Alternative Titles
Hell Girl; Jigoku Shojo
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 26
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Oct 5, 2005 to Apr 5, 2006
Duration:
25 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.891 (scored by 5261 users)
Ranked: #3192
Popularity: #118
Members: 10,442
Favorites: 323 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
drama horror mystery psychological supernatural |
SynopsisSomewhere in the vast sea of the Internet, there's a website that can only be accessed at the stroke of midnight. Known as the Jigoku Tsushin, rumor has it that if you post a grudge there, the Jigoku Shoujo will appear and drag whoever torments you into the inferno. Very little is known about the girl - all we know for sure is that she lives with her equally enigmatic grandmother, that three magical straw dolls accompany and serve her, and that whenever a posting on the Jigoku Tsushin moves her, she becomes the Jigoku Shoujo.
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Related AnimeAdaptation: Jigoku Shoujo Sequel: Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Recommendations
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Both of them deals with death and after life. In Jigoku Shojo as vengeance,in Shigofumi as messages left by dead people. Both are high quality anime ^^
Jigoku Shoujo and Shugofumi involves interaction of normal human life and the supernatural. The two of them features different sets of characters and different cases in each episode, but the story ultimately led to the main characters who happens to be the key in all of what's happening.
Both of them have to do with the supernatural. While Fumika is going around delivering post-death letters, Ai is exacting revenge on other's behalfs and dragging them to Hell. Also both are psychological series as well.
Both deal with the afterlife, the darker sides of humanity and retribution. Jigoku Shoujo is of an even more episodic nature, though. It's also darker and has a wicked sense of humour.
psychological drama/thrillers with hints of horror. uniquely complex, serious storylines. same darkness - looking at human psychology and how extremely cruel they can be towards other humans in seemingly every day situations/people. shigofumi is based on letters from the dead which raises issues which were present, whilst jigoku shoujo is bad-person-annoys-good-person-who-takes-revenge-by-sending-them-to-hell.
very similar deep and hellish atmospheres/feelings. excellent portrayal development of characters though.
Both series contain "mini plots" about only certain characters for each episode (occasionally in Shigofumi, 2 episodes) but have a character that knows about them (Tsugumi and Nojima) and play a continued role in the story. Jigoku Shoujo is more about the actual killing of people, whereas Shigofumi is about delivering the final words of the departed. However, they both feel quite similar despite the differences.
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These are both a lot similar in a way, one uses the note book and the other uses the computer to search for hotline to hell.
Both series have a way to kill someone--the Death Note or Jigoku Tsuushin--at the price of a soul. Both are very dark.
so wht happens to the continuous flow of bad guys in these anime series? they.....
die...
die.........
die...........
oh and die.
the same killing stuff but Death Note is cooler and better for sure!
There is a fine line between revenge and justice. Death Note has Light (Kira) hell bent on bringing justice and order to a new world by killing the criminals and ruling by fear. Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) will exact revenge upon your enemy at the price of your soul. At first, right and wrong seems pretty clear cut for both anime; bad guys get punished but as the serieses progress, the lines get blurred. The person in the wrong isn't always the one getting killed/sent to hell.
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Reviews
| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
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Feb 22, 200726 of 26 episodes seen 90 of 108 people found this review helpful Jigoku Shoujo takes place in modern Japan where the internet has filled the lives of many people in this bustling world of technology and sins. This anime portrays the cruelty of the human race, and shows that there are many people in this world that suffer terribly and that, indefinitely, most people wish those that are making their lives miserable would just die and go to hell. And, of course, Jigoku Shoujo, or Hell Girl, is there to exact their revenge.
The storyline is wonderful.... The anime itself is mainly episodic, and each episode focuses mainly on one person, and the suffering they're experiencing due to one person. As you read more into the character's lives, and just how badly they're treated, you, yourself, will want to see that red string pulled, just so that person can suffer what he/she's had coming to them, and you'll be anxious to see their horrifying experience before they're ferried off to Hell by Enma Ai, the Jigoku Shoujo.
You won't always see the the person's experience in hell, nor will you always see the person being carried off by the Jigoku Shoujo. The main experience of this anime is coming to know and feel sorry for the characters that are desperate enough to call forth the Jigoku Shoujo to end their suffering. If you're looking for humor, this isn't a series to watch. Though it does have it's moments, it's more for the people that enjoy supernatural and paranormal related anime, such as Ghost Hunt and XXXHolic. In fact, if you enjoyed either of these, though the two of them are more humorous than anything else, I recommend putting Jigoku Shoujo, and Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori on your plan-to-watch list.
