Plot: Yagisawa is doing everything in his power to get enough money to pay for his ailing wife’s medical treatments. He’s working hard, borrowing money from friends and even resorting to…less than legal means of acquiring funds. When these deeds lead to tragedy, Yagisawa is held under the thumb of one of his partners in crime.
Breakdown: Back to basics here, pretty much. The situation in this episode is very sad, but the target obviously deserves to go to hell. He forced Yagisawa into murdering a guy for him, blackmailing him with his share of the money they stole, then, even after he does the deed, he refuses to pay him. He knows he won’t go to the cops because that’d mean his wife would be without income and without him.
When Yagisawa threatens him by claiming he’ll go to the cops if he doesn’t get his money, already under Hell Girl’s contract, the target decides to go behind Yagisawa’s back, tell his wife what he did and then hold her life hostage in exchange for never approaching him again.
Plus, this time, you don’t feel entirely all that bad for the client because he did kill a man, but you still have quite a bit of leeway for that because he was forced into it and was doing it for his loved one.
Everything he’s done has been for his wife, Chinami, no matter the cost to him. He’s fully prepared to enter into the covenant with Hell Girl because he knows his deeds are going to send him to hell anyway. He’s fine with that, as long as Chinami is cared for as much as possible and this happens after he’s set to naturally die so she’s not without him.
…..So….
Have I mentioned I hate Kikuri?
I haven’t mentioned Kikuri lately because, while she has been in each episode, her presence has moreso been a looming shadow over the story. This is the first episode where she takes an active role in the plot. It’s not much, but she is affecting the plot….in the worst of ways.
First of all, she’s an annoying little brat. Her voice can slice ear drums in half, she does annoying little brat stuff like dump her drink into a vase and beg to go to the potty (Which she doesn’t need to use because she’s not human), and, worse, Ai makes her a special marble bag, stitched by hand, and Kikuri spends zero seconds ripping it to shreds for absolutely no reason. No ‘thank you,’ no nothing, just ‘it got torn up.’
Second of all, Kikuri somehow manipulated Chinami into believing she was her daughter…for whatever reason. Chinami has never had a daughter, just as a note. This in itself isn’t bad, it’s what happens at the very end that pisses me off.
While this could be the work of Chinami’s brain tumor or whatever that is, they never explicitly state, the ending has Chinami completely forgetting Yagisawa and only asking where her daughter is. Meaning Yagisawa has gone through all this pain and suffering and now his wife, by all means, is lost to him, searching for a daughter who doesn’t exist.
I fully believe Kikuri did this to her. It’s the only explanation that makes full sense to me. There’s no reason Kikuri approached this woman to begin with nor to make her believe she was her daughter. There’s also no reason she selectively forgot Yagisawa in his entirety and only remembered this non-existent daughter. Kikuri had to have done this somehow, which means she caused this guy and woman undue pain for no reason.
She also prevented Hone Onna from interfering in the target telling Chinami the truth about Yagisawa. Again, for no reason. It’s been a very long time since I first watched Two Mirrors, and, again, I know Kikuri is sorta, kinda possessed by the Master of Hell, but why is he/she interfering like this? Why is he/she causing more pain than is already bound to happen, other than to be a dick?
This episode could’ve had a mostly sweet, at worst bittersweet, ending, but she made it into a massively tragic ending. I hate that little bug-eyed shit.
Last thing to note is the hell torture, which was pretty cool. It has very creative imagery and I love what they did with Ai right before she took him.
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The Anime Madhouse 