Hell Girl

Hell Girl (Japanese: 地獄少女, Hepburn: Jigoku Shōjo), also known as Jigoku Shōjo: Girl from Hell, is an anime series conceptualized by Hiroshi Watanabe and produced by SKY Perfect Well Think, Tokyo MX, Wakasa Seikatsu, Fujishoji, Aniplex and Studio Deen. It is directed by Watanabe and Takahiro Omori, with Kenichi Kanemaki handling series composition, Mariko Oka designing the characters and Yasuharu Takanashi, Hiromi Mizutani and Kenji Fujisawa composing the music. The series focuses on the existence of a supernatural system that allows people to take revenge by having other people sent to Hell via the services of the mysterious title character and her assistants who implement this system. Revenge, injustice, hatred, and the nature of human emotions are common themes throughout the series.

It premiered across Japan on numerous television stations, including Animax, Tokyo MX, MBS and others, between October 4, 2005 and April 4, 2006. Following the success of the first season, the series soon produced a second season, Jigoku Shōjo Futakomori (地獄少女 二籠), which premiered on October 7, 2006. A third season, Jigoku Shōjo Mitsuganae (地獄少女 三鼎), was first announced on the mobile version of the series official website Jigoku Tsūshin, and began airing on Japanese TV on October 4, 2008. A fourth television series, titled Jigoku Shōjo: Yoi no Togi (地獄少女 宵伽), was announced on February 25, 2017 as a climax to the series, and aired from July 14 to September 29, 2017, consisting of six new episodes, and six "reminiscence" rebroadcast episodes.

Plot
Each episode typically follows the format of a self-contained short story where a person has been suffering torment from an acquaintance to the point that he or she accesses the Hell Correspondence website and submits a request to get rid of the person. Ai Enma, the Hell Girl, appears, and presents a doll with a red string on its neck that can send the named antagonist to Hell. When the string is pulled, Ai and her companions then torment the antagonist, offering a last chance to repent (which is usually refused), and ferries them to Hell. The price of the contract is that the person making the request will also have to go to Hell after his or her life is over.

Starting with the eighth episode, Hajime Shibata, a former journalist who has resorted to taking scandal photos to blackmail people, begins investigating the rumors surrounding the Hell Correspondence website, and discovers that people are literally being dragged to Hell. His daughter, Tsugumi, is somehow able to see Enma. As the series progresses, they become conflicted on whether they should intervene to save the people involved. In the second season, a mysterious young girl from Hell, named Kikuri, is introduced. Kikuri is able to travel freely between Earth and the Twilight realm where Enma resides. Later, the plot centers around Takuma Kurebayashi, a boy who is blamed by his townsfolk for causing disappearances around the town that are, in reality, caused by the townsfolk using the "Hell Correspondence" website. In the third season, Kikuri returns to recruit Enma's assistants along with a yōkai named Yamawaro, who accepts an old offer from Enma to become her fourth assistant. The story follows Enma's mysterious possession of a young schoolgirl, Yuzuki Mikage. In the fourth season, the story introduces a new character named Michiru, whom Ai helps realize her fate as a successor to the Hell Girl title.

Hell Correspondence
The medium through which a client contacts Ai Enma has changed over the centuries, however nowadays a website is used. Initially clients would write the names of whom they hated on an ema, which later changed to sending a letter to the address appearing in a three-column newspaper advertisement only visible to those with enough hatred. Once the internet became available, people could access the "Hell Correspondence" website, otherwise known as the "Hotline to Hell". Soon after, the site was adapted into a mobile version that could be accessed from cell phones.

Each medium can only be used at midnight by one who harbors a desire for revenge against their object of hatred. Should someone submit the name of someone against whom they bear a grudge or immense hatred, and their request is accepted, Ai Enma will take them to a realm of perpetual twilight where she offers them a straw doll, which is one of her companions, with a red string wound around its neck and describe to the client the details of their contract. Should the client pull the string tied around the doll's neck, Ai Enma will ferry the target of the revenge straightaway to Hell. However, once the client's life has ended, he/she will also go to Hell, and a black crest-shaped mark appears on the client's chest to serve as a permanent reminder of their decision to send someone to Hell. However, this mark is no guarantee that the person themselves won't be sent to Hell by another client.

Anime
The "Hell Girl" anime series is produced by Aniplex and Studio Deen. The series was created by Hiroshi Watanabe and is directed by Takahiro Omori, with scripts by Kenichi Kanemaki. The first season spanned 26 episodes and premiered across Japan on Animax between October 4, 2005, and April 4, 2006. The second season also spanned 26 episodes and aired from October 7, 2006 to April 6, 2007 across Japan on Animax. A third season spanning 26 episodes aired from October 4, 2008 to April 4, 2009 on Animax, MBS and Tokyo MX. A fourth season spanning 12 episodes, of which the later 6 are rebroadcasts of episodes from previous seasons, aired from July 14 to September 29, 2017 on MBS and Tokyo MX, with the main cast reprising their roles.

Gallery

 * Manga volumes