History Characters / HellGirlHellGirlAndCo

* ClarkKenting: They don't put on any disguise to infiltrate into their clients' lives (e.g. pretending to be a classmate/teacher/etc.), even when they pose as a number of different roles at the same time. Justified, since they are able to prevent mortals from recognizing them. It becomes a plot point in the third season when [[spoiler:Yuzuki]] recognizes them.

* {{Villain Protagonist}}s: They are the main characters and their job is to carry out revenge on others' behalf and ferry people to hell. [[AntiVillain That doesn't mean they are evil, though.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jigoku.jpeg]]

Hell Girl (地獄少女, Jigoku Shoujo) is a title and occupation occasionally given by the Lord of Hell to the spirits of girls with a strong affinity for the supernatural. The job of a Hell Girl is to manage the Hell Correspondence, taking client requests for revenge and accepting or refusing them if they feel inclined. Although Ai Enma is the overall main protagonist of the series, others have come to claim the title as the series went on, illustrating it is not exclusive to her.

Hell Girl (地獄少女, Jigoku Shoujo) is a title and occupation occasionally given by the Lord of Hell to the spirits of girls with a strong affinity for the supernatural. The job of a Hell Girl is to accept or refuse requests of revenge from humans who access the Hell Correspondence. Although Ai Enma is the overall main protagonist of the series, others have come to claim the title as the series went on, illustrating it is not exclusive to her.

Hell Girl (地獄少女, Jigoku Shoujo) is a title and occupation occasionally given by the Lord of Hell to the spirits of girls with an affinity for the supernatural. The job of a Hell Girl is to accept or refuse requests of revenge from humans who access the Hell Correspondence. Although Ai Enma is the overall main protagonist of the series, others have come to claim the title as the series went on, illustrating it is not exclusive to her.

Hell Girl (地獄少女, Jigoku Shoujo) is the title given by the Lord of Hell to the spirits of girls with an affinity for the supernatural. The job of a Hell Girl is to accept or refuse requests of revenge from humans who access the Hell Correspondence. Although Ai Enma is the overall main protagonist of the series, others have come to claim the title as the series went on, illustrating it is not exclusive to her.

!!The Hell Girl

Hell Girl (地獄少女, Jigoku Shoujo) is the title given by the Lord of Hell to the spirits of girls with an affinity for the supernatural. The job of a Hell Girl is to accept or refuse requests of revenge from humans who access the Hell Correspondence. Although Ai is the overall main protagonist of the series, others have come to claim the title as the series went on, illustrating it is not exclusive to her.

