Jigokuraku Season 2 – 02

Hell’s Paradise has always hovered right around the cut line for me. The first season won the Patron Pick ballot and I certainly wasn’t sorry it did, but I can’t say for certain I would have covered it if it hadn’t. It’s going to sink or swim on its own merits now, since I decided the Patron Pick was a once-per-franchise kind of deal. Based on where we are with this season I absolutely can’t say whether I’ll be sticking with it or not – Jigokuraku is right in its usual ‘tweener zone.

This was a pretty nice episode, which certainly helps. Choubee remains an interesting character (thanks in no small part to his seiyuu) – is he an out and out villain or something more like a randomizing element? If Mei hadn’t interfered in his fight with Gabimaru (giving herself an all-around level up in the process) it’s very possible both of them would have died right there.

Gabi probably would have anyway, if Sagiri hadn’t intervened against his will to loan him some Tao. She’s coming off as almost impossibly selfless – she’s obviously in love with him but resigned to helping him get back to his wife. Thanks to her Gabimaru does regain some of his memories – not least that his wife’s name is Yui. I’m still not convinced she’s actually alive (though I do think she is/was real) but if that’s what he needs to push himself forward, so be it. That motivation to find the elixir of life pushed him to follow through with the original mission, even as events dictate a smarter move would be to head for the hills.

The dynamic among this group is starting to gel, and each of them is finding a narrative niche to fill. Both Fuchi and Gantetsusai are entertaining characters. What role is Touma to play in all this, now that he’s attached to their group (even in prisoner status)? That’s one of the interesting questions these first two episodes have laid out.

Kaya-chan wa Kowakunai – 02 

I think we can say after two episodes that Kaya-chan wa Kowakunai definitely has some meat on its bones. There’s substance here, and nerve too – and with Ikehata Hiroshi in charge execution was never in question. The manga is ongoing and relative new, so likely we’re going to get some sort of non-ending, and likely a “read the manga” one. But there’s the kernel of something interesting here to be sure.

These sorts of series often have a “the real horror is humans” element to them, and that seems to be a part of Kaya-chan’s lexicon. There is a spirit this week – and a pretty creepy one too. But most of the episode is focused on humans. Like the one Kaya’s classmate Saku-chan always sees staring at the passing students from the upstairs window of the house with the blue roof. Sakuya is convinced she can see ghosts and that this is one of them. That’s not the case of course, and what’s really going on in that house seems way worse than a random haunting. But Saku-chan doesn’t know that, so Kaya’s admiration for her willingness to speak the “truth” is perfectly valid.

There’s also the suspicious man seen talking to kids around the park. He’s no ghost, and may not even be a bad guy, but he’s definitely suspicious. This is where the spirit factors in though, as there’s one around the park trying to get kids to follow it by posing as their parent. The suspicious man names it kamikakushi (“spirited away”) and it seems obvious wherever it wants to take the children is not a place they should be going. It first goes after Kaya’s classmate Kazu-chan by appearing as her mother, and then Kaya herself – first as her father, then her mother. And Kaya is fooled at first, too, which shows that her ghost radar is certainly not infallible.

As for the man, he’s an occult otaku named “Osamu Mobu” – which sounds as fake as it gets. He later gives his business card identifying himself as an occult journalist to Chie-sensei. At some point in the past Kaya-chan apparently saved him from a vengeful spirit, which may be why he’s now an occult journalist and is definitely why he worships Kaya. Mobu is seemingly well-meaning but there’s something very off about him, and my sense this could turn into one of the darker elements of the story. It’s all quite interesting, and more than enough to hook me in for at least another week.