I have already noticed the show Jigoku Shoujo long before I decided to watch it. I knew about Enma Ai already, but only the fact that she was the main character. Because the ongoing animes were so disappointing, I decided to take a break from it and watch an entirely different show. After seeing that there was full episodes of Jigoku Shoujo on Youtube, I decided to watch that and give it a go.
Jigoku Shoujo is about different people who wants to take revenge on someone they hate; whether it be a bully, an annoying coworker or even a murderer. They can take revenge and send that person to Hell, via the Internet (how amazing is that?). The site is called Hell Correspondence, and it rumoured to be only available to access at midnight and to those who want revenge. It is then Enma Ai's job as the Hell Girl to fulfill her client's request with the help of Hone Onna, Wanyuudo and Ren Ichimoku.
Jigoku Shoujo's plot is pretty much straight forward - short stories that lasted around one episode usually containing a person they would focus on and an antagonist. The person would ask help from Enma Ai, and throughout the episode would reveal the backstory of that individual and why they want to send someone to hell. By the end of the episode, the antagonist usually dies and sent to hell. This worked quite well for a few episodes, but then started getting a little bit repetitive. It was the same thing over and over again, and in some cases even had the same sort of plot as an earlier episode. However, I do commend them for their creativity in being able to portray different scenarios per episode and except for the few occasions where it was kind of the same, it was generally very well done. At a later stage of the anime there became a distinct plot of Enma's background and why she became the Hell Girl. Another recurring plot was that of Hajime and Tsugumi's and why Hajime tries to do the opposite of Enma and to stop the people from committing revenge. Plot wise, I think Jigoku Shoujo does what it is supposed to, and the finale of the first season was definitely excellent and opened up the possibilities of further seasons.
Now the characters of Jigoku Shoujo were quite diverse. There are new characters introduced each episode, but of course, they don't really appear again. However, there are recurring characters such as Enma Ai, who appear every episode. Now, it is really not possible to develop the main characters since pretty much all the episodes were focused on the minor characters each episode. The last 5-10 episodes were the only ones used to really develop them and to provide history on the main characters. Of course, the most interesting character out of the bunch is no other than Enma Ai herself. I asked a lot of questions involving her character and towards the end, I feel like some were answered in great detail, but some were still left a little fuzzy. The other one that struck me the most is Hajime. he is really a love or hate character, and for me, I really hate him. It might not be him and his actual background, but his role as the stereotypical type who wants to "save" the people around him. Moreover, he utterly terrible at saving people so I thought, why bother with it? But towards the end, I guess I did start to like him a little bit. Just a little.
Now, Jigoku Shoujo's art is amazing in some parts, but not all the time. Now, I don't know why this is the case though (*cough* Studio DEEN *cough*) but overall it was pretty mediocre. Nothing really stood out for me, but nothing was really horrible about it. I gotta say that the character designs of Hone, Ren and Enma were superb and loved it whenever they were on the scene, especially Hone. The animation as well was pretty mediocre - except Enma's nagajuban. I mean, how can one not like moving flowers on her dress? The musical score of Jigoku Shoujo was impressive too, ranging from the soothing calm nature to the action scenes towards the end of each episode. The opening song wasn't terrible exciting, and really gives off a different feeling to the anime and portrays it so differently, one might think it came from a different anime. As for the ending, I thought it was really entertaining to listen to and loved the transition between the final scene of each episode into the ending song.
Overall, I think that Jigoku Shoujo was an interesting anime to watch. Although it is a little repetitive at the beginning, the ending is truly worth it. The art and animation is mediocre, but doesn't really disturb you from enjoying the show. The musical score is very wonderful and was a pleasure to listen to. Watch it if you like bad guys going to hell :D
Rating: A
(81/100)
