Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori, the second season of Jigoku Shoujo, which features a website. If you access it at midnight, you can enter the name of someone you want to send to hell. The only price: you’ll get sent to hell after you die yourself. For the second season, Hajime and Tsugumi have buggered off, while the series continues with its usual formula, though with a very different focus.

The second season has two major focuses. The first is Ai’s dolls, Ichimoku Ren, Hone Onna and Wanyuudo. In the first half, they start to get personally involved in some of the cases, while the episodes that follow reveal their background, and how they actually met Ai in the first place. The second focus is people, getting more and more lenient to send someone to hell. At the start of the season, I actually expected the cases in the second season to be even more extreme than the first season, but I was quite surprised when the opposite happened. Quite an amount of cases are way lighter than most of the latter half of the first season.

The cases in the second season were definitely more character-based. While the first season tried to create cases as extreme as possible, or to illustrate Hajime’s and Tsugumi’s differences of opinion, the second season tried to delve a bit more into the main characters of the different cases. In about 50% of these episodes, this didn’t work, but the other 50% were amazing. There are some beautiful stories among them, all accompanied by some of the most amazing plot twists.

There actually isn’t a main storyline like Hajime and Tsugumi, until very late in the anime. Still, even though this storyline has been getting less development than you would expect, nearly each of the final episodes is a beauty, giving the second season a definite better ending than the first season had.

If you got through the first season, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t check out the second season. Heck, it’s probably even possible to continue with the second season, without having finished the first one, all you miss is a bit of development. Still, I have to say that even though the second season has been excellent, the repetition did kick in at some moments. The usual formula did get annoying at some of the worse episodes, though that didn’t stop the good ones for really working out.

The graphics were of the same high quality as the first season, but a definite improvement has been made in the music-department. The first season already featured great music, but the second season takes another step further, and delivers a truly memorable soundtrack, with some amazingly catchy tunes. Overall, though, I had more enjoyment out of the first season, but that’s only because of the repetition. The final episodes definitely make for an interesting watch, and, unlike the first season, there’s actually a lot to discuss about with others.

Short Synopsis: The end of Emna Ai as Jigoku Shoujo.
Good: Beautiful episode, an actually good ending.
Bad: Questions left unanswered.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10

It finally becomes clear where this episode was working towards: forcing Ai to let go of one of her victims. Because of this, the spider immediately abandoned her from her position, and made her body mortal again. This returning her to the real world, in a body that’s 400 years old! The climax itself was beautiful. I loved how she tried to calm down Takuma, who had also finally become tired of his own morals, and decided to burn the house of the ones who made his life miserable.

You know, as I’ve been writing this, I’ve been hoping more and more for an actual third season. The ending did suggest that we’ve yet to reach the ending of this show. Still, the fact does remain that Ai’s dead, and she won’t come back. But then again, this show is called “Jigoku Shoujo”, not “Enma Ai”. The Spider remained unharmed through all of this, and the final moment of the episode suggested that he’s just recruited another girl for his plans. It’s also a pity that Hell Boy didn’t come back.

And Kikuri. What the hell was her role in this series anyway? I kept thinking that she had some kind of strange contract with Hell boy, but in the end, it looks like she’s connected to the spider, of all possible characters. I still haven’t figured out her exact role, but if I had to guess, then she was employed by the spider, in order to keep an eye out on Ai. I think that at one point, she started caring about Ai, and tried to find a way to relieve her from her tasks. Because of that, she probably stirred with Takuma, in order to bring Ai even closer to the boy. I think that by episode 24, she knew that Takuma would end up in hell in some kind of way. This would be painful for Ai, though in the end, she could rest peacefully. That’s probably why she was so gentle to the cherry near the end of the episode. And regarding her brattiness. That’s just who she is. It’s just her character, nothing more. And we still don’t know much about Ai’s grandmother.

Overall, I feared for the first couple of episodes, but overall, Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori has been a real treat. Definitely one of the highlights of the rather mediocre fall-season. I’m really hoping for a third season right now, which will answer all the questions left behind. But for now, I’ll consider this show as finished.

And with this, the major part of the spring-season has started. Still, my absolute favourites have yet to air. Bokurano will come in two days, and then it’ll be about a month until Dennou Coil arrives. I hope I can wait that long.

Kaze no Shoujo Emily

Short Synopsis: Emily has a very strong bond with her father, but then he suddenly dies. She then moves in with her aunt: Elizabeth.
Good: It’s only the first episode, and Emily already is a very interesting character.
Bad: A few predictable moments, character-designs that take time getting used to.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This has been one of the series I was looking forward to the most, and it doesn’t disappoint. Like expected, the first episode focuses solely on Emily, and she already is an interesting character, losing her parents early on. I loved her crying-scenes. The predictable moments were regarding Emily, living together with her aunt. A large part of the episode is about who Emily should live with, though the OP already reveals that it’s going to be Elizabeth. Still, this is just a minor detail, I can’t wait to see the other characters in the spotlight. Each of them sounds really interesting. Just take note, the art may take a while to get used to, as it’s not your usual style. I’ve already seen Danny comment on how ugly he found it, though once you get used to it, it’s not so bad.

