Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori

Information of Anime

There is a website that can only be access at midnight.  It's called the Hotline to Hell.  Rumour has it that you can exact your revenge on someone who is giving you a hard time.  Doing so, the Hell Girl, Ai Enma, & her three members will send that person to Hell immediately.  However, it comes with a price.

Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori is a direct sequel to Jigoku Shoujo.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

It picks up where the first season left off with Ai & company taking people's request on the Hotline to Hell.  However, Ren Ichimoku, Hone-Onna, & Wanyuudou play a bigger part in this season as they investigate possible requests by analyzing the situations.  You can say they are almost trying to prevent them without interfering.  However, we see the same patterns as the first season where the abused makes the request & send the abuser to Hell.  However, the abused now faces more problems than they did before either by delaying the request because of doubt, protection, or abusing their sins since they are going to Hell.  We also learn about these three's past life & how they came in contact with Ai.  The source of these problems seem to come from a mysterious purple eyed girl named Kikuri as she interferes with Ai's jobs.  However, we see some new things about the contract with the Hell Girl such as transferring of ownership.

The episodes seem to be dark than the first season with sins that are close to taboos & possibly disturbing to some.  One episode has one brother dressing up as a girl to steal his sister's boyfriends to the point where they turn to him.  He does this so no one gets his sister due to his overwhelming love for her.  Although we get different arcs & storylines, the show manages to pick one arc as it's final by revisiting a past one.

The show picks the Takuma Kurebayashi arc where his town calls him the Devil's Child from the previous arc due to his "disappearance" trick on his angry neighbour & people starts turning to the Hotline to Hell to get the revenge & blame it on Takuma as a scapegoat.  The story gets very tense as people keep disappearing one after another at a fast pace.  Once some of the people know the truth, they pay the price which can lead to their deaths.  It got to the point where the scapegoat group tries to kill Takuma as the truth is starting to be exposed.  As Takuma is requested to be sent to Hell, Ai refuses the request & sends Takuma back.  As punishment, she's returned to life with the health condition of a 400 year old.  As she tries to stop Takuma from getting revenge, Ai stops him but would later get killed by the mob.  As a result, she is finally send to her along with her parents.

The story ends with Takuma proven innocent & the mob leaving town.  Although Ai is now gone, someone takes over to perform the task of the Hell Girl.

My Personal Review

Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori picks up where the first season ended instantly without delays.  However, the pace seems to move a bit faster now as viewers get a glimpse of what seem to be the main storyline will be about. Unlike the first season, it seems that the amount of gore content has gone down.  Personally, I think you can watch this show without watching the first season.  Knowing about how the Hotline to Hell works is more than enough to understand the second season.

Animation

Same as the first season without any changes.  The drawings are weird & seem to be different each episode.  With the exception of Ai & her crew, the characters are drawn differently each time from the looks of it.  The facial expressions are the dead giveaway.  Sometimes the eyes are huge & sometimes they are small.  Sometimes the faces are long & sometimes they are round.  The face of Ai is indeed freaky.  Her eyes are very big & her face is a face from hell.  However, Ai looks a bit more of a normal girl now for some reason.  Less freaky & a bit more cuter.  Kikuri is a bit like Ai, but more freaky & strangely cute.

Ai's kimono is something to point out.  The flower designs on her kimono seem to float when the camera view shifts up or down.  Even when the camera doesn't move, the flowers still float.

The backgrounds are pretty good.  It's got an eerie affect to it, especially during the horror scenes where Ai & company get to work.  And the dark & dull colour tones really make it shine.  Plus, it blends very well with the colour of the characters.

The animation movements are quite natural & realistic.  In terms of smoothness, it's not all there.  The running looks more like leaping.  Other than that, there is no choppiness really.  For some episodes, there are those silly movements as well.

Sound

The sound effect are really on the realistic side with some horror effects.  It's really sharp & clean.  It really sets you in the mood with the right volume level.

The voices here are the same as the first season.  No need to readjust your ears.  For Ai, I felt Mamiko Noto made her sound older than she looks now.

The music isn't too bad.  It really sets the mood for the show well since they are dark & on the rock side, but they aren't memorable.  In fact, I can forget what songs I heard after watching an episode.  The only songs that stick are the opening & ending themes which I like as they are from the same artists from the first season.  Also, the soundtrack is a bit different from the first season as a few of the songs get recycled or remixed.  There are some new tracks here.

Story

The same concept where Ai sends people to Hell based on requests she gets.  However, the people making the request doesn't have be the one getting abused.  They seem to be able to make them on behalf of someone else.  Even after the job is done, some of the requesters are feeling less happy about the results & seem to feel more miserable than before.  With the new girl Kikuri, Ai's jobs tend to sway a bit off than what she expected as the requesters are somewhat pushed to pull the red string.  Also, we see victims refusing to make a contract with Ai or bad people making a contract with Ai & end up dying quickly.  They were times where people regret it in the end when it affects others.

As for the pace of the story, it's a bit faster as the viewers are getting what seems to be an almost direct clue of what the main plot is.  Plus, the visions that the victims see due to Ai's powers are getting shorter & seem to lose that impact that make the first season enjoyable.  Although having less gore isn't the problem, the way the visions are presented now are dull & don't seem to link to the victim's sins almost.

Another improvement that this season has is how the side characters in Ai's group are more active in this show.  We get to see more of their characters & personalities as well.  There are sides of them that some viewers may never think about.  Plus, they seem to have emotions where they look like want to prevent their clients on pulling the string.  They don't say that but you somehow get the impression of it.  But, they are more into investigating into clients & their victims now.

When I thought there was a indication of a main storyline at the beginning of the show, I thought the show was going pretty fast.  However, my assumptions were wrong.  Going deeper into the show & past the halfway point, there is no main storyline present.  In fact, I was thinking that there was probably none at all as the show is mainly consist of short stories.  However, the show revisits one arc & continues on from it.  That arc becomes the main focus with the same theme as the first season: revenge.  However, it adds that scapegoat element to make things interesting.  Although it's the same as the first, I was drawn into it well with emotions as I felt pity for the boy that was being used as the town's cheap excuse.  I couldn't figure out the title "Two Prisoners" until I saw this arc.  If I interpreted it correctly, the two prisoners are Takuma & Ai who would be later be free.  Takuma proven innocent & Ai finally sent to hell.

Overall Conclusion

Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori is a good show to watch.  I found the first season to be better in terms of enjoyment at the start.  But it got very interesting as the show finally reveal its main plot when I thought the show was going at a fast pace. It was nothing more than short stories until the last arc.  Less gore & adult situations allows more viewers to watch this show.  If you liked the first season, I recommend continuing on with this show.  But, don't expect much of a continuation from the first season's storyline.

Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori gets an eight out of ten from me.  The show isn't as enjoyable as the first season until you get into the final arc.  The involvement of the side characters gives more depth to the show as viewers learn more about them.  Plus, the change in Ai was key as well in finishing the entire series.  However, a surprise came when a third season was announced with Ai coming back.