Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae

Ah... the final installment of Jigoku Shoujo. Sadly, all good things come to an end, but some ends are uglier than others.

*If you haven't seen Futakomori (season two), stop reading now and watch that first. If you haven't seen Jigoku Shoujo (season one), why are you even here?

Mitsuganae is like a monkey on a unicycle: At the beginning, it looks cool and interesting--until you realize it doesn't make much sense (plot holes and discontinuity issues). But then, the monkey starts throwing its poop at you. Then (starting at episode 13), it starts using its tail to try to clean the ... poop off your face. Finally (starting at episode 20 or so), the monkey takes you out to a 5-star restaurant to apologize. It gets better and better until you finish off with an amazing dessert.

If that analogy didn't make sense to you, try this simpler one: It's like Obama's bailout, except it actually works.

So I'm gonna mix things up and only talk about the first 12 episodes; I'll just call them "The 12" for simplicity's sake. ***BE WARNED: This is a wall of text, but it's a very important wall of text.*** To put it bluntly: They are terrible. The characters are SO retarded they seem to be participating in some unspoken contest to see who can collect the most drool in a bucket. I think they all played together in the same idiot ball pit as kids. "The 12" has the most instances of facepalm-tastic plot-induced stupidity I've ever witnessed. And that's saying a LOT. People seem to find the most retarded reasons imaginable to send someone to Hell. This isn't aided at all by the fact that characters regularly make the absolute dumbest decisions imaginable in any given situation, and tiny communication failures seem to have catastrophic consequences. There are times when it's impossible to tell who of the two at conflict is actually worse; both seem they could be worthy of going to Hell. There's a scene that gets repeated over and over again (that I won't spoil) that reminds me of the sequence from Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor (in concept, execution, and repetitive, redundant usage) where Suo's gun appears from her necklace. Well, if you've seen that, make it like 8 times longer, 10 times more disturbing, and a hundredth as meaningful, and you have what I'm talking about. In episode 12, when a target is being tormented, the scene is done entirely with real-life paper cutouts. I felt like I got trolled. Also in said episode are not one, but TWO nose bleads (you know what I'm talking about). The torture sequences are now nothing more than some ball-tripping sequence; nothing worse than some pothead would see. They are absolute jokes, and any suffering the victim seems to be going through is contrived BS. Most people would probably just be laughing and/or confused.

Episode 1 is important only for setting the stage. The rest of "The 12" are complete shit and I HIGHLY recommend you skip them. You'll be saving yourself time and, if you liked seasons one and two, tears. You won't miss anything at all. The only good parts are the occasional comical narcisstic moments from Ren and Wanyuudo. Episode 13 is where things actually start getting interesting. I swear they had some mentally unstable director during "The 12"; the series would be so much better if they just didn't exist.

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Now that that's over with, let's talk about the REST of the series, where things start to actually get good. (This portion IGNORES "The 12.")

Story: 9. Being forced to believe WITHOUT EXPLANATION that Ai is back to continue during her job, even after the events at the end of Futakomori, is pretty hard. But once you get over that, it's actually really interesting--although again, it isn't majorly developed until the end (the last 7 episodes this time). During these 7, it slowly escalates until it crescendos in an explosive conclusion, and it's INSANELY entertaining.

Art: 9. Mitsuganae improves upon the previous two installments yet again with quite crisp, clear, and fresh-looking visuals. But some scenes--which happened to coincide with critical plot development--were simply breath-taking. Motions are animated pretty well, bar a few exceptions.

Sound: 8. Still a great OST, just as before: some classic oldies, some remakes, and lots of good new stuff. However, the OP and ED tracks are pretty mediocre comparatively speeking. Voice acting is still good as always.

Character: 8. I really like Yuzuki and her back story, but at some points, she seems to function solely as a moe-blob (just tilting her head and making soft moe noises, like "eh?"). Some of the characters are pretty stupid sometimes. Pretty good character design overall, even though some of them look like familiar faces from the previous two seasons. We also get Yamawaro's back story (the newbie in Ai's gang).

