Subculture Anime Blog

Ai no baka!

Summary:

Realizing that Tsugumi had escaped certain fate from Ai, Yuzuki believes that she herself could avoid becoming Jigoku Shoujo. She eventually comes across a young boy in the park, and as he collapses in front of her, she quickly takes him to her house. When the boy wakes, he explains the normal circumstances he has with his parents and introduces himself as Kaito. Before he goes home, Yuzuki takes the chance to exchange phone numbers with him. As Kaito leaves, Yuzuki recalls what she saw before he woke up. There were marks on Kaito’s body that clearly seemed like they came from another person, and because of her senses, she was able to tell that Kaito planned on contacting the Jigoku Tsushin.

Once Kaito reaches home at the Kikuchi residence, it is revealed that his mother Nanami is pregnant with a girl named Mao. Nanami begins reading a story to Mao after dinner, but when Kaito disturbs her by talking on the phone with Yuzuki downstairs, she quickly punishes him. Yuzuki meets Kaito at school the next day, as she was unable to contact him through phone. Kaito claims that he had simply dropped his phone, and also has to deny Yuzuki’s offer to play a certain game with him. The two do go grocery shopping with each other, but when Nanami finds that some of the eggs Kaito has brought home have cracked, she punishes him once again.

While soothing his wounds, Kaito recalls the first time he had met Nanami. She had presented a hat to him, which he took quite a liking to, before implying her intent to become his new mother. As the Jigoku Tsushin watch Kaito, they can only wonder why he does not bring up such things to his family. Yuzuki worries just as much at her home, but while she does, Kikuri appears to suggest that she simply contact Kaito’s family. Ai meets Kikuri soon after her meddling, then reaffirming that it would be impossible for her to become the next Jigoku Shoujo despite her actions.

Nanami eventually throws out Kaito’s beloved hat, claiming that it was because of talk from their neighbors that he has always been wearing it for the past three years. Kaito runs from the house in tears afterwards, and after finding his hat in the garbage, he finally contacts the Jigoku Tsushin. Yuzuki confronts Kaito about this on a following day, and though she clearly expresses her knowledge about his contacting the correspondence, Kaito claims only to want to return to the days he enjoyed with his happy family before. Of course, Nanami was once a much kinder person to him.

Yuzuki promises to help Kaito, later meeting his father. Though she attempts to convince him that Nanami has been using domestic violence on his son, Kaito’s father refuses to acknowledge any of it. The Jigoku Tsushin are not far away after this confrontation, so Hone makes Yuzuki realize that Kaito’s father has already known this information for quite some time. He simply did not have the confidence to do anything about it. Yuzuki continues to find ways to help Kaito, but time starts to run out as he and his father leave to visit the forest they are partial to.

Yuzuki calls out to the Jigoku Shoujo in a more desperate attempt to stop her, but when Ai appears, she claims that true hell exists in oneself. To prove this, she shows her exactly what is happening between Kaito and his father. As the two play frisbee, Kaito’s father purposely throws the disk into the nearby river. While Kaito fetches it, he confirms that his son loves his mother. He thinks the same of her, but as they would not be able to have happiness if things continued as they are, Kaito’s father almost kills his own son. Kaito pulls the string off of his doll, however, killing off Mao while she is still inside of Nanami. Stopping after seeing what he was about to do, Kaito’s father despairs as his son confirms that things would be alright from now on.

Kaito meets Nanami at the hospital later, expressing how disappointing it was for them to lose Mao, but reminding her that she still has his father and himself. The family spends their time happily together like they did in the past after this, which produces curiosity from both the Jigoku Tsushin and Yuzuki.

Preview: Models and doubles?

Impression:

Too bad, Kikuri. You are not worthy of becoming Jigoku Shoujo! This episode actually ended up being a lot better than I thought it was going to be. It was easy to tell that Kaito was going to send his unborn sister to hell, rather than his new mother, from the beginning though. That whole theme really had me wondering what would happen if this aired in the states with all of its abortion controversy. Was Mao a human being or not!? (HAHA. Oh man, I’m going to hell….you know, the one in myself.) The whole remarriage theme is something all too common around here too, so I guess it added to my ability to feel empathetic.

Yuzuki’s directly interacting with most all of the Jigoku Tsushin was really cool too, seemingly reflecting on her future position. I would say this is the first time Ai has directly used her powers on someone else, but it could also be said that this was only possible because of the fate Yuzuki holds. (I also think that this was just an excuse for Deen to come up with a bunch of cool shots to use.) The whole play on snow at the end was interesting, but too oddly placed to really be a strong line for me. More impacting was Yuzuki’s delusional smile. Is she cracking? Tsugumi seemed to act in a similar way in the last episode, so maybe it’s only a matter of time.

Notes:

• Yuzuki-oneechan!
• Yuzuki-Jigoku Shoujo!
• Dechu.
• NARU MOU.
• Yuzuki’s nice boat eyes are so win.
• Domestic violence???