, also known as ''Jigoku Shōjo: Girl from Hell'', is a Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series conceptualized by Hiroshi Watanabe and produced by

SKY Perfect Well Think is a Japanese content production and development enterprise, owned by SKY Perfect Communications, established on July 29, 2004. It is involved in the production, development and distribution of several feature films, anime series, television progr ...

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

, Wakasa Seikatsu, Fujishoji,

Aniplex is a Japanese anime, music production and anime licensee company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Established in September 1995, Aniplex has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime series, such as both ''Fullm ...

and

Studio Deen is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1975 by Sunrise producer Hiroshi Hasegawa and ex-Sunrise animators. The studio owns three subsidiaries: Danny Donghua (丹尼動画), a Chinese sub-contracting studio; Megumi (め組), a digital work sub-c ...

. It is directed by Watanabe and

Takahiro Omori (born June 25, 1965) is a Japanese animator, storyboard writer, and director. He has directed many anime series, including ''Fancy Lala'', ''Koi Kaze'', ''Gakuen Alice'', ''Hell Girl'', ''Natsume's Book of Friends'', ''Baccano!'', ''Durarara!!'' ...

, with Kenichi Kanemaki handling series composition, Mariko Oka designing the characters and

Yasuharu Takanashi is a prolific Japanese composer and arranger for anime and video game series. His anime composition credits include ''Naruto Shippuden'', ''Fairy Tail'', ''Log Horizon'', '' Shiki'', ''Hell Girl'', and ''Record of Ragnarok''. He also composed ...

, Hiromi Mizutani and Kenji Fujisawa composing the music. The series focuses on the existence of a supernatural system that allows people to take revenge by having other people sent to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

via the services of the mysterious title character and her assistants who implement this system. Revenge, injustice, hatred, and the nature of human emotions are common themes throughout the series. It was broadcast across Japan on numerous television stations, including

Animax , stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese animation satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. The channel also dubbed other cartoons in Japanese language. A subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, it is headq ...

, Tokyo MX,

MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepalese politician Places * MBS International Airport (IATA code: MBS), Freeland, Michigan, US * Mari ...

and others, between October 2005 and April 2006. A second season, titled ''Hell Girl: Two Mirrors'', was broadcast from October 2006 to April 2007. A third season, titled ''Hell Girl: Three Vessels'', was broadcast from October 2008 to April 2009. A fourth season, ''Hell Girl: The Fourth Twilight'', was broadcast from July to September 2017.

Plot

Each episode typically follows the format of a self-contained short story where a person has been suffering torment from an acquaintance to the point that he or she accesses the Hell Correspondence website and submits a request to get rid of the person. Ai Enma, the Hell Girl, appears, and presents a doll with a red string on its neck that can send the named antagonist to Hell. When the string is pulled, Ai and her companions then torment the antagonist, offering a last chance to repent (which is usually refused), and ferries them to Hell. The price of the contract is that the person making the request will also have to go to Hell after his or her life is over. Starting with the eighth episode, Hajime Shibata, a former journalist who has resorted to taking scandal photos to blackmail people, begins investigating the rumors surrounding the Hell Correspondence website, and discovers that people are literally being dragged to Hell. His daughter, Tsugumi, is somehow able to see Enma. As the series progresses, they become conflicted on whether they should intervene to save the people involved. In the second season, a mysterious young girl from Hell, named Kikuri, is introduced. Kikuri is able to travel freely between Earth and the Twilight realm where Enma resides. Later, the plot centers around Takuma Kurebayashi, a boy who is blamed by his townsfolk for causing disappearances around the town that are, in reality, caused by the townsfolk using the "Hell Correspondence" website. In the third season, Kikuri returns to recruit Enma's assistants along with a

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as suc ...

named Yamawaro, who accepts an old offer from Enma to become her fourth assistant. The story follows Enma's mysterious possession of a young schoolgirl, Yuzuki Mikage. In the fourth season, the story introduces a new character named Michiru, whom Ai helps realise her fate as a successor to the Hell Girl title.

