Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori ep.05

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.

The episode begins with Kikuri carrying a scissors and proceeds to use it to cut down the Spider Lily flowers in Ai's world. To ensure that viewers understand that Kikuri is a psychotic little brat, the producers give her eerie Spider-like eyes and creepy laugh track. When Ai asks her if she's having fun, the brat claims 'not really'. Ai finally loses her patience and pushes Kikuri into the lake. Oh wait, I confused the story with a soap opera that I watched on cable. At the same time a typical Otaku guy is seen typing "Yamada Leon" into Jigoku Tsuushin but chicken out at the last minute. Keep this in mind for later when he actually pushes the button and meets Ai. A few days later, the same Otaku is in the middle of reading an anime magazine inside a convenient store when a thug bullies him into paying for his groceries. The same punk also throws a hot Oden soup into the cashier and lit a fire on a poor dog when the dog simply wants some food from him.

Across the street, Ai's associates observe this poor excuse for human being who turns out to be the Yamada Leon that the Otaku submitted into Jigoku Tsuushin. Hone-Onna and Ichimoku Ren leave the rest of the investigation to Wanyuudou, who decides to follow Leon. After a while, however, he realises that Kikuri has been observing him from on top of an telephone/electricity pole. Wanyuudou asks the brat if she has left without telling Ai. Instead of answering him, she runs away so Wanyuudou has no choice but to follow her. Meanwhile, Ai is informed by Grandma spider that if she's looking for Kikuri, the brat has gone out. At the same time, Leon is seen watching a high school girl that he has a crush on, Miyahara Izumi. Unfortunately, his gang leader, Hashitsune Chikaraya, also likes the girl. Chikaraya also becomes angry when a gang member informs him that Leon plans on leaving their gang after he gets together with Izumi.

Because of this, Chikaraya takes a picture of Izumi and approaches Leon who's sitting on his motorbike, ordering the guy to come to their HQ tonight. Meanwhile, in an attempt to follow Kikuri, Wanyuudou ends up meeting a bunch of unsavoury types in the city: drunk salarymen. He also notices how man has little to no regard for their environment as a guy easily toss his cigarette into a drainage. As he walks further, he notices a woman trying to stuff her rubbish into public trash can. When Wanyuudou catches her in the act, she claims that everyone else does it. In Japan, you have to sort your trash into the burnable, plastic, pet, glass, and many other categories. For example, a soft drink cup has to be sorted into plastic (for the straw and the lid) and burnable (the cup itself). Some find this to be bothersome and tend to dump everything into a trash can on the street. This is probably why the Japanese government has now taken away most trash cans on the street.

Wanyuudou eventually arrives at an area where Kikuri is being harassed by two thugs who tries to touch her head. Kikuri stomps one of the thugs' feet but the other thug grabs her head so his friend can hit her. Before he can do this, however, Wanyuudou steps in between the two of them and asks the thugs to forgive her. The thugs are not happy with Wanyuudou's interference and tries to attack him. Because of this Wanyuudou has no choice but to tell Kikuri to step over before flipping the body of his attacker and punching him. When the second guy tries to attack him, Wanyuudou simply steps aside and hits the guy on the back, rendering him unconscious. After the thugs are defeated, Kikuri demands that Wanyuudou carries her on his back so he has no choice but to do so. While carrying her, Wanyuudou tells Kikuri that the human world is much preferable back then than it is now. He thinks people have forgotten that they'll go to Hell if they do bad things.

Although he laments the fact, Wanyuudou thinks that it doesn't really matter for them. Unfortunately for him, Kikuri did not listen to a word he said since she's already asleep. Meanwhile, the same Otaku who got bullied by Leon finds the courage to click on the submit button. However, it looks like he doesn't have to since Leon is getting a taste of his own medicine when Chikaraya's men beat him up. Chikaraya then shows him Izumi's picture and tells Leon that he's going to claim her for himself so he orders Leon not to lay his hands on her. The next day, Leon is disturbed when he imagines Izumi and Chikaraya in bed together. Inside the convenient shop, the Otaku who submitted Leon's name into Jigoku Tsuushin explains to his friends that he didn't go through with the deal once he finds out that he'll go to Hell as well. Although he hates Leon, he thinks it's not worth the price. Leon who overhears this forces the Otaku to tell him all about this.

That night inside an internet cafe, the Otaku helps Leon to type in Chikaraya's name into the site and tells him to push the submit button. Once he does this, Leon is transported to Ai's sunset world much to Wanyuudou's confusion. Wanyuudou apologises to Ai for not doing investigation properly and orders a confused Leon to shut up. Leon is angry to hear the order and tries to to hit Wanyuudou. Before the hit connects, however, Wanyuudou has turned into the Jackstraw doll. An impatient Ai then orders Leon to take the doll and gives him the drill, telling him that if he pulls the string then he will make a contract with her. However, he will also go to Hell once he is dead. Leon thinks that his life is not going to end anytime soon and besides he does not believe in Hell. Because of this he decides to take the doll if it means he can get rid of his 'sempai'. The next day, Chikaraya kidnaps Izumi and tells Leon to check out the back seat.

