Jigoku Shoujo ep.4

October 25, 2005 | 9 Comments

I supposed this is a bit better than the last one. The animation quality seems to be slightly higher this time around with less dark scenes to hide things that are not animated. The nightmare scene is also much creepier, mostly because it involves accident and hospital, two things that some humans including myself are afraid of. It actually reminds me a little bit of Jacob's Ladder as well. A great film if you're looking for some good scare. Unfortunately, the ending bit where the evil person receives a punishment is still as lame as hell. Maybe I'm just twisted but I was hoping for something far more gorier than what the character finally receives. Oh well, at least this is an improvement over last week's episode although I guess that does not mean much since last week's episode was quite bad.

Anyway, in this episode, a girl called Junko brings her sick dog to a Vetenarian but unfortunately, the dog ends up dead on the operating table. Junko is devastated by this since Candy, that's the dog, is the only family member she has left after the death of her parents. She remembers how she managed to get over the death of her parents mostly because Candy was there by her side. Meanwhile, Sekimoto, the assistant to Vet, finds out that her employer has time and time again ignores the animals under his care in order to do other things. A guilty conscience leads her to tell Junko that the truth is, the Vet didn't even look at the dog because he was too busy making an appointment to play golf with his buddy. Junko is angry upon hearing this and for some reason, two girls just happen to pass by and spill out the info about Jigoku Tsuushin. So that night Junko goes to the site and type in her request. Ai then appears in Junko's room and tells Junko the drill as well as the consequence.

Junko is hesitated upon learning the price and the next morning, when she sees a news report about a politican being suspected of corruption, Junko tells Sekimoto that maybe they can find proof of the doctor's wrong doing. Sekimoto agrees to do it after she remembers that there is another cute puppy under the doctor's 'care'. So that night they break and enter the vet's practice. Unfortunately before they can find the proof, the doctor arrives at the practice and catches the two in the act. He then tells them flat-out that he really doesn't give a damn about the dog before kicking the two out. Junko, in a fit of anger, decides to pull the string. That night the vet is injured in a car accident and is eventually taken by a group of suspicious-looking nurses to an animal hospital. There, he gets the scare of his life and before taken to hell by Ai. In hell, he encounters a bunch of talking cats and dogs that proceed to jump all over him. How lucky for him.

Impression:

In general, the story is still really weak. The frustrating part about this series is that I can see the potential for this series to be better. But everything from animation to direction ends up turning mediocre for some reason. First of all, there seems to be a lack of common sense present within the characters in this series. Take Sekimoto, for example. Out of the goodness of her heart, she chose to divulge the information about the doctor's mistreatment of the dog to Junko. Now, first of all, you don't divulge what your employer does to a client. That's just plain unprofessional and furthermore, it can actually implicate you in the matter. And how does this help Junko getting over her grief? If Sekimoto doesn't like her employer's lack of ethic and professionalism, then she should have quit the job and report him to the authority. She shouldn't have gone around and break and enter his office with a young girl as her accomplice.

I also think that there are certain parts of the story that seem too convenient. For example, every time the victim of the week is angry, there's always two students giggling and telling each other about Jigoku Tsuushin. Now, I would have like it if they reveal that the two students turned out to be hell spawns who are looking for angry soul to take to hell. But so far that doesn't seem to be the case. Finally, like I mentioned before, the final punishment for the evil person seems kind of lame. What are those cats and dogs are going to do to him? Giving him allergy? I was hoping that a big large dog would appear and shred him to pieces over and over again. Hmm, just imagining that brings me to many happy places....uhm, sorry, that was my psycho half talking. But I agree with him that by not showing what happened to the vet, the series practically cut down the effectiveness of its scare factor and to an extent, its harsh message.

© memento 2003