Jigoku Shoujo: Yoi no Togi

I will be honest and blunt here season 4 of Jigoku Shoujo is a waste of time and it’s not like the previous 3 seasons that had an actual story and character development.The lack of originality is missing, the poor writing is all over the place and the enjoyment is zero.Also if you are wondering if this has any connection with the previous season you are wrong, it has nothing to do with the whole series at all it’s just a 12 episode cour waste of money and time.

The first 6 episodes are just cheap drama that turns into edgy stuff and it ... makes you wonder what on earth happened to the whole story and series in this anime and the last 6 episodes are a recap of what you already have seen from the other seasons. Well one thing for sure they wanted to promote their dvd sells so they wasted a lot of time on this season.

The story is not interesting at all, as usual you have the episodic plot where someone sends to hell a person and the reasons why she must be punished. I don’t mind this at all my only problem is that the horror atmosphere was ruined and turned into and edgy comedy show. I will be honest I had a good laugh at that family arc where everybody hated someone. The characters actions where so damn funny that the emotional atmosphere was ruined and the way they beat up each other and scream was so edgy that made me almost drop this anime.Also the main story is exactly the same thing from season 3 but they changed the character art style and the story of the girl who will succed as Jigoku Shoujo to make it look original. Muh originality….

What I like from this anime was Ai Ennma who always maintains her character strong and the opening song. The animation and ost are great and in my opinion wasted on this season.

If you are looking for great things like the other seasons provided look somewhere else this is not worth your time , the ending lacks originality and if you don’t want to ruin your opinion about jigoku shoujo don’t watch this.

Highly uninspirational, Jigoku Shoujo: Yoi no Togi still suffers from it's predecessor's mistakes, with a lot of terrible writing, horrible character designs, and uninteresting situations.

I have seen people saying it has a lot of "dark and twisted" themes going on, but I can only see how bad the writers want their characters to be bad.

We still get the "bullied schoolgirl "episode we see every season, the "all friendship carries hatery" staple and of course "bad people do bad things" special.

I don't think this counts as an spoiler because you know this is going to happen in every episode, but I particullary hate the ... third episode. If you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading.

It's about guy who hates his family, so he goes with Hell Girl and he gets the doll. After he uses it, he decides he will be a serial killer because he's going into hell anyway. Well, if being a serial killer is so easy, why didn't he kill his family? The third episode is full of idiocies, i can understand a member of the family is a bad person, but why everyone? The cousin comes home and punches his uncle and her aunt in the face, then, why not call the police? I mean, if an uncle came to my house and punched my family i would call the police, i'm pretty sure you can't go in a house, punch the owners and get away with it. After he punches them, her daughter says "hey he's sensitive you have to understand him". I mean, he just punched your parents in the face, you can't be an idiot forever. So in this family, everyone is a bad person; and the protagonist wants to kill everyone because he is a good person, so he becomes a serial killer, why does he need Enma Ai? Because this series tries to make you think "good" people are stupid. This show really insults your intelligence.

End of spoiler.

The characters designs are awful, Deen should just stop animating for once. All the budget goes to Enma, of course. We stili get stupid characters like Yamawaro, that loves saying "princess" and winding up her car. Also, why is Kikuri still there? The music is nothing special. But let's talk about the pacing. Remember when Enma used to be called by her grandma, remember when she traveled on her carriage? Remember when she tortured evil souls and paddled slowly into the gates of hell? Well, almost all of that is gone, the tortures, and the paddling, everything is rushed. You can even see how they try to end the episode quickly. This anime used to be slow-paced and nice, not rushed drama. If you think this is "dark and twisted", then, Jigoku Shoujo will mostly become the new Mirai Nikki or Elfen Lied.

There is nothing I hate more than an anime failing to accomplish its main goal.
In Jigoku shoujo's case, it's showing the dark side of humans, filled with greed, resentment, jealousy, violence, etc. But it fails Horribly.
Let me repeat, HORRIBLY.

No single character is realistic. To the average eye, it may look like the characters are dark and filled with personalities to explore. But in reality, the writers are just lazy. They try to make the characters as bad and pathetic as possible, but they completely forget the main thing that makes a character interesting, motivation. The characters in the anime have no motivation for their ... action. It's all based on some blatant dull reason. In episode 5, why did the villagers suddenly go against the family who were so nice to them? How could people have a change of heart so fast? Why did the family not move? Why was the rich family so pissed at the family? Why was their KID so pissed off at them? Why were the kids in the car little bitches? Do you seriously think I will buy that the parents did not notice their child being bullied? Character motivation is what drives the plot of a story, and this anime failed in that aspect.

The horrible writing and dull characters made this an apalling experience to watch.
Highly recommend you not watching this. It is just a waste of time.

I do not usually write reviews, but had to rant about this somewhere.

Hell Girl is one of my favourite series. I have watched it for 3 seasons despite others' criticism towards its tendency to repeat its own plot. However, season 4 is a disgrace and has brought shame to this show which has so much potential.

SPOILER (but not really since they just copy paste)

The season began with the concept which is copy pasted from season 3, where another girl with hatred lost her memory from her previous life and was now forced to be the next Hell Girl to atone for her sin. Fine, whatevs, I thought I should give it a chance - it may take ... it somewhere interesting.

