Summary:
Watanabe, a supposed esper, is confronted during a television performance by a sinister boy named Jill du Ronfaire. After watching Watanabe fail at trying to attack him with his nonexistent powers, Jill shows off his genuine abilities by making an illusion in Watanabe’s mind of an alternate dimension (hell). Watanabe’s body in the real world ends up flailing around like an idiot. Ai’s companions, who are investigating the Shibata home, see Tsugumi and Hajime watching the show. From the eavesdropping, they learn about Tsugumi’s visions of Ai. Jill’s mention that Watanabe is getting a glimpse of hell grabs both Ichimoku Ren and the Shibatas’ attention. After the program, Jill reveals to the producer his plan to use Watanabe to lure out the Jigoku Shoujo.
When Hajime visits the studio and tries to warn Jill about the Jigoku Shoujo, the boy responds by giving him a vision where his wife’s gravestone comes flying at him. Although it happens very quickly, Hajime realizes from the experience that Jill has some real powers. Going forward with his plan, Jill confines Watanabe and plants a computer in front of him with the Jigoku Tsuushin page already up. Following the cue, Watanabe enters Jill’s name and summons the Jigoku Shoujo in front of all the cameras. After Ai appears and goes through the usual speech, Jill reveals himself. To protect herself from the cameras, Ai quickly brings out Ichimoku Ren and Hone Onna. The two wreck havoc on the production crew, but Jill eventually uses his powers to lock the two into place. With it now being just him and Ai, Jill reveals that he went to Hell because of his parent’s fear of his abilities, but then he came back and slaughtered them. Those words trigger Ai’s memories of sakura trees and a scene of herself falling down.
Jill starts beating on Ai by throwing her around the room with his powers. He holds her down in a cross position, puts a frilly dress on her, and then burns her. However, Ai doesn’t die that easily and emerges from the flames unhurt. Watanabe, who’s been watching the entire time, finally starts to threaten to pull the string. Jill doesn’t think he can do it, but Watanabe goes and proves him wrong. A giant hand comes crashing through the glass and grabs Jill, who soon finds himself embedded in a painting while being gnawed on by demon forms of his parents and teachers. Even as he’s traveling down the river to hell, Jill promises that he’ll be back for a rematch. After Ai returns to her own world, she has another vision of her past. There’s a jingle from inside, and her grandmother tells her that there’s another request, so Ai gets up. But in front of her appears a young boy. The fleeting vision causes her to drop her shakuhachi in shock.

Wow, not only is this a very exciting episode, but they also have started to show Ai’s past. The key words about Jill slaughtering his family are the ones that seem directly to trigger Ai’s memories. The clues we get out of this episode are the sakura trees, Ai falling backwards, and the boy at the end, none of which really make senses right now. I’m betting that from next week onward, they’ll reveal a little bit each episode about her past until we get to the final ones. I also think that AI’s grandmother/the spider will end up being one of the major obstacles/enemies against Ai in whatever ultimately happens. Ai’s helpers already know enough to not talk in front of the spider about Ai’s connection with Tsugumi, making the spider seem like a sinister overlord.
Another conventional episode for next week, but it will hopefully have some good Ai revelations 🙂
つづく

19 Comments

  1. Ai cosplaying as Shinku…

    I have found my happy place. 😀 It’s about bleeding TIME they did something with Ai and the rest of her team, though, besides go through the usual ‘send person X to Hell’ story.

    Haesslich
  2. I liked this episode 😀 I liked how Watanabe called Ai ‘Ai-tan’ XD Beginning of Ai’s fanclub?
    Btw, I think Jill’s whole name is ‘Jill de l’enfer’, ’cause he said that his name meant ‘Jill from the hell’ en ‘de l’enfer’ means ‘from the hell’ in French. Pretty weird name :p.
    I want to know the secret behind the spider. Only 6 (or 4?) episodes left…

    Mayuna
  3. Wikipedia has a complete entry for Jigoku Shoujo, listing also the titles for all of the episodes along with their kanji transcription and air date.

    They have the episode titles listed up to twenty-five:
    21. A Kind Neighbor (airs next week)
    22. The Rain of Regret (airs on March 7th)
    23. The Hospita’s Ward Light (airs on March 14th)
    24. The Twilight Home (airs on March 21st)
    25. Hell Girl (airs on March 28th, presumably the final episode)

    What’s interesting are the titles for 24 and 25 episodes. Somehow could hint at Ai’s full story of her past. Twenty-five is self explanatory by its title, and twenty-four likely means to the place where Ai and her grandmother live in.

    Guido
  4. Hypernova, implications would be.

    Tradition Yukata Ai T-Shirts
    Gothic Loli Ai T-Shirts
    Hell Shoujo Ai Fragrance Line

    And Ai’s site getting more hits then normal causiong the system to go down.

    Xellos-_^
  5. yeah re and hone-onna do looks like they are a couple cute one actually but wouldn’t that be weird coz they are like a it opposies?! ren is well…. sporty onna prefers to use brains and she ain’t as playful as ren and ren seems a bit perverted in episode 24

    Show Spoiler ▼

    and ren is kinda goofy and onna is kinda serious often times
    also Ren runs fast Onna doesn’t and ren is like the stupid horny male (bu a cute one) while HoneOnna is like the serious, smart, sexy office person how would they match?! i mean we’d have to stretch the measures for that won’t we Sarah i mean they are total opposites how’d they match?! ne?? hehehe ren is blue onna is red! opposites i tell you opposites!

    Wanyuudo

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