Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori ep.01

October 7, 2006 | 33 Comments

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.

Rough summary:

• The episode starts by showing the flashback to Enma Ai's life, the part where she killed everyone in her village by burning them to death. When she cried near the village's Torii gate, she's confronted by the Hell Spider and was promptly taken into the underground world. Inside, she got to see the corpse of everyone that she killed.
  
• A gigantic three-eyed jellyfish then appeared, telling her that she must pay for her sins. Because of this, it transferred her to the shore of the underground and told her that she'll be known as Jigoku Shoujo from now on.
  
• Onda Maki has been bullied by someone in her school. Her book is torned apart, her shoes have been vandalised with words such as "Die", and when she puts on her sweater, there are staplers all over it. The problem is, she can't submit her grudge to the website since she doesn't know who's responsible for this.
  
• One day, Onda opens her pencil box and finds a bunch of bugs in it. Her teacher Kamishiro Eiko is concerned about her and bandages onda's hand, which got stung by the bugs. Onda, however, refuses to be helped by Kamishiro.
  
• Wanyuudou decides to do his own investigation by asking some of Onda's classmates. When asked why they never help Onda, their answer is because they're not friends with her.
  
• One day, Onda gets an email on her mobile, stating that the person who sent it knows who's been bullying her. The sender wants Onda to go to the locker/shower room during lunch break to meet that person.
  
• When Onda gets there, however, she only finds a mannequin whose head has been dismembered. In addition to this, hot water starts to pour from the shower all of a sudden. Onda panics and tries to escape but the exit is blocked by someone. She passes out and when she regains consciousness, she's been tended by Kamishiro sensei in the sick room.
  
• Onda feels grateful to Kamishiro sensei and decides to bake cookies for her. But when she's about to give it to her, her classmate, Nakase, asks her to come to Kamishiro's room.
  
• Nakase reveals that the bugs that was inside Onda's pencilbox came from the a bug house inside Kamishiro-sensei's room. In addition to this, Onda also finds a similar mannequin to the one she saw in the shower.
  
• Angered by this revelation, Onda contacts Enma Ai. Enma Ai gives her the drill and Honne-Onna doll instead of a Wanyuudou one! She, however, reminds her that if you send someone to hell, you go to hell as well once you passed away.
  
• Onda becomes reluctant upon hearing this but when Ai tells her to return the doll, she wants time to think about it.
  
• The next day, when Onda opens her locker, she finds it is stuffed with the same bugs she saw the other day. Kamishiro-sensei then appears and drags her to her room after taking her jackstraw doll.
  
• Kamishiro-sensei then produces a chloride/acid and pours some of it on Onda's back, causing the poor girl to scream. When Onda asks Kamishiro-sensei why she's doing it, her excuse is because she wants to do some "interesting experiment" with Onda.
  
• Kamishiro-sensei is about to pour the acid on Onda but Onda manages to knock the acid bottle off Kamishiro's hand and steps away from her. Kamishiro-sensei ends up getting the acid treatment on her face. And before she can do anything else, Onda pulls the string on the jackstraw doll.
  
• Honne-Onna's voice is heard saying Onda's grudge is granted. As a punishment for trying to turn her student into an experiment, Kamishiro is placed inside a human-sized test tubes and have various chemicals pump into the tubes.
  
• When she's about to die, Ai does her "Ippen shinde miru" only this time in colourful kimono. When Kamishiro regains her consciousness, she's on top of the boat that is going to hell. She then finds bugs coming out of her body and her mouth. Ai takes the grudge all the way to hell.
  
• In the aftermath, Onda finds the hell mark on her chest while Ai and her helpers observe her from afar. Once they left, however, a mysterious girl wearing purple kimono appears, letting out a small giggle.
  
• Onda is then seen helping Nakase stapling some papers. However, when she uses the stapler gun, she realises that the stapler has purple colour, the same stapler that she found inside her sweater.
  
• Ai lits a candle with Onda Maki's name on it.

Impression:

There is a clear parallel between Ai and Onda that the writers want to emphasise in this episode. Both of them were disappointed when they find out that they too will go to Hell for seeking 'justice' after what has been done to them. And because their hatred overwhelmed them, they could not stopped themselves from exacting vengeance on those who wronged them. I just realised that all of these times Ai does not actually live in Hell itself. I mean she rows the boat but she mostly lives in that unique scarlet world of hers as if she's in some kind of purgatory, trying to pay for her sins. Although I'll bet she'll have to live there if she killed Hajime and Tsugumi last season. If one thinks about it, Ai does get it easy. Instead of being tortured, she has to pay for her sins by taking other people to hell. I mean, she probably feels guilty when innocent people gets sent to Hell because she gives them those straw dolls. However, worse things could have happened to her.

On the other hand, Onda is one unfortunate girl. She didn't do anything wrong and yet she got harassed like this. It makes me wonder how on Earth a psychotic teacher like Kamishiro got hired in the first place anyway? And come to think of it, why is it that Ai's associates can easily place themselves inside the school and pose as teachers/garderner without anyone noticing the discrepancies? Anyway, in the end, Maki didn't really have much choice really. I supposed she can try to run but there's a likelihood psychotic Kamishiro may able to catch up with her. And in her panic, pulling that string may have seen like an instinctive thing to do. I am glad that the punishment that Kamishiro receives is as brutal as what she's about to do to her own student. Having bug coming out of one's mouth is an idea that creeps me out. It's unfortunate that Onda still has to put up with another person who harassed her but there's a possibility that Nakase regretted what she did.

Overall, this was not a bad episode to start the series. I think as the series progressed, Ai's background will get fleshed out a bit more. The same thing can be said about her 3 helpers, who I think will get more focused this season. Sooner or later, these 3 will probably encounter some people that they like and don't want to send to Hell. That will be nice to see for a change. Technicality-wise, Ai gets a brand new kimono in this episode. I am not sure what she did to deserve this but I supposed being able to restrain herself from killing Hajime and Tsugumi could be counted as one. The animation for "Ippen shinde miru" sequence is slightly tweaked now. In general, however, it doesn't make it more exciting. I really hope they change it a little bit from episode to episode so that it doesn't look like recycled animation. Last but not least, I'm keen to see the new character. I'm just hoping that she is not added to be some kind of cute mascot for the series.

Ending Theme: 「あいぞめ」(Aizome) by Noto Mamiko
Download: AVI format (30.6MB) | AVI mirror (23.4MB) | PSP format (coming soon)

The ending theme features gorgeous static still as usual. The song is pretty good too although at one point in the song, Noto Mamiko seems to have difficulty reaching the tone required for the song so the BGM covers it up immediately. ^^;;

© memento 2003