Ai begins to show some emotion, but the series still hasn’t shown its focus.

plot summary

Ai’s been busy lately with Hell Link, and Hell doesn’t seem big enough for all the cases she’s been taking on. Hajime Shibata, the reporter who’s tireless investigations have finally led him to Hell Girl, still hasn’t given up on his attempts to shut Hell Girl and her troupe down.

Tsugumi, Hajime’s daughter, on the other hand, views Hell Girl in a different light than her father. The two argue over the morality of sending someone to Hell, no matter if the person deserves the condemnation.

Tsugumi’s faith in Hajime as a parent is wavering, especially when he fails to make an appearance at a very important anniversary. Can the two’s relationship as father and daughter continue when they both have such strong opposing viewpoints on Hell Girl?

review

This series is going nowhere fast, and by fast, I mean it’s already there, parked the car, and is buying a soda. Besides having given up on storytelling, the series is still lacking focus. Who am I supposed to invest my interest in? Ai and her group of Hell Bringers or Hajime and Tsugumi? The latter two are interesting, but only barely. And the former are barely given any explanation or depth, so I’ve given up on them.

The humanity and moral dilemma the series is trying to show through Hajime and Tsugumi is transparent at best. I shouldn’t be able to see through what the series is trying to accomplish, which it’s doing badly anyway. Every time the issue comes up of whether or not a person warrants going to Hell, the arguments made on either side would make a middle school debate team cringe. The episodes which seem to be trying to show the ambiguity of right and wrong come off as funny instead of well plotted.

Some episodes continue to be nothing but time-eaters, doing nothing and going nowhere. For instance, the completely contradictory and absurd episode titled Hell Boy vs. Hell Girl. I don’t think I was supposed to laugh till I hurt during the episode, but I did nonetheless.

The focus is continually shifting between people, without ever really showing what the lenses of the series is trained on. One minute Ai has become the center of attention, the next Tsugumi, the next Hajime, the next a spider, the next, you get the idea. But not once during this hectic jumping around is there any substance. You’d think with the way the focus bounces around so quickly, the series would be better paced, not so. Everything is happening so slowly, one would suspect the series of doing so on purpose in order to squeeze two seasons outta something which should only be one….

Character Development

The last episode is one which does have focus, and the focus is on Hajime, his wife, and Tsugumi. It’s slightly poignant, and one hundred percent human. The episode seems a bit out of place and it’s confusing as to what purpose it fulfills in the larger scheme of the anime. If the entires series were better planned, the whole anime would mesh like this episode did as an episode in itself.

Conclusion

The concept for Hell Girl is a good one, the idea is original, but the execution is abysmal. The series, as far as I can tell, has decided to give nothing to viewers in the first season, nor has it given viewers any reason to watch Season Two. I have no faith whatsoever the last DVD of Hell Girl will be anything more but more of the same; nothing.

Rating

Hell Girl, Volume Five gets 2 outta 4 Hammies!

Retail Info

• Publisher: Funimation
• Release Date:April 8, 2008
• Retail Price: $29.98
• Number of discs:1
• Episodes:19-22
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Language: English, Japanese
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen