Aaaah, so this was the big thing everyone was waiting for. The big bad guy is finally revealed, and next episode we’ll learn what he’s planning. It’s interesting to see how every character will be reacting to this, but I do have some problems with this. The big bad guy just seems too ultrapowerful. It’s perfect in any way, and has found a perfect strategy. I so hope that at least a few persons will be able to make him scared, apart, of course, from Ichigo. It was also nice to see a whole episode without him. He’s by no means a bad character, but when he does get in the spotlight, especially at this point, you can take poison on that he’s going to end up fighting.

It was also nice to see that some people actually DIED this episode. Finally they are moving into the right direction a bit, although the creators have to make their deaths count for a bit, and not make it seem like they wanted to get rid of a few characters because of budgetting problems.

That said, I’m still a bit disappointed with how this turned out. The reason stated above. This episode did make me lose even more interest in the main plot, but ironically it did increase my interest for the subplots. Especially the conflict between the 1st, 8th and 13th captain (read: conflict, NOT fight).

Holy goodness… the story in this episode is so friggin’ sad. It’s still the usual concept that we know of Jigoku Shoujo though, but this one has been executed very well. We have a girl, whose mother accidentally saw the popular-wife-of-important-person cheating on her husband. Since then, her mother has been tormented by that woman. As her mother suffers, she suffers as well. The creators really succeeding in telling us that the mother was suffering. It was so sad when looking her husband hit her because his job is in danger because of her. I give two thumbs up for this one.

It’s also nice to see that the girl and Emna actually have a conversation, apart from the usual "Here is a doll with a red string bla bla, pull the string blabla, you’ll go to hell as well etc." I also liked the new preparation scene, and I noticed that the recycled cells took shorter than before. Also the annoying grandmother was no nuisance this time.

Okay, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Emna and the three others are finally playing an active role, other then just carrying out the revenge, and furthermore the story in this episode is awesome. We have this president of a huge succesful company, with a high school girl employed who’s supposed to be her distant family. Everyone believes that girl is aweful with computers, while the president is wonderful with them, but it’s just the opposite. The president is nowhere with computers, while the girl is a computer nerd. So far so good? Well, it also appears that the president is using the girl to hack into other companies and administration to her own advantage. The girl can’t do anything because of blackmail. We also see that the president is someone who’ll do literally everything for a succesful life, including summoning Jigoku Shoujo for her own selfish gains, and killing multiple persons.

This really turned into a great episode. They finally showed a bad guy (or girl) with multiple perspective, instead of the blocky ones they normally show. Emna finally gets to do something other then just riding in a boat or lying in the water. But I could still see the normal pacing I’m used of Jigoku Shoujo.

I’m having some speculations here. If I am right, then this anime will have a first season of slightly normal cases, and once the second season starts, then the cases will turn more extravagant by the minute. I’ll be very interested when that happens.

The individual stories are interesting to watch, and although the first two episodes were a lot better then this one, I had an interesting time watching this.

I’m just afraid that Jigoku Shoujo was put into this for just the hell of it. Her actions are becoming a bit repetitive, which is such a pity, as she has a wonderful character. I’m really anticipating an episode that breaks this pattern. But as this show has 26 episodes, there is still lots of hope.