I was completely pissed off when they decided to wholly recycle season 1 episode 3 and had the nerve to air it as episode 7 in season 4! Plus, they ruined it by adding pathetic CGs and real action filming at the beginning. What a disappointment and I'm out, this time with extreme prejudice wtf

As someone who absolutely LOVES the Hell Girl/Jigoku Shoujo series, it honestly pains me to write this. I am choosing to write this, however, because I want to be honest with people before they waste their time.

If you've watched the other 3 seasons you know the formula of this series. It can be tedious and redundant, but it has its charm in the end. I even enjoyed most of mitsuganae (season 3) despite the criticism it received. The final arc of each season was always what made the series worth watching in my opinion.

Upon finding out a 4th season was coming out, I was absolutely ... ecstatic. I kept an open mind and enjoyed the first few episodes, but here's what makes this season horrible:

Yoi no Togi gives us the same themes we've all seen before. What makes it frustrating is it takes humanity and makes them the dumbest, most evil creatures to the point where it's entirely unrealistic. Apparently things like the police don't exist in this world. One character forms a negatively skewed point of view and every one else piggybacks right onto that opinion without a second thought and suddenly everyone hates one innocent person for absolutely no good reason - at least that's the story with the new main character they added.

Overall it was the same premise of "here's this girl that's dead that's supposed to become the new Hell Girl for some reason". (even though she didn't do anything wrong, but I guess that's up to your interpretations/values since it follows the religions and values of Japan as far as I am aware) However this was only the story for THE FIRST 6 EPISODES.
This is a 12 episode season. The "new"/main story ends halfway through.

Not only is this appalling and unacceptable for an anime to do, but those 6 episodes were very poorly fleshed out. I feel if they slowed down the pace, added more development and such to the story, it could have spanned out at least a little longer. The storytelling itself seems rushed and a lot is unexplained. Within the same episode the girl destined to become the next Hell Girl says she'll never ever do it, and strongly opposes it, and then a little later suddenly becomes the Hell Girl and is doing her job? What does that leave Ai and her crew with? It's unexplained and unsatisfying.

So after that story ends, the anime lets you know that the next 6 episodes of the season will be LITERAL RE-RUNS OF SEASON 1. They aren't re-animated, they aren't re-done in any way-- just a blatant re-run of episodes we've already seen. Why? What is the purpose of this? I waited until the re-run episode came out before I wrote a review because I wanted to give it a chance. Who knows, maybe we would have been pleasantly surprised if they did something new with it? Nope. It feels like they just completely gave up and didn't know what to do for the rest of the series.

It's sad and inexcusable to me to be honest. I value quality over quantity and while I was happy to see more new Hell Girl, I was greatly let down and would have preferred if this season didn't exist at all.


If you're a huge fan like myself, you'll likely want to watch at least the first 6 episodes, which is fair. After that though? It's almost insulting and you don't need to waste your time. I think I need to go back and re-watch a different season just to get rid of the bad and unsatisfactory taste left in my mouth from this attempt at a season.

This review is written after watching the first 6 episodes (the second 6 are all recap).

Wow, what a disappointment! I have always loved the various Hell Girl anime series. They're almost all episodic, to the point that you can pick up anywhere. The characters are usually personable, making you want to learn more about what makes them so horrible. The Hell Girl crew is enjoyable to watch as they seem so worn about what they've seen in the world. The animation is usually big eyed creep fest, plus beautiful florals. Add in thematic and atmospheric music. Sounds great, right? Well, throw all that out ... the window for this 4th season. Although the producers had years to make it, these 6 episodes are pure crap and just plain difficult to watch.

The animation has been destroyed. The characters' expressions are grossly unrealistic, barely moving garbage. Enma Ai's dramatic transformation sequence is nonexistent. It's like cutting out Sailor Moon's transformation: unthinkable. The coloring that made the settings so bold and atmospheric in the past, are 2 dimensional and bland here.

The music and sound are different in general, with nothing standing out at all. Again, in the past the music really dramatically pulls you in. Nonexistent here. The OP didn't fit the characters or theme at all.

Going into this, I knew to only expect 6 episodes of story. So I was very confused why, after a few episodes, the girl in green had barely been addressed, with maybe one line per episode + meaningful looks at the main cast before, frustratingly, disappearing. Her presence just doesn't make sense. There were so many other choices throughout the series who could have played the role she ends up being assigned. It could have been explained in much further detail. Yet by the end of the "series," it's almost like a clear insult to the main Hell Girl group. Like the writers are really letting you know they don't like their creations any longer.

Skip this and rewatch the first 3 seasons! Hold out for the creators to make a better version.

First things first, I write this review out of mere spite and am thoroughly disappointed with this season, so I'm going to be brief. Six episodes of the fourth season of Hell Girl are completely new and in every way a "Hell Girl" worthy episode. The last six on the other hand, are RECAPS from seasons 1, 2, and 3. Except for short 2-3 minute skits in the beginning of each episode, the episodes that follow that are copy and pasted from early seasons and are not worth watching. I have a very good memory and I can say with confidence that these episodes are ... the same down to the T.

The series should have stopped by episode six because this is the last one with exposition relevant to this season and the fact that they(the studio) had to rely on old episodes to make that 12-episode contract work is the lowest of the low.

I would have been okay with rewatching the episodes with the new Hell Girl replacing Ai, but unfortunately they couldn't even be bothered to do that and so this concludes my review.

(Based on the first 6 episodes)
Story - 6
Art - 7
Sound - 8
Character - 3
Enjoyment - 4
Overall - 3