Enjoyment: 9. Most of my enjoyment stemmed from the plot and character (Yuzuki and Ai) development this time. I was disappointed by the lack of torture sequences of people being sent to Hell, but sometimes, it was okay, because the person being sent sometimes didn't deserve it at all. (I think this was why.) I was disappointed at the inclusion of some unnecessary Yuri fan service scenes.

Overall: 8. See below.

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"The 12" made it automatically lose a point. It should've taken off more, but the final 7 episodes are REALLY f***in' good. (Is my bailout analogy starting to make sense now?) Basically, they try to fix the shit you'd been forced to eat so far at the end.

This series seriously had the potential to be a 10. Easy. It could've easily topped the last two seasons. But it was severly hampered by "The 12," major plotholes (that could've at least been hand waved with some explanation), and... well, lack of explanation--especially of plot-critical points.

All in all: If you liked the first two seasons, I recommend this BUT, skip episodes 2-12. If you choose not to... well, I warned you.

And now, the decision rests with you~

I'll be straightforward. If you loved futakomori, don't watch this one. It would be very dissapointing, referring to the plot and the story of course. The cases are not that intriguing, relevant and amusing this time around. And the main plot is just not as good as the one in its prequel. But still, the sound and art is great. And you still get to see the lovely enma ai. Try watching it if you want to see enma ai that badly. But do not even try if you don't want to keep comparing it to it's past seasons.

This season of Hell Girl felt like a step down in quality compared to the quality of the second season. Mitsuganae retains the elements you would find in the first two seasons of Hell Girl where a victim browses the Hell Correspondence site to send their tormentor to hell, thinks over the decision and sends said tormentor to hell when they reach a breaking point. The elements of flawed and sympathetic elements found between the victim and tormentor of each episode are retained from the second season as well. Anyone expecting a change from the same repetitious developments found in Hell Girl's past two seasons ... will be disappointed to know that the series leaves them intact. This season introduces a new companion for Ai's group in the form of Yamawaro, whose character gets his focus in a later episode of the series.

Mitsuganae also creates a more ongoing story focus between Ai and new character Yuzuki when Ai possesses the body of the middle school girl to resume her duties as Hell Girl. Yuzuki finds herself pushed to her breaking point throughout this season as she gains a role somewhat similar to the Shibatas from season one which she tries and fails to prevent anyone from making use of the services of Hell Correspondence, as well as developing a supernatural connection to Ai. Hints are dropped throughout the season that Yuzuki's life is not as it seems as Ai exposes her more to the harsh realities of man's most selfish traits.

It does become apparent at points that Hell Girl is starting to run out of fresh ideas for this season of the series, particularly with the role of Yuzuki's character and what we eventually learn of her past. Compared to the past two seasons, the tragic dilemma with Yuzuki connecting her to Ai is poorly contrived and skewers into melodramatic territory compared to the Shibatas from season one and Takuma from season two. In addition, a number of the punishments that Ai and her companions inflict upon tormentors before sending them to hell were a bit on the silly and ridiculous side, not consistent with the horrific images they left said tormentors from earlier seasons. It is these major reasons that make me rate Hell Girl's third season at a lower rating compared to the last season.

Hell Girl Mitsuganae retains the colorful and detailed visuals found throughout the past two seasons with animated highlights shown through a number of the punishments Ai's companions are involved with and a new one in the form of Yuzuki's transformation into Ai while she is possessed. Much like the past two seasons, there are reused animation frames apparent during these scenes as a result of said repetitious developments. Some of the show's musical tracks from the prior two seasons are retained for this season, though the OP and ED musical choices do well at complementing the tense and mellow moods respectively found throughout the series.

While Hell Girl Mitsuganae does introduce a couple new characters connected to Ai, this season of the series doesn't really offer up much new from what the prior two seasons provided to me and carries some significant flaws compared to the second season. Still if you have pressed on with Hell Girl for this long and are still interested in continuing the franchise, this season is a decent look provided that you understand that it still offers up much of the same thing from the prior two seasons.

