(L) Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae (Hell Girl 3rd Season)

[Wattstax]

Was Ai really admitted to heaven in the Futakumori finale? If innocent people have to spend an eternity in hell without a chance of redemption, why shouldn't Ai? Not that I wouldn't like her to be in heaven, I just can't understand the system.
If there will be a 4th season, I would like it, if they explore this some more. For example, is there even a heaven, when hell is in everyone, as Ai pointed out. I would also like to see more description of the Sanwara, how they see there job. They're to often only bystanders.

[Used Can]

Originally Posted by Wattstax

Was Ai really admitted to heaven in the Futakumori finale?

No, if you remember, she was sent to hell after saving that kids life.

I'm pretty sure the series will end with Ai ending up in heaven. Personally, I think the series have been blatantly leading to that.

[CuXe]

What the hell what the hell what the hell?? So that chick was dead all along? and what a screwed up past! ... yikes! I am shocked.. I'll have to go to bed to think more about what I just saw ..

Maybe I don't even want to think about it. ... dam u Emma Ai! .. making me feel frustrated....

[PastPrime]

Originally Posted by Used Can

No, if you remember, she was sent to hell after saving that kids life.

I'm pretty sure the series will end with Ai ending up in heaven. Personally, I think the series have been blatantly leading to that.

I though that the best ending would be for her to be reincarnated as Tsugumi's daughter with Tsugumi knowing who she is and naming her Ai. And having a reincarnated Sentarou as a playmate. And having her former servants watching over her to insure that tragedy doesn't strike her again.

[ViewtifulAlchemist]

Just finished the third season, I don't know what it is about the Jigoku Shoujo series but I can't get enough of it (I think it's Enma Ai's charm when onscreen, lol). They seem to have a pretty decent formula i.e. First 10 or so episodes are pretty hohum, then in the middle you get a hint of some overall plot then they just seem to explode with story content in the last 2 episodes.

Spoiler:

They didn't really follow up why Ai came back from S2. Her death there was pretty epic but in S3 it's like "well she taking over this girl's body now...so yeah go with it". Meh, if I didn't like Ai so much I guess this would bother me more. Long live Enma Ai!

To be honest I didn't really like Yuzuki character that much and the thought of her replacing Ai as the Jigoku Shoujo seem lame but when I saw her full story in ep.25 I was totally rooting for her. What a messed up past. I didn't think it could get as bad as Ai's past. Sadly I think she died in the end since the scene of her putting on the uniform seem more nostalgic or "what could have been" instead of something taking place in the present.

The one theme I noticed in Season 3 compared the previous is that most (if not all?) people that were sent to Hell were basically innocent/sinless. There was some in S1 and S2 but there were way more in S3. It really showed the flaws of the system and I was hoping that somehow that issue would be addressed, i.e. revive Akie, the manga drawing guy, etc, etc. A lot of gudges in S3 were pretty dumb. Didn't think it could get as bad as some of the ones in S1.

What did people think of that "Waro-waro" character (forget his whole name)? His backstory was pretty weird and didn't make me care about his character any more than I already did. Seems like they could have left him out and the series would have still been the same for the most part. At least he keeps Kikuri off everyone's case.

Also there are some episodes that just really bug me in the end.

- Like ep.2 where the boy saves the electronic lady from her abusive husband(?) then the next day she disappears. Did the lady like getting beat on and why the husband so crazy he keeps calling as in not wanting any customers?

- The Yaoi episode with the bullied kid and manly kendo guy...still finding it hard to make sense of sending the kendo guy to Hell. Because the bullied guy felt people like kendo guy are "fake"?

- The "tortoise" girl episode, in the end did she send her brother to Hell because he said she would find someone better as a boyfriend yet she felt insulted by that comment because she felt her brother would be the best boyfriend? This episode is one that bugged the most because I really liked the fact that they both open their hearts to each other and seem to finally understand one or another. Of course someone had to go to Hell...just seem weird and rushed at the end.

