Jigoku shôjo
Tags: revenge, cruelty, murder, violence

Plot synopsis:
Each episode typically follows the format of a self-contained short story where a person has been suffering torment from an acquaintance to the point that he or she accesses the Hell Correspondence website and submits a request to get rid of the person. Ai Enma, the Hell Girl, appears, and presents a doll with a red string on its neck that can send the named antagonist to Hell. When the string is pulled, Enma and her companions then torment the antagonist, offering a last chance to repent (which is usually refused), and ferries them to Hell. The price of the contract is that the person making the request will also have to go to Hell after his or her life is over.
Starting with the eighth episode, Hajime Shibata, a former journalist who has resorted to taking scandal photos to blackmail people, begins investigating the rumors surrounding the Hell Correspondence website, and discovers that people are literally being dragged to Hell. His daughter, Tsugumi, is somehow able to see Enma. As the series progresses, they become conflicted on whether they should intervene to save the people involved. In the second season, a mysterious young girl from Hell, named Kikuri, is introduced. Kikuri is able to travel freely between Earth and the Twilight realm where Enma resides. Later, the plot centers around Takuma Kurebayashi, a boy who is blamed by his townsfolk for causing disappearances around the town that are, in reality, caused by the townsfolk using the "Hell Correspondence" website. In the third season, Kikuri returns to recruit Enma's assistants along with a yōkai named Yamawaro, who accepts an old offer from Enma to become her fourth assistant. The story follows Enma's mysterious possession of a young schoolgirl, Yuzuki Mikage.
=== Hell Correspondence ===
The medium through which a client contacts Ai Enma has changed over the centuries. Initially clients would write the names of whom they hated on an ema, which later changed to sending a letter to the address appearing in a three-column newspaper advertisement only visible to those with enough hatred. Once the internet became available, people could access the "Hell Correspondence" website, otherwise known as the "Hotline to Hell." Soon after, the site was adapted into a mobile version that could be accessed from cell phones.
Each medium can only be used at midnight by one who harbors a desire for revenge against their object of hatred. Should someone submit the name of someone against whom they bear a grudge or immense hatred, and their request is accepted, Enma Ai will take them to a realm of perpetual twilight where she offers them a straw doll, which is one of her companions, with a red string wound around its neck and describe to the client the details of their contract. Should the client pull the string tied around the doll's neck, Enma Ai will ferry the target of the revenge straightaway to Hell. However, once the client's life has ended, he/she will also go to Hell, and a black crest-shaped mark appears on the client's chest to serve as a permanent reminder of their decision to send someone to Hell. However, this mark is no guarantee that the person themselves won't be sent to Hell by another client.

Review: Supposedly a rip-off, but it actually makes you think.
If you have seen the ads and trailers of this show that makes you think of it as a Ringu or Ju-On rip-off, I guarantee that you are at least 80% deceived.
Jigoku Shoujo is a show that takes a cliché subject (where a person or thing with some power offers in sending people you hate off to hell and taking your soul as payment for it) and treats it in such a way that you actually think about it, trust me.
You think about the whole of this selfish human race that thinks nothing but of its own pleasures and comforts, you think about how valuable present circumstances - pleasure or pain is that much important in our lives.
So what if you go to Hell hereafter?
That is in the "distant" future, right?
That is what the people in this show are thinking.
So they call upon poor Ai Enma to do the dirty work, and it is what she was forced to do, whether she enjoyed it or not.
She punishes the guilty.
She ferries them directly off to Hell, but for making her do that (which becomes a mortal sin), the person who made the request is also doomed at the end of his or her natural life.The animation is quite good, the music matches the mood, whether it is sadness or anxiety, and you have an unique show out of a very popular, dismal subject..
The beginning is very repetitive, but it becomes enjoyable towards the second half..
Overall I enjoyed Hell Girl but the first about 10 episodes are really, really repetitive and...
yes...
become even kinda boring at some point.After that rough start the series turns out to be more and more enjoyable though, the animation is beautiful and the grand themes of this Anime were quite interesting: How far are you willing to go for vengeance?
Is vengeance ever the right answer?
Do some people rightfully deserve to go to hell for what they have done?
6/10, solid but not a must see in my opinion.
I would recommend it half-heartedly to people really interested in the story but as I said don't expect to be blown away right from the beginning..
Great!
But do bare with the first few episodes!.
So Jigoku shojo or 'Hell Girl' as it's known in English, I found to be an enjoyable series.
I'll admit that the first 10/15 episodes -so most of series 1- follow a shortly recognisable narrative.
Someone is clearly being mistreated or hurt by another, so through the "hell communication" they write on the website the name of their tormentor, and the Hell Girl will take revenge for them.
There are 2 series after this and they delve into the back story much more and we finally learn more about the Hell Girl -how she came to be- and her assistants.Overall give it a chance it's worth a watch, the character of Hell Girl is one of my favourites out of all the anime series I've watched.
I'd stick to watching it subbed- the dub isn't great.
The animation is very lovely too..
This is real hell!.
Especially from the aspect of enjoyment this show is real hell.
Every single episode presents an enclosed story where we can ALWAYS see new characters that can be right away fitted into a pigeon-hole of a victim and a villain, and that ALWAYS evolves according to the same pattern.
In the end, Enma Ai  Jigoku Shoujo  intervenes like "deus ex machina" to resolve the story saying ALWAYS the same phrase.
Since this pattern never changes, it becomes terribly boring after some while, regrettably, we are to suffer it to the very end, because of the absence of any continual story.
Moreover, we don't learn anything much about Enma Ai, nor about her partners from the hell ride.
The animation itself is very good, as well as music by Takanashi Yasuharu which is well worth listening to.
Weaker characters that can be driven crazy by boredom from the monotony are not recommended to watch it..
Outstanding visuals and dialog.
This anime can be enjoyed by a wide variety of people.
If you are fascinated by the Japanese symbolism or like the thrill of tense moments or enjoy common people finding themselves challenged by supernatural mysteries this one is for you.The dialogs are very clever, the visual elements are stunning and the plot is definitely interesting.
There is just one problem, but admittedly it is a big one: It is very monotone.The same scenario and conversations are repeating themselves every episode over and over, so if that is something that annoys you, you might want to stay away from it, however if you can get through the first 6-8 episodes, you will be pleasantly surprised as the ending is worth waiting for.If not for the repetitions i'd probably give it an 8 or 9..
Quite a good horror anime.
I have to say, I thought this was going to be a sorta comparison to Death Note or even Hear They Cry, it's way far from it.
It's where a girl who has had a bad past, decides to take up as Hell girl and whoever wants revenge, she does the rest to kill them with misery.I have to say, the first episode is pretty tense with a young girl being tormented by the bully girls.
Although it was slow for Hell Girl to be able to get the work going and like as the episode moves on, you do get to see the sweet revenge in development.
I wanna say, it was actually quite satisfying to see the bullies get a taste of their own medicine, although it's better for real to just punish them with serious light discipline rather then have the pits of fire nvolved lol!On the last episode, I nearly was upset by the fact a young girls mother was killed in a car accident and was suppose to take hell revenge on her father, because it was meant to be his fault that it happened to her.
Hell girl begged the young girl to untie the doll in order to get the revenge going but the young girl decided that it can't happen.
I mean watching the scene would really tear you up to the core, it was hard to watch a little girl and her father to break down.
Even thinking about it now makes my eyes watery lolReally good anime, I'm impressed by it and its thrill!