8 Years Later, Curses Come Home To Roost – Hell Girl S4 3-Episode Test/First Impressions

Now we find ourselves in 2017, 8 years since Hell Girl took a lengthy break and it has mostly aged well. More specifically its modernized itself for the times. I highly recommend watching the prior seasons to have any clue as to what happens, but the mystery of it is kind of nice as well. To be perfectly honest, I’ve forgotten most of the plot about who the assistants were but I do remember what they do. So here’s the premise behind Hell Girl (in case you did not see or read my TBT post yesterday), and the website Hell Correspondence. Basically at midnight, you go to the website Hell Correspondence and type in the name of the person you want sent to hell. If you have true vengeance/hatred in your heart she appears like a tooth fairy for the wronged. She will then hear your plea and if deemed worthy (which is a very low bar) she will impart a straw doll to you, colored to match the member of her entourage sent to do the task. The terms and conditions are then explained that while their death is effectively immediate, your end of the bargain is that when you die, you too shall be sent to hell. Most people are cool with this and subsequently pull the red string from the straw doll leading to them being damned and an interesting death scene for the targeted party.

This premise may sound like it gets boring after a while but they manage to make it very interesting for a vast majority of scenarios. In fact this season starts out very strong with a great example of how and why this show is hella good. A more recent premise that has come up to light as a common occurrence is cyber bullying. This season starts out with our wronged party for the week being called gas ball and mocked for stinking and farting because she eats potatoes. Let’s clear the air on this one (ok hanging with Kenny is making the puns. Please stop me) and make this point, teasing someone for being potato girl is pretty fucked. Potato girl status is a badge of honor and should never be mocked. However this girl gets continually mocked as goddamned children/high schoolers are vicious little gobshites and they start saying her mother works a coffee shop alone because her father left because she farts so much and crazy shit like that. This is a very modernized take on the show with group text messaging and cell phones, with Hell Correspondence actually being accessed via smart phone. This death is expanded upon by having the poor target be ripped apart internally by having her organ “data” deleted.

The second episode was probably one of the biggest bait and switches I’ve seen in an anime. We have a very awkward comedy duo of Nanako and Haru. Nanako appearing to be the straight man brains of the duo and Haru being the super subservient joke. In reality Haru is the brains and Nanako serves as a superbly dependent individual, terrified that Haru will join up with her old partner who physically abused her. In order to really get this one should be familiar with how Japanese comedy differs from American/Western comedy but even without the nuances, you can sympathize with these very damaged individuals (unless you are a cold unfeeling sociopath like CmdrCluckCluck). This is a great example of how this show’s dynamic gets thrown around into different and interesting ways. The end of this is a supernatural form of double suicide as both parties are both very damaged individuals and dangerously co-dependent (like Blackatron and Loheezy) but in all seriousness this is one of those kinds of examples I cited yesterday with the dynamic not being pants on head, but absolutely realistic as people this broken can be found in everyday life (See: BAYOG staff).

For the third episode of the season, we’ve got one HELL of a scenario. Enter one of the worst families you’ll probably ever hear about. We have this family of six comprising of a grandmother with dementia, two uncaring and unfaithful parents, a horridly violent older sister and the two sane members, a brother and sister named Akira and Arina. After a fight where the grandmother legitimately stabs the mother in the hand at dinner, shit goes south and Akira and Arina sit there watching until they are left alone literally in the dark to clean up because the mom is a dick. Later that night we have the Akira witness his mother utilizing a straw doll to banish the grandma to hell. Beyond that we have a super deranged cousin who proceeds to violently beat the parents to the amusement of the older sister and the horror of the younger siblings. At this moment, I’d like to point out the manipulative outlook of Akira where he brings together the people interested in the affair partners of his parents and the bully target of his sister/cousin. Then he proposes that they banish his respective family members to hell, to which one says “sure” and the other two say “you’re goddamned stupid” because he clearly is too scared to banish them. This lovely family encounter leads to the parents leaving and the cousin being left alone and terrifying Arina into a near catatonic state. Here we have things kick off where the cousin and sister are banished by the bully target and Akira. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! Turns out the two of them end up becoming a pair of serial killers who chop up and dispose of bullies. All in all, I’m going to stick this show through and I find it a great time all around barring the animation which is sub par to their first season TWELVE YEARS AGO but its all good. If you know Hell Girl and like it, then enjoy but as of right now I recommend watching the first three seasons and taking it from there. However you should be leave a like or comment lest your soul drowning in sin gets cursed to dealing with this animation.