Warning, minor spoilers.

Oh, Hell Girl: Three Vessels, you really are a unique season, aren't you? I’ll admit that Hell Girl is not for everyone, what not with how repetitive a good chunk of the episodes is. Going into season three, I wasn’t expecting anything different from the first two seasons: each episode, someone gets sent to hell and the series has a bit of plot progression or character development. We saw this a lot more during season two with the principle cast being given proper histories as opposed to just being Ai’s companions. It was something that I was hoping to see more of this ... season since, as I mentioned, Hell Girl is VERY episodic.

So, what makes Hell Girl: Three Vessels (or Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae) so unique? Well, unlike the past two seasons which I thought were perfectly decent series, Three Vessels manages to be simultaneously one of the worst and best anime I’ve ever seen. There truly isn’t any anime that I’ve seen in recent memory that truly ascribe to the feeling that I felt while watching this. But wait, how can an anime be both one of the worst and one of the best?

Well, to put it bluntly, the first half of this season is abjectly terrible. First and foremost, Ai is back without any explanation. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Ai’s character, but there is no effort to justify or explain how she returned after what happened to her at the end of season two. As for other non-principle characters in the first twelve episodes? Think of some of the dumbest and most terrible writing you’ve seen in anime and know that it doesn’t even come close to the idiocy that you see here. Back in the good ol’ days of seasons one and two, you had people being sent to Hell for murder, attempted rape, blackmail, abuse, slander, neglect, you name it. Rarely was there an instance of someone being sent to hell who didn’t deserve it. The series also did a decent job at showing how conflicted people (generally) were about condemning themselves to eternal damnation.

Now do you remember the three or so episodes of Two Mirrors where the citizens of Lovely Hills were sending other to Hell for incredibly trite and dumbass reasons? Well, that is almost exclusively what you find in Three Vessels.

Seriously, just to give you an idea, let’s look at some of the completely justified and 100% sound reasons people were sent to Hell in this season.

Ep 1: For telling students to behave in class.
Ep 3: For telling someone they can’t sing.
Ep 4: ?????????
Ep 5: For lying to her grandmother.
Ep 6: For liking a teacher.
Ep 7: For being helpful.
Ep 9: For existing (Yes, really).
Ep 10: For selling clothes.
Ep 11: For writing a book; also, returning a book.
Ep 12: For saving someone from suicide.

What? Did you think that the abusive mother or cheating boyfriend would be the targets of retribution? Ha! What are you? A normal, rational person?

So many of these plot contrivances in the first half of this season were caused by one of my biggest pet peeves in storytelling which is poor communication. More than half of the conflicts in these episodes could have been solved if people simply TALKED to each other. Even in episode 8, which I left out (because the woman in question deliberately poisons a dog), the ‘villain’ could have avoided her fate if she reasonably explained the problems she was having with her neighbor. But she doesn’t and pays the price for it.

I’d also like to point out that there is a scene that is repeated every episode and it takes up a FULL MINUTE of the run time. It was artistic and interesting if not disturbing in the first episode and was needless every episode afterward.

All that being said, the series becomes much more tolerable from episode thirteen onward. Not to say that there still aren’t stupid characters who make mind-numbingly delusional choices (looking at you Episode 18), but the justifications become a lot more in line with previous seasons and with realistic, emotional reactions.

After Episode 19, the season becomes truly incredible. Without spoiling anything, all I can say is that there is a very unexpected plot twist that you will not pick up on unless you give the show your complete and undivided attention. In terms of Western media, the twist is somewhat cliché, but in the context of the anime, it was something that I legitimately did not see coming. It can be a tad melodramatic at times, but considering the circumstances of these episodes, I’m willing to overlook it. Characters are fleshed out and believable for what is an otherwise unrealistic anime.

