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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Thursday, 05 June 2008 16:00 |
 Four more missions of vengeance for Ai to undertake and this time, misunderstandings cause problems while someone is taking an interest in the Hell Girl's actions. Can the works of the underworld be interfered with by mere mortals, and will such intervention provoke a response..?
6 - Early Afternoon Window
Mrs Yasuda has a problem - she's just moved to the city wth her family, but she's being shunned by her new neighbours, led by one woman in particular, Mrs Todaka, who has a real problem with her. It's not the usual womanly bickering and gossiping, either, but truly nasty harassment - and it looks as though Todaka is planning to have her daughter and husband carry then vendetta to Yasuda's own family. You see, Yasuda saw Todaka engaging in nookie with another man - and now Todaka's determined to make sure Yasuda doesn't spill the beans. When Todaka's harassment turns violent, though, her daughter decides that it's time to fight back, and calls on Ai's services...
7 - Cracked Mask
Ayaka is in training to become an actress - not only because she wants to be, but because her adoptive mother Midori Kurenai, a famous actress herself, has decided that's what she's going to be. The problem is that Ayaka doesn't live up to her mother's expectations, and her efforts to mould Ayaka into more than she can be have started to verge on child abuse. Ayaka's classmates can see this, but are too scared to say anything - in the meantime Ayaka herself is reaching the end of her tether, and visits Ai's website, looking for a way to make her torment stop. But when her straw doll is taken by a pair of street thugs, Ayaka has to resort to Plan B - and soon shows herself to be no little innocent, either...
8 - Silent Friendship
The mystique of the Hell Link website is growing - it's becoming more and more well known, and has caught the attention of a journalist, Hajime. He's intrigued by the idea of a girl who takes revenge, even though his daughter Tsugumi warns him not to get involved. It may be too late for that, though - not only has Hajime been involved in activities that may well have someone seeking their vengeance on him, but Tsugumi also seems to have a strange connection with Ai herself. Meanwhile, young girl Tanuma is on a quest for vengeance herself after seeing her friend Yuko thrown off a balcony, and has turned to Ai for help...
9 - Sweet Trap
Having seen Ai's work at first hand, Hajime's even more intrigued by the Hell Girl story - although the only other witness he has, Tanuma, is refusing to speak to him about it. If he wants to learn more, he's going to have to find someone else to get his information from. Hiromi and Yuka are young women, finally following through on the dream of their late father by setting up a store together, selling sweets & deserts - but when the televised opening of their store is ruined by claims they'd copied their recipes, Yuka becomes determined to get her own back on their detractor. Thanks to Tsugumi's ability, Hajime's soon on the trail, looking for more information about the Hell Girl...
10 - Friends
Manami seems to have had a falling out with her classmate & former friend Shiori - now, Minami spends her time in class staring at the back of Shiori's head (something that makes Shiori very uncomfortable) and plotting her revenge. To that end, she's called on Ai's services - she's received the doll that will seal the deal, and she's heard Ai's warning of the price she'll have to pay for her revenge. All she has to do is pull the string - and the only thing that stopped her from pulling it the moment Ai gave her the doll was her desire to pull it in front of Shiori. What did Shiori do to earn Minami's burning hatred? She had other friends that meant she couldn't spend as much time with Minami as Minami felt she should - and Minami's reaction to this was so much into "stalker" territory that Shiori wanted nothing more to do with her. Unfortunately for her, there's nothing so dangerous as a stalker shunned - but when Shiori finds Minami's doll, the tables are turned in the search for vengeance...
Five episodes on this volume, and while the usual Hell Girl formula underpins them all, there are two things about these episodes that really made the volume that bit more interesting. The basic stories are simple enough a daughter protecting her mother from harassment, a jealous actress, revenge for a violent attack, and others but as the disc goes on, Ai's contractors shift from being the genuinely wronged to people who are using her for selfish ends, or who may not actually want her services after all. What happens if the string is pulled accidentally, when the bearer no longer wants their vengeance? What happens if the doll is used by someone other than the contractor? These are the sort of questions that get dealt with in this volume, and it's a very good way of keeping the idea fresh as none of the stories end in quite the same way.
More interesting, though, is what's going on under the surface, with the introduction of Hajime and Tsugumi - suddenly there's the issue of what Hajime's going to do, and with someone on screen judging Ai's actions there's more of an incentive for the viewer themselves to judge her. Given the circumstances around some of the contracts on this volume, that's not exactly easy thinking.
Most of the disc, though, will be familiar if you've seen volume one introduction of the characters, the reasons why they've seen fit to go to Ai, and the eventual carrying out of the contract. Some episodes are more watchable than others where the victim truly deserves it, usually while others are more difficult, where genuine revenge is replaced by hatred. Ai's clients are usually too young to understand the true horror of what they're about to unleash Hell is an abstract concept, and their own deaths too far in the future to really figure in their thinking and that also feeds into the examination of whether Ai's actions are "good" or not.
My biggest complaint about Hell Girl last time out was the danger of the show getting stuck in a formulaic loop. The small changes made with this volume Tsugumi and Hajime's arrival on the scene, and the tweaks to how each story plays out have meant that the show can keep to the same basic idea without it becoming tired or overdone. Still means there's not so much to write about, but enjoyable to watch? Absolutely.
Sticking to a formula is a dangerous thing it's not easy to keep a show that does the same thing week in, week out from becoming stale. Hell Girl tweaks the formula enough here to keep that from happening, and throws a few genuinely intriguing possibilities into the mix as well. The end result is definitely worth a look.
Watch the trailer for this release
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