Anyway, this anime is one of those where you'll either love it or hate it. This is a series that got me hooked on the first episode, but if you aren't enjoying it by the third or fourth, then you most likely won't get into it. I hope this review has helped you and convinced you to look into this wonderful anime. Have fun and enjoy. read more
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| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
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May 28, 200826 of 26 episodes seen 9 of 14 people found this review helpful Title: Jigoku Shoujo
Manga, Live-Action Drama, Anime: Jigoku Shoujo was adapted into a manga after it finished its original TV run, with art and story done by Miyuki Eto. It began running in Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine in the October 2005 issue, is still running, and has, for the most part, had an original story line and plot changes, though some episodes from the anime do get their own manga chapters. Del Rey has licensed it Stateside, and th...e third volume is due on August 5th, while it stand at six collected volumes in Japan currently.
A live-action spinoff consisting of twelve half-hour episodes began running on TV on November 4th, 2006, and finished its run on January 27th, 2007. There's not a lot about it, so I don't know how similar or dissimilar it is to the original anime. It will also not be covered in this review.
Speaking of which, Jigoku Shoujo was originally a twenty-six episode anime, and ran on Japanese TV from October 4th, 2005 to April 4th, 2006. It was produced by Studio Deen (famous for their work on Fruits Basket and Fate/Stay Night) and directed by Takahiro Omori (famous for his work on Baccano! and Gakuen Alice). It has been licensed Stateside by Funimation, and the sixth and final volume was released on May 20th.
Story: There is a rumor that if there's someone giving you absolute hell and you want to get revenge on them, there's a website that you can access only at midnight, known as Hell Correspondence. Once the name is submitted, Ai Enma (aka Jigoku Shoujo/Hell Girl) will appear to the client and give them a straw doll with a red string wrapped around its neck. If the client wishes to take revenge, then all they have to do is pull the string and Ai and her helpers will ferry the person to hell. However, there is a small catch to all this: Once the compact is made with Ai, the person who took revenge will go to hell once they've died as well.
Jigoku Shoujo is, at it's heart, a Revenge of the Week episode. Once you've seen two or three episodes, you have the basic outline of every episode: Introduction to person being tormented and torment, tormented accesses Hell Correspondence, Ai and tormented meet up and she tells them the conditions and such, tormented ends up debating/angsting over whether or not the deal is worth it, things are escalated in some way, and the tormented pulls the string, sending the tormentor to hell. Rinse and repeat for twenty-three or so episodes.
I'm really kind of disappointed, because there's almost no background about Ai until the last three or so episodes of the show, and even that is minimal, not to mention that the background of her helpers doesn't even get mentioned.
The fact that the set up doesn't change one bit throughout the entire show, even when the show introduces two people who try and thwart Ai (the reporter Hajime and his daughter, Tsugumi, who has a psychic connection to Ai) does not help the show at all. Hajime and Tsugumi were only really vital to the plot of five episodes total; with the others, they could've not been around, and the same thing still would have happened, which makes their existence kind of useless. Also, the fact that Hajime has a tendency to come off as an incredible bastard at times, not to mention a bit of a hypocrite, doesn't help things. I understand what the creators might've been trying to do, here, but they missed the mark with these two.
The quality for the Revenge of the Week stories average out to about half and half; half are excellent and have incredible writing and twists, and the other half are kind of... eh. The characters are always memorable, though.
Admittedly, there is a second season, Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori, that can hopefully rectify these mistakes.
Art: The art that has to do with the world that Ai occupies when she's not working, the revenges that they take on the tormentors, and to do with her helpers' and her own character design are absolutely stunning. The colors for these are incredibly rich, and the designs in general are beautifully done.
As for the part that has to do with our world... eh. The backgrounds are done well, and the character designs for the people of the week start to blur together after a certain point and become incredibly generic, but they manage to remain slightly distinct.
There is some stock footage, but it isn't all that bad.
Music: The music for this is absolutely amazing, in my opinion, and one of the first things I really noticed about the series. There are several recurring themes throughout the show, and they are extremely memorable. The music is a mix of Western orchestration, rock numbers, and traditional Japanese instruments that always seems to catch my ear.
The OP's a pretty standard J-Pop female upbeat number, but is still pretty catchy, all things considered. The ED is absolutely amazing, though; a typical J-Pop female ballad that uses cello and traditional Japanese instruments for instrumentation, and has lyrics that very directly relate to the show.
Seiyuu: The seiyuu for this show did a good job, as always; no voices that seemed out of place or painful. Though I do kind of pity the seiyuu who had to play Ai, as her lines were mostly the same throughout all twenty-six episodes; hopefully, they'll vary up the dialogue for her next season.
Length: If they cut out the crappy half of the show, we have a show that could easily have fit within thirteen-ish episodes, and still been a pretty good show. That cut probably should have been made, as most of the good part of the show doesn't really start to happen until the halfway or so mark.
Overall: A really good concept that ended up lacking a bit in its execution, and in the long run, would've benefited from cutting the actual amount of episodes in half, so that the best parts of the show stayed intact, with beautiful art and music, and seiyuu that could have used more varied lines, really. But maybe its issues can be rectified in the second season, Futakomori.
