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.