Hell Correspondence

The medium through which a client contacts Ai Enma has changed over the centuries, however nowadays a website is used. Initially clients would write the names of whom they hated on an ema, which later changed to sending a letter to the address appearing in a three-column newspaper advertisement only visible to those with enough hatred. Once the internet became available, people could access the "Hell Correspondence" website, otherwise known as the "Hotline to Hell". Soon after, the site was adapted into a mobile version that could be accessed from cell phones. Each medium can only be used at midnight by one who harbors a desire for revenge against their object of hatred. Should someone submit the name of someone against whom they bear a grudge or immense hatred, and their request is accepted, Ai Enma will take them to a realm of perpetual twilight where she offers them a straw doll, which is one of her companions, with a red string wound around its neck and describe to the client the details of their contract. Should the client pull the string tied around the doll's neck, Ai Enma will ferry the target of the revenge straightaway to Hell. However, once the client's life has ended, they will also go to Hell, and a black crest-shaped mark appears on the client's chest to serve as a permanent reminder of their decision to send someone to Hell. However, this mark is no guarantee that the person themselves will not be sent to Hell by another client.

Media

Anime

The "Hell Girl" anime series is produced by

and

. The series was created by Hiroshi Watanabe and directed by Takahiro Omori, with scripts by Kenichi Kanemaki. The first season spanned 26 episodes and premiered across Japan on

between October 4, 2005, and April 4, 2006. The second season, , also spanned 26 episodes and aired from October 7, 2006, to April 6, 2007 across Japan on Animax. The third season, , spanning 26 episodes aired from October 4, 2008, to April 4, 2009, on Animax, MBS and Tokyo MX. A fourth season, , spanning 12 episodes, of which the later 6 are rebroadcasts of episodes from previous seasons, aired from July 14 to September 29, 2017, on MBS and Tokyo MX, with the main cast reprising their roles. The first season was also licensed for North American distribution by

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

. The U.S. cable/satellite channel IFC announced in September 2007 that it acquired "Hell Girl" from FUNimation, which then premiered on July 9, 2008.

Section23 Films SXION 23 LLC, doing business as Section23 Films is an American multimedia distributor based in Houston, Texas specializing in releasing anime and Japanese films. Established in 2009, Section23 is one of five successors to ADV Films; alongside Se ...

announced that

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

has licensed the second season, with the first DVD set shipping on May 25, 2010, and the second set on July 27. On June 24, 2010, Section23 Films announced that Sentai has also the third season of "Hell Girl," under the subtitle "Three Vessels". The first set was released on September 28, 2010, followed by the second set released on November 30, 2010. Funimation later dropped the series from internet streaming and home media distribution after reaching the end of the license term in early 2013. The fourth season is licensed by

Aniplex of America Aniplex of America Inc. or Aniplex USA is the U.S. distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an anime and music production company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was established in March 2005 in Santa Monica, California, with the goal o ...

and is set to be streamed on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

and

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

Music

A total of six soundtracks were released by

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

. Two

original soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of ...

albums were released for "Hell Girl". The first album contains twenty-four tracks and was released on January 25, 2006. The second album contains twenty-six tracks and was released on April 19, 2006. Two original soundtrack albums were released for ''Jigoku Shōjo Futakomori''. The first album contains twenty-three tracks and was released on January 24, 2007. The second album contains twenty-three tracks and was released on March 21, 2007. Two original soundtrack albums were released for ''Jigoku Shōjo: Mitsuganae''. The first album contained twenty-eight tracks and was released on December 17, 2008. The second album contained twenty-seven tracks and was released on March 4, 2009.

Manga

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation has featured art by . It has been serialized in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

's ''

Nakayoshi is a monthly ''shōjo'' manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First issued in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 60 years of manga publication history. Notable titles serialized in Nakayoshi include ''Princess Knight ...

