In Volume Two of Hellgirl, Ai continues to dole out retribution to any who access her site, but someone is catching onto Ai and her cohorts.

review

Ai has been plenty busy of late, as more and more people click on Hell Link looking for revenge. A few of Ai’s petitioners are sincere in their need for vengeance, while others are petty creatures bent on inflicting spiteful pain.

Ai has been researching each new case, but even if each case is unworthy, she still takes up the “victim’s” cry for retribution. However, someone’s been researching Ai and her group.

Hajime Shibata is a freelance journalist who has taken an interest in the city’s latest internet craze, Hell Link. He’s turned his attention on Hell Girl, but can’t seem to get any real leads on the story. That is until his daughter Tsugumi sees Ai one day and begins to have visions of the victim’s and antagonist’s vengeance and punishment.

Tsugumi and her father hunt Ai down in order to stop victims from selling their souls. People, though, don’t seem to mind the hefty price, and Hajime is stymied in his quest. Hell Girl roams unrestrained for now, and Hell is beginning to slowly fill with damner and damned.

review

Volume Two of Hell Girl didn’t stretch itself far in terms of developing the anime. The stories were pretty much the same, if not with a few more twists. I wasn’t wowed by anything new, like I felt I should have been, and this series hasn’t captured much of my interest or attention. The second volume of any anime should be the hook which lands the viewer into committing to the entire series, if it hasn’t already done so in Volume One. Volume Two didn’t land my interest and bored me in many instances.

The retributions and punishments were once again unbalanced if not downright dumb: Who would send their soul to Hell because their mom doesn’t have the gumption to stand up to her slutty neighbor? One episode was really, really creepy, however, and did catch my attention. It reminded me that certain people shouldn’t have access to dangerous weapons, and Hell Link is far worse than any weapon. It also reminded me that stalkers come in all shapes and sizes.

Character Development

There’s still no development of Ai beyond the sense that she’s lonely and might not like what she’s doing. When Tsugumi sees Ai, Ai sees her as well, and tells her grandmother she made a new “friend”. That was sad and insightful, and I wanted to see more of what made Ai who she is. I’m also still wanting to see the back story behind her henchmen, but there’s no hint that’ll happen anytime soon.

Tsugumi and her dad were elements of interest, and I bet through them is how we’ll learn about Ai and Hell Link. Leave it to a journalist to uncover truths when they shouldn’t be uncovered.

Yet, the series is still wasting its time with the vengeances and such. The scenes where Ai tells the victims the terms of the agreement are still overlong and the punishments aren’t nearly as ironic as they should be. The one exception was the punishment involving the actress; that was dead on.

I’m not sure I want to invest anymore time in Hell Girl since it doesn’t seem keen on investing time in development and actual story. The anime is eking out development like its a precious commodity instead of a common factor which is integral to good anime. Hell Girl is still far too intent on each episode and not on the series as a whole. Volume Three has a heavy burden to carry in the way of developing the series. If Volume Three doesn’t further the story, I won’t stick around for Volume Four.

Rating

Hell Girl, Volume Two gets 2.5 outta 4 Hammies

Retail Info

• Publisher: Funimation
• Release Date:December 4, 2007
• Retail Price: $29.98
• Number of discs: 1
• Episodes: 6-10
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Rating: Unrated
• Language: English, Japanese
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen