I have to say, I thought this was going to be a sorta comparison to Death Note or even Hear They Cry, it's way far from it. It's where a girl who has had a bad past, decides to take up as Hell girl and whoever wants revenge, she does the rest to kill them with misery.I have to say, the first episode is pretty tense with a young girl being tormented by the bully girls. Although it was slow for Hell Girl to be able to get the work going and like as the episode moves on, you do get to see the sweet revenge in development. I wanna say, it was actually quite satisfying to see the bullies get a taste of their own medicine, although it's better for real to just punish them with serious light discipline rather then have the pits of fire nvolved lol!On the last episode, I nearly was upset by the fact a young girls mother was killed in a car accident and was suppose to take hell revenge on her father, because it was meant to be his fault that it happened to her. Hell girl begged the young girl to untie the doll in order to get the revenge going but the young girl decided that it can't happen. I mean watching the scene would really tear you up to the core, it was hard to watch a little girl and her father to break down. Even thinking about it now makes my eyes watery lolReally good anime, I'm impressed by it and its thrill!

This anime can be enjoyed by a wide variety of people. If you are fascinated by the Japanese symbolism or like the thrill of tense moments or enjoy common people finding themselves challenged by supernatural mysteries this one is for you.The dialogs are very clever, the visual elements are stunning and the plot is definitely interesting. There is just one problem, but admittedly it is a big one: It is very monotone.The same scenario and conversations are repeating themselves every episode over and over, so if that is something that annoys you, you might want to stay away from it, however if you can get through the first 6-8 episodes, you will be pleasantly surprised as the ending is worth waiting for.If not for the repetitions i'd probably give it an 8 or 9.

So Jigoku shojo or 'Hell Girl' as it's known in English, I found to be an enjoyable series. I'll admit that the first 10/15 episodes -so most of series 1- follow a shortly recognisable narrative. Someone is clearly being mistreated or hurt by another, so through the "hell communication" they write on the website the name of their tormentor, and the Hell Girl will take revenge for them. There are 2 series after this and they delve into the back story much more and we finally learn more about the Hell Girl -how she came to be- and her assistants.Overall give it a chance it's worth a watch, the character of Hell Girl is one of my favourites out of all the anime series I've watched. I'd stick to watching it subbed- the dub isn't great. The animation is very lovely too.

Especially from the aspect of enjoyment this show is real hell. Every single episode presents an enclosed story where we can ALWAYS see new characters that can be right away fitted into a pigeon-hole of a victim and a villain, and that ALWAYS evolves according to the same pattern. In the end, Enma Ai — Jigoku Shoujo — intervenes like "deus ex machina" to resolve the story saying ALWAYS the same phrase. Since this pattern never changes, it becomes terribly boring after some while, regrettably, we are to suffer it to the very end, because of the absence of any continual story. Moreover, we don't learn anything much about Enma Ai, nor about her partners from the hell ride. The animation itself is very good, as well as music by Takanashi Yasuharu which is well worth listening to. Weaker characters that can be driven crazy by boredom from the monotony are not recommended to watch it.