Jigoku Shoujo – 11

Summary:
Kataoka Masaya has had his life ruined by Inagaki Takashi. Inagaki published a piece about Masaya taking drugs and about his father, a politician, taking bribes – scandals which have ripped his family apart. Masaya uses the Jigoku Tsuushin on Inagaki and he goes through the usual routine with Ai. Meanwhile, Hajime is praying in from of his wife’s grave when he receives a phone call. At the same time, his daughter finds herself at the same train tracks that she remembers meeting Ai at. Hajime makes his way to Inagaki’s office where Inagaki tells him to dig up some dirt on another politician. When Inagaki tells him that it’s ok if he fabricates a story, Hajime gets angry and refuses. Downstairs, Hajime runs into Masaya trying to get into the building through the security guard. Masaya explains to Hajime what Inagaki did to him and his family, but Hajime warns him against revenge. Later that night, Tsugumi has a vision and calls to tell Hajime about it. Hajime realizes that it’s of the area he’s currently in. Nearby in an alley, a drunken Inagaki gets threatened by Masaya, who is wielding a broken bottle. Unfortunately for Masaya, Inagaki turns the tables and beats him up instead. Hajime arrives too late for the fight, but in time to ask Masaya about the Jigoku Shoujo. After Masaya explains the deal with the doll, Hajime tells him not to pull the string. Hajime promises to take care of things himself and goes to dig up something on Inagaki. However, he arrives too late to find Inagaki – the string has been pulled and it seems the Jigoku Shoujo has already gotten him. When he returns, Masaya shows Hajime the mark on his chest and tells Hajime that you can’t fix what’s broken.

We’re presented with Masaya, who’s somewhat of an underdog, already scorned character, despite the fact that he and his father are themselves to blame for their past actions. Inagaki may be at fault for exposing them, but there’s a lot of responsibility that Masaya and his father are accountable for, responsibility that wasn’t shown in this episode. Instead, Masaya seems to be, like many others, on a crusade for revenge. Hajime tries to warn him against it, but he still goes through it. Though this episode may not be the best example, I really do like how Jigoku Shoujo shows the protagonists and antagonists in different lights from what you would normally think. However, I do wish they’d show more strong characters that have absolutely no choice but to pull the string for fear of their own life (or end up not pulling the string at all).
As for Tsugumi and Hajime, they’re getting closer and closer to learning everything about Ai and the Jigoku Shoujo system. Hone Onna and Ichimoku Ren have started to notice his meddling, so a confrontation may not be so far off. I’ve still got high hopes that episode 13 will be about Ai and Tsugumi (or just Ai). Guess we’ll have to wait for the preview after next week’s episode.