Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori ep.15

January 22, 2007 | 11 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.

The episode begins with a political campaign speaker asking the people who walk to and from a train station if they are happy with their current livelihood. Well, since he asks so nicely then I'll say no, I'm not happy with my livelihood but the last person I'll come to for help is a politician. Anyway, the loudmouth turns out to be a National Party candidate called Date Masaharu. Not far from them, Wanyuudou watches in amusement while the yes-men repeats the words of their leader who asks the public to knock down the Ooizumi government. That seems a thinly veiled use of a real person's name. All they need is to add 'K' in front of the name of the opponent. That night, the same girl who was holding a signage of Ooizumi being stalked by ghost-like hands, typed in 'Ooizumi Taichirou' into Jigoku Tsuushin. However, when she press the 'submit' button, she finds out that her request has been rejected. Ai clearly works for the opposing party.

The girl who puts the name of the political opponent is pissed off about this and wonders why the site won't accept it. She thinks the country would have been better if Ooizumi had gone to Hell. Wait, isn't that cheating? The next morning, a is about to set off when his wife reminds him that he has to deliver something to someone. Her words anger the man, who doesn't care because he claims that he's working for the sake of the country. As if following her father's footstep, the girl, whose name turns out to be Kanno Yuriko, sets off to work on the campaign as well, despite her mother's reminder that she has school to attend to. As Yuriko walks towards the campaign office, she sees homeless people's abode located near the local park. She immediately complains about how this country is rotting. As she walks through nearby shops, she finds a man whose wheelchair got stuck on the pavement because the pavement is not disable-friendly.

After helping said homeless, she complains about how the policy of the current government only helps the big business and ignores the weak. Because of this she wonders why she couldn't send Ooizumi to Hell. Yuriko eventually arrives at the campaign office where the campaign manager, Yamamoto is giving telling his subordinates that they only have one more week till the Election Day. Yuriko's father then comes late so he gets the job of fixing vandalised poster in front of the train station. As it turns out the poster of Date has sticking pins in the eyes and nose. In anger, Yuriko's father makes a speech about how because idiots like the ones who sticked the pins exist, Japanese government won't ever get better. With that in mind, he takes the pins and sticks them in the eyes and nose of other candidates. Pot calls kettle black. After Yuriko and her father left, Ai comes near the poster and stops Kikuri from putting pins on the nose of the candidates.

Later on Yuriko's father gives several Date poster to a dry cleaning owner, asking them to vote for Date during election. In response, the owner who turns out to be a friend of Yuriko's mother, urges her friend to divorce her husband. She, however, claims that the people who work for the elections need their family. Plus, she is thinking about when Yuriko gets married. The dry cleaning lady then hands back the poster and apologises to Yuriko's mother, saying that she can't possibly put them in her shop. In front of the station, Yuriko spots Wanyuudou while trying to pass on the poster so she gives on to him and tells the poor old man that there'd be a political speech tomorrow at the park. Later on inside Ai's sunset world, Ren spots Wanyuudou reading newspaper so Wanyuudou explains that he's learning about politics. Ren points out that the newspaper is old but Wanyuudou thinks it won't make any difference. It's kind of scary if that's true.

Kikuri, on the other hand, is busy making paper airplane and throws it to the wind. The plane immediately lands on Ai's hair. Instead of being angry, however, Ai picks up the plane, folds it some more and throws it away. Inside the campaign office, Yamamoto asks Yuriko to work as a receptionist/customer greeting. This makes her father jealous and he ends up bad-mouthing Yamamoto later on. When the two back home, Yuriko's father refuses to eat and ends up drinking in his room while Yuriko's mother still works on the sewing factory. Unfortunately despite her hard work, Yuriko's mother can't keep the debt collectors away. She ends up crying after one of them hangs up on her after she asks for more time. She wonders how things turn out this way and blames it on 'that man'. However, she still hopes that the person will open his eyes. Yuriko's mother then works again at the factory but because she's exhausted, she falls unconscious at work.

Yuriko immediately finds out about this thanks to the dry cleaning lady. Yuriko tells her mother that she's overwork and must rest. But her mother points out that if she rests, she won't be able to afford their lifestyle. Yuriko immediately blames the current government because back in the olden days, they could live easily. Her mother, however, reminds her that was because back then both she and Yuriko's father work to afford their living. However, when he wasn't happy, he started to blame the politicians. She the cries, saying that she was hoping her husband would open her eyes but she realises that she has no hope now. She explains that they have debts in house rent, Yuriko's father also uses Yuriko's saving, borrows money from consumer loan here and there while the house is already in dire circumstance. And yet, he still doesn't go and do real work. She then shows the bruise in her arm, suggesting that her husband abused her.

Yuriko decides to return to the house and gets change clothes for her mother. When she sees a straw doll in the drawer, she decides to take that too to cheer up her mother. When she returns to the campaign office, she finds out that her father had caused a scene earlier. Yuriko's father also blames her daughter for not being around to accept the visitors. Yuriko explains that her is hospitalised but her father thinks his wife should just die. Yuriko is angry to hear this and pushes her father off his chair. In retaliation, her father grabs her hair until the co-workers restrained him. That night, Yamamoto holds conversation with Yuriko's father inside a van, telling him that Yuriko should be punished for what happened earlier. He then talks about an empty road with little to no light. He thinks if Yuriko gets attacked there, the blame will lies with the current Ooizumi. Inside the office, Yuriko tells Yamamoto that she wants to go home earlier.

On her way home, Yuriko is attacked by two thugs who try to rape her but she's saved by Wanyuudou, who scares the two thugs away. When Yuriko is about to report the incident to her father, she overhears him barking at the two thugs for not being rougher to his daughter. Yuriko is disturbed by this and when she turns around, she sees Wanyuudou. They end up going back home where Yuriko submits request to Jigoku Tsuushin. Instead of putting Ooizumi's name, however, Yuriko puts her father's name instead. Much to her surprise, her request is declined again. Ai explains that someone has already made a request. That person is none other than Yuriko's mother. In the aftermath, Yuriko's father is sent to Hell with pins on his nose and eyes. Despite this, he claims that he can't go to Hell since it's election time. As for Yuriko and her mother, they decide to move away from the area and the politics for good.

Impression:

Although Yuriko's father is a jerk and a half, it's hard to sympathise with Yuriko either since she's pretty much a light version of her father. The only person to feel sorry here is Yuriko's mother, who works hard for her husband and daughter and ends up being the one who has to make contract with Ai. I kind of wish that it was Yuriko instead of her since Yuriko was the one who acted all high and mighty before. Or at the very least I want her to know the consequences of using Ai's service so she knows what would happen to her mother. Anyway, the entire episode just left a sour taste for me. Not only it's not that interesting to begin with, the punishment that Yuriko's father got in the end was kind of lame (although painful, I'd assume). It was kind of amusing though when he said that the country can't become better because there are people who stick pins on politicians' poster and yet he went and stuck the pins himself.

Preview

What Yuriko's father did in itself shows how hypocritical politicians tend to be. They say one thing about their opponents and yet they do similar thing in the end. Anyway, what you see here with the political party screaming their lungs out through the headphone on the street is quite true. If you go to Japan during election time, there are a lot of them. Hell, I think I went to Tokyo during non-election time and there was one van doing the same thing near the Shinjuku station. And yeah, most people ignore them, which makes me wonder who Japanese people actually vote during election time. I personally think election is important and giving your voice to the candidate that you think will represent you is important. But some of the tactics that the politicians use to keep each other down during election time can be downright nasty and makes you wonder if there'd be a decent candidate left after everything is said and done.

© memento 2003