Ep24: Mayfly
Hello! Long time no see… and it’s entirely my fault. Sorry. I’ve got time this week, so hopefully I can finish this series up and then catch up on my other series (namely, Regios).
Anyway, this was a fairly interesting episode I guess. There aren’t many quirks in this episode you can’t understand, so here goes the 3 notes I thought were interesting, and not really that important.
01:17 Heisei – The dating system in Japan uses regular Gregorian years (as in, 2009), but can also use the, I guess, imperial system where you count years based on the reign of the current emperor. The current emperor was crowned in 1989 (Heisei 1), so this year is Heisei 21.
05:43 Flammable – As explained earlier in the season, Japanese garbage is split up into many different categories. The flammable category is burned and usually used to generate electricity, thus serving as a good way to recycle.
17:26 Torii – This is the gateway to a Shinto shrine. They’ve been a significant symbol throughout this series, and really, that’s all you need to know, that it has religious significance.
I’ll try to get the other episodes done this week, but Jigoku Shoujo is REALLY hard to watch continuously for me (as it’s very angsty and depressing), so I might be taking frequent breaks watching something like Sola or Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid.
Haha, sola is a good anime. Mamiko Noto as Matsuri is adorable~ (although I kind of like Aono better >_>)
^^
I understands your feeling about JSM!
But it’s really good
Gambatte!!!
Well, if you suffer from JGM being too depressing, you might not want to watch Sola in between, as it, ironically, has some similarities with the current Yuzuki storyline.
Thank you for your work on Jigoku Shoujo 3 and the helpful notes; I love the series and I hope someday there will be a fourth season. I can’t wait to see Yuzuki’s past.
This was an absolute heartbreaker. I knew it wasn’t looking good for Mikage, but I never suspected she’d been dead all along. As if that weren’t bad enough, she has to watch herself be forgotten by everyone she knows. That’s not a new story idea (Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere uses it, and there’s one in ROD the TV that’s almost as painful to watch), but poor Mikage is so desperate and sad… there are few anime characters I’ve felt this bad for. It burns me up that she has to suffer so much when she never asked for any of this. (And did we absolutely need those shots of her skeleton… and crows feeding on her?)
I completely understand how you feel about the depressing nature of the show. All four series (counting the live-action) have been like that, and it’s pretty much inherent in the concept. Every week somebody becomes bitter and vengeful enough to send another human being to hell. As I’ve said before, I love Hell Girl, but watching too much in a row isn’t good for the soul.
Interesting that Tsugumi wasn’t fated to be Hell Girl after all. I dread finding out what happened to Hajime. It’s been implied since last season that he’s dead, but whatever happened to him, I doubt it was fair. Of course, this is to be expected — horror stories love to kill off the good guys in sequels. Several versions of Ring have done this. (And speaking of Ring, another of Sadako’s tricks showed up this week, this time used by Akie: going from far away to close up in the blink of an eye. Very spooky. And Ai behind the curtain at 11:00 is really creepy if you notice.)
To make another weird comparison, this thing about Hajime realizing his resistance was part of Hell’s system reminds me of the second Matrix film. Neo’s whole “The One” deal is very impressive at first, but what he ultimately finds out is that the Matrix’s programmers knew about the flaw in the program and planned for it. Each time a One appears, he’s forced to play along with the machines to save what’s left of humanity. Neo eventually breaks the cycle, but the price is high.
Ai at 15:30 seems to be imitating herself from the Futakomori theme. It’s exactly the same pose. No complaints here, I love that shot. (It’s my current wallpaper.)
Kikuri at 9:30… whoa. I’d forgotten what an evil little brat she is.
Time to finally watch the last two episodes. Good luck, Yuzuki… (I just now realized I’ve been calling her by her family name this whole time.)