The art, sound and animation of this series are also pretty good. Nothing insanely spectacular or memorable, but consistent to what we’ve seen so far. It’s because of this consistency that I’m mad that Three Vessels even bothered with the poor writing quality of the first twelve episodes. Even simply changing the motives or personalities of a few people could have drastically altered how I viewed this show. But instead, I got stuck with this slog of dumb choices and idiotic characters.

I do recommend that in watching this series that you skip episodes 2-12 and possibly 18. They are not necessary in advancing the plot in any meaningful sense. But if you choose to watch it and stick it out, I guarantee that you will be rewarded with a truly outstanding conclusion to this arc.

The first half of this season was a 3, but the last half was a 9, so I'll be generous and average out my scores since it's wholly representative of what I thought about this season.

This is a review for those who've watched the first two seasons of hell girl, if you haven't watched hellgirl by now you need to start with season 1.

Everything about Mitsuganae is mediocre compared to the first two seasons. While the first season wasn't perfect by a long shot and many critics had lots of issues with it, Mitsuganae (the third season) is a disaster compared to it. With season 2 being the best.

The problem is that the third season has the same problems as the first, except this time it's obvious the writers ran out of ideas. The repetitive plot ... / revenge structure with an episodic nature comes to dominate mitsuganae once again with a "main plot" that is just so poorly written into the vast 26 episodes that the plot comes out nonsensical.

Most of the 26 episodes of the show is filled with filler material. There are maybe 6 episodes total that have anything to do with the main plot and the rest can be skipped. The 'new plot' they came up with for season 3 is just hackneyed. The plot is basically hell girl possesses human girl and hell girl has to save the girl she possesses. The problem here is that hell girls finale in season 2 was having hell girl be released from her role as hell girl and finally getting to die. So the plot begins with a deus ex machina, which is just amateur level writing. They never came up with a believable reason for why she is back.

The producers also went and made huge radical changes to the characters and cast so it throws off the FEEL of the characters they established in the hell girl universe.

The plot involving possession is just so forced and convoluted that it turns off the long time fan. Each episode of mitsuganae feels rushed and it feels rushed because the characters and their motives were not written well at all. The main problem with mitsuganae is the characters in each episode take revenge for the dumbest and most unbelievable reasons. Hell girl and mitsuganae relies on characters in each episode beside the main cast never appearing again. So the fact that the characters are not believable goes a long way to making the whole show a tired excercise of you trying to tolerate its badness to find the good episodes that make any kind of sense instead of wasting your time.

If you're a hell girl fan watch season 1 and 2 and skip 3 in order for you to not end up with a bitter aftertaste in your mouth.

I don't normally feel the need to write reviews, but I felt rather, disgruntled, after watching this through to the end. Maybe this is the sort of, wait a day after watching then see if you want to write a review sort of situation? Eh, screw it. If you enjoy the main focus of the story, the 'calling upon Hell Girl and watching her banish people' no matter how trivial or silly some of the reasons become, then you will still like this. However, if that isn't all you are looking for, then you will be disappointed. I know I was, despite wanting to like ... it.

Maybe we should start with what was good? First of all, the sound and the art were good. The visuals, sound effects, and music, were really quite nice and add something special to this show. When it comes to the 'the person is going to hell, here is the pseudo-torture scene' sections, they got a bit lazy. However, they also recycled the 'transformation' scene just like they did with the 'flying flaming carriage' scene in the first two series. That got kinda tiresome. The music was nice, but there was little to no variation to it, and if you -actually- listened to it long enough, it got boring.

The characters are all still as you remembered them, with an extra side character added to Ai's cast of servants. Yamawaro gets a single episode to flesh out his backstory, like the others, but gets little to no other sources of exposure like Ren, Hone Onna, and Wanyuudo did in the other series, and do in this one, acting as her eyes and ears. He is mostly just there to support the most annoying character in the entire world, Kikuri. Why they added her in I do not know. The show would be vastly improved if she was gone. Seriously, we know who she is now, we found out in the second season, why is she back? There is no reason for her to be back.

Anyways, lets get to what I wanted to talk about, and what really annoyed me: the story. If you are reading this without watching the series first, just know that it is bad, and move on. It is bad. That is it, its bad.