!!!Assistants
[[folder:The whole team]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jigoku.jpeg]]
* AffablyEvil: They have a fairly even-minded opinion of humankind, and happily support their co-workers, students, and friends in their many cover jobs. Sometimes, it's enough to almost make you forget what their real job is.
* {{Anti Villain}}s: Aside from Kikuri, they're actually decent people tied to a terrible occupation.
* ClarkKenting: They don't put on any disguise to infiltrate into their clients' lives (e.g. pretending to be a classmate/teacher/etc.), even when they pose as a number of different roles at the same time. Justified, since they are able to prevent mortals from recognizing them. It becomes a plot point in the third season when [[spoiler:Yuzuki]] recognizes them.
* ColorCodedCharacters: The minions' straw doll forms are different colors: black for Wanyuudo, red for Hone Onna, blue for Ichimoku Ren and yellow for Yamawaro.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: A variety of standards, given they're not necessarily malicious beings.
** They are ''never'' happy when an innocent gets sent to Hell, but have no choice in the matter. Additionally, while their job is to send people to Hell, they are contemptuous of deliberate human cruelty; for example, they're disgusted that Aya Kuroda stole the money Mayumi Hashimoto was entrusted with and forced her into CompensatedDating to make it back, writing off her behavior as "kid stuff"; and for another example, they are extremely angry when telling off Yuki for how she treated her sister Yumi.
** In one instance where Ichimoku Ren attempts to prevent a child from sending her own mother to Hell because the mother is already Hellbound due to a previous covenant with Ai, only succeeding when the mother chooses to commit suicide in order to spare her from doing so.
** Hone before she assumed her doll form, directly expressed a particular amount of disgust and anger at a girl claiming to be a fortune teller, who sent an innocent man to Hell after being bullied into it by a popular girl in her school to avoid being an outcast.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Despite their efficiency and cruelty in sending people to Hell, they can be kind-hearted and sympathetic to the turmoil of others. Not often, this may include gentle nudges to use Hell Correspondence if they believe it would save the person from further suffering.
* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: Ai's minions are often shown with different jobs as they observe a prospective client and the corresponding target before the string is pulled.
* NotSoStoic: Inverted. They are not allowed to have their emotions interfere with their job, but act normally around each other. This doesn't always take, however, as even Ai sometimes sheds tears or cracks through the strain of her job.
* {{Punch Clock Villain}}s: Very much so. Ai ferries people to hell because that's where her parents will go if she doesn't. Her assistants stay with her out of [[UndyingLoyalty loyalty]]. They treat the Hell Correspondence as their job and will generally not hurt anyone unless they're the target of their client's revenge.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Ai is at least 400 years old. Her first three companions came from various periods of feudal Japan.
** Technically speaking, Ren was 100 years old exactly when he was 'born'. Except, replace "born" with "transformed from a katana".
* SleepModeSize: Their straw doll forms are basically this when someone's not using them to sell their soul for revenge.
* StealthHiBye: They can go between the sunset realm and the world of the living by just vanishing and will often disappear when some random object or person moves in front of them.
* TrueCompanions: Ren outright says that their little group is like family to him. In season 3, Yuzuki asks Ai who Ren, Hone Onna, and Wanyuudo are to her. Ai says they're her companions.
* UndyingLoyalty: All of Ai's minions except for Kikuri are deeply loyal to her for their own reasons. For Wanyuudo, it's because Ai saved him from running on and on until he wound up in hell. For Hone Onna, it's because Ai helped her regain her humanity. In the case of Ichimoku Ren and Yamawaro, it's because she saved them from a lonely existence. She also acts as an older sister of sorts to Kikuri.
* {{Villain Protagonist}}s: They are the main characters and their job is to carry out revenge on others' behalf and ferry people to hell. [[AntiVillain That doesn't mean they are evil, though.]]
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: They can do this to varying degrees.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Wanyuudo]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wanyudo_hell_girl.png]][[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click to see him in the 2006 TV Drama]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tcxyjqb.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->Voiced by: Creator/TakayukiSugo (Japanese), Creator/RBruceElliott (English), Guillermo Martínez (Latin American Spanish)
->Portrayed by: Hisahiro Ogura (2006 series), Akaji Maro (2019 film)


Ai's first assistant. He can appear as a fiery wheel or as an elderly gentleman wearing a fedora. He also serves as Ai's transport to banishment victims.

* BaldOfEvil: Subverted. He's an agent of Hell, but he is otherwise a very moral person.
* BerserkButton: Thoughtless and unjust crimes, such as a father allowing his daughter to be raped for humiliating him, when it wasn't at all her fault.
* BigDamnHeroes: He does this for the above-mentioned girl in the second season, scaring off her would-be rapists by charging at them in wheel form.
* TheBigGuy: He's the only one of Ai's assistants who is shown to have SuperStrength.
* BigOlEyebrows: Larger than anyone else's, at least.
* CoolOldGuy: Usually appears as an old man while investigating in the human world, but he is still a demon who is strong enough to bare-handedly stop a moving truck.
* EyesAlwaysShut: In his human form, though we do see them open during a flashback of how he met Ai.
* NiceHat: A fedora, in contrast to to his casual Japanese attire.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: While Hone Onna's name while she was alive is known, Wanyuudo is only known by his nickname since he is a tsukumogami.
* PlayingWithFire: He can appear as a giant fiery wheel with his face as a hubcap. In his human form, he can throw fireballs.
* ScarfOfAsskicking: He wears a red scarf in the way that evokes the straw dolls' strings and even though he never starts the fights he gets into, he always finishes them.
* SkintoneSclerae: Shown to have these in a flashback.
* SuperStrength: ''Futakomori'' shows him stopping a speeding truck.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: He can transform into a giant fiery wheel. During banishments he can transform into any object with wheels.
* WasOnceAMan: Inverted. Before getting turned into a yokai, he was the left wheel of a carriage during the Heian Period. After the carriage was destroyed and burned, he became a fiery wheel monster.
* {{Youkai}}: In Japanese folklore, Wanyuudo is a demonic flaming ox-cart wheel bearing the tormented face of a man.

[[folder:Ren Ichimoku]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ichimoku_ren_2.png]][[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click to see him in the 2006 TV Drama ]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pzmdvkh.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"Actually... I saw it."''

