Review: Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori

Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori, also known as Hell Girl: Two Mirrors, is the second season of Hell Girl. I wasn’t too impressed with the first and fourth seasons but saw that the second season had the highest rating on My Anime List. Let me just say that it was amazing!

Synopsis: You can send someone you hold a grudge against to Hell if you access the Hell Correspondence website at midnight. Enma Ai and her team will do an investigation and give you a voodoo doll with a string attached. If you remove the string, the person will go to Hell. However, you will have to pay a price in which you will go to Hell too after you die.

I don’t think you have to watch the first season before you watch this anime, but it would be better to watch it first. There are 26 episodes. The first 21 episodes follow the same formula: a person with a grudge goes to the Hell Correspondence website, Hell Girl gives them a voodoo doll, the person removes the string and sends someone to Hell. Even though there are so many episodes that follow the same formula, it was interesting to watch because every episode follows different people in different situations. I don’t think it gets too repetitive. Some episodes were brilliant, but some episodes were stupid because the person sent someone to Hell over a misunderstanding that could have been resolved with proper communication. There are more interesting episodes than stupid episodes, and the last few episodes make the show worthwhile.

This season touched on the background stories of three of Enma Ai’s companions: Wanyuudou, Hone Onna, and Ren Ichimoku. I came to love them, especially because we get to see moments when they feel sadness and other emotions. They’re not human, but they sometimes seem human because they’re drawn to particular cases.

Things shift in episode 22 because the plot progresses and there is an actual storyline. A boy and his whole town is involved. We see some connections from Season 1 and we see Enma Ai following her own heart and beliefs. I felt so many different emotions in the last few episodes and was blown away at how good it was.

Visuals: I loved the imagery because there are beautiful spider lilies in just about every episode. We continually see other beautiful images throughout the series, like the patterns on Hell Girl’s kimono, the wheel her grandmother spins, and the gate to Hell.

Music: The music is great. There are so many good instrumental songs and the ending song is beautiful. Some songs make you feel calm and other songs make you feel sad. There are also some songs that are perfect for the vengeance scenes.

Overall, it was an anime that evoked strong emotions from me. Some episodes were very creative with great directing. I enjoyed it a lot, and think that watching it to the end is worthwhile because of the last few episodes.

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