Jigoku Shoujo ep.14

January 4, 2006 | 10 Comments

First of all, I have to mention that the animation seems to be okay although it's not as impressive as last week's episode. I think we're basically back to 'tight on budget mode' as the animators try to ensure that they save up for upcoming showcase episodes. Story-wise, however, this episode depresses me a lot. The story actually works in a similar manner to other episodes. However, the complexity of the case makes it a little bit more interesting. In daily life, people often choose not to tell the truth to protect someone else. This episode basically shows that sometimes such act hurts another person. The episode also seems to be some kind of a reflection on Ai, Tsugumi, and Hajime and their attitude towards the people that they encounter thus far. I have to add that I really like Hajime and Tsugumi as characters now and I think I will be sad if something bad happens to either of them.

The episode begins with a shot of Ai's sunset world. Slowly but surely, the world begins to be enveloped by orange-coloured Sakura petals. Cut to a shot of Tsugumi waking up in her classroom clearly looking disturbed after seeing Ai's world in her dream. Meanwhile, Ai herself is seen back in her house. Grandma asks Ai how things went but Ai answers in a dejected voice that it's the same as always, everyone always looks sad. Upon hearing this grandma points out that it seems Ai is worrying again. Meanwhile Tsugumi is seen on her way back home when all of a sudden she gets one of her 'Ai-vision'. This time she gets to see a man hanged on a rope. This is followed by an image of another man, and a shot of a girl in the distance. I think I can see Tsugumi sending her therapy bill to Ai in the near future. Tsugumi reports her vision to Hajime and tells him that she believes that she just saw someone who'll be sent to hell soon.

Hajime in return asks Tsugumi why she gets to see all of these but Tsugumi doesn't seem to know the reason either. After going through one of Hajime's tabloids, Tsugumi manages to identify the person who committed the suicide, 44 years old Kirino Haruki. Tsugumi also manages to identify the other person she saw in her vision, Kusunoki Ryouzou, a mayor of a small town. With these clues, Hajime sets off to find more information. Meanwhile, the Mayor is seen being confronted by Haruki's daughter, Saki. Saki tells the major that if he had told the truth, he could have save a life. The mayor's son, Yoshiyuki, becomes angry upon hearing this and tells Saki that the reason his father puts up with her is because she's Haruki's daughter. He then pushes her aside and left her behind while he and his father gets inside a building. Saki looks bitter after this and remembers the night when she overheard her father talking angrily on the phone.

That night, she found a large envelope containing photos of the Mayor associating himself with a crime organisation member. But before Saki managed to ask her father about this, he already took the photo away from her and left the house in the middle of the night. The next day, his father was found dead due to 'suicide'. But when she asked the coroner if they found an envelope with the dead body, they said they didn't find anything. On the night of her father's funeral ceremony, she refused entry to the mayor and his son. She told the two that she has seen the photograph and will ask the police to look for it. Unfortunately for Saki, the police claimed that they found no such envelope and told her that if she needs money she has to get it through other means. Back to the present time, Saki returns home only to find harassment notes plastered all over her entrance door. These are types that says "Get out of this city" or "Do you want money?". Charming stuff.

Once she gets inside her apartment, however, she hears the doorbell rings and finds Hajime standing in front of her door. Eventually Saki tells Hajime that she believes that her father was murdered. Hajime, however, reminds her that there is no proof of that and surely she already knows this. The two eventually walks to the place where Saki confronted the mayor. Once they get in, however, they received unpleasant welcome from the senior citizen residing in the place. It seems the place is actually a retirement house. Hajime then inadvertently notices the straw doll sticking out of Saki's pocket and asks her if she's met Jigoku Shoujo. Hajime asks her not to use it for her revenge and promises to do some investigation for her. The next day, Hajime insist on talking to the mayor despite his son's objection. The mayor eventually has no choice but to oblige to Hajime's demand and decides to take him to the retirement house.

The mayor claims that the reason he built the retirement house was because he had no parents while growing up but was raised by his grandfather. As a result, he feels a lot of affection for the elderly. The mayor then explains that the retirement house was built based on his connections to a crime organisation. The mayor's son then admits to Hajime that Saki's father found out about this and tried to blackmail the mayor. The mayor, however, feels responsible for the death. He believes that Saki's father wanted to obtain money for his daughter's education at Tokyo University so he doesn't think Saki's father will commit suicide. The mayor adds that he had no hand in the 'suicide' but he realises that someone has done it for his sake. As he said this, he stares at Yoshiyuki, implying that his son was involved in it. Having said that, the mayor tells Hajime that if he lost his position then the retirement home will disappear as well. In that case, what will happen to the elderly?

Hajime then makes a phone call to Saki explaining the complexities of the situation and urges her not to press on with the revenge. The next day, however, Yoshiyuki tries to bribe Saki with money, causing Saki to become offended. In return Yoshiyuki accuses her of caring only about her own feelings and not the feelings of the townsfolk. He thinks the townsfolk will suffer if something happens to his father. Saki becomes angry upon hearing this and flees from the restaurant. Meanwhile, Hajime is in the middle of persuading the Mayor to apologise to Saki even if he can't publicly apologise to her. At the same time Saki finds out that her father only left her little inheritance. Bitter at the fact of life, she decides to pull the string. The mayor awakes to find himself in the boat with Ai. He asks Ai if he can asks forgiveness from Saki but Ai says that is impossible. The episode then ends with the retirement home being closed down. Meanwhile at Tsubata's household, Tsugumi seems to be happy that 'A bad man' goes to hell much to Hajime's disagreement.

Impression:

The theme of this episode seems to be hurting someone in order to be kind to another. The concept obviously doesn't work. All of that kindness will end up in vain since the effort was made at the cost of another person's happiness. The mayor, the son, and Saki were all guilty of this. They tried to make others happy through questionable methods and as a result, they suffered for it. On top of this, no one benefited from the situation. Even the innocent ones such as the elderly, suffered because of it. The story actually reminds me a little bit of Hajime's own line of work, which often leads him to blackmail other people. I have no doubt that he actually does it for the sake of Tsugumi but I think he risks his own and Tsugumi's happiness if he keeps on doing this kind of job. I also wonder if Tsugumi thinks that the Mayor deserves to go to hell because she doesn't understand the complexity of the case like Hajime or because she's primed to become the next Jigoku Shoujo. I'd like to think that she's just a little kid who is a bit naive.

© memento 2003