-->Voiced by: Creator/MasayaMatsukaze (Japanese), Creator/ToddHaberkorn (English), Ricardo Sorondo (Latin American Spanish)
-->Portrayed by: Kazuki Katô (2006 series), Raiku (2019 film)

Ai's second assistant. He appears as a young man, though he can transform into a blue straw doll when he needs to deliver vengeance. Can transform into a large eye, which he often uses to spy on the humans.

* BerserkButton: Abusive relationships, and when the Hell service is used on people who don't deserve it.
* BigBrotherInstinct: He can act this way towards some of the clients.
* ColorCodedEyes: A shade of yellow-green, which is striking amongst the regular Japanese populace. His large eye is also this color.
* EyeSpy: He can project his eye anywhere he wants, and this makes a very useful tool for investigating both clients and vengeance targets. Unusually, he can also hear and speak through it when using it this way.
* FacelessEye: He can spy on people by projecting an eye onto any surface or simply appearing as a giant eye.
* HotTeacher: He is a science teacher in the third season.
* LouisCypher: Ren Ishimoto.
* PeekABangs: His hair covers the part of his face where his left eye would be.
* PrettyBoy: Has an appearance of a handsome young man, and has occasionally used seduction to get information from female clients.
* SympatheticSentientWeapon: As a tsukumogami, he was a sword that became sentient after one hundred years. Because he was still an inanimate object, he was ForcedToWatch as people used him as a weapon of both war and murder. He had been left behind after a battle and was stuck there until Ai found him.
* VillainTeleportation: He can use his eye for this rather than just teleporting like the others.
* TheWallsHaveEyes: He normally spies on people from walls and ceilings.
* {{Youkai}}: A tsukumogami of an old sword that gained sentience, though the name and the eye may be a reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokumokuren Mokumokuren]].

[[folder:Hone Onna]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/honeonna_hell_girl.png]][[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click to see her in the 2006 TV Drama]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/q15n9lv.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"Have you learned your lesson yet?"''

-->Voiced by: Creator/TakakoHonda (Japanese), Jennifer Seman (English), Mercedes Prato (Latin American Spanish)
-->Portrayed by: Aya Sugimoto (2006 series), Manami Hahsimoto (2019 film)

One of Ai's assistants. Her appearance is that of an attractive woman in a blue kimono. When interacting with humans, she normally wears a formal suit.

* AloofDarkHairedGirl: She's tall, dark-haired, beautiful, graceful and aloof.
* BerserkButton: Thanks to how she became a youkai, people betrayed by loved ones. An episode involving a woman who manipulated and eventually murdered a girl shows that she doesn't like betrayal in general.
* CoolBigSis: To one client especially.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: She was originally a young woman named Tsuyu, who was sold into prostitution by her lover to pay off his debts. When she tried to plot an escape for her fellow prostitute Kiyo, she betrayed her and had her killed. When her corpse was thrown into the river filled with bones, the spirits fused with her body, becoming Hone Onna.
* DemBones: Being based off the mythical youkai of the same name, she can make any part of her skeleton visible.
* DemonOfHumanOrigin: Unlike Ai's other assistants who are youkai created from objects, Hone Onna is a human who turned into a youkai after death.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Hair black like the night and skin pale like a ghost. A look fitting for a {{Youkai}} made from several resentful souls and with the ability to spook people by making her bones visible.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: In season 3, we discover that she has many female students fawning over her and vying with each other for her attention.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: In her backstory, she was sold to a brothel by her lover. Despite her misfortune, Tsuyu was a kind and friendly to her fellow prostitutes.
* HospitalHottie: She has worn a nurse outfit more than once.
* HotTeacher: She is a gym teacher in the third season.
* IconicOutfit: While in the world of the living, she usually wears a business suit that is the same shade of red as her straw doll form. Ai wears it during one of ''Futakomori'''s Hell Banishments.
* ImpossiblyLowNeckline: On her default outfit.
* KnifeNut: She is a very skilled knife thrower.
* LouisCypher: Anna Sone.
* MeaningfulName: Tsuyu, the name she had back when she was human, is based on Otsuyu, the name of the Hone Onna of a popular Japanese tale named Botan Doro.
* NightmareFace: When she shows her skull. Done more effectively in the live-action adaptation.
* ThePowerOfHate: It was the hatred of other betrayed women that made her into Hone Onna.
* RavenHairIvorySkin: While a {{youkai}}, Hone Onna looks like a very beautiful woman with long black hair and pale skin.
* ReflectionlessUselessEyes: Her eyes don't reflect any light to emphasize she's a {{Youkai}}.
* UnkemptBeauty: Notably with her loosened kimono and slightly disheveled hairstyle.
* {{Youkai}}: Hone Onna is a living female skeleton that creates an illusion to look like a beautiful woman so she can seduce men and drain their life force by having sex with them. Luckily, the Hone Onna of Ai's group is harmless compared to the myth and she's simply an attractive woman who can make her skin transparent to scare the people getting dragged to hell by Ai.

