Jigoku Shoujo ep.7

November 16, 2005 | 9 Comments

Well, this turns out to be the most entertaining episode so far. The animation is also a bit better with only a few stock animation being used in this episode. I did, however, noticed that an umbrella seems to be the new stylish weapon of choice for girls to use these days. I have to admit that the item is a brilliant choice because it serves dual function to protect you from rain and from uninvited guest. Speaking of item, our sponsor, Jigoku Inc., would like to use the opportunity to announce their new stylish accessory lineup: The Jigoku Baseball Cap™. It is available in several colour choice including light creme (just like the face of your fake personality), black (similar to the color of your skin when it gets burned in hell), and red (the way you'll bleed for us in hell). Please buy some or Ai will personally visit you and take you on a never ending boat ride to hell.

The episode begins with a young up and coming actress introducing herself to a producer known as Kurenai Midori at a party. The actress, Kurushima Kaoruko, claims that she's a big fan of Midori. Once Kaoru left, Midori tells her adopted daughter, Ayaka, to have fun but not to embarass her. The next day, Ayaka is seen trying to train for a theatrical move but fails repeatedly so she gets some heavy scolding from Midori. Because she's unhappy with her mother's harsh treatment, Ayaka decides to visit Jigoku Tsuushin and enters Midori's name in it. Enma Ai then comes out and gives her the drill as usual. After seeing herself being burned in hell for eternity, Ayaka is freaked out so Ai wonders if Ayaka wants to back out. Ayaka, not wanting to lose the chance, asks Ai for a time to think about it.

Because of this Ayaka goes to a park and reminisces about the time Midori saw her performance and decided to adopt her. While doing this, she's approached by her two street 'pals', and I meant that in the losest way of the term. The two apparently want to borrow some money from Ayaka so she gets the idea of using them to do her bidding instead of making her hands dirty using the doll. She asks the two to attack her mother but when she realises that her mother can defend herself using Aikido, Ayaka decides to step out and hit one of them with an umbrella. Her friends are surprised to see this but Ayaka quickly winks at them so they understand that they've done enough. As the two guys left, we can see that Ichimoku Ren and Hone-Onna are watching from a rooftop and making comments about Ayaka's cunning.

Ayaka, however, is not good enough to fool her mother because Midori immediately asks if those two were Ayaka's old friends. Oops, busted!! Because of this, she decides to go for plan B and tells her mother that they are indeed old friends, who recently found out about her rags to riches tale. Having said that, Ayaka promises Midori that she will report the two to the police tomorrow. Midori, however, suspects that Ayaka is not telling the truth. It doesn't help that Ayaka claims that she came home late because she's been practicing her move and yet she is still not good at it. Midori, who has had enough for the night tells her daughter to just go to bed. Despite this, she looks concerned about the incident. Outside the house, Ren and Hone-Onna wonder what Ai will say once she finds out about this.

The next day, Ai decides to do an investigation of her own at the training studio. She quickly finds out from a secretary that everyone seems to think that Ayaka is the perfect daughter who works hard to perfect her craft. Their conversation, however, is interrupted when Midori gathers everyone so she can make announcment about the casting of her next theatrical production. Much to Ayaka's disappointment and eventually, boiling anger, Kaoruko, is the one who Midori selected to become the lead in the production. When Ayaka confronts her mother, Midori lets her know that the reason she was not selected is because her acting is weak, pointing to last night incident. Ayaka is pissed off about this and thinks that her two friends reported her to Midori.

After calling the two, however, Ayaka finds out that they didn't report her to Midori. When the two guys ask for their money, Midori tells them that they can get than and some more if they do her another favour. That day, Kaoruko hurts her foot because someone has purposedly left pins on her ballet shoes. Ayaka pretends to be concerned and asks everyone in the room not to do this for her. I've seen some bad acting and liar in my life but the animation in this scene shows that Ayaka is one of the worst actress I've seen in my life. Ayaka then takes Kaoruko to a restaurant only to then leave her with her two street pals so they can take her to an empty street and force her to drink something that they claim will make her voice better. The next day, everyone finds out that Kaoruko lost her voice.

Ayaka goes to Midori's room to find her mother looking distressed. However, Midori laughs bitterly and tells her adopted daughter that she knows that Ayaka blames Kaoruko. Shen then asks her daughter to gather everyone because she has an announcement to make: she's going to disbanded the entire theatrical company. Ayaka is shocked to hear this and even more so when her mother accuses her to be the one who harmed Kaoruko. While this happens, Ai is seen watching from a tree at a nearby window but all of a sudden she jumps off from the tree and disappears. Back to Ayaka, she tries to sweet-talked her mother but when that doesn't work, she finally shows her true face and calls Midori "Kuso baba". Midori looks sad upon hearing this and tells Ayaka that she was being strict because she wants Ayaka to be a better actress.

Midori asks Ayaka to admit to her wrongdoing and promises to introduce her to a friend's theatrical company so she can start over. But Ayaka shows nothing but hatred for her mother and goes over to her locker to retrieve her voodoo doll. She, however, is surprised when she finds the doll now turns like a normal straw doll instead of the usual black one with the string. Ai then appears and explains to her that not too long ago, someone just pull the string on her. Oops. We then get to see that it was Kaoruko who pulls the string and wishes vengeance on Ayaka. Ayaka is pissed off about this and tries to threaten Ai. But you don't threatened Jigoku Shoujo because Ayaka is immediately transported to a theatrical production from hell. Wanyuudo at first tries to force Ayaka to admit her mistake so Ayaka decides to play along.

All of a sudden, however, Ayaka hears a creepy voice talking nearby and we get to see a creepy-looking face showing behind her face. Yikes. Meanwhile, Ichimoku Ren plays a director and tells Ayaka that's not the way to admit one's mistake so Ayaka tries again but all of a sudden the demonic face appears from inside her shirt and interrupts her again. When she tries to hit it, she gets bitten by it instead. Ayaka is then turned into some kind of Kabuki performer whose hands are then pulled apart by two of her puppeteers. After this, Ayaka is confronted by Ai in what surely will go as the best performance in her "Ippen Shinde Miru" repertoire. Ayaka wakes up on top of the boat but actually looks kinda happy when Ai tells her that her last performance was the best. Meanwhile in the real world, the black mark is now imprinted on Kaoruko's chest.

Impression:

First of all, I have to say that I'm surprised that you can just put anyone's name in the site and Ai will do the deed if the person really wants to do so. Surely this can't be right. There are many vengeful people in this world and if this happens, anyone who's jealous of someone else will just go to the site to eliminate the person. And what would have happened had Kaoruko didn't pull the string and asked for a vengeance? Will Ayaka still be able to send her mother to hell? I personally want to know the answer to this question but unfortunately the episode decides to go around this problematic issue and have Kaoruko sending Ayaka instead. Having said that, this is probably one of the best episodes apart from episode 2 and 5. As a side note, I like that the writers use the metaphor of actor having two faces in this episode. I also think that this one offers the best punishment scenes in comparison to the previous episodes.

© memento 2003