Jigoku Shoujo – 05

Summary:
Enma Ai has been getting several messages recently from one source that read “Please Help” instead of a name. The source of those messages is Urano Misato and her boss, Riho, who is the president of a growing company called Deadline. Riho wants to become acquainted with the Jigoku Shoujo in order to advance her own company. Because of this, Ai and her companions have started to investigate them. They learn that Misato is a high school student working for Riho and that the two are supposedly relatives. After Riho reminds Misato of a shoplifting incident, Ichimoku Ren and Wanyuudo do some digging and find out that Misato was caught shoplifting, but it resulted in her working for Riho instead of the police being notified. But as it turns out, Misato has plans of her own: she has a video of Riho telling someone to target a person who now happens to be dead. But Riho catches her with this video and unravels the plot. Misato’s father apparently also worked for Riho, but she had him killed before he could go to the police. Misato’s real name is Tamura Misato, and Riho suspects that the whole shoplifting thing was on purpose so that Misato get into the company. When Riho sends her henchman to shoot Misato, Misato triggers the fire alarm and runs out, hiding in a cubicle block. She hears the clock chime midnight and takes the opportunity to use the Jigoku Tsuushin. After immediately being transported to the alternate red world where Ai offers her the doll, a desperate Misato pulls the string right then and there. Riho gets taken to her past, when she found her boyfriend in the arms of another woman. She bludgeoned him to death and stabbed the woman repeatedly with her umbrella. Riho is determined at this point to win the game of life, even if she has to sacrifice everyone else. But then her own torture begins as the bodies get back up and tell her that she’s first to be sacrificed. She runs out of the room and is chased by Ai, who then sends her to hell. After Riho’s disappearance, Misato takes over everything of hers. As she’s taking in the view from her office, Misato thinks about her eventual trip to hell. But then she remembers Riho’s words about having fun until the game of life is over, and a smirk creeps onto her face.

Ok, the plot on this episode is quite complex (and surprisingly violent). It seems to me that there are several layers of plotting and backstabbing going on. Riho is obviously the main villain here, stepping on anybody who gets in her way, including her (ex)boyfriend and Misato’s father. But Misato herself isn’t quite the angel either. She shares a lot of Riho’s qualities in the sense she will also do what’s necessary to achieve her goals, even sacrificing her own soul after death to get rid of Riho. You might argue that it’s a desperate situation at that point (since Riho has a guy chasing her with a gun), and you’d be right, but the end result has her pretty happy with how it all turned out. Or maybe she’s just deluding herself the same way Riho was after she killed her boyfriend…
I mentioned above that this episode is violent, but that’s only during the scene where Riho is stabbing her boyfriend’s lover. The squishing noises as she repeatedly stabs the girl and the blood spray is surprising mainly because it’s a step up from what we have been seeing. I can’t even call it gory, but it did catch me off guard.
I keep saying this every week, but I hope that the stories continue to evolve in a blurred-line-between-good-and-evil sort of way, especially since we’re working with sending people to hell deals that are getting closer and closer to Death Note ethics.