'' ''shōjo'' manga magazine since October 2005. The manga was published into three different titles. The first shares the same name of the anime and a total of three volumes were released from January 25, 2006 to October 6, 2008. The manga was originally licensed by

Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing rela ...

, and the first volume was released January 2008. The last three volumes have been released as an omnibus in October 2010. The second manga, titled , released a total of three volumes from March 19, 2009 to November 6, 2009. The third, titled , released a total of eleven volumes from March 19, 2010 to July 15, 2013. A single manga volume, titled was released on April 30, 2014.

Live-action

''Hell Girl'' was adapted into a single

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

television drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

that premiered on

Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

from November 4, 2006 spanning 12 half-hour episodes. The series was directed by Makoto Naganuma. The theme song for the series is "Dream Catcher". The live action adaptation features

Sayuri Iwata is a Japanese actress and former singer. Discography Singles *005.02.23 * 005.03.30 * 005.07.27 * 005.11.09"Thank You for Everything" Albums * 005.05.25 * 005.12.07Thank You For... * 008.06.04Best + DVDs * 006.05.03First Scene ~Sayuri Iwata ...

as Enma Ai,

Kazuki Kato is a Japanese actor, voice actor and singer from Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. He is best known for his role as Daisuke Kazama, also known as Kamen Rider Drake, in ''Kamen Rider Kabuto'' and Keigo Atobe in ''The Prince of Tennis'' musicals. In 201 ...

as Ichimoku Ren,

Aya Sugimoto is a Japanese TV personality, actress, dancer, author, gravure idol and singer born in Kyoto. She also had a J-pop career in the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Career Early life Aya Sugimoto grew up in Kyoto under a "strict" upbringing, making ...

as Onna Hone,

Saaya Irie is a Japanese actress, Voice acting in Japan, voice actress, gravure idol and singer. Her stage name is simply her given name, Saaya. In addition to her modeling work she has recently been appearing in numerous films, radio, and television prog ...

as Shibata Tsugumi, and

Kazuhiko Nishimura is a Japanese actor who is represented by the talent agency Sony Music Artists. Filmography TV series Films References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nishimura, Kazuhiko Japanese male actors 1966 births Living people People from K ...

as Shibata Hajime. A live-action film adaptation, directed by

Kōji Shiraishi is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is primarily known for directing Japanese horror films, most notably '' Noroi: The Curse''. Background Kōji Shiraishi was born and raised in Fukuoka, Japan. After graduatin ...

and distributed by GAGA Pictures and

Constantin Film The Constantin Film AG is a German mini-major film production and distribution company based in Munich. The company, which belongs to Swiss media conglomerate Highlight Communications AG, is a large independent German maker and distributor of pr ...

was released on November 15, 2019.

Video games

''Hell Girl'' has been adapted into a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

entitled , which was developed by

Compile Heart is a Japanese video game developer founded on June 2, 2006 as a subsidiary of Idea Factory. The company was formerly managed by Compile's former executive Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, most well known as the creator of the ''Madou Monogatari'' and ''Pu ...

and released in Japan on September 27, 2007. Compile Heart made a

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

version entitled released on September 17, 2009. A

puzzle game A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle ...

has also been released on the

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

Net DX service for

i-mode NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet (distinct from wireless internet) service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocols, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail, and the packet- ...

-compatible

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

References

External links

* * * (live action) at NTV * {{Nakayoshi Animated television series about monsters Animax original programming Anime and manga about parallel universes Anime and manga about revenge Anime with original screenplays Aniplex franchises Dark fantasy anime and manga Del Rey Manga Famitsu Bunko Fiction about invisibility Fictional characters who have made pacts with devils Funimation Hell in popular culture HJ Bunko Kodansha manga Mainichi Broadcasting System original programming Sentai Filmworks Shōjo manga Studio Deen Supernatural thriller anime and manga Television series about bullying Tokusatsu television series Tokyo MX original programming Witchcraft in anime and manga