Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori ep.08

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.

The episode itself begins with Hone Onna acting as a teacher and competing in a swimming race with a group of students. When she emerges as the winner, she tells her students that as promised, they'll have to try harder next week. Another teacher called Kuriyama Shinbi comes to congratulate Hone-Onna, who is apparently known as "Sone-sensei" in this school. Kuriyama wants to know if "Sone-sensei" has competed on a world level. Hone-Onna denies this but two students joining the conversation and tells her that she was quick in detecting foulplay and looks as if she had no problem with the water's current. Another student wants to know how old she is since her skin is beautiful. Hone-Onna jokingly tells them that she's around 200 years old much to the others' amusement. Their laughter, however, get interrupted when a teacher called Baba Shouko scolds a student called Nonohara Ikue because the student has not cut her hair.

Upon hearing this, Nonohara silently laments the fact that she's been caught by the "Keshou-baba" (Heavy make-up old hag). One of the students who were talking to Hone-Onna tells her that Baba-sensei doesn't understand student's feeling and therefore she hates her. Back to Baba-sensei, she's now threatening Nonohara that if next time she still hasn't cut her hair, she'd cut it herself. Despite this, Nonohara tells her friends that she has no intention of trimming her hair since no other teachers apart "Kesho-baba" had asked her to do it. That night, Nonohara receives a mail from someone claiming to be Jigoku Shoujo. When she clicks on the link inside the email, she's taken to a fake Jigoku Tsuushin, one which still allows her to put the name of a person she wants to send to Hell. Nonohara submits Baba Shouko's name but when she hits the submit button, she is confronted by a mesesage that claims her hate is not strong enough.

Nonohara willingly gives the site another try but keeps failing over and over again. Unknown to her, Ren's big eye has been observing her all of these times. Inside Ai's world, Hone-Onna is in the middle of receiving medicated pads/patch on her back to alleviate soreness. As it turns out, she was kind of pushing herself at that swimming competition. Kikuri grabs one of the pads and sniffs it. She immediately makes a funny face due to the unpleasant smell of the pads. Ren then enters the house to inform Ai that Nonohara received an email from Jigoku Shoujo. Hone-Onna and Wanyuudou immediately guess that the person that she wants to send to Hell is Baba Shouko. A flashback shows how the group once found out about the site. Ren think it's just a prank while Wanyuudou told her that it's not really their concern. Ai, on the other hand, believed that the site distorts a person's desire for a grudge and therefore insisted that they investigated the site.

In the present time, they discuss how the name that is entered into the fake site has always been the same: Baba Shouko, the school's teacher. Because of this, Ai's associates believe that the one who created the site comes from the school. Ren asks Hone-Onna if she has any lead but she claims that there are hundreds of students at the school and besides, she's been busy even though she only works as a part-time teacher. Kikuri suddenly places one of the medicated pads onto Hone-Onna, who screams out because it stings her nose. Ai is annoyed by the brat's behaviour and tells her to stop it. This, however, only caused Kikuri to try pulling the pad from Hone-Onna's nose. XD The next day, Hone-Onna walks into the school and seems to be enjoying the respect that she earns from her students. When she gets inside, she overhears two students talking about Jigoku Shoujo so she decides to follow them to a rooftop where a note has been posted.

The note claims that it's from "Jigoku Shoujo" and lists the name of students who have contacted her about sending Baba Shouko to Hell. In the background, Enma Ai is now seen posing as a student. Later on, the Headmaster asks Baba Shouko if she has any idea who could possibly has done this but she has no idea. That day, Hone-Onna reports to the others that the teachers are going to investigate computer access to see if they can find the perpetrator. Upon hearing this, Ren thinks the teachers will do their work for them but Ai doesn't think this will be the case. She also manages to stop Kikuri before the brat can stick the medicated pad into Wanyuudou's head. Because of this, Kikuri simply sticks one on her forehead before flailing around on the floor, immitating Hone-Onna saying that it feels good. The next day, Kurayami-sensei calls a student called Ikami Wakasa and asks her to come with her to talk to the Principal and the rest of the teachers.

Once she's inside, Ikami is immediately accused by the Principal as the one who's been pretending to be "Jigoku Shoujo". They tell her that their trace revealed that the emails from "Jigoku Shoujo" comes from her email address. They also point out that she's good at computer-related stuff. Ikami admits that while making a website like that is easy for her, she didn't do it. Kurayami-sensei tries to vouch for her but is immediately silenced by the Principal. Another teacher points out that Ikami is known to hate Baba-sensei. In the end, Ikami is suspended from school. Kurayami-sensei is upset to see this development and cries in the teacher's room. Meanwhile, Hone-Onna is talking to Baba-sensei, telling her that it seems the case is closed. Baba-sensei, however, believes that it was not Ikami who did it. Enma Ai then appears behind Hone-Onna, telling her that it's not over yet. In fact, it'll start from this point forward.

