Hell Girl (season 1): anime review

Title: Hell Girl (season 1)
Genre: horror, drama, supernatural
Released date: October 4, 2005 – April 4, 2006
Episode: 26
Director: Takahiro Omori
Animated by: Studio Deen
Comment: Hell Girl can be disturbingly depressing at times that I do not recommend it to anyone who has had a bad day or is having suicidal idea. Nevertheless, Hell Girl is by all means worth watching. The series markedly differ from other animes. Instead of straightly telling the story of the main character, each episode of Hell Girl tells different stories of newly introduced characters while continuously building and developing on the same issues.

Enma Ai, aka Hell Girl, had suffered when she was alive and in the afterlife she remained between the world of the living and the dead. Typically, the person who needs an immediate revenge against someone will ask Ai for help by sending the name to Ai via e-mail. Enma Ai will send the requested person to hell on one condition that the person who made the request must also go to hell but only after he or she dies. Most of the early episodes are presented in similar pattern; the obviously bad guy hurts the innocent victim, blinded by grief and anger, the victim turns to Enma Ai for quick revenge which leads to somewhat satisfying ending. It seems like those who do evil things are punished just as they deserves. But about half way into the series, many interesting things starts to surface. The story gets more complex; the characters shows more than one aspects, the themes are less black-and-white and Hell Girl’s action doesn’t look as good as it initially did. In the second half, the series try to demonstrate the flaws of Hell Girl’s idea and it is subtly done. In one episode a girl condemns a veterinarian to hell for abusing and killing many animals including her beloved dog. It is just tragic to see a naïve girl pay terrible price for something like this. There are hundreds of other ways to deal with the problem but the girl fails to see them. In the other episode a kind woman is sent to hell by a mentally disturbed man. The two recurring characters, Hajime and Tsugumi, are cleverly used to provide arguments against Enma Ai’s actions and gives the viewers some sense of continuation between each episodes.

I like this anime because it lets me see the world from many aspects and it gets my thoughts running all the time. The anime does not give conclusion about which person is right or whether Ai’s action is decent but the viewers must use their own judgments. The animation quality and original soundtrack are very well done. Some people may feel that the series lack real ending. Conclusion: Despite some repetition and extremely depressing mood, each episode of Hell Girl is great on its own and the series as a whole are powerful and thought-provoking.

Rating: B+

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Black Cat: anime review

Title: Black Cat
Genre: action, fantasy, sci-fi
Released date: 6 October 2005 – 30 March 2006
Episode: 24
Director: Shin Itagaki
Animated by: GONZO Studio
Comment:When I started watching Black Cat, I knew I could not expect anything like depth, originality or even rationality from it. The anime was supposed to give us a good time and that should be enough. Nevertheless, I was disappointed. Creating fun and exciting anime is not as easy as it sounds. Black Cat is about a group of weird people; Train Heartnet (aka Black Cat) the former ruthless assassin, Sven Vollfied the sweeper, Eve the genetically modified nano-girl and Rinslet Walker the famous thief. The anime takes us along their adventure to hunt down criminals and ultimately save the world. Before I share my opinion about the series, I must tell you that I haven’t read the manga version of Black Cat. I watched it with no prior knowledge about the characters or the story and that’s not my fault, of course. To me, the show hardly made any sense.

Train is a cold-blooded assassin for reasons never shown in the anime except for one brief flashback scene in which Zagine, Train’s trainer, appeared and that doesn’t provide any additional information about Train’s past. Later he meets Saya, the sweeper with, again, no details but that she wears yukata all the time. They converses briefly on the rooftop a few times and Train suddenly turns into a typical merciful, kind-hearted hero. I knew I have said many times that character development was always important but this miraculously swift transformation of Train just didn’t work. As for Sven, how he acquires his special ability to see into the future and his relationship as a father figure to Eve are quite interesting but, sadly, he spends most of his screen time as a mere comic relief. I think he lacks involvement to the story. The world renowned thief, Rinslet, appears to have no motive. We see her searching for some intelligent all the time and she shows up out of the blue now and then for no good reason. Ironically, Eve who is the least human of all the main characters shows most emotion and complexity of normal human. She is genetically-engineered girl who is regarded by her creator as a deadly weapon. She then learns to be loved and love others in return after she meets Sven. The other minor characters possesses various unique super powers but none of them does anything but give us occasional colorful battle scenes.

The series do have the main plots, Train’s and Eve’s, but it wanders aimlessly away too often. New insignificant people shows up all the time while the main characters hardly progress further. The worst part of the show is its climax. When Eve is turned into Eden and her conscious trapped inside, all the characters from previous episodes show up to help save the day. It is not so bad to see familiar faces again but the contexts behind these people are too thin. The viewers hardly know who they are, how do all of them come to the right place and time and why do they have to be there. Maybe they are just good people and want to save the world. I need something more than that. The redeeming qualities of the anime are the thrilling action sequences and funny moments and probably the use of opera music during battle scenes. The animation is average in general. Conclusion: Black cat may be entertaining to young viewers who are easily dazzled by flashy and energetic scenes. But to more mature viewers, it is a messy work.
Rating: D+

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