Toon Zone Talkback - "Hell Girl" Vols. 1-4: Beautiful, But Oh-So-Repetitive

[Ed Liu]

This is the talkback thread for "Hell Girl" Vols. 1-4: Beautiful, But Oh-So-Repetitive (http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=22121).

http://news.toonzone.net/images/2008-02/HellGirl/splash-hellgirllg.jpg

Oddly enough, I think I found one post around here someplace that loved this series for exactly the reasons why I don't like it, and hated the things I liked about it. I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned there somewhere.

-- Ed

[GWOtaku]

I tried watching this at Katsucon, and to be frank I can't stand it. In the first place the very premise of people stupidly agreeing to go to hell to solve a temporary problem is one I find disagreeable on religious grounds, so it was at a disadvantage in my book to start with. I could also tell it was following the strict formula Ed was talking about to a fault, and I'm amazed to know that it's like this for practically the whole season and could well go on just that way for even longer. It doesn't even matter what a given person's situation is, after 2-3 episodes of Hell Girl you know exactly how every episode is going to play out.

There's a word for this, and it's called boring. Or trite, dull, insipid, pick your favorite analogy. The only way it stays fresh is if you enjoy seeing the wicked person of the week getting horrified out of his or her mind, so I guess maybe sadists would enjoy this. How did this get another season?

In short, easily the worst beautiful series I've ever seen. Its a shame such gorgeous animation was wasted on such weak storytelling.

[bigdeath]

Hell Girl has become its own small industry in Japan, spawning two more seasons of the animated show, a manga, and a live-action version. I am hard pressed to understand why

Well, that just means its not you cup of tea. Plenty of people can't understand why star trek is so popular and you can give an endless rant on the many flaws of star trek but that does change the fact plenty of people love it. Hell girl is the same; you may not understand why but its certainly doing something very right to earn its popularity.

Believe it or not but some people don't have a problem with the Episodic nature of these types of shows and in fact enjoy it.

No offense but I don't like a review from someone who doesn't enjoy the genre/style of a show. Its like read a review of star trek from someone who doesn't like sci-fi. And star terk was quite episodic where most episodes are stand alone but you can see the characters interact and prehaps grow. If you don't like episodic shows then Hell Girl is not for you. If you don't mind an epsodic type show then Hell Girl is about as high quality as you can get so feel free to take a look.

[GWOtaku]

Yeah, just be aware that any episode is basically interchangeable with another one. That just kills the deal for me, but maybe others don't mind.

[bigdeath]

The only way it stays fresh is if you enjoy seeing the wicked person of the week getting horrified out of his or her mind

That reminds me of star trek where every epsiode is some new planet that doesn't effect the crew in any way after the episode.

Opps, I guess this was a pointlessly repeative post. Slightly ironic given the discussion, eh? :sweat:

[Karl Olson]

Eh, the target audience was 5-11 year old girls (it ran in Nakayoshi, same mag which ran Cardcaptor Sakura and Kamichama Karin,) which may explain the formulaicness of it.