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ローゼンメイデン 
First thing first, the official site confirms that the detective's name is indeed Meshiai Seiichi. It's nice to know that Wikipedia got it right from time to time. Well, I knew this was going to be harrowing but I didn't expected it to be frustrating as well. As usual, there is some kind of injustice happening within the story and it annoyed me a little bit. There are also some unanswered question. I know I should get used to it since this is typical of anime's narrative style, leaving a few unanswered details behind so people can talk about it. Overall, I thought the series ended okay but not exactly satisfying. It's just that this show's idea of justice doesn't match well with my idea of justice and I think a lot of decent characters in this series got unfair treatment.
Why is it always end up like this? It really depresses me when characters that I like end up getting screwed royally. I'm talking about the poor detective and Takuma, both of whom get really lousy fates in this episode. Well, for all I care the entire town can go to Hell now. It would be a good idea to drag Kikuri down as well. This is like Ai's village repeating all over again. It's hard to believe that there are only 4 decent people (Takuma, his parents, and the detective) from this entire town. Speaking of the detective, thanks to the Japanese Wikipedia, I find out that the detective's name is 「飯合 誠一」(Meshiai Seiichi). I'm not sure about the reliability of the information but we should know for sure next week when the official site updates the name of the victims. Either way, it's better for me to call the guy with his name than 'the detective'.
All Hell finally break loose thanks to the residents of Lovely Hills. This is the first time I see people sending others to Hell left and right in this series. If these characters were real, this event would have been one of the lowest point in human history. If one think about it, this is like a miniature version of genocide and world war. The worst thing about these residents is that not only they sent people to Hell without second thought, they also do not hesitate putting the blame on an innocent kid. I suppose from their POV, they're going to get burned by Hell fire so they may as well drag someone else down. Anyway, if this is not exciting enough, the episode also brings back Tsubata Hajime and Tsubata Tsugumi in limited guest roles. With only two episodes left, I think we're up for some interesting revelation in the next two weeks. I'm glad that two series from the last two seasons (this and Code Geass) will end with a bang.
Trust it to the writers of this series to leave the exciting stuff in the last few episodes. Having said that, I think we're officially in the major arc for the season: the Lovely Hills. Judging from the way the arc has been developing, I'd be surprised if there is no major massacre happening anytime soon. This episode also proves that there is something inherently wrong with the Jigoku Tsuushin system. Humans are already vengeful by nature but providing a 'weapon' which allows them to channel their vengeance would lead to this kind of situation. It never fails to puzzle me how the vengeance seekers tend to ignore the "hontou ni" part of Ai's drill when she comes to bring a straw doll for them. At any rate, Ai would probably have to recruit some more helpers now because demand for those elusive straw dolls will skyrocket very soon.
This is not as good as the episode that comes before it but it's not a bad episode either. It's kind of nice to see Takuma again, whose lousy fate was featured back in episode 14. The good news is that his situation is actually a lot better here than the way it was shown back at the end of episode 14. I wondered if viewers protested about his fate or if the animators felt that they were being too cruel to someone as innocent and nice as Takuma. Either way, he seems better off in this one although if one thinks about it, his fate is still kind of lousy. At any rate, it seems the animators want to do some kind of small arc with his character. One thing that I hope will materialise out of this is some kind of character development for Kikuri.
Yeah, I know it's a bit late but I'll write up the next episode after this. As far as background stories go, this is probably the best one that has been shown thus far. Unlike Ren and Wanyuudou's story, this one doesn't come across as an afterthought. about Hone-Onna as opposed to simply attaching the story to the plot of the week. If anything the plot of the week is just a supplementary element to Hone-Onna's background story. Unfortunately, the rise in the quality of the writing is not accompanied by the rise in animation and character design. If anything, the character design takes a rather nasty nosedive this time around. Hone-Onna, for example, look different everytime she appears on the scene. This is slightly problematic because without the visual cue, it's hard to know if a character is actually Hone-Onna or someone else.
February 26, 2007 | 
14 Comments
Noto Mamiko - Aizome (54MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
Aizome is the ending theme for Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori. The song was actually written specifically by Savage Genius for Noto Mamiko to perform in the series. However, they decide to release their own version of the single a month before Noto Mamiko's version came out. Between the two, Noto Mamiko's version is the better one of the two. I just think this song is not meant to be performed in upbeat tempo. Noto Mamiko's version is perfectly haunting and melancholy, which is very appropriate for the series. The PV itself is creep-tastic and morbid right from the start when the video zooms in on what looks like an accident/murder site. I won't say the rest but the ending startled me a little bit when I first saw it.
