Creator: Miyuki Eto; The Jigoku Shoujo Project (creators); Gemma Collinge (translation and adaptation)
Publishing Information: Del Rey Manga, paperback-B&W, 512 pages, $21.99 (US), $24.99 CAN
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-0-345-51220-8 (ISBN-13)
Rating: “OT” for “Ages 16+”
Hell Girl is a manga concept created by The Jigoku Shoujo Project, with the actual manga produced by creator Miyuki Eto. Hell Girl is basically a shojo, horror anthology series and revenge fantasy about teen girls holding grudges that turn out bad for everyone involved.
When someone really thirsts for revenge or wishes to protect herself or her loved ones, she can visit Hell Correspondence, a website that only appears at midnight. Writing the name of an enemy on the website summons Hell Girl, who will kill an enemy and drag him or her to hell! But there’s a price (There’s always a price!). When the person who makes the request dies, that person’s soul also goes to hell.
Del Rey Manga publishes Hell Girl in North America in single volumes – a total of nine. Del Rey has also collected the series in mini-omnibus editions collecting three volumes at a time in one paperback. In Hell Girl, Vol. 7/8/9, secrets and origins are revealed, and Hell Girl must save a life, instead of condemn it.
Hell Girl is creepy simply because of the depictions of people being dragged to hell. The creepy factor goes up because Hell Girl looks exactly like a typically cute shojo manga heroine. – one right out of an Arina Tanemura manga. Hell Girl succeeds as a revenge drama because Miyuki Eto succeeds in telling heart-rending tales of betrayal, even ultimate betrayal. When a husband sells his wife into prostitution for a loan, that will get the reader to buy into the idea of payback-is-a-mutha type vengeance. Although the series has run its course, Hell Girl is a keeper, one worth remembering and reading again because good revenge/horror comic books are infrequent. Hell Girl is the EC Comics of manga.
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