnight. It is said that whoever writes the name of his/her antagonist there, said person will be 'immediately' carried to hell.

I'm not exactly sure why people keep calling the site a 'message board'. It contains a sentence:

"Your bitterness, I will dispell". Below it a text box and a send button.

After having written to the Jigoku Shoujo, she appears asking you whether you're absolutely sure. Because if you agree to her taking the antagonist to Hell, you will be cursed as well. After your death, your soul will *definitely* go to Hell.

Characters:
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Enma Ai - the Jigoku Shoujo (a.k.a. Hell Girl). A red-eyed, black-haired small girl. Has either the appearance of a young (creepy) school girl, or wearing a flowery kimono when in mission.

Ichimoku Ren - young cute-looking (ok, I'm sucker for young, mysterious smiling anime guys) black-haired guy. Works with Ai, in investigating the 'client' and/or torturing the antagonist (trying to make him/her see the way of his/her errors). He is associated with an electric blue eye (in the opening).

Wanyuudo - a wrinkly, smiling, old man, dressed in a traditional Japanese outfit. Associated with a wooden wheel in the opening. Like Ren, he too helps Ai with her job.

Hone Onna - (Bone Woman) has the appearance of a stylish, traditional Japanese woman. Also helps Ai in her job. She generally plays the role of a seductress, thus is associated with a red Japanese umbrella in the opening.

Ai's grandmother - she's mostly just a voice we hear talking to Ai (generally reminding her that she has a new request, or laying out her clothes). Occasionally we see a shadow behind a Japanese 'paper' door, sitting next to a darning wheel.

Other than this, the rest of the cast are episodic characters, who have a grudge against each other, thus change every time.

(note: have only seen up to episode 7).

Animation:
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I first heard of this anime, from an animeblog I visit regularly. Since the site in question has lots of screenshots from the episodes, I could see the general art of it.

I wasn't particuarly impressed by the style, which is why I've only recently started watching the anime. Especially the girls are sometimes REALLY oddly drawn. Like having weirdly placed eyes, hair, other body parts.

The rest, like movement, environment is excellent, which determined me to watch it further than the first 3 episodes.

WHY a low rating then? Because the focus lays 85% on the characters, therefore the truly nice features like backgrounds and generall environment can easily be overlooked. Why didn't I overlook them? I must've watched each episode at least 3 time =>.<= (hey! I'm picky and bored!)

Sound:
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I positively ADORE the soundtrack: opening ending AND background music. They're very fitting.

OP - "Sakasama no Chou" (Backwards Butterfly) by SNoW
It is a fastpaced, pop-style song. The lyrics and the video look very well matched and really intrigue you regarding the real reasons behind the Jigoku Tsushin (Ai & co.)

ED - "Karinui" sung by Noto Mamiko.
Is a very slow, but highly expresive song. The singer is actually the voice actress for Ai. I love this song too. According to the lyrics, it would speak of Ai's sadness at having to do her job.

Enjoyment:
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Truth be told, I was getting really tired of it, after the first 4 episodes. While episode 1 was interesting, the rest started to get more and more repetitive and needlessly dramatic. Dramatic, in the way the characters made some situation so... dunno, 'artificial' by acting one way or another.

Starting from episode 5, it picks up the pace once again, getting rather more violent and intriguing, in saying that the 'client' is not always as innocent as before. Also, exploring possible situation of avoiding going to Hell, third persons involved, etc. etc.

Value:
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Well, it DOES have quite a bit of moral value, but as the series progresses, the line between good and evil starts getting really blurry... a fact that makes it all the more interesting.

In conclusion:
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I'm rather intrigued and want to know more about Ai's background, and the way she's perceived by others, who don't have anything to do with the "vegeance of the day".