Plot: Sakura resides at the Lovely Hall retirement home where abuse by the staff is rampant. All of this abuse is orchestrated by the daughter of the head of the powerful Yanohara group who owns the facility, Saeko. Sakura sends a request into Hell Correspondence to send her to hell. However, she struggles with the decision to pull the string while befriending Wanyuudou. Meanwhile, a familiar face tries to help Sakura and the other residents of the Lovely Hall.
Breakdown: Well, talk about another really sad entry where the targets once again remind me of the first two seasons in that they’re just ridiculously evil sacks of moldy feces.
Elder abuse is some unforgivable shit, and these assholes are stone cold awful to these poor people.
There’s something particularly sad about an elderly person using Hell Girl’s services. They have so little of their life left, and unlike a younger person who can have decades of a reasonably happy existence before dealing with their impending trip to hell, elderly clients have to deal with that reality immediately.
Many residents of retirement homes have basically been thrown away by their families. The Hell Team even mentions that this is rumored to be the place where families send off their elderly family members to die. That sounds terrible, but it’s far from unrealistic. So many people wind up spending their, forgive the wording, twilight years all alone at some nursing home just trying to hang on to their dignity while hoping one of their family members will write or call.
The fact that Sakura feels she must use Hell Girl for not just her sake, but the sake of all of the other poor people who are being tormented by these employees and Saeko is heartbreaking to say the least. I loved that they had her and Wanyuudou bond for a bit before she pulled the string. They were absolutely adorable together, and it makes me sad that she couldn’t see him anymore after she pulled the string.
It threw me for a bit of a loop that she had the forethought to bury her journal underneath the cherry tree, protecting it from being found by the staff. What a badass hero. This woman can barely walk, and the dexterity in her hands is particularly bad, but she sneaked out and pulled that off.
Pretty cut and dry story otherwise, barring one note.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back Tsugumi for the last time!
Yup, Tsugumi’s back…..for some reason. I guess they just wanted to toss her in one more time before the franchise ended? But what a weird sendoff. Tsugumi did actually do something in this episode, but they don’t bother showing the results of what she did.
Tsugumi is a caretaker at Lovely Hall, and she knows full well of the abuse going on in the retirement home. However, she can’t do anything about it because Saeko just covers everything up (and partakes in the abuse) and most of the other staff are all partaking in the abuse so they won’t help her. They all just get on her back about trying to speak up and help. Near the end of the episode, Sakura tells Tsugumi as they sit under a cherry tree that she knows there are bodies buried beneath the tree. Tsugumi puts an audio recorder in her wheelchair to record what Saeko and the others are saying as they harass her about the journal they found out she’s been keeping.
Well…..we never see her turn the recording over. We never see any bodies being exhumed from under the tree. We never see the other staff getting punished. For all we know, Tsugumi’s plan didn’t work.
Things supposedly did get better at Lovely Hall after Sakura sent Saeko to hell, but we don’t know if the place actually got better after that. Did the abusive employees get fired? Did a kinder and more responsible person from the Yanohara group take over? We don’t know.
She didn’t really have any moments with any of the Hell Team. She brushed off Wanyuudou whenever she saw him, and she gave like a tiny smile when she saw Ai outside in the end. Also, yeah, she’s still getting Hell Girl visions.
They really handled her character like crap. Not nearly as bad as they handled Hajime, because at least they actually did SOME stuff with her instead of just booting her from existence offscreen, but….*lip smack* I guess this is goodbye, Tsugumi.
The hell torture this time around was pretty alright. The origami part was a little goofy, but not nearly as bad as the last episode with the balloon heads.
Two other things – Michiru appears in this episode but doesn’t really contribute anything. And, apparently, Kikuri is back to being a wind-up doll. How and why? I dunno. But who cares? We’re almost done here….
If you enjoy my horrifying work and would like to show your ghoulish support, please consider offering a financial sacrifice at my Ko-Fi altar. Every offering goes to helping me combat evil money-sucking vampires known as ‘bills’ and keep this blog from becoming a ghost. Thank you! 🎃
The Anime Madhouse 