I always feel badly when I give up on a show. To me, it is a caliber of failure that I can’t tough it out to the end, but it then violates my Third Rule of Anime. (“If you feel the show is not going to get any better, leave it. It will NOT get better.”) Sometimes, the show is taken away from me. I watch a lot of Comcast/Xfinity On Demand and it seems they are always having an argument with the Funimation Channel. Someone calls someone a slob and the show line-up gets yanked away (which may have happened with “Case Closed”).

In some instances, I take this as a sign to give up on it (I did this with “Piano” and “Gundam Seed Destiny”). This show, I walked away from it, as nothing was happening over and over again. I got to Episode 10 before I said enough was too much. A typical show plays out like this:

Our victim (usually a girl between the ages of 14 and 24), is put upon by some horrible older person (mostly a man, but not exclusively). They do some heinous act and nothing can be done to bring the swine to justice. In their despair, the victim either remembers the Hell Girl site or hears about her by a conveniently passing person. You can only access this site at the stroke of midnight and when you do, you will type in the name of the person who needs some discipline.

Upon sending the name, Ai Enma, the Hell Girl, magically shows up at your place, which is creepy enough. I mean, it’s past midnight and I am in my darkened lair. I have done this deed and she is there mere seconds after the dispatch of it. Brrrrrrrr! She then launches into her spiel: (more…)