Subculture Anime Blog

Lolicons attract the girls they don’t even want.

Summary:

Yuzuki continues to struggle with her memories and thoughts while commuting through town, taking special note of the several people around her texting on cellphones. When she passes a particular man under a bridge, she rushes to stop him. The man reveals a black straw doll after reaching the top of the brdige, and despite Yuzuki’s attempt to stop him, Ai stands in her way. Ai suggests that it is futile to try to stop this person, as he pulls the red string from his doll. This is revealed to be a man named Naowa, as he appears in front of his workmates later with the recurring mark on his chest. It is hinted that a man named Nakajimi was taken to hell, as those around him mention their inability to contact him. Naowa denies his coworkers invitation to a gathering after work, instead visiting a young girl named Kaya to play with her. This has his passing coworkers laughing at what seems to be his sexual interest in children, while the Jigoku Tsushin bring up the changing standards in society elsewhere.

A girl named Miyajimi Yuki joins the company later, which several of the male employees take interest in. Naowa, however, remains indifferent. A group of the male employees eventually approaches Yuki in hopes of going out with her, even becoming intimidating when she refuses, but they back off when Naowa passes. Thanking Naowa, Yuki wonders if they could meet sometime later. Naowa replies by saying that he has other plans, however, which is soon revealed to be spending time with Kaya. The two meet on a later day instead, and Yuki takes the chance to ask several questions about Naowa. Naowa gives very plain answers, such as with the fact that he doesn’t really have hobbies, believing that he is quite a boring person. Yuki describes him as much easier to work with than the others though, then asking for him to help her if she has any problems with work.

Naowa continues to spend more time with Yuki as the days pass, going out to eat with her or otherwise, leading Kaya to finally guess that Naowa likes Yuki when they meet. This seems to be true, but Naowa only tells Kaya that he would not play with her if she continued to tease him. Kaya then notes the mark Naowa has on his chest, and though he claims it has always been there, Kaya is not so sure of this. Yuki meets Naowa at his flat that night, offering to make him dinner. She starts a conversation with him about Nakajima, who he seemed to be on good terms with, but Naowa changes the subject by wondering if they could stop. Naowa gets to the point my expressing his belief that he has no right to be with Yuki, but she asks for a reason in response. Although Naowa doesn’t think Yuki would believe him, he asks if she knows about the Jigoku Shoujo.

Nakajima had one day appeared before Naowa and Kaya, and the three of them would play innocently. Naowa eventually noticed that Nakajima was suspiciously interested in Kaya, and when he snuck into his room one day, he found several pictures of Kaya inside. When he confronted him about this, Nakajima claimed to be happy just looking. Naowa was still angry, but Nakajima guessed that they were the same. Naowa denied this, but Nakajima only suggested that he would really be considered as his comrade if he started a fuss. With this, Naowa contacted the Jigoku Shoujo in anger. With only the though of protecting Kaya in his mind, Naowa had doomed himself to falling to hell.

Yuki meets Naowa again later, then wishing to continue despite what she heard. Giving the example of how happy Kaya is when he plays with her, Yuki believes that Naowa still has the power to make people happy. Naowa meets Kaya late that day, but then states that he would be unable to play with her night. Kaya correctly guesses that deals with Yuki, then making Naowa agree to play with her the next day after accepting. When Naowa meets Yuki at her home, however, he accidentally comes across a picture of herself and Nakajima together. With this, Yuki reveals that there were a couple in high school. She had learned about his hobby as well, but it did not matter when they were together. Yuki had infiltrated Nakajima’s company to learn the reason behind his missing, then meeting Naowa who apparently had a good relationship with him. With the will to do anything for him, Yuki sends Naowa to hell with her own straw doll.

Previously, Ai had shown this future to Yuzuki who wished to stop Naowa at the bridge. She suggested that there was no way to stop this future of continuing grudges, but Yuzuki still wished to do something. When Ai let go of her hold, however, Yuzuki only ran through a vast amount of people in the city with no way of warning Naowa.

Preview: Yamawaro backstory.

Impression:

I didn’t know I was watching Koi Kaze. *cough*

Jokes aside, this episode was actually quite good. I dunno if this is funny or sad, but I feel like I’ve had more “oshi-” moments in this season of Jigoku Shoujo alone than to the last two seasons put together. I was already pumped about seeing a story about someone who had already made a grudge previously for the first(?) time, but with only half-expected twists and plays on past/present, this episode ended up being a really enjoyable watch. Things like the forcefully broken promise between Naowa and Kaya and the ridiculous false love were strong themes to play on, and I even got enough attachment to the characters in the episode to feel slightly moved by the said scenes. I guess Deen hired stronger writers along with getting cameos from high profile seiyu (go back to Honey and Clover, Tomokazu Sugita). The next episode looks even better, with hints of explanation about how Yamawaro came to join the Jigoku Tsushin and some disturbing displays of reunion.

Minor revision after dinner or something.