Have you ever been bullied in your life? Or taken advantage and tortured in life? And you kind of felt like karma does not exist. And instead you keep on going ahead with life. What if you could get vengeance and get away with it while you are alive? If you have ever felt like this in your life, definitely check this anime out.
This anime would rekindle the power of karma in your life. And not only it would make you hopeful but kind of make you feel the pain of people around the world.
So let's review Hell Girl aka Jigoku shojo anime.
Image Credit: Myanimelist
Story
Plot is revolving around hell girl named Enma Ai. Who is coming on an anonymous website that opens up on the victims computer for short time at midnight. If you tell the name of those who are oppressing you. She takes care of the matter. In exchange you go to the hell with the person who wronged you. That is the price of vengeance.
Image Credit: Myanimelist
Each episode has unique story and the different people coming in with the help of Enma Ai to help the victims free them from the various issues that torment them in the story. Each story has a pain that you can relate with. You will find people who torture others, who blackmail, rape, molest and some even bully in everyday life.
There is a lot of pain that is shown in the episodes. You may feel like you are watching some crime documentary in anime. And then the ending is where karma meets the rest. So it's pretty good in terms of the plot and each story is pretty much good enough to revisit every now and then when you bingewatch.
Art & Animation
I personally feel like the animation in this anime was pretty much good. Like say for the manga readers who like the art and detailing they may surely love the animation too. The classic hell and the minute details that goes on for karma and punishment with various elements are being shown with good level of graphical details. There is not much gore violence in it so that part is not much existing there. I am sure they could have given justice to that too.
Image Credit: Myanimelist
Like most anime, they are keeping small details in mind for the characters too. I'd say that if you like that much detailing in the everyday life presentation inside the animation. You are going to find that in this anime too. It's just that much cool to watch such anime. Art wise there does not seem to be any content that you would find in context of flaw.
Characters
You won't find any depth in the characters who are executing the work of karma. I think Enma Ai should have been more explained but there are some episodes about it. And that is all there about the character. I think each helping character could have traced for the back story. But the focus of the episodes is more or less into the victim stories.
Image Credit: Myanimelist
You won't find much depth in the people who are executing the karma and vengeance. I think that is the form of curse they have. And they are kind of explained slowly though not built over time on that. I just think that there could be more in the story apart from the same old victim and the karma routine. But that is just my opinion, others could have enjoyed it with or without the backstories much.
Is it worth binge watching?
I think the series is definitely worth binge watching. You may access it from the Netflix and the Crunchyroll. I would say watch them one day at a time and that way you wont get much of karma stories in one setting as that would just make you be more empathetic in world of people who are kind of dangerous.
Good Parts in Story
I think animation, graphics and the stories are the strong point of the story. I'd also say that the overall execution of the story is pretty good too. If you like series based and story based anime then this is worth checking.
Bad Parts in Story
I think there are a lot of good parts in the story but overall some of the time it appears pretty dragged. And also some stories seems to be overlapping. I wish it could have the depth for the character involved in the story.
These are some of the type of horror and thriller anime which have a lot of psychological horror content in them. If you like some of such content in anime and love the series based horror stories with each new story per episode. Then this is the anime you should check out.