I like that Tsumugi had more of an impact this season than S2 (though still didn't amount to much in the end), hopefully she'll be back in S4 even though she said a final goodbye. Is it safe to say Hajime died of old age? I don't remember them saying how he died.

When Ai shed those tears in the last episode for Yuzuki my heart sank a little (Jigoku Shoujo is not supposed to cry!).

I didn't think they could make a Season 3 after what happen in Season 2 but whatever bring on more Jigoku Shoujo (Season 4 please)!

Edit: Fixed misspelling of Yuzuki's name as "Yuki".

[Zwei]

I have to say, Season 3 was the most depressing or should I say tragic in Jigoku Shoujo, almost all episodes end in a tragedy or the main character of that episodes suffers in the end no matter what he/she did, at least most of them were *happy endings* in the 1st and 2nd...but 3rd....it was awesome anyway

P.S. Kikuri is really cute ^^

[Samatarou]

@ ViewtifulAlchemist:
I think with the electronic shop one it was just a case of the boy having a hopeless crush — he was stupid to think a grown woman would get into a relationship with him just because she had flirted a bit with him; it wasn't really surprising that she would simply leave and start a new life if she managed to get rid of her husband. From one POV you can say the boy did a good deed, but from a personal perspective he just destroyed his own soul because he mistook his fantasy world for reality.

[ViewtifulAlchemist]

Yeah, I figured electronics shop lady just wanted to start a new life but she left so abruptly without giving any real thanks to the boy from saving her. From her attitude after the indicent and before her leave it seem like she was mad at the boy for sending her husband to hell.

I mean I can see why a little, as abusive as he was he was still her husband. So in the end I guess she just wanted to get away everything altogether as she probably felt the boy was getting too comfortable around her and was looking for more out of her than she wanted like you said.

[drobertbaker]

I thought the ending was very touching and beautiful, as were the endings of the 1st two seasons.

At the end of the first season, Ai controlled her rage enough to not kill the descendants of her tormentors. At the end of Futakomori, she was able to accept her fate without rage. And at the end of Mitsuganae, she reached new heights in sacrificing herself to redeem her own actions in setting up another innocent soul for eternal torment.

The thing about the whole extended series that struck me immediately was the foolishness of the contract whereby you had to endure an eternity of suffering in order to take out your enemy. Bad deal!

And I was amazed that throughout 72 episodes, that idea only occurred once to one guy, Hajime. The Japanese capacity for the glorification and love of self-destruction will never cease to surprise me.

Having just finished this series, I am looking back on the "real-time" comments. I see disappointingly few participants who stuck it out to the end and a lot of Jigoku Shoujo fatigue by those who did.

I see a lot of disappointment that too often punishment was meted out to the good or innocent rather than to the deserving.

From the very beginning, Ai tried to educate the dogooders that hell is not about justice or punishment. "Hell is inside you". Human hatred is what creates hell; it doesn't exist otherwise. And it will exist as long as humans do, as that is their way.

The concept of Futakomori, the twin isolations, the hater and the hated, the two prisoners in self-imposed confinement on opposite sides of the mirror, expressed this with surpassing elegance. (All three opening poems were very beautiful.)

But the only one who ever got it was Tsugumi, and it depressed the hell out of her, and even she could never accept it totally.

The complete indifference of the universe, personified in Ai's never-changing expression, has always been and will always be incomprehensible to the humans who insist on imposing their self-centred, hypocritical, monkey morality on everything around them, even inanimate objects.

This was quite a profound series, with many interesting vignettes, some very moving moments, and some wonderful art.

The next time you pass a judgement, remember poor tragic Ai and the terrible price she (and through her, we) will pay until the end of our time.

[Samatarou]

Interesting analysis of Ai's actions.