Story: 7
Art: 9
Music: 9
Seiyuu: 8
Length: 7
Overall: 40/50; 80% (B ) read more
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
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Jul 25, 200726 of 26 episodes seen 59 of 96 people found this review helpful Its obviously a very sensitive subject. Personally i think nothing in RL could be any worse than hell, but that doesnt seem to be the case in this show. Considering how many users complete the contract, it almost gets out of hand . Getting cursed to hell because some lady kills your puppies? Thats a little extreme. But for the most part, most of the stories are pretty cruel and unusal "train wreck" stories that range anything from grade school bullies to betrayal to medical malpractice.... Considering the main theme of the story being revenge, they could easily make 100 episodes out of thin air. That is also the problem of this show, the theme starts to get repetitive after about the 7th show. Its the same formula again and again: Tragic story --> Hell request --> Retribution. But just when you think its going to be the same formula over and over again, they throw in a curve ball of a plot twist and introduce 2 new main characters: Hajime and Tsugumi Shibata.
Thats when the show really starts to pick up, sortof. The story finally starts to pickup. No more spoilers here but if you lasted this long to reach this point in the series, then you shouldnt have any problem. The artwork is also a little mixed as well. At times its very artistic and beautiful and others it looks like your standard anime artwork. Even the art gets bitten by the repetative bug just like the story. Granted watching Enma Ai get out of the pool dripping wet in her white robe never gets old, but it hardly changes every episode. She even says the same lines over and over again every time as well, it wouldnt be a problem to me except hearing the same 20 sentences over and over and over again almost makes you think youre really in hell. There are plenty of characters drawn up for this show and they all look fine except for one trait... THE EYES. It takes a while to get used to the eyes...those damn eyes...
I managed to keep my self awake for every episode and not even once fell asleep from the boredom (only once out of necessity). I think its because i always thought because the eyes were watching me. But I think it really means they at least did a good job feeling something for the characters in each story. On one side, you want to know if they're going to get what they wished for, or you want to know why somone (i.e. tweenie) would want to pour so much hate agaisnt someone. And on the other side you want to know how the person whos being targeted is going to die. Kind of like the train wreck theory (ppl slowing down on the highway just to look at accidents). Aside from the ending, the episodes that interested me the most was EP6, 13, 15, 21, and 23<--very sad alert.
The sound effects are one thing that was constant, everything from screaming from terror to the enviromental sounds realy helped create tension and atmosphere. My favorite was in episode 5... you'll know what im talking about when you hear it. Things like that get stuck in you memory banks. All thought the music is always the same as in every anime, meaning they use the same chase music and the same action music in every episode. But the music doesnt intrude to the show, its hardly annoying and it defintitely keeps your atten to whats going on.
Overall this show wasnt half bad, given the train wreck sadness theme of the story and a very small dose of lolicon, i would say this show isnt half bad. But it isnt half good either with the overuse of catch lines and and animations. It also kept me at the edge of my seat 80% of the time, and it was good enough to garner a new season (Futakomori). So the goods outwigh the bads in my opinion.
6/10 read more
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Opening Theme"Sakasama no Chou" by SNoW [JP: 逆さまの蝶] [EN: The Inversed Butterfly]
Ending Theme"Karinui" by Mamiko Noto [JP: かりぬい] [EN: Basting]
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Related ClubsFan Fiction Guild, JaPaNeSe AdDiCtS, Jigoku Shoujo Fanclub, Creepy Anime/Manga Club, Horror Anime Fanclub, Scary Girls Club, Mindfuck-Anime-Club, Shinto, Red Eyes Fanclub, Psycho Characters., Anime Addicted, FUNimation fan Club, Dark Anime Club, jikoku shojo, Shadows of Jigoku Shoujo, seinen & josei, Pittsburgh Japanese Animation Club, Anime Crack FanClub, chiaki's favorites!, Add Live ActionThe Fanclub of Hell, hardcore violence and gore, Jigoku Shoujo/Hell Girl Fans Club, SKYclub ~ SKY Animes, Claim A Killer Club, Yes Indeed!, d2jsp, Anisomnia, Claim A Bishie Club, the pessimistic club, Internet is serious business, Closed Eye Character Fanclub , Claim a God/Goddess, A.S.A (Adiktus sa Anime), Why that is Amaya Kiro-san!, Sorrow Hunters, Jigoku Shoujo/Hell Girl Fancub, Black Hair Fanclub., ~~ShWiETiEY LErVeLieY PonTa~~, ~Sophia's Wonderful World~, Unraveled Mysteries, Ren Ichimoku Fanclub, The Mamiko Noto Club, Random Anime & Manga Club, MDAN, Enma ai, Ai Enma Love., Mizuki Nana, Noto Mamiko Fanclub, Kionniko's Stuff see all
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