*Warning, Spoilers*

There is a glaring plot hole, in the very first episode. After the last series Ai is no longer the Hell Girl, she became human, then died. So, why is she back? It is never actually explained. You can make a few guesses. She is back because she hasn't truly left her hatred behind, and so cannot go to heaven or hell? She is back because the master of Hell has pulled her back into doing her old job? She is back because she has to pick a successor? She is back because the plot gods demanded so for a third season? All I know is that this annoyed me throughout the series.

In the end it seems it is because she has to pick a successor? Maybe? If you take a leap of faith and make that assumption, because they still don't explain it to you. But even if that is the case, why? Why does -she- have to? That isn't really explained either. Can't the master of Hell just pick a new Hell Girl like he picked Ai? Why couldn't he have shown Yuzuki the truth about her life, and created a new Hell Girl? Seriously, that is what Ai did and it worked, but it took 26 episodes. The first 12 of which have nothing to do with the plot at all. Maybe they are there so that you start feeling for Yuzuki, and her friend Akie, you know, drive the character development along, but that fails. She does exactly what Hajime and Tsugumi do in the first season, which is fail at trying to prevent everything from happening, and even at times, helping it to happen!

OH, and speaking of useless returning characters, guess who is back? Tsugumi. Yeah, it was neat seeing her in the second season for that short amount of time, a brief cameo appearance, but now she is back as a character (for the latter half of the series) and does absolutely nothing. Nothing. In fact, she is almost more annoying than Kikuri because she does about as much, and isn't a cute loli anymore. She has two important scenes, the first is at the festival at the portal/gateway, the second is explaining to Yuzuki that her life is a lie. Both scenes could have been done by other characters, easily. Especially the latter example, because Ai goes and explains it to her anyways, revealing her past.

Turns out Yuzuki's life is a lie, and she is a ghost. Nice, a Sixth Sense move. Somehow though she is living and participating in human society. Her friend Akie comes over, but doesn't realize the building is derelict? Her teachers don't realize that there is no paperwork on her, because she died a decade ago? Somehow she lives the normal life of a middle-schooler without anyone around her noticing? This isn't explained very well. Just that everything has been 'an illusion'. But then why does she care about Akie? Why does Akie become her companion? It all just -almost- makes sense, and -almost- works, but it just doesn't get there. That is what got me so upset. I watched 26 episodes waiting for it to get better, after the first 12 it does get better, yay! Validation! But wait, then it starts to go downhill. Then it ends like it does: like a lukewarm beverage on a hot day. Not satisfying in the least.

I hope you enjoyed my angry inane ramblings that I have written at 3:30 in the morning.

Compared to the previous two seasons, I found the third one to be lacking in story.

After the initial episodes it wasn't hard to see that the writers only had a proper script for barely half the episodes and had to fill in the gaps with whatever they could pull out of their rear ends and call it an episode as people suddenly got banished for the most inane reasons. It wasn't enjoyable at all and I had to force myself to get to the good part, the climax build-up where the plot development sped up greatly and the pieces came together for the finale.

While I ... did like the first few episodes and the build-up leading to the satisfying climax, the episodes inbetween jumped between being interesting and pure garbage which severely lowered my thoughts about this season.

The third season of jigoku shoujo, is, unfortunately.... a disappointment. Not bad, but disappointing. It is incredibly hard to live up to the impeccable job that the previous two seasons did, and so, I wasn't expecting that this season would be necessarily better than the prior ones, however I was hoping for at least something similar in quality to the first show, and unfortunately it cannot deliver even in that regards. If you haven't seen the prior seasons well, you should, they are amazing. That being said, the issues with this season can be broken down into a few primary sections.

I) Justification of the ... Sequel

When you make a sequel to a show, that sequel must justify its existence. This can be through a myriad of ways, such as continuing an unfinished plotline, providing more context for the broader story within a timeline, and other things. The problem, is that Mitsuganae does not do this.

