Hell Girl Fourth Twilight Series Review: Half a Series Review?

Posted on by Karandi
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Overview:

So we got half a season of new material and then half a season of re-run episodes, however it had been so long since I’d watched Hell Girl that fact escaped me as I hadn’t really read anything about this series until someone pointed it out. Makes you wonder why they actually bothered.

Review:

The first half of this fourth season of Hell Girl is actually really good. Pretty standard if you’ve watched through Hell Girl, but why mess with a formula that is working. It is all dark and negative and people kind of suck and then someone gets cursed and taken to hell. It works well enough as an episodic narrative even if it isn’t terribly exciting.

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Ai herself remains fairly enigmatic as the central but scarcely seen main character but for the first half of this season we have another girl appearing at the scene. Her story is actually the more interesting part of this as we see how the girl gave in to vengeance and ultimately has now got to become a hell girl. It is an interesting story that comes together in bits and pieces before we get two episodes that more or less finish this plot off.

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That’s the half-way point and up until then I was really enjoying this fourth season, which was odd in itself because while Hell Girl is usually watchable, it isn’t normally all that noteworthy. After that point we returned to business as usual in more ways than even I realised. The stories are all pretty samey and began to feel repetitious, and then I found out they were in fact repeating old stories that I’d just forgotten because I hadn’t paid enough attention back whenever it was I watched this in the first place. While these episodes are marked by the characters sitting around in a bar discussing the case when, so you know when you’ve crossed from new episodes to repeats, you just have to wonder why they couldn’t either make a whole new season or why not just not release a new Hell Girl if they didn’t actually have enough material.

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So judging this on the new episodes, it is actually pretty good. You get the usual round up of suspects. People who are horrible, people who are confused, people who are innocent victims but get pushed over the edge. All of them end up reaching out to Hell Girl for revenge only sometimes I think even they are confused about who they want revenge against and why. For some the hesitation on pulling the string becomes the main point. They want revenge but fear the consequence, whereas in other stories they have been pushed too far and simply want to yank that string as fast as they can.

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As with every season of Hell Girl you could spend a lot of time discussing the nature of vengeance and how it is a double edged sword.

Basically I would recommend the first half of this season. It was actually the most fun I’ve had watching a Hell Girl series to date. But, after that, there’s probably not a lot of point in continuing on.

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Karandi James.

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Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight Episode 10 – Don’t Trust Rumours

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

This episode of hell Girl has the novelty of not really involving a curse. Certainly the main character wanted to curse someone but it turns out that wasn’t needed (for a number of reasons). It gave us a bit of variation from the usual routine.

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Still, they were playing heavily on dramatic irony this week by showing the audience both sides of the story so that we could clearly see where the main character was wrong in his assumptions about the old man. Not to mention, he himself says that he shouldn’t trust rumours after he tried to summon Hell Girl and she didn’t appear. It would seem he should apply that same advice to his understanding of the man’s motive for not selling the house.

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All and all though, the episode, while slightly novel, isn’t overly interesting as we spend a lot of time driving along a dark road. The concept is interesting but the execution is so-so.

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Karandi James.

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Hell Girl Fourth Twilight Episode 8: Delivering Vengeance

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

This episode again starts with all the side characters playing around and then reminiscing on a previous case of revenge. In this case it involved suburban housewives (or I guess they were living in some kind of company compound) pretty much playing petty politics with the Queen of the area making life hell for the new arrival after the new arrival saw her involved in an affair.

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It is a pretty straightforward story really and ends rather predictably. However, it also highlights some real issues as the victim’s husband does not talk to her about what is happening or believe her when she tries to explain anything. The victim’s daughter complains that her family is already ruined, but to be honest with that lack of communication going on between the parents the family wasn’t exactly going well except for superficial appearances anyway.

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All and all, while the story is pretty ordinary this might be an uncomfortable watch for some as this show finds just the right pressure points.

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Karandi James.

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Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight Episode 7: Who’s Fault?

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

This episode starts very strangely but quickly falls into the usual pattern of meet horrible person doing horrible things leading to tragic results, and someone deciding that some sort of justice is needed.

