Hell Girl - Vol. 1 Review

The Story

            As the story of this anime goes, there is a secret message board that can only be accessed at midnight. Upon accessing the message board, a person can post about the person that they have a grudge against and revenge will be extracted by a mysterious girl named Ai but it comes at a steep price.

            In the first episode, a school girl named Mayuki has the fundraising money that was entrusted to her stolen by a classmate. When another class mate, Aya Kuroda, loans her the money to replace it and then starts extorting her for more, Mayuki posts her grudge.

            In the following episodes, the audience will be shown four more stories that follow that theme including: a high school girl who is being stalked and wants to extract revenge, a high school baseball star with an ego (and talent) the size of Japan tries to pin a homicide on another player, a veterinarian who kills the pet dog of a little girl due to paying more attention to living a high class lifestyle and then finally an episode that focuses on a case that even Ai doesn’t want to deal with involving a business woman who is willing to sell her soul to take her business to new levels and profits.

Good and the Bad 

The character design is hauntingly beautiful. Ai and the cast of characters that are paraded through this volume are all so visually striking that it’s hard to even look away sometimes. All of the animation in this volume used very bright colors, even the scenes with Ai at her home reading messages were always lit with an eternal sunset that made Ai glow in a way that seemed ironic yet appropriate.

            Moving past that straight into the characters themselves, Ai Enma is a deeply disturbing character. When Ai stared into the camera, I actually had trouble looking away. The gaze and expression on her face was very intense. The supporting cast around Ai is instantly intriguing to me as well. Wanyuudo, the older man in a fedora, was the first to be introduced by name but there’s also another younger man that I never caught the name of, her grandmother and another woman. I really wish that these characters had been referred to by name a bit more often and that they had received a bit more screen time but there is still plenty of time to get to know them.            

            When watching this volume, the audience is going to know by the end of the first episode exactly what to expect from the rest of the volume. There is very little comedy in this series but the jokes that they do throw in are quite funny. This is a horror/drama series though, there is absolutely no mistaking that and they do a great job of getting inside their audience’s mind. Excellent job on the part of the staff to create something that was able to sneak into my mind so easily and under the radar.

            Not every episode on this volume is stellar though. Episode 3 was a little weak and I really thought that the revenge delivered could’ve been a bit harsher. Episode 4 was heart breaking though and by halfway through the episode I was absolutely prepared for Ai to step in and deliver vengeance on the veterinarian. 

Music  

            The background music of this album is very well composed in most places that run the gauntlet from classical to choral to more traditional music. The only place that I could really tell that the music was poorly done was in the final scene of the volume but the music in that scene is so subdued and buried under dialogue that it’s amazing that even I noticed it so most audience members will likely not even notice that music in the background.

Dub vs. Sub

            Brina Palencia as Ai was really creepy. I mean really creepy. I mean Brina absolutely rocked in this role and I can’t wait to hear more from her. Most of the dub cast actually did fabulously and I didn’t hear any performances that really struck me as ‘bad’ or ‘poorly performed’.

            Having said that though, I have to say that I preferred the Japanese cast for this series. It wasn’t that the dub cast was bad but the lines that were spoken and the situations that were being presented just seemed so much more natural in the original Japanese.

Extras

            The extras that do stand out would be a ‘making of’ video and some mini character profiles which highlight Ai and her crew: Ichimokuren the spy, Hone Onna the beautiful woman with a secret about her true form and Wanyuudou the old man in the fedora.                     

Overall

            I didn’t know what to expect from this series when I started but within five episodes I’m sold. While normally a volume that is presented in this way would get a lower score from me, the visually stunning characters and mentally disturbing story makes me want to see more until I know the secrets that Ai is keeping about herself and the crew that she surrounds herself with. If you’re looking for the next great horror anime, this might possibly be it.