Blue Dragon

Short Synopsis: A typical brat appears to have a huge power, called the “Blue Dragon”.
Good: Potentially interesting characters.
Bad: Akira Toriyama
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
The second of three RPG-adaptations to come this season. I secretly hoped for this to turn out well, like other shows of its kind proved, though the Akira Toriyama-influences are just way too big. We first of all have that annoying male lead, the people powering up, the stereotypical characters, but most annoyingly a main character who wants to protect his friends and so gets to have an excuse to possess the strongest power ever. I’m going to go with Shining Tears instead, and in June Tales of Symphonia. Stay away from this one, in any case.

Towards The Terra

Short Synopsis: Long ago, humankind went to travel to distant planets, while the earth was left in ruins. Johnnie, our main character gets involved with some strange people.
Good: I don’t know why, but I loved it!
Bad: I want more dammit!!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Towards The Terra, another one of my major series to look forward to, and with a very good reason. I mentioned before that I’m an absolute sucker for mystery, and a show like this couldn’t be more mysterious. Where does the main character live now? What happened to the earth? What did these people do to him when he was brainwashed? Who are these people who he keeps seeing in his dreams? Add a great mother-son relationship, an excellent soundtrack, and I’m hooked. According to the OP, the cast of this anime seems really big, and I can’t wait to meet all of these people. This episode was definitely a highlight of the beginning of the Spring-season.

Ah, finally another mahout shoujo with Kamichama Karin, while Shining Tears x Wind finally comes with another RPG-adaptation, and sola… well… never mind.

Kamichama Karin

Short Synopsis: Karin is a young girl, with no friends and whose pet just died, when she meets a few strange people, one of them refers to her as “Kami-sama”.
Good: Kawai! Really charming, The ALI-Project shines.
Bad: I’ve seen quite a few mahou shoujo up till now, but I still haven’t found the merit of those extremely long transformation-scenes.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Ah, the Mahou Shoujo of the season. I’ve been waiting for this, and it doesn’t disappoint. The first episode already was incredibly charming and heart-warming. Karin and … somehow really remind me of Sakura and Tomoyo, which of course is a good thing. I already love this. The only thing I’m worried about is the beginning of the show, which gives a small taste about what’s going to happen in the future of this anime. I’m not sure, but it looked rather formulaic. Let’s hope that the future episodes will be able to introduce lots of new stuff, as the first episode definitely showed that Kamichama Karin has the potential to become great. :)

Shining Tears x Wind

Short Synopsis: Two teenagers get transported to a different world. Twist: the main character actually isn’t a typical loser.
Good: Excellent mystery, so many potentially interesting characters.
Bad: Quite a few minor flaws (see below).
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
As this was another RPG-adaptation, I’ve been looking forward to it. Let me first say that I’m a total sucker for mystery, and so it’s great to see that there’s been a huge amount of mystery thrown into this anime. I really like the potential in this one. Also, even though the concept may be generic, the main characters actually do know how to fight before the story starts. The way the main character also obtains his power also has much more detail than your average other anime who uses this plot elements. And surprisingly, the romance between the two main characters of this episode could have been done way worse. Overall, I’ve been quite pleased, but the fact remains that there are lots of minor flaws in this anime which could potentially ruin it, just like Star Ocean Ex did once. Most of all, the females. Their character-designs are a bit too fanservice-based, and I do hope that they’ll be more than just damsels in distress. Apart from that, the fights themselves are rather generic, with no outstanding animation whatsoever. The characters also could have been a bit more surprised at the sudden catgirl who appeared in front of them.

sola

Short Synopsis: The sky is beautiful, taking pictures of it is fun, no sky is the same… oh god, this guy needs to find himself a hobby.
Good: The action-scene at the end surprised me.
Bad: Harem clichés ho!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
The writers of Kanon and Da Capo collaborating for this project. Obviously, it wasn’t going to be exciting. Sure, it’s got a bit of a quiet mood, but the characters are nearly painful. There’s this main character who has another strange hobby, and obviously is a total loser, he runs coincidentally into a girl, and the two fall in love. Remember also that scene in NHK ni Youkoso, where Satou suggested to combine all sorts of character-traits into one character? Well, after watching this anime, I can’t help to think that the creators used that scene as the base of one of the other characters: the bed-ridden sister who acts cold and doesn’t talk much. I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned out to be an android as well. Apart from that, we’ve also got the tomboy-childhood friend and the little girl who sleeps in a box. Okay, that last one may not be a cliché, but she doesn’t exactly have an exciting personality either. In terms of graphics, don’t expect too much. The art on the main website already wasn’t really appealing, but this art got toned down even more for the anime-version.