February 26, 2007 | 15 Comments
First thing first, I'm sorry about the downtime. I wasn't aware of it until someone emailed me about it since I was still asleep when it happened. It's basically Nightmare host trying to update something so they shut down everything off but everything is back to normal now it seems. Anyway, moving on to this episode, this is the kind of episode which makes blogging episode by episode worth it. There are quite a lot of materials worth of discussion in this episode. Mostly deals with friendship and how individuals tend to react to it. Having said that, this is pretty similar to episode 10 from the first season. Even the string-pulling part of the episode is identical. The only difference in this one is that I think the girls genuinely like each other. It's just that circumstance and lack of trust tore them apart.
February 19, 2007 | 16 Comments
This episode is so wrong on so many levels. Having said that, I admit that some of the fanservice are so unabashedly ridiculous that they are bordering funny. On a more positive side, the episode did a good job of explaining Wanyuudou's past and how he met Ai in the first time. It also offer a glimpse into how Ai used to operate prior to theh existence of computer. We have seen her using the postal service but this is an entirely different method which is far more believable than postal service. The story itself is a bit difficult to understand because the narrative goes back and forth between the present time and the past without any clear indication which part is the present and which part is the past. It doesn't help that there are two sets of grudges in this episode so you have to keep track on who is sending who to Hell and on which time period they actually live.
February 12, 2007 | 13 Comments
There is nothing extraordinary about this episode except for 2 things: the minimal use of Enma Ai and her assistant and the Memento style narrative structure. I suspect the first one is an attempt to minimise the budget by not using the regular cast as often as they usually do on other episodes. The majority of the dialogue and narration in this episode is delivered by the character of the week, Rina. Enma Ai doesn't even use her "Ippen Shinde Miru" trademark here. The second one is a lot more interesting but I don't think it's effective or make the story any more interesting. All we know that someone wants to send another person to Hell and the narrative uses flashbacks to complete the background story.
February 4, 2007 | 22 Comments
This is definitely one of the better episode from the series. At the same time, it's also one of those frustrating episodes where the victim of the week actually suffers even more as the episode goes on. On a more positive side, this episode features an origin story for one of the main characteres. As far as origin stories go, this one is pretty strange and relies a little bit on the audience's knowledge of Japanese folklore. Because of this, I wonder what casual anime viewers would think if they ever encounter some of the concepts introduced in this episode. One thing that I hope the series would do in the future is to show what happens to those people who get sent to Hell. Would different people get different punishment? Would those who sent someone to Hell get sent to a different area?
I am glad to see that this week's episode is actually a lot better than the last 2 or 3 which preceded it. A part of it is because the episode reveals Hone-Onna's background a little bit. The strength of the story, however, relies on Hone-Onna's friendship with the client of the week. Unfortunately there is a slight inconsistency between this episode and last week's episode. In this episode, Hone-Onna is reminded that they can't interfere with their client's fate but last week Wanyuudou actually helped a potential client from getting raped. Is there a difference between a client and a potential client? Or is it because Wanyuudou wasn't offering information to the client? In that case, would it be okay for Hone-Onna to interfere if she doesn't tell the client about what would happen? Anyway, I find it interesting that this episode has several cool shots for Ai and her helpers. This one in particular reminds me of a typical movie poster.
January 22, 2007 | 14 Comments
It's episode like this that makes episode-by-episode blogging a bit annoying sometimes. There's nothing about this episode that feels special or out of the ordinary. At this point, I'm really ready for an arc because at least the story will be about the main characters, who I already know quite a lot by now. I think they can do so many things with Ren's, Hone-Onna's, and Wanyuudou's background if they want to. And after that, they can cover Kikuri and her real purpose in the story. I wonder if it has anything to do with Ai or if she's just there to balance Jigoku Shoujo's work. The strange thing about Kikuri is that despite her brattiness, she seems to respect Ai. I'm not sure how long this will last but at the moment Ai seems very capable of controlling her childish behaviour.
It's getting harder and harder to be excited about this series lately, which is unfortunate since the first few episodes were quite good. But now they're back to the usual pattern of having an innocent person getting the blame. While it makes a dark story, it doesn't make it as entertaining. I can only hope that this leads to an explanation about Kikuri whose action has been inconsistent to say the least. Last week she seems to behave nicely while this week she acts as if she is the one who's indirectly responsible for causing problem for one of the characters. And it's already episode 14 and yet they still haven't got any kind of arc. Last year, we're already into the Hajime/Tsugumi plot and gets to see Ai's past through the old man who's about to die. This season, however, there's not much known about Kikuri and despite the initial potential of seeing the helpers' past, they seem rather superficial (ie. Wanyuudou's past).
