“When one person is cursed, two graves are dug…..”

Lately I’ve been following the anime series of Jigoku Shōjo routinely on Animax channel. In Jigoku Shōjo, each episode has separate unrelated stories that follow the same pattern: they describe the suffering of a different individual caused by one or more antagonists. A website known as Jigoku Tsūshin (Hell Correspondence) may only be accessed at midnight by one who harbours a desire for revenge against their tormentor. Should someone submit the name of one they hate, the Jigoku Shōjo (Hell Girl) will offer them a black straw doll with a red string wound encircled on its neck. If the string is pulled, she will ferry the recipient of the revenge with the help of her three assistants straightaway to Hell

Seems like a generous offer from Hell, huh? Not really.

The Hell Girl will only deliver the vengeance under the condition that those who request her intervention fall into Hell as well at the end of their natural lives.

Now that is a bad deal!

Even the Hell Girl herself always warn her client-to-be about the consequence of having their vengeance delivered. By going to hell for eternity, they would never know what paradise is like. Furthermore, their soul would be tormented for the rest of their lives on earth everytime they remind themselves that they will surely go to hell after they die.

Sometimes I couldn’t help but sympathise for the Hell Girl’s clients as they were forced into pulling the red string when they were stuck. In most cases, such help from the Hell Girl could’ve simply been prevented by putting behind what the tormentor had done to him/her and “Forgive and Forget”…

Let’s take one case.

In an episode, a schoolgirl is stalked by a police officer. It firstly seemed innocuous enough, as the girl’s parents simply gave the girl more protection in order to prevent bad things happen to her.

However, things turned for the worse when the stalker police murdered the girl’s father and tried to rape and murder as the girl was then unguarded. Being stuck without any help, she then pull the string that she obtained from the Hell Girl earlier...

Now if I were that girl, I would’ve defended myself against that stalker. Even if in the end I got raped and killed, at least I would die peacefully knowing that I could go straightly to Heaven, you know, being young and had done no grave sins before..

But if the luck was on my side, then the stalker could die in vain and I’d report his death to the authorities as a result of my self-defence…

That’s a much more logical thinking.

At least the possibility of me going to hell wouldn't be 100%, then.