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And it is hard to argue with our would be curser this week. The guy is a jerk. He killed a teammate and blamed another and felt absolutely nothing but smug satisfaction that everything went the way he wanted it to.

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What’s even worse, is that he would have gotten away with it in this case without supernatural intervention. While I feel bad for the guy who ended up calling Hell Girl, I can’t help but think he made the right call given he really didn’t have all that many options left at the point in time. So, the obvious message here is don’t tell silly lies in the first place because if you’d just told the mother what had happened in the first place, everyone would have known who was responsible right from the start.

All and all, a pretty standard episode.

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Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight Episode 6: Another Hell Girl Appears

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

This week is kind of interesting because there’s the normal human revenge story going on (although it is actually an interesting story in its own right) but behind that there is the more interesting story of the spirit of the girl becoming a Hell Girl and accepting that fate. That said, there’s still quite the focus on the revenge story for the human girl who’s father was viciously attacked 5 years ago.

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You have to admit, she knows how to nurse a grudge and even though she has momentary second thoughts she’s one of the more certain customers this season has given us as once the doll is in her hand she barely waits a moment to pull the string.

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Very much enjoyed this episode and learning more about Hell Girl.

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Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight Episodes 2 + 3: Blow Out The Candle Already

Posted on by Karandi
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Review Episode 2:

The main problem with this episode is that even though it starts with someone turning down the contract, you kind of know by the end someone is going to hell (this is the fourth season afterall). So all of the steps in the middle just seem to be stretching content as we march toward the inevitable. All episodic stories that follow formula tend to face this issue but for the most part they overcome this by clever twists or unexpected developments within the formula. Episode 2 here offers none of that other than perhaps that neither character was actually wishing vengeance and despite seeming a bit crazy actually seemed to be trying to grant the other’s wish.

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Because I didn’t really care about either character in this instance, mostly I was just marking time while watching and waiting for the axe to fall. When it finally did, it was really without any kind of pomp or ceremony but more just the expected conclusion. That doesn’t make this bad, but it wasn’t really a particularly interesting episode either.

Review Episode 3:

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Well, that story had a bit more bite to it and while the ending wasn’t totally unexpected, it felt like there was bit more thought put into it. What’s really horrific about this episode isn’t the number of people sent to hell, but more the reality the characters are living before that. Mostly because it isn’t completely unthinkable.

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I liked this episode far more than the second one, but that is mostly because I really wanted to see vengeance carried out this time. Not necessarily sending the characters to hell resulting in a definite mental break for the characters left behind, but some form of justice or intervention that might save the younger characters from the hell they were living in. Overall, it just had far more impact.

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Karandi James.

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Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight Episode 1: People Never Learn

Posted on by Karandi
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Overview:

“Jigoku Tsushin,” a website that only accessible exactly at midnight. If you post a hopeless grudge there, Hell Girl will appear and drag your hated foe into Hell. The rumor sounded like an urban myth, yet it spread among the young people and turned out to be true. The girl’s name is Ai Enma. However, the legend does not speak of the contract with the Hell Girl.

– From Crunchyroll.

Review:

You would think after three seasons people would start realising that this whole cursing people thing is a terrible idea. And yet here we go again. I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan of this franchise and yet I always find it fairly watchable so I’ve picked up this installment not expecting much more than what we’ve already seen but hoping it will keep me suitably entertained.

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This first episode brings us our designated victim of the week and the usual twist where the audience realises that the curser is making a mistake even as we are powerless to prevent them doing something stupid. It is a pretty solid formula and it works even if this show has a tendency to get repetitive.

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However, my biggest issue with this first episode was how quickly the situation escalated. Admittedly, bullying sucks and being cornered can make you do some crazy things, but this went from 0 – 100 almost instantly. It kind of cheapens the conflict when it is being driven by a need to fit it into a single episode rather than by being given the time it needs to properly unfold.

That aside, Hell Girl remains suitably creepy and watchable so I guess I’ll follow along for the season.

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Karandi James.

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