[[folder:Kikuri]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kikuri_hell_girl.png]]
->Voiced by: Creator/KanakoSakai

A mysterious little girl introduced in the second season. She delights in annoying others.

* BrattyHalfPint: Very much so, though Yamawaro keeps her in check in season 3.
* ClothFu: She can extend impossibly long ribbons out of her clothing to grab onto things. She even uses them to swing across a suspension bridge at one point.
* CreepyChild: Mostly in season 2.
* CreepyDoll: Averted. In the third season, she possesses a wind-up doll and is no creepier because of it. Her having to be wound up again is a running joke.
* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:The spider possesses her at the finales of the second and third seasons.]]
* ExoticEyeDesigns: Downplayed. She has large purple eyes with white lines in the irises [[spoiler:to indicate that she has a deeper connection to Hell than the other minions. It's the same pattern that the jellyfish floating over Hell's gate has and the spider can possess both at will]].
* FlowerMotifs: She's represented by red camellias, found in her hair and kimono.
* KickTheDog: She is directly responsible for a couple of [[CruelTwistEnding Cruel Twist Endings]] in ''Futakomori''.
* KidsAreCruel: In season 2, she would sometimes go out of her way to make people who made contracts with Ai regret it while they were alive. Case in point: a man who stole money for his wife's medical care banished the person blackmailing him over it, so she made the wife forget him.
* MeaningfulName: It's a reference to Kikuri-hime, the Shinto goddess in charge of communicating with Yomi, the land of the dead.
* RunningGag: In the third season, Kikuri has a wind-up key on her back, which needs to be re-wound repeatedly.
* SupernaturalIsPurple: A lot of attention is drawn to her purple eyes in ''Futakomori'' to play up her eerie, supernatural nature.
* TokenEvilTeammate: While the others are AffablyEvil and PunchClockVillains, Kikuri is never a kind girl and is more sinister than them.
* {{Troll}}: Enjoys bothering the other minions and occasionally people she meets in the world of the living.
* UnwittingPawn: From ''Futakomori'' onward, [[spoiler:the spider is using her to observe Ai's actions]].

[[folder:Yamawaro]]
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yamawaro_hell_girl.png]]
->Voiced by: Creator/HekiruShiina

One of Ai's assistants. He was introduced in the third season and has the appearance of a boy. Most of the time, he keeps Kikuri from bothering the other minions.

* BlowYouAway: He has some control over wind.
* {{Foil}}: To Kikuri, who is physically the closest to his age. The two would often play together when they're not "working", but where Kikuri is bratty and immature, Yamawaro is very polite and stoic.
* IntriguedByHumanity: Shown to be this in his backstory. It's what caused him to approach Hikaru's parents and start to live a normal life. He eventually starts working for Ai for much the same reason.
* {{Keigo}}: He has a rather polite speech pattern.
* MushroomMan: Before he met people, he was a mass of mushrooms with a human face. One of the people he lived with cultivated the fungus for an elixir of life, so he still has fungus inside his body despite appearing human.
* {{Youkai}}: In Japanese folklore, Yamawaro are {{Cyclops}} acting like the equivalent of {{Kappa}} that reside in mountains instead of rivers. They are said to be short creatures resembling little boys, but their traditional portrayal isn't anywhere near as cute as the Yamawaro of Ai's group.

!!!Others
[[folder:Ai's "Grandmother"]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ai_grandmother.jpg]]
->''"Ai, I'm leaving your nagajuban right here."''

-->Voiced by: Eriko Matsushima (Japanese), Juli Erickson (English), Mariana Gamboa (Latin American Spanish)

A kindly old woman hidden behind a sliding door who only speaks to Ai. All that is seen of her is the silhouette of an old woman with a spinning wheel.

* AdaptedOut: She never appears in the 2019 movie since Ai's hut never appears.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: She only ever talks to someone other than Ai twice. The first is when she gets Hajime to stop Ai from giving Tsugumi the straw doll. The second is when she thanks Ai's minions for all they've done for Ai.
* SheWhoMustNotBeSeen: The audience never gets to see her true appearance. The only character who actually does see her freaks out, suggesting that this is a good thing. In the live-action series, she opens the sliding door at one point and nobody is visible behind it.

