Subculture Anime Blog

Angry old ladies.

Summary:

Yuzuki accidentally bumps into a girl named Katase while walking through the halls one day, causing one of the beakers Katase is carrying to break. A teacher named Miyama meets the two, but instead of scolding them, she only tells them to be careful after they apologize. Ren meets with Miyama to hear about what had just happened, then telling her how good of a student Katase is. After finishing grading some papers when she reaches home that night, Miyama receives a phone call. However, after answering it, she does not hear anyone speaking on the other side. Returning to the school the next day, Miyama is brought to see Katase’s grandmother. Although Miyama attempts to convince her that she did not punish her granddaughter for anything the previous day, Katase’s grandmother only expresses her annoyance towards the teachers before finally leaving.

Katase mentions how unstable her grandmother is at times when Miyama speaks with her afterwards, then promising that she will try to correct her grandmother’s misunderstandings later. Having been observing the previous meeting with his powers, Ren confirms his interest in the case to the rest of the Jigoku Tsushin. In the end, they simply suggest that there are things like monster parents in the human world. Miyama again gets a phone call at night, but this time, Katase’s grandmother answers. Katase’s grandmother can only notice how rude Miyama seems to be, despite it being quite late at night, and she even mentions a rumor of her confessing to a student. While this goes on, Katase can only try to cover her ears in bed. Unable to put up with her anymore, Miyama hangs up on the old woman before going back to sleep.

The next day at school, the faculty continues to receive angry phone calls. On the following days, to make things even worse, Katase’s grandmother even passes out flyers to the students and parents passing near school. After finding these flyers piled into her mailbox and plastered all over the entrance to her apartment, Miyama is temped to contact the Jigoku Tsushin for revenge. Miyama is given her support by the rest of the faculty at school later, and even Yuzuki approaches her to hear her problems. After describing the many hardships that she cannot seem to escape, Miyama suggests that she will visit Katase’s house to try to resolve things.

When Katase meets Miyama at her house that night, she explains that her grandmother is just someone who needs to put the blame on someone all the time. As Katase claims that her grandmother is actually a good person, Miyama sees a picture with the two of them in the living room. Katase’s grandmother eventually returns home, soon becoming angry from seeing Miyama there. To Miyama’s surprise, Katase tells her grandmother a lie about a threat that Miyama supposedly told her. While Miyama leaves the house afterwards, she learns that Katase’s reasoning for using her as a scapegoat is because of her belief that she would be fine as an adult. This finally brings Miyama to the Jigoku Tsushin website, and before Ai can even tell her the complete circumstances behind the doll she gives her, Miyama pulls the red string off of it. The next day while Yuzuki passes by Myama, she sees that she has a mark below her neck. Katase’s grandmother also seems to be confused at the sudden disappearance of her grandaughter. The person who disappeared was Katase, rather than her grandmother.

Preview: Lusting over teachers = serious business and being sent to hell.

Impression:

This definitely wasn’t the strongest Jigoku Shoujo I’ve seen, but it was a step up when compared to last week’s episode because of the twist at the end. It has been discussed that most revenges in this season have been unjust, but I would almost say that Katase’s death was deserved. The abuse that Miyama was getting would cause anyone a huge amount of stress, and this arc felt really similar to true to life situations (with the exception of the convenient fictional hell, of course). It was interesting to see Miyama first take her time to look up the Jigoku Tsushin website, and after learning the truth behind her torment, send the “correct” individual to hell accordingly. It makes me wonder how things would have turned out if she didn’t learn the truth first. And although I would be just as angry at Katase, I also have to question if her actions would have changed if she was an older individual. Younger people don’t always think in the most rational way, after all. That’s the thing about this show, though. I think it’s episodes like this that are just meant to make us think about what we would do if we were in the same situations as the characters displayed each week.

I’m also trying to guess more and more about how all of the stories are going to affect the overall picture by the end. It’s notable that Ai’s relationship with Yuzuki’s is quite similar to that of Tsugumi’s from the first season, though obviously different in a few ways. The span of the revenges also seem to be far more contained, with most revenge cases being taken from Yuzuki’s school. And since most assumed that Ai had died at the end of the second season, it still remains up in the air how she simply returned to continue her atonement. I find it particularly odd that Ai doesn’t seem to interact with the other members of the Jigoku Tsushin in the real world anymore.