I almost forgot that this series returns on air this week. Unfortunately, this is a rather disappointing episode and is quite ridiculous as well in terms of the grudge. I'm not sure which one is worse this one or the one where someone sent another person to hell just for spilling coffee. At this rate, someone is really going to send another person to Hell just because that person took the toilet paper that the first person wants. I think the interesting thing about this episode is actually the revelation of Kikuri's power. It's kind of strange to know that her power can be used for good but when I think about it, it's debatable whether or not what she did it with good or bad intention. If none of those interest you, this episode also features a completely irrelevant but amusing scenes of Ai and Kikuri stuffing their stomach with Oden.
December 25, 2006 | 13 Comments
Sorry for delaying this post until today but I thought this episode would have been perfect for a Christmas Jigoku Shoujo episode. Yeah, I realise that 'Christmas' and 'Hell' don't go together but this is one of those rare episodes where the story ended happily. Well, as happy as any Jigoku Shoujo story can be. Unfortunately the setting is a bit dull this time around. The story simply relies on two location: inside an old house and a truck. It feels as if the animators try to minimise the amount of money that they must spend on the episode. Thankfully there is a nice twist towards the end of the episode which leads to the happy end I mentioned above. This episode also reveals some information about Wanyuudou's past although it does not explain how he became one of Ai's helpers.
December 17, 2006 | 19 Comments
I'm impressed. It's been 3 episodes in a row and the quality of the story still remains good. If this trend continues, then I don't mind sitting through another 13 or so episodes. One thing that I am hoping to see is an episode which is shot entirely in Film noir style. That would be really cool to see. Speaking of episodes, Shoboi's Calendar shows that next week's episode, aired on the 23rd of December, will be the last episode seen for the year. The show will then take a break and return to the screen on January the 6th, 2007. I really have a headache now because different shows have different 'in' and 'out' Christmas schedule. I really should start drawing a timetable to figure out when an episode will stop airing and when it will air again. Otherwise I might miss an episode or waiting for one when it's not on air.
December 10, 2006 | 22 Comments
I really believe that the writers have finally lost their sanity. Otherwise, how else do they come up with a crack-ilicious episodes like last week's and this week's? They certainly were not this good back in the first season. If they were sniffing something while writing this then I want to know what was it that they were sniffing. Kidding aside, if you think last week's episode was ridiculous, this one is even more so. No one will seriously send someone to Hell just because of what the character in this episode did. The whole episode also has disjointed plot, character-insertion that does not make any sense, and a highly stylistic ending. I get the impression that the entire thing is supposed to be a homage to Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space, which happened to be one of the deliciously bad stories ever captured on celluloid. Or maybe Ferris Bueller's Day Off since the title of this episode is Sone Anna's Wet Day Off.
December 3, 2006 | 32 Comments
This is probably the most entertaining episode that I've seen so far. It is so outlandish in terms of plot that it would be a shoe-in for Jerry Springer's show. In addition to this, the animation is unusually high in quality so it makes the episode a whole lot more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been. At the end of the day, however, I don't think there is any kind of villain in this one since the person in question is more confused than outright evil. As a side note, Kikuri is not as annoying in this episode although as usual, she doesn't get to do much but making amusing remarks. Anyway, this episode makes me wonder if this really is a 13 episode series. There seems to be many hints planted about Ai's associates and yet the writers haven't actually dealt with these stories thus far.
SNoW - NightmaRe (25.4MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
If you're wondering about the next episode of Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori, rest assured that it'll come as soon as I can stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the plot. If you're a big fan of traps, then episode 9 is a must see episode for you. :P First thing first, however, there is this PV for the opening theme of the series, NightmaRe. The song is performed by the same group who did the first OP, SNoW. The full song still contains repetition which is trademark of SNoW's previous OP theme, Sakasama no Chou but I feel that it's not as annoying as that song. I also think the PV is a lot more interesting. The basic plot of the PV is about a girl whose soul leaves the body and starts chasing around a stuffed animal turned rabbit. In other words, it's a take on Alice in Wonderland albeit in a rather darker, Silent Hill-ish settings.
November 26, 2006 | 20 Comments
It just occurs to me that I really like the precursor music which starts to play everytime someone is about to pull the string. In this episode, the song even gives Ai's speech a lot of weight and made me realise that Ai always reminds the person whom she gave the doll to pull the string only if they really want to clear their grudge. While she doesn't say that there is an alternative to it, by using really in her sentence, she indirectly implies that the person can actually forget about the grudge and move on with his/her life. By pulling the string, the character will make a tight-clad contract with Enma Ai. Because of this, it's not a decision which should be made lightly. However, because Ai's words often come across like a fine print, the characters often ignore it and doesn't really consider the implications thoroughly before pulling the string. This is probably one of the few episodes where a character actually thinks about it thoroughly.