The second season of Jigoku Shoujo, Futakomori, essentially resolves Ai's plotline and reason for existing as hell girl, and while at the very end of that season we get a hint that there will be another, there is no reason given and not any loose ends in the plot indicated in the second season that could be why we needed a third. Thus, I was surprised to find that there is actually no adequate reason given as to why Ai Enma was still Hell Girl in Mitsuganae, or even... why Hell Girl needed to exist at all given the reason why Ai Enma was hell girl in the first place was already resolved. In fact, the ending of this show only will leave you with a sour taste in your mouth as it could have been completely avoidable if Ai had simply stopped operating as Hell Girl and this season did not exist.

II) The Inconsistency of the Morality of Ai

One of the essential aspects of what makes the previous seasons of Jigoku Shoujo particularly compelling is that Ai herself has a subjective view of what is right and what is wrong. This is indicated by her actions via who she accepts a contract with, and who she decides to torment. Before this season Ai and her companions never tormented people who were deemed innocent, at least in regards to why they were banished. However it seems that in this season Ai has zero trouble tormenting those who in previous seasons she wouldn't. This... is also not given an explanation. It almost feels to a certain degree that this Ai is a completely separate character from the Ai I saw before. This sort of leads into the next issue as well.

III) The Degradation of Torment

Another essential aspect of Jigoku Shoujo is when she does torment people, how she does so and the imagery used. This is extremely important to the 'horror' element of this show. In previous seasons, the torment someone receives is based on the unforgivable act which they committed. Additionally this part of the show is taken extremely seriously in its tone.

Would it be surprising to learn that this isn't the case in this season? For roughly half the show if not more these torment scenes, if you can call it that, are more of bad jokes than torture. On one occasion, the scene is interrupted to give a P.A. on not using too much electricity. In another, the show temporarily stops being animated and you see an amateurish torture of a paper cutout of a character being held by chopsticks. It absolutely takes you out of the scene and it makes me wonder if the production team was somehow lacking in funds because I quite honestly do not know how it made it into the show.

IV) Subverting the Subversion of Expectations

This show attempts to subvert expectations when it comes to who is the one cursing or who is the one who will curse. However often times the 'twist' ends up being nonsensical either because of a lack of proper motivations or poor setup.

V) Poor Scope

Previous seasons of the show mostly focused on various incidents throughout many different areas that were localized. This plays well because it means there are less questions about people starting to catch on. Before this season, if several events were localized into one place, the show takes that into account and handles it accordingly. This gives the worldbuilding quite a significant weight to it which I greatly respected. In this season, our scope is small, it is within a single school, and all of the events happen locally to the school. This season though, does not address the issue of people catching on and spiraling similarly to what would happen in previous seasons, even though it would be a very real problem. This is made further apparent in regards to the knowledge of Hell Girl. In season 1, she was still a relatively obscure rumor. After season 1 there was a book written about her, and she became widely more known as a rumor. In this third season, by deductive reasoning which is also confirmed by the show in many moments, her infamy is actually more widespread than ever. Which makes the fact that the school as a whole does not catch on to what is happening even less believable than it normally would be.



That being said, there are some genuinely good moments and episodes in this show. And while these good moments generally do not relate to the broader plot of the season, they are enjoyable. So if you do wish to watch this season after the previous ones, there is enjoyment that you can get out of it. However please do not go in with high expectations. This season does not meet the quality of the previous ones, and in order to get the most enjoyment out of it, it is best to ignore or at least be apathetic towards the broader plot of the season.

Only seen 2 episodes so far and it already feels like a betrayal to the first two seasons.

Y'all know that feeling when Netflix ruins a series by dragging it for too long? Like that.

Futakomori already broke some of the series' own rules but it all rounded up well in the end. Not a happy ending, but a good one - Ai is free.

I've seen Jigoku Shoujo when it first aired on Animax, and I don't think Mitsuganae will satisfy the trip down memory lane I'm on.

Should I go through with this til I reach Yoi no Togi?