"When one is cursed, two graves are done".

When I first saw the trailer for this in Animax, my first impression was that it's a horror/suspense anime. Quite a mile away from the usual mix of mecha and fire balls and the cutesy stuff. I thought it was made because of the emergence of novel Japanese films like The Ring. But as I gradually went by episode by episode, I found myself quite intrigued.

When I watched the first few, I already saw a pattern:
- someone wants revenge
- Emma Ai, aka "The Hell Girl", will offer a chance for instant vengeance, i.e. the subject will be immediately sent to hell (maybe after a few moments of torment)
- Emma will also explain the price -- that the one who invoked the vengeance has his/her soul sent directly to hell as well. A black straw doll with a red string will be given as the trigger.
- at the last moments, the red string is pulled off
- the subject is sent to hell

This is sort of justified by the fact that the people who were sent to hell were understandably horrible people. That by moral standards, are deemed "evil".

Emma Ai, would go, "You have caused men great pain and suffering. I will show you what death is". Subsequently followed by a visual sequence of her ferrying the victim on a river flowing in a bleak landscape.

Sounds boring and predictable right?

Then what if the person whom vengeance will be layed upon is not really deserving of the punishment? Enter a journalist whose daughter can see through the eyes of Emma trying to stop all these people from pulling the red string that binds the contract with the hell girl. A teacher with good intentions for his student ... a responsible mayor who has to deal with danger at every turn ... these were the subject of vengeance by people who has a narrow-minded view of the situation.

The part that intrigues me as well, is the history of Emma herself. In one of the series epilogues, there seems to be a part that will say something about the hell girl.

Stay tuned.