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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Tuesday, 19 February 2008 16:00 |
 If you could have instant vengeance on someone now, at the cost of some nebulous fate to be suffered in the future, would you take it? Ai Enma, the Hell Girl, makes just such an offer to those who ask for her help - but who will pay her price of eternal torment..?
1 - From Beyond the Twilight
Mayumi Hashimoto, a highschool class rep, is entrusted with the ¥100,000 her class has raised for charity, but no sooner has she been given it than it goes missing. Classmate Aya Kuroda offers to "help" her by lending her the money to cover the loss, but soon begins to use the debt to bully poor Mayumi to a frightening extent & use her as a personal slave. When Mayumi overhears some girls talking about a website you could go to to send a person you held a grudge against to hell, she's just about tempted to try it out - even if the price of her revenge would be going to hell herself. At first she holds off, but after Aya tries to force her into "subsidised dating" she finally reaches her limit. Enter Ai Enma, the Hell Girl, who is ready to take revenge on Aya on Mayumi's behalf - but first she has to make sure Ayumi's fully aware of the price...
2 - The Possessed Girl
Ryoko is being stalked - and not by the harmless type of stalker, either. Her tormentor is the sort of psycho that every woman dreads, and the police don't seem to be able to track him down. Events take a twist when it transpires that one of the police officers working the case is the stalker, and as his fixation with Ryoko grows he kills his partner and attacks Ryoko's father. Ryoko's already contacted Ai by this stage but hasn't yet had the courage to pull the string, but when her stalker threatens her directly Ryoko finally snaps...
3 - Tarnished Mound
Mamoru Hanagasa is the ideal guy - smart, good-looking, and one of the best high-school baseball talents in the country. Every time he plays, scouts from the pro teams are there to keep an eye on him, and to the girls from the school he's the ideal catch. But there's a darker side to him - after school one day, he gave a beating to team-mate Muroi, for no other reason than that he wanted to. A few days later, Muroi died from his injuries - and his best friend Iwashita, while knowing exactly what happened, knows no-one's ever going to believe that Hanagasa was the culprit. Worse, suspicion soon falls on Iwashita himself. Left with no-one to turn to, Iwashita makes a plea for help to the Hell Girl...
4 - Silent Cries
When Junko Kanno's dog Candy died, it was as if the last piece of her family had died with her. Having already lost her parents, Candy - a gift to her from them - was her last link to happier times, and now that link was gone. Junko soon learns from the vet's assistant, though, that the vet she'd taken her pet to hadn't given Candy the attention he should have - when he should have been treating the dog, he was busy arranging a game of golf with a noted politician. Knowing that her dog died for no good reason drives Junko to rage - enough rage that she's prepared to call in Ai to take her vengeance on the uncaring vet...
5 - The Woman in the Tall Tower
Not everyone wants to meet the Hell Girl in relation to vengeance - it seems at least one person wants to meet her by way of a business proposition, believing a connection to her could only be good for her business. Riho Kaifu owns Dead Line, an online shop that in the four years since it started has gone from strength to strength - and not entirely by fair means. So far Ai's been ignoring her efforts to contact her, but as Riho becomes ever more determined, Ai begins to take an interest.
You could never accuse Ai of not giving her clients enough warning of the price they'll have to pay for her services - there are some wonderfully gruesome flash-forward scenes giving her clients a very clear picture of what their future would hold if they pull the string. Likewise, the "victim" begins to get the full treatment even before Ai takes them down, with some very surreal vision scenes that may serve the purpose of giving them one last chance to repent, or may just prove she's as sadistic as they come. That could go either way, and it's one of several parts of the "formula" that are open to the viewers interpretation while on one level the series takes an uncomfortable pleasure in the suffering of others, there are also hooks in there to give you something to think about. Did the victim deserve to be taken to hell? Did the contractor suffer enough already that their end of the bargain seems harsh? Ai doesn't care about such things she's just doing her job (although there are indications she's not exactly a willing worker) but the audience is almost encouraged to think about these things.
Ai doesn't work alone, either, and her three sidekicks are a potentially interesting bunch who, unlike their boss, do seem to take a certain pleasure out of their job. Their main role so far is to help scare the bejeezus out of those about to face eternal torment (perhaps giving them one last chance to escape their fate, although no-one's had the foresight to own up to their misdeeds yet), but I can't help but feel there's going to be more to them over time.
Hell Girl's biggest failing is its strict adherence to formula this isn't a disc you want to watch all in one sitting, as it would quickly become repetitive. An episode or two at a time, though, and the formula's able to work its magic, with the rich atmosphere created by the visuals and soundtrack working to make the show very easy to watch. I'd by lying if I didn't also admit that there's a certain guilty pleasure that comes from seeing some of the show's antagonists get the treatment they truly deserve.
This is a strong start for Hell Girl, as long as you bear in mind that you shouldn't really watch it all at once. Watching each episode becomes a little game in figuring out who's done what (in some episodes it's not immediately clear who's going to be the contractor or victim), and how Ai and her helpers will deal with them, and it's presented in a way that has a lot on inherent appeal. Over future volumes, though, there'll need to be some variation in the formula, or the idea could become tired quite quickly. This disc, though, is well worth a look.
Watch the trailer for this volume
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