Jigoku Shoujo ep.12

December 21, 2005 | 12 Comments

I never thought I'll say something like this about Jigoku Shoujo but I think this is the best episode that has been aired so far. The animation is actually not as good in comparison to last week's episode but the storyline is interesting, unusual, and is actually quite easy to relate to in that twisted kind of sense. This episode also suggests that there is more to the way Enma operates than what has appeared thus far. Because of this, what happens in this episode is quite shocking but also quite sad at the same time since for the first time, neither the victim nor the revenge wisher actually deserve to go to hell. On top of this, the preview for next week's episode suggests that the series will start to unravel the connection between Hajime and Enma Ai so here's hoping that this will be the start of an exciting arc for the series.

The episode begins with the shot of a girl standing in the middle of an old mansion revealing her hell mark. After the episode title, the scene shift to a flashback where the girl, Sawai Akane is seen sleeping in her room while her teacher, Fukasawa Yoshiki is seen knocking in front of her door trying to persuade her to go to school. Apparently Sawai has stopped going to school and has been staying in her room. It seems she suffers from Hikikomori. After knocking on the door for a while, however, Sawai's mother asks Fukasawa to stop because she thinks that her daughter's condition is really not good. Fukasawa agrees but tells Sawai that he'll come back again tomorrow. After Fukasawa leaves, Sawai decides to get up from her bed and access the internet so she can read an email from her pen pal, 'Cheppo', who apparently has send her a picture of a beautiful mansion.

Upon seeing the picture, Sawai agrees with her e-pal that the place is beautiful and that she wants to go there. Sawai also tells her e-pal about how she's been skipping school and that her teacher doesn't understand her feelings at all. She then signs her email with her screen name, which is 'Anemone'. The next day, Sawai receives a reply from 'Cheppo' who tells her that teacher is just teacher, they have their own problem. 'Cheppo' tells Akane that he feels the same way since he doesn't have anyone he can talk to except 'Anemone'. While this happens, Fukasawa has been knocking on Sawai's door trying to persuade her to come to the school. The next day, Fukasawa does the same thing again while inside her room, Sawai is reading email from 'Cheppo' who tells Sawai that he also doesn't feel like going to school tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Sawai is fed up with Fukasawa's persistence and asks 'Cheppo' if he's ever heard about Jigoku Tsuushin. 'Cheppo' explains to Sawai about the entire deal and eventually Sawai is tempted to use it on Fukasawa. After Sawai has done the deal, Ai shows up in her room and gives her the drill. The next day, Sawai is clearly disturbed about the fact that she will have to go to hell if she goes through with this. Meanwhile, Hajime is seen visiting the school where Fukasawa works at to give a talk to some students as well as doing some investigative work about Jigoku Tsuushin. Hajime is surprised when the students tell him that everyone is kind of stressed out these days so everyone has at least one or two people that they'd like to condemn. Later on Hajime decides to ask Fukasawa if he has any person he'd like to condemn but Fukasawa tells Hajime that he has no such person.

When Hajime excuses himself, however, Fukasawa is confronted by the headmaster, who asks him why Sawai hasn't come to school. Because of this, Fukasawa has no choice but to ask Sawai's mother to knock on her daughter's room so she'll open the door. Once that happens, Fukasawa tries to persuade Sawai to go back to school but she rejects him and accuses him of only doing this so he won't look bad as opposed to because he truly cares about her. Fukasawa becomes angry upon hearing and asks Sawai why she still asks it if she already knows the answer. But he quickly stops and apologises to Sawai. He admits that he was only thinking of himself but he also asks Sawai to not make her mother worried so she should make an attempt to come to school. Fukasawa's honesty seems to touch Sawai more than his previous attempt.

After the incident, Sawai tells her e-pal that she's not sure what to do now. Strangely her e-pal also feels the same way about his situation. The next day, Sawai decides to come to the school much to Fukasawa's surprise. The two decides to have chat in the teacher's room but Fukasawa got interrupted by another teacher. Sawai decides to use the time to message her e-pal but is surprised when she realises that Fukasawa's mobile buzzing not long after she sends the message. When she realises that Fukasawa is 'Cheppo', she begins to accuse Fukasawa of knowing that she is 'Anemone' but Fukasawa tells her that he was not aware of it. The two eventually talk about it and Fukasawa apologises for not realising that Sawai is 'Anemone'. He also admits that he didn't have any other outlet to talk about his problem. In return, Sawai apologises for entering Fukusawa's name into Jigoku Tsuushin.

Fukusawa, however, is not angry and instead becomes interested to know what Jigoku Shoujo is like. Sawai thinks that Ai looks rather sad. Fukasawa then asks Sawai if she'd be willing to send him to hell because he's tired of it all. Sawai look conflicted about it but eventually decides to grant his wish. Fukasawa immediately finds himself in the boat with Ai, who asks Fukasawa if he realises what he has done. She shows an image of Sawai while explaining that she'll go to hell as well for sending Fukasawa to hell. Fukasawa feels grateful and regretful towards Sawai upon finding out about it but the deed is done. Meanwhile, Hajime returns to his car after finding out that Fukasawa has disappeared only to find Tsugumi in trance again, saying the same words that Ai says to her grandma: is it okay that hell becomes an escape like this? Her grandma thinks it's okay and that Ai shouldn't think too much about it but Ai clearly disagrees with this.

Impression:

It seems to me that the writers have decided to go for the loneliness angle that has crop up from time to time within this series to become this episode's theme. More than anything else, both Sawai and Fukasawa are simply two people who are lonely and tired of their existence in this world. And to a certain extent, I think I understand what they feel and that is why this episode creeps me out. Having said that, the sad thing about this episode is that, neither Sawai nor Fukasawa actually deserve to go to hell but they both end up going to hell because they use Ai's service. In Fukasawa's case, it's simply because he's tired of his life. I find this interesting because he wants to go to hell and the same can be said about Sawai who doesn't seem to mind the idea and even looks forward to the day when she can see her teacher again.

The saddest part about this is that these people feel that the world is so harsh on them that even Hell seems to be a more pleasant escape than the real world. This is such a depressing thought that probably would not have happened if both Sawai and Fukasawa have friends that they can rely on. But neither have anyone until they met each other and their friendship was simply doomed right from the start because both have such a bleak outlook on life in general. This brings me to the point of the story, which I think was handled very well in this episode: friendship with other humans or the lack of it in today's society. Hajime's conversation with a couple of students from Fukasawa's class emphasises this very point. These students seem to have at least a couple of 'friends' that they won't hesitate to place into the website. Doesn't that mean they're not 'friends' after all?

As a result, most of them lead a lonely life confined with the latest technology such as the Internet because this technology provides the only 'friend' and companionship that they can't obtained in the real world. I really hope that the show will explore this particular theme further because I think it has potential to be interesting. It's unfortunate that the animation was rather sub-par in this one. I also think that the part where Sawai doesn't know that Fukasawa is her pen pal, 'Cheppo', is rather hard to believe. But it's quite easy to forget those flaws because the overall episode is quite good. Anyway, next week's episode seems to be even more interesting because we will probably learn a bit more about Ai and her relationship to Hajime and Tsugumi. What exactly happened 50 years ago to Enma Ai? Like Sawai said, Ai looks sad, and judging from her expression at the end of this episode, she didn't seem to like this particular assignment.

© memento 2003