Subculture Anime Blog

“Am I pretty?”

Summary:

When Yuzuki wakes up early one morning, she walks out to meet her classmate Ichimura Kazuya who is delivering newspapers. Yuzuki takes the chance to ask why Kazuya is working, even wondering if his family his poor, but he puts it off as something like training. When Kazuya briefly returns home, his father gets into a warm conversation with him. Kazuya’s mother attempts to keep his father’s attention, but he pushes her aside in order to spend more time with his son. Yuzuki and Akie pass by soon after, but while doing so, Yuzuki seems to hear a song coming from the woman’s lips. While the Hell Correspondence observes Kazuya at school, they recall that he has not used the doll in his possession for quite some time. The group decides that, with the knowledge that he would fall to hell as well, Kazuya is probably afraid.

When Kazuya returns home, he finds his mother purchasing another kimono from a merchant who seems particularly attracted to her. Despite his mother asking him for his opinion, Kazuya simply returns to his room in avoidance of the situation. The merchant meanwhile compliments his mother’s beauty, causing her to agree to purchase the kimono. With the adults’ words in his mind, Kazuya struggles while alone in his room. Kazuya meets Yuzuki one day while returning home from his place of employment, taking the chance to ask her if her parents get along at home. Yuzuki replies with the fact that she lives alone, but when he is asked in return, Kazuya cannot seem to give a clear answer.

When Kazuya returns home, he confirms that his mother had bought the kimono she was trying on earlier. Kazuya tells her to stop letting the salesman into the house, but his mother can only see the man as a good person. When Kazuya’s father returns home, he becomes annoyed at the fact that his wife has not prepared dinner. He instead decides to eat out, then becoming slightly bothered when his son disagrees to go with him. When the salesperson Saito returns to the house shortly after, Kazuya watches from a distance while struggling with his desire to pull the string off of his straw doll. That night, the Hell Correspondence observes as Kazuya puts money into his mother’s wallet. With this, the group realizes that although he would like his mother to stop supporting Saito, Kazuya is afraid to go to Hell.

The next morning, Kazuya’s mother expresses her belief that it was her husband that had been putting money into her wallet secretly. This makes her decide to buy even more kimonos. While participating in the school’s sports event during the day, Kazuya stops to overhear Saito talking about how easy of a target his mother is. Of course, he has only been manipulating her for money. As Kazuya returns home to the usual sight, he finally pulls the string off of his straw doll. Despite Saito being sent to hell, Kazuya’s mother is simply manipulated by new salesmen later. Hone meets Kazuya at school while he is looking at a book illustrated with pictures of hell, and when she asks about it, Kazuya describes this as the place he will be going one day. Kazuya asks Hone what women like to hear the most, and although she does not seem to know off the top of her head, Kazuya recalls her mother’s subduing to being called beautiful.

Preview: Kikuri cries. Boo hoo!

Impression:

ENMA AI. SPYING ON YOU FROM THE PUDDLES. As big as Jigoku Shoujo’s fanbase is, I can only imagine that the series would be much more appreciated if they halved the series lengths to focus on overall plot rather than all this episodic crap. Like most of the episodes this season, this story ended up being unintentionally hilarious because of various directing. I just can’t get over Kazuya conveniently coming across Saito while he was taking a break to talk to himself, and Yuzuki’s leaving Akie in the middle of a school event so that she wouldn’t see her transform. There were some things that were obviously included for intentional humor though, like Hone being called a demon by her students. I was also entertained at Kazuya’s envisioned hell being full of orcs.

Seeing Ai go Dragonball Z on Saito was fun too, but I really have no idea what the dragon was suppose to symbolize. I’m also unsure as to what the fish’s dying was suppose to represent too. Perhaps someone more informed could explain?