Without a doubt this episode was the most different from all the other episodes so far. I liked this episode quite a bit for how different it was compared to everything else we’ve seen. I was hoping to see more of the main plot of the series since this episode was so different from the rest. There’s a bit of development, but overall it wasn’t anything ground-breaking. Hone-Onna, Wanyudou, and Ichimoku Ren are starting to wonder about Ai’s recent behaviour. Things are moving along slowly, but it’s a bit too slow for my liking. This is the first time we get to see them deal with a ghost so I thought that was pretty interesting.

At first glance this episode doesn’t seem to be all that unique in terms of what we’ve seen so far. There are two notable developments in this episode though. First, they’re starting to wonder how Hajime is able to find where their next “client” is. Tsugumi may have been able to provide an excuse when Hone-onna asked her, but sooner or later they’ll catch on. The other point worth mentioning is Ai seemed to show some sympathy in this episode. If Ai continues to change the way she seems to be, it will make for some interesting story down the line.

Hajime was able to make someone reconsider and stop her from pulling the thread at the time. Unfortuately due to a certain mentally-unstable woman, Mina ultimately ends up pulling the thread in what can be considered an act of self-defense. This was probably the most disturbing episode thus far. Fujie was suspicious from the beginning, but I didn’t think she’d go that far. There really was no progress in terms of plot development in this episode. I was thinking that Ai had started to question herself and her actions, but there was no sign of that this time.

Hajime continues to try and stop people from doing something they will most likely end up regretting, but he wasn’t able to prevent it yet again. This is the first episode where someone who doesn’t really deserve to die gets sent to Hell. It looked like there would be more actual development of the main story in this episode because of the first scene. In the end we don’t really get any sort of development. Tsugumi had visions again, but we’re still no closer in understanding the connection between Ai and Tsugumi.

This episode was pretty much all plot development. We get some new information on Enma Ai. She looked the same 50 years ago and did the same thing she does today except through letters. According to Fukumoto, Enma Ai has been around since the Sengoku period. If Enma Ai wanted Hajime to find the story Fukumoto wrote, just what does she have planned? Maybe she wants him to stop her from continuing. I see that as one possible reason since Hajime wants to stop her and Ai seems to have some doubts now about her actions.

I thought this episode was good purely because it was unlike any of the episodes we’ve seen so far. It’s the first time the victim asked to be sent to Hell. In the beginning of the episode we already see a girl with the mark from the curse so the rest of the episode was basically one long flashback. It looks like Ai was starting to question the whole situation, but her grandmother reassured her it was okay. We may get more information on Ai in the next episode. The preview makes it look pretty promising.

Shibata learns more about Jigoku Shoujo and is one step closer to unraveling the mystery behind these cases. I really thought this would be the first episode where the person wouldn’t remove the thread. Ai and her supporters are beginning to find him as a hinderance to their work. We still don’t have any new information on the connection between Ai and Tsugumi. The plot is progressing, albeit slowly.

This is yet another episode with a new spin on the old formula. It seemed like it was going to be different in that the doll wouldn’t be used. Minami and Shiori solved the problems between each other on their own. Unfortunately because of a misunderstanding about the doll the thread is removed and Shiori gets sent to Hell. The moral of this episode is to keep the Internet away from kids. Let’s just hope they don’t break the trend in the unique story-telling we’ve been getting for the last few episodes.

Attack of the cakes! What can I say, we’ve already seen this premise before. Of course there’s also what we can call the “main plot” of the series. We have someone trying to unravel the mystery behind Ai and her “service”. Then we have a girl who is somehow connected to Ai. Personally I would rather have them focus the entire episode on the main plot than give us more of these “one-shot” stories. The subplot wasn’t bad, it’s just nothing we haven’t seen before. They will probably devote entire episodes to the main plot later in the series, but for the time being I think this sort of episode will be the trend we see for a while.

It may have finally begun. We may be on the verge on actual character development. We get the usual progression of a story, but what’s different about this week’s episode is a separate story gets intertwined into it. It appears a new girl we meet has some sort of connection with Ai. It’s still too early to speculate exactly what is going on. It would have been nice if they had started a continuous story earlier in the series, but like they say , better late than never.