November 19, 2006 | 17 Comments
This is basically similar to the story from episode 2 only this time around, one of the family members is the one that creates the problem. The thing is, I don't see this as a grudge worth sending yourself to Hell. However, if that had happened then there wouldn't be any tragic storyline to be told here. It's just that for once I'd like to see a client who uses his/her logic and chooses other option instead. As for the side story, I wonder what is Kikuri's real purpose in the story apart from being an annoying pain in Ai's life. I was hoping that there'll be more to her but seven episodes later, she's still acting like a brat with no power of her own. Speaking of Kikuri, the opening theme has now been modified slightly so that Kikuri's face is visible.
November 12, 2006 | 16 Comments
I can't seem to concentrate long enough to write anything today. It's hard not to read all of the good news about PS3. It's a pleasant surprise since I thought people will end up having problem with the first batch of PS3. Anyway, enough reading for now and time for some recap. At the core, this episode is about how people often don't make enough effort to help themselves and others. I think the writers want to suggest that things are not going to get better on its own unless a person takes an initiative to solve his/her own problem. I am not sure if sending someone through Jigoku Shoujo can be called an initiative though since this action requires a third party to get involved in your problem. Having said that, this episode shows that sometimes it may not be such a bad idea for the characters to use the service.
November 5, 2006 | 26 Comments
This is an unusually satisfying revenge story. At the end of the day, those who deserve to go to Hell end up going there. The story also touches upon a recent news about Otaku being bullied by thugs for money. Unfortunately the episode doesn't give any suggestion on how they can get away from this kind of problem. Animation-wise, this episode sees a slight downgrade in quality. It's nothing bad though and in general, this season has better quality artwork. As a side note, there is a live action version of this series starting to air last night. I'm not sure if I'm going to cover it though since I'm on my way to a 3 days camping trip and will have to deal with other series after that. However, if you're interested then let me know and I'll see what I can do about it. So far, however, there doesn't seem to be any raw available for it.
October 29, 2006 | 23 Comments
This is slightly more enjoyable to watch because I feel that both the string-puller and the victim really do deserve to go to Hell. In addition to this, this episode also marks the first full appearance of the mysterious little girl from the opening theme. I have to say that I'm surprised to see the season arc starts so quickly in comparison to the first season. Maybe the writers have learned their lesson after season one or maybe this season is limited to 12/13 episodes and therefore, they have no choice but to feature the season arc as soon as possible. In general, I also enjoyed the second season a lot more possibly due to lesser expectation and also because each new episode feels a bit different from the one that preceeded it. I am also grateful for the weird and seemingly out of place comedic moments that are inserted in the story.
October 22, 2006 | 18 Comments
Wow, that was kind of messed up in more ways than one. Just like Ai and her associates, I ended up being confused by the time the story ends. I mean, the grudge is quite lame to begin with and everyone in the story is kind of messed up in one way or another. I think they need a good therapy and not one way ticket to Hell. Having said that, this episode proves that whatever Hellfiends that Ai and her associates work for are grudge-whores. It doesn't matter if the grudge is silly or bordering on ridiculous, they'll take all of them. There is no quality control on which grudge is worth their time and which one is not. I guess there are more than enough real estate space in Hell to accomodate every misguided souls. Anyway, summary will be slightly different in style this time around since I want to try something different for a change.
October 14, 2006 | 26 Comments
OP Theme: 「NightmaRe」by SNoW
Download: AVI format (NEW - 24.2MB) | PSP format (13MB)
Episode like this makes me slightly frustrated because I can see the potential but it's not fully realised because the writers refuse to change its focus from the victim of the week into something more intesting. Having said that, this is not a bad episode at all and I like the opening theme by SNoW. I think the song is a lot better than the 1st season OP theme, Sakasama no Chou. There is a lot more variation in its tone and less repetition in the lyric. The episode also features some hilarious scenes on Ai's expense. I think you should see the episode just to see the ball and the dog scene. Anyway, I've updated the screencaps with the high-res version. This time around, I included a shot of the girl in Ren's flashback since I didn't see that scene the first time I took the screencaps. Thank you to those who told me about it.
No, I haven't lost my mind. I had a choice between this or Ayakashi Ayashi and I'm not sure if I like Ayakashi Ayashi. Although I may change my mind later on. Besides, people always say, "better the devil you know" and I certainly know this devil. :D I mean at least with this series, I know what I'm in for. The first episode is actually not too bad either. Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic and would probably get bored of this in the next two or three weeks. Having said that, the new series seems to have better style, better scares, and there is a brand new arc added to the usual one off cases. Anyway, the OP theme is not included in this version so maybe it'll come out with the 2nd episode. The ED theme, however, is included in the episode and it's a rather pleasant song delivered by Noto Mamiko, the voice of Enma Ai.