Hell Girl was another series Netflix recommended to me based on my previous tastes. With such a frank title, I figured I'd give it a shot. Despite my best judgement, I managed to finish this series and felt let down afterwards.
Hell Girl is an episodic series like Mushi-shi, each episode containing a full story. Hell Girl follows Ai Enma, a spirit who offers revenge to anyone with enough hatred in their heart. There is a basic underlying climax the series builds up to.
Like - The animation was absolutely gorgeous. I don't think I've seen an anime done as well. It had moments of normal animation but during the sequences near the end, where Ai comes to exact revenge, that when we see the best of this series.
Dislike - I didn't enjoy watching this series. I actually started watching this episode and stopped 7 episodes in. Feeling weird about not completing the series, I decided to read the reviews and see what I was missing out. Many reviewers said that it started slow but picked up, with the ending being a great pay off. So I stuck with it, forcing myself each day to watch one episode. When I finally finished this series, I felt completely let down. When watching a series feels like a chore, you know something is wrong. Nothing grabbed me or seemed interesting. The story seemed repetitive, the characters seemed uncompelling. There wasn't anyone I wanted to know more about. If there was, I wouldn't see them past the episode I watched. The Hell Correspondence group added some humor and clarity, but even they seemed distant. The series focused on Ai, whom we are kept at an arms length for so long, I lost interest and concern by the time they revealed her past in the end.
Overall - I don't recommend this series. As I said, it is beautiful to watch. An episode or two can be very interesting and fun but a full 26 episode series just felt so unnecessary. This series could be done with more punch and focus within 13 or even 6 episodes. Drawing things out to 26 though made it very difficult to sit though. I give this 2 out of 5 stars.
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