That night, Ikami receives a phone call from Kurayami-sensei, who claims that the person who set up the website and framed her is actually Baba-sensei herself. She tells Ikami that Baba-sensei doesn't like students who go against her order and wants to make an example of what would happen to those who do. At this rate, Kurayami-sensei believes that Ikami won't be allow to come back to school. When Ikami asks Kurayami what she should do, Kurayami thinks there is only one way: sending Baba-sensei to Hell. Cut to a shot of Baba-sensei looking at a picture of her husband and son. Back to Kurayami, she suggests that Ikami uses Jigoku Tsuushin. When Ikami reminds Kurayami that Baba-sensei was the one who made that site, Kurayami tells her that she knows the address of the real Jigoku Tsuushin. That night, Ikami comes to the computer room and sits in front of the computer as instructed by Kurayami-sensei.

When the clock reaches 12 midnight, she orders Ikami to access the site and true enough, the real Jigoku Tsuushin appears before her. Kurayami-sensei urges Ikami to put in Baba-sensei's name but Ikami is not taking any action. When Kurayami approaches the girl, she realises that the student is not Ikami. In fact, she recognises the girl as none other than Enma Ai. Ai tells the woman it's been 9 years since she last met Kuriyama Mami, or rather, Manaka Mami. A flashback reveals that when Kuriyama was a high school student she asked Enma Ai to send Baba Shouko to Hell. However, she balked out when she found out that she too will go to Hell after she died. In the present time, Kurayami blames her inability to enter the high school of her choice as well as her parents' divorce on Baba-sensei. In revenge, Kurayami spread false rumours about Baba Shouko to the newspapers. This is why Baba Shouko's husband divorced his wife.

However, when Kurayami ended up working at the same school as Baba-sensei, she realised that the teacher's divorce has little effect on the old woman since she still treats students harshly. She knows many students hate Baba-sensei and can be persuaded to send the teacher to Hell. Ai realises that Kurayami doesn't want to get her hands dirty. All of a sudden, Baba sensei appears in the lab, telling Kurayami that she knew right away that Kurayami is Manaka but she didn't know Kurayami had a grudge on her. Baba-sensei also thought that since Kurayami had become a teacher herself, Kurayami realised why she was so strict. The reason was so she can turn students into a fully functioning members of the society. Much to Baba-sensei's disappointment, Kurayami only became teacher because the job was easy to get. Upon finding out about this, Baba-sensei tells Kurayami that even then, a teacher should never sacrifice his/her students.

Because of this, she walks to the computer and puts a name inside Jigoku Tsuushin. All of a sudden, Ai comes forward with a straw doll for Baba Shouko, explaining she can use it to avenge her grudge. However, she too will go to Hell after she died. Baba Shouko thinks it's a fair compensation. Baba-sensei explained that she's not fine about being slandered and seperated from her husband and son. She just acts fine in front of the students. She also believes that someone like Kurayami should not become a teacher and decides to pull the string. She then cries and asks Ai to go lightly on Kurayami since she once was her student. In the aftermath, Kurayami goes insane in Hell and a new teacher called Nihei Kyoko replace her. Baba-sensei recognises Nihei as her former students and asks the girl if she hates her. Nihei laughs and tells Baba-sensei that is probably true in middle school but she now realises that her strictness was just a 'whip of love'.

Impression:

I am not sure if I believe that being unnecessarily harsh to every student is a good way to shape those students into shape. While several students may need the harsh treatment, most will do better through encouragement and by teaching them through things that interest them. Some of the teachers that left good impression on me were the ones that I respected not the ones that I fear. I also think that Kurayami's attempt to persuade the students to enter Baba Shouko's name into Jigoku Tsuushin was needlessly complicated. Wouldn't it be easier if she just spread the words about the real Jigoku Tsuushin? On the plus side, it was amusing to see Hone-Onna as a PE teacher and getting back pain because of it. In addition to this, Kikuri seems to start obeying Ai. I wonder if this is because she saw how upset Ai the last time around. I really want to know what is Kikuri's purpose in the first place and hope the writers will reveal this soon.

Preview

On the next Jerry Springer Jigoku Shoujo: A girl's model brother snatched her boyfriend.

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