Review : Hell Girl.

Hell girl is both a popular written novel, anime and live action series, so why shouldn't it be a manga as well? That is what the marketing people were thinking when they went and asked an artist if they would like some money to draw a manga of it. This happens much like the novels that go along with movie releases and often the novel seems to lose alot in the translation from screen to paper.

Ever had someone you really hate? Someone that killed your pet cat or tries to permanently cripple you for life? Yeah, me neither. But the plot of hell girl is that in each story a different character becomes a victim of some unbelievably evil person who would do such things. Enter Enma Ai, aka, Hell Girl. Just type the name of the dastardly person into the Hell Correspondence website at midnight and Enma Ai will extract revenge on the person for you and then proceed to take them to hell afterwards.

Sounds all fine and dandy right? Well here is where my beef lies with the story and characterization. In payment for sending the person to hell, you also have to goto hell when you die. I'm not much of a religious person, but I don't think I would agree to that just because someone killed my cat or put my cakeshop out of business, no matter how angry I was at the time. It just dosn't seem believable that these victims condemn themselves to an eternity in hell when they die, just to get rid of their tormentors.

The art is drawn in a very shojo-girly, sort of way. The guys teeth all sparkle, hair is drawn in the strand like manner. Girls are all cutesy and flowery. The art is great for it's style and theres practically no flaws. This art style does, however, kind of mess with the manga's dark and urban myth theme.

I think this manga is probably best suited to young teenage girls looking for slightly darker reading. There is hardly any actual violence and it's friendly to all ages, if you overlook the somewhat evil plot. I wouldn't suggest it to many others demographics.