There is a rumor going around... that if you log into certain website at midnight you'll find a connection to hell and you'll be able to contact Ai Enma who, for the price of your soul, will take revenge of anyone you want, without questions or explanations asked.Ai's life is all about taking these souls to hell, and she has done so for centuries, but something is different now, there is a human girl, Tsugumi, who has visions about the people who are about to make deals with Ai and her father soon becomes obsessed with stopping Ai (though they always seem to arrive two minutes too late) while Tsugumi struggles to make sense of revenge, life and death.
By all rights, I shouldn't like Hell Girl, I'm not exactly a fan of horror, and I freely admit I'm a wuss, but I couldn't help to be drawn to the story. There is something underneath all the horror, something that is very human: desperation and pain.
Ai Enma does her job in an unfeeling manner but early on we start to see the cracks in her act, and you can start to guess how she really feels about her job, for the folly of men kind and we eventually discover the path that took her from being a happy young girt to being Hell Girl.
Save for this, Hell girl is a fairly episodic anime. Each episode is mostly self-contained and follows a very similar pattern: we meet someone, watch them reach their breaking point, Ai does her job, and sometimes we get a glimpse of their lives later on. Sounds simple but I was surprised at the wide variety of lives of quiet desperation this anime offered.
It's a good series for a scare, and just in time for Halloween too!
I loved the first season of Hell Girl. The stories are interesting of what drives people to send other people to hell. And Ai Enma's backstory is very interesting as well.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm definitely going to have to check this one out. Thanks for sharing.
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