Leon is shocked to see Izumi laying unconscious in the back seat and even more so when Chikaraya tells him that they're going to have fun with her. It appears that they'll videotape the entire thing so that Izumi won't tell anyone. After Chikaraya left, Leon is angry, claiming that Izumi is his thing. Wanyuudou, who's still in his doll form, disagrees with this and in the process reminds Leon of the doll's existence. Once he pulls the red string, Hone-Onna appears to help Izumi. Meanwhile, Chikaraya goes over to Izumi's room while his underling tries to figure out how the camera works. All of a sudden, however, the camera starts to flicker on and off. When the thug decides to take a closer look at it, a giant eye appears inside the camera, blinding the guy and knocks him unconscious. Inside Izumi's room, Chikaraya approaches the girl. However, when he gets close to her, Izumi's face starts to melt and reveals the bone behind the skin.

Chikaraya freaks out and tries to run to his car but he is horrified again when he sees that his car tyre has been replaced by Wanyuudou's head. Before Chikaraya can leave the area, he gets trapped inside the melting cement as Ai "Ippen Shinde Miru" him. When Chikaraya regains his consciousness, he's on the boat that is on its way to Hell. When he begs Ai to save him, Ai loses her patience and tells Chikaraya not to frag with her. In the aftermath of the incident, Leon is back to his old way of beating up Otaku and taking their wallet. While taking a ride on his bike, however, he notices the Hell mark on his chest. He dismisses it as 'cool' but when he looks up on the street he realises that the dog whose face he lit up with fire appears on the street. Shocked by the dog's sudden appearance, Leon loses control of his bike and ends up hitting a sign which advises motorbike users to wear their helmet. The irony is, of course, Leon is not wearing his helmet properly.

While bleeding on the road, he asks someone to save him but the Otaku just let him rot to death as a revenge. While pleading for his life, Leon hears Kikuri telling him that Hell exists. Leon then dies as Kikuri throws the spider lily all over his body. Somewhere else, Wanyuudou expresses his disbelief that Leon dies one day after he submitted his grudge and wonders if Leon and Chikaraya will see each other in Hell. He then tells Ai that it seems that humans on Earth and those in Hell are not that different. As soon as he says this, Izumi appears and dumps his empty juice box in someone's bike basket. Wanyuudou who sees this tells Izumi that even if she thinks no one is looking at her, Otentou-sama (The Sun, or God) and Enma-sama are watching over her closely. Much to Wanyuudou's surprise, Izumi blushes in embarassment and tells him that he's right. She apologises and picks up her trash from the bike. After she left, Wanyuudou tells Ai that there might still be a hope for this side of the world. Ai doesn't say a thing but her mouth forms a light smile.

Impression:

This episode is very enjoyable. Just like last week's episode, those who deserve to go to Hell end up going there. I kind of suspected that there is a twist in this episode since the preview has Leon saying that he wants to place revenge on his 'sempai' and yet the images shows a thug trying to bash an Otaku. True enough, the Otaku actually was going to send him to Hell but decided that it's not worth the price. Leon, on the other hand, is too arrogant (not to mention extremely dumb) to believe in Hell. I find it disgusting that not only he bullies others, he also likes to torture small animal like the dog. It serves him right that in the end he dies when the same dog appears on the street and he tries to avoid it. Props to Wanyuudou who managed to bait the idiot to pull the string by saying that Izumi is not his. Otherwise, I'm sure Leon would have forgotten to use the doll. It's nice to see the helper starting to take a more active role in the situation.

Kikuri remains a mystery in this one. I do think that her intention is to drag people to Hell regardless of who they are. This is why she distracted Wanyuudou from doing more investigation on Leon. Her plan, however, didn't go as planned because the Otaku decided that going to Hell after he dies is not worth it. She, however, is clearly happy when Leon dies as soon as he submitted his grudge on Chirakaya. I think her arrival comes in time just as Ai and her associates start to use their power to sort out who deserves to go to Hell and who does not deserve to go there. While the final decision lies in the hand of the grudge wisher, they try their best to investigate the circumstances behind the wish. In some cases they get lucky and the person pulls out of the deal like the Otaku. As a final thought, is it a coincidence that this episode features an Otaku beaten up by a thug? Especially in light of a recent news that similar incident has happened in real life.

Preview

On next week's episode: Another suspicious client wishes a grudge on someone who seems like a nice guy.

© memento 2003