[[folder:The Spider]]
[[quoteright:303:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jinmen_kumo.jpg]]
->Voiced by: Creator/HidekatsuShibata (Japanese), Creator/JohnSwasey (English)

A bizarre-looking spider that hangs around the hut in Ai's sunset realm.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: [[spoiler:He gets so little screentime that whether he actually is evil or not for what he makes Ai do is up to interpretation.]]
* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: [[spoiler:He is the Lord of Hell himself.]]
* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:He is able to possess Kikuri and is presumably able to see through her eyes.]]
* EverybodyHatesHades: [[spoiler:He is the Lord of Hell.]]
* EyelessFace: He doesn't have eyes on his head like normal spiders and instead has eyes on his abdomen.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Three on his back.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: [[spoiler:In his first meeting with Ai, he appears as a spider, then possesses the jellyfish floating over the gates of hell, suggesting that they are [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith avatars]] of a [[PhysicalGod far more]] [[GodOfEvil powerful being]].]]
* IronicHell: Considers [[spoiler:making Ai the Hell Girl]] a form of this.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver
* SatanicArchetype: [[spoiler:Subverted. He rules over Hell and make deals for people's souls, but is a lawful being in that there are strict rules about who may be sent to Hell and may just be doing his job.]]
* SuddenlyVoiced: At the end of season one, where he [[spoiler: speaks to Ai about her own grudge and revenge]].

[[folder:Mutsumi Village]]
!!Mutsumi Village
Ai was born in the early 1600's in the small Japanese town known as Mutsumi Village. She was chosen by the village elders to become the latest in a long line of child sacrifices meant to appease the mountain god and secure a bountiful harvest. The ritual was known as the "Seven Sending", every seven years, a seven-year-old girl was offered up to the mountain. Ai's parents defied the will of the village elders and secretly arranged for Sentaro to keep Ai alive in the woods, bringing her food, clothes and keeping her company. Unfortunately, when this ruse was discovered, she and her parents were murdered. Ai subsequently destroyed the entire village as a vengeful spirit while Sentaro fled for parts unknown.

[[folder:The whole team]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jigoku.jpeg]]
* AffablyEvil: They have a fairly even-minded opinion of humankind, and happily support their co-workers, students, and friends in their many cover jobs. Sometimes, it's enough to almost make you forget what their real job is.
* {{Anti Villain}}s: Aside from Kikuri, they're actually decent people tied to a terrible occupation.
* ClarkKenting: They don't put on any disguise to infiltrate into their clients' lives (e.g. pretending to be a classmate/teacher/etc.), even when they pose as a number of different roles at the same time. Justified, since they are able to prevent mortals from recognizing them. It becomes a plot point in the third season when [[spoiler:Yuzuki]] recognizes them.
* ColorCodedCharacters: The minions' straw doll forms are different colors: black for Wanyuudo, red for Hone Onna, blue for Ichimoku Ren and yellow for Yamawaro.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: A variety of standards, given they're not necessarily malicious beings.
** They are ''never'' happy when an innocent gets sent to Hell, but have no choice in the matter. Additionally, while their job is to send people to Hell, they are contemptuous of deliberate human cruelty; for example, they're disgusted that Aya Kuroda stole the money Mayumi Hashimoto was entrusted with and forced her into CompensatedDating to make it back, writing off her behavior as "kid stuff"; and for another example, they are extremely angry when telling off Yuki for how she treated her sister Yumi.
** In one instance where Ichimoku Ren attempts to prevent a child from sending her own mother to Hell because the mother is already Hellbound due to a previous covenant with Ai, only succeeding when the mother chooses to commit suicide in order to spare her from doing so.
** Hone before she assumed her doll form, directly expressed a particular amount of disgust and anger at a girl claiming to be a fortune teller, who sent an innocent man to Hell after being bullied into it by a popular girl in her school to avoid being an outcast.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Despite their efficiency and cruelty in sending people to Hell, they can be kind-hearted and sympathetic to the turmoil of others. Not often, this may include gentle nudges to use Hell Correspondence if they believe it would save the person from further suffering.
* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: Ai's minions are often shown with different jobs as they observe a prospective client and the corresponding target before the string is pulled.
* NotSoStoic: Inverted. They are not allowed to have their emotions interfere with their job, but act normally around each other. This doesn't always take, however, as even Ai sometimes sheds tears or cracks through the strain of her job.
* {{Punch Clock Villain}}s: Very much so. Ai ferries people to hell because that's where her parents will go if she doesn't. Her assistants stay with her out of [[UndyingLoyalty loyalty]]. They treat the Hell Correspondence as their job and will generally not hurt anyone unless they're the target of their client's revenge.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Ai is at least 400 years old. Her first three companions came from various periods of feudal Japan.
** Technically speaking, Ren was 100 years old exactly when he was 'born'. Except, replace "born" with "transformed from a katana".
* SleepModeSize: Their straw doll forms are basically this when someone's not using them to sell their soul for revenge.
* StealthHiBye: They can go between the sunset realm and the world of the living by just vanishing and will often disappear when some random object or person moves in front of them.
* TrueCompanions: Ren outright says that their little group is like family to him. In season 3, Yuzuki asks Ai who Ren, Hone Onna, and Wanyuudo are to her. Ai says they're her companions.
* UndyingLoyalty: All of Ai's minions except for Kikuri are deeply loyal to her for their own reasons. For Wanyuudo, it's because Ai saved him from running on and on until he wound up in hell. For Hone Onna, it's because Ai helped her regain her humanity. In the case of Ichimoku Ren and Yamawaro, it's because she saved them from a lonely existence. She also acts as an older sister of sorts to Kikuri.
* {{Villain Protagonist}}s: They are the main characters and their job is to carry out revenge on others' behalf and ferry people to hell. [[AntiVillain That doesn't mean they are evil, though.]]
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: They can do this to varying degrees.
[[/folder]]

