Hell Girl, pull the scarlet thread, you know you want to!
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Asian Horror, Horror Animation
Over the years I have copped a little bit of flak from friends who do not understand my love for Anime. ‘Why do you watch cartoons?’ they ask, well its because ‘insert explanation of Anime’s artistry and in depth story telling’, this discussion is usually pointless, however if drunk may end in a ’suck my balls’ comment from yours truly! Today I want to introduce you to a wicked little lass who I have been watching intently for the past week, her name is Ai Enma aka Hell Girl!
Hell Girl is an Anime which first aired in Japan in 2005 and from her web presence has a large following of fansites, merchandise and Cosplay look a likes.
Hell Girl is called upon via an internet page called the ‘Hell Correspondence’ to wreak vengeance for those who have been wronged. The victims can only find the web page at midnight, whereby they then type in the name of their oppressor. If their cause is just, Hell Girl presents them with a straw doll which has scarlet thread around its neck. If the victim chooses to pull the thread then their enemy is carted off to the depths of hell by Hell Girl and her team (which includes a spunky young man, a wise old sage who chain smokes and a busty raven haired woman dressed in an extremely loose kimono) in a nightmare fashion in order to try and teach them the error of their ways. However there is a price, there must always be a price. If you choose to pull the scarlet thread when you die, your soul will also go to Hell, so the choice is yours, would you pull the thread?
Hell Girl and her crew!
The season I watched was 26 episodes long, now I don’t know how many of you out there are Anime fans? So lets be honest, sometimes when these series go on for more than 12-15 episodes they can go a bit loopy, lets say tangential. All of a sudden there is a fifth dimension, a doppelganger or a giant robot that enters the fray and you are as confused as all crap left wondering what happened. This is not the case with Hell Girl. Even though at some points the whole carrying souls off to hell bit got repetitive (see below for clip), about halfway through not only did the methods of teaching the condemned souls a lesson become more horrific (my favourites are in the episodes ‘Island Woman‘, ‘The Night Among Traveling Entertainers’ and ‘Bride Doll’) we start to see the story unravel as to how Ai Enma came to be Hell Girl.
The use of traditional Japanese imagery such as cherry blossoms, strong red and brown Autumn leaves, Japanese costuming; juxtaposed with the frenetic city dwellers is striking both visually and is reflected in the narrative throughout the series. The tension characters feel between their duty, their sorrow and the traditional versus the present is constantly conveyed in the stories of each victim and eventually Hell Girl herself.
This is not hard core Anime horror, like ‘Wicked City‘ there are no women with teeth in their vagina’s who turn into giant spiders (I’ll review that some other time, the spider chick rocks!). Hell Girl is a more subtle, haunting style of horror, playing on people’s desire for vengeance and exposing the evil’s that human kind perpetrate on each other, delivering the unique yet eternal cost that hell provides.
Ms Harker
Tags: Asian Horror, Horror Animation, Japanese Horror
2 Responses to “Hell Girl, pull the scarlet thread, you know you want to!”
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Musings Across A Continuum » Blog Archive » Horror Anime: Blossom, Butterflies and Breasts… Oh and food. Says:
August 28th, 2009 at 11:00 pm[...] I have been watching some new horror Anime of late as you have read I was in rapture with ‘Hell Girl‘ and am now becoming intoxicated with ‘XXX [...]
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Shinta Says:
October 10th, 2009 at 1:15 pmJigoku Shojo is my favourite anime. I like this anime, but this is too horror.