However I would disagree that only one person noted the craziness of the contract. Mikage continually railed against it through the series, and I felt it also gave many of the contractees pause for thought, in fact at least one complained how unfair it was (I can't remember which ep. now and no longer have them on disk to check).

As to Jigoku Shoujo fatigue amonst watchers, for me at least this was due to the formulaic nature of most of the episodes ("Hell sending of the week") in which everything was predicatabe and nothing advanced the plot. It was only in the last few episodes that we saw some plot development.

One of the most interesting episode for me was the one with the professor who expounded an overall theory of Hell as a necessary invention of humans to make the injustices in theiir lives bearable, which I felt Ai was in agreement with. (That episode, with all the suffering children watching, also seemed to be a homage to Lain, in which there is an episode about a professor who experimented on children to pool their psychic energy (which in turn seems to be a reference to Akira).)

[OkamiNoKaze]

Good to see there were people watching this show around the same time as me. Just finished up this series. I think it would have been cool to see a whole season with a renegade Hell Girl doing things, but this works. I have to says this season was pretty good, though they skipped the cool part of the hell sending alot, this time around, and sometimes I was glad for it as alot of people that didn't deserve it were sent to hell.

[attobyte]

Finally watched the whole JS-Mitsuganae.
Honeslty, I'm not very pleased. I mean, this season is as good as previous 2 but based on the end...

Spoiler for End of Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae:

It seems Enma Ai will keep being Jigoku Shoujo for all eternity which means my hopes that she would be saved (by someone related to Hajime chan and Tsugumi) eventually will never happen.

It seems that a 4th season will not show up anytime soon, either.
Well, if a 4th one comes good if not I'm satisfied.

[ArrowSmith]

Originally Posted by OkamiNoKaze

Good to see there were people watching this show around the same time as me. Just finished up this series. I think it would have been cool to see a whole season with a renegade Hell Girl doing things, but this works. I have to says this season was pretty good, though they skipped the cool part of the hell sending alot, this time around, and sometimes I was glad for it as alot of people that didn't deserve it were sent to hell.

A renegade Hell Girl could never work because the spider wouldn't allow it. Think about it, Hell Girl is like a low-level manager and spider is the big VP. Hell Girl has no choice but to follow the rules or get canned.

[TheEagle]

I don't understand why they did what they did with the third series. They should've done a prequel or something more about the characters' pasts. To be honest, other than Ai I never particularly felt connected with their emotions.

[ArrowSmith]

Originally Posted by TheEagle

I don't understand why they did what they did with the third series. They should've done a prequel or something more about the characters' pasts. To be honest, other than Ai I never particularly felt connected with their emotions.

I disagree, I felt the "Three Vessels" was the most emotional of the 3 series. You could see Ai's torment as completely innocent people were being sent to hell. One of my favorite scenes:

Spoiler:

when Ai explains to someone that heaven or hell is really inside everyone one of us, that's the true message of this series

[treetaxi]

Originally Posted by TheEagle

I don't understand why they did what they did with the third series. They should've done a prequel or something more about the characters' pasts. To be honest, other than Ai I never particularly felt connected with their emotions.

Just my two cents, I think she pulled a bodhisatva number in the third season.

[Shikabane_Hime]

This is one of my favorite series. Not only is my Avatar a combination of the Hell Crest and the original Title image, but my cellphone and computer are both themed after this anime. My ring tones are all from the show. In any case, the reason I like this show is because it looks so deeply into the dark side of human nature. Currently I'm two episodes away from the end of the series and I can't wait to see what happens. I hope that they do create a fourth season, though I'm not sure where they would take the series after the end of this season.

[Samatarou]

Originally Posted by Shikabane_Hime

This is one of my favorite series. Not only is my Avatar a combination of the Hell Crest and the original Title image, but my cellphone and computer are both themed after this anime.

I hope you have one of these for your phone then:

(Don't pull the string though!)

[3shiro]

I hope There is a new season for this anime its rally gooooooood.