* MyGreatestFailure: Ai's death. AS aforementioned in TheAtoner, he even built a shrine dedicated to his grief.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s1_ep25_sentarou_shibata.png]]
Ai's cousin and only friend.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:He builds a temple on the place where Ai was buried.]]
* BullyHunter: He went after anyone who made Ai cry.
* DeclarationOfProtection: He promised to protect Ai after [[spoiler:she was selected as a HumanSacrifice, which made his betrayal more painful for her]].

* OnlyFriend: To Ai, which made [[spoiler: perceived betrayal more painful for her]].

* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:He was the only survivor of the village after Ai burned it.]]

* AssholeVictim: They paid dearly for their evil practices.
* BuriedAlive: How they sacrificed Ai and her parents.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath / KarmicDeath: Burned alive in their homes by the young girl they tormented without end and ultimately killed. Needless to say, they deserved every second of it. And the one-way express trip to hell they very likely got afterwards.

* EvilIsPetty: Let’s face the facts, they targeted an innocent girl and her family simply for being a little weird. That’s it. They condemned her and her family to death over something as ridiculous as simply being ''different''.
* HumanSacrifice: They held a tradition of killing children to appease a mountain god.
* KidsAreCruel: And teenagers, and adults, and elders...

* KillEmAll: Their ultimate fate at the hands of Ai. Good riddance, too.

* ReligionOfEvil: Sacrificing their own children to a mountain god? One gets the impression that they weren't great people even before Ai was born.

* TownWithADarkSecret: Just a peaceful Japanese farming village that sacrificed little girls to please their mountain god and indirectly created Hell Girl as we know her. Nothing to see here.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Although we see them die, their fates after death are unrevealed and it is unknown if they went to hell (although they probably did).

!!Sentaro
->Voiced by: Creator/ToshiyukiToyonaga (Japanese), Creator/JasonLiebrecht (English), Gonzalo Fumero (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s1_ep25_sentarou_shibata.png]]
Ai's cousin and only friend.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:He builds a temple on the place where Ai was buried.]]
* BullyHunter: He went after anyone who made Ai cry.
* DeclarationOfProtection: He promised to protect Ai after [[spoiler:she was selected as a HumanSacrifice, which made his betrayal more painful for her]].
* KissingCousins: Implied with Ai.
* OnlyFriend: To Ai, which made [[spoiler: perceived betrayal more painful for her]].
* PeerPressureMakesYouEvil: He was forced to betray Ai by the villagers, who blamed them both for the famine that was making them starve.
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:He was the only survivor of the village after Ai burned it.]]
* TokenGoodTeammate: The only villager besides Ai's parents that didn't make Ai's life hell.

!!The Villagers

The people who lived in Ai's village when she was alive, 400 years ago.
----
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: They made an innocent girl's life a living hell for no reason.
* AssholeVictim: They paid dearly for their horrible mistreatment of Ai.

* BadBoss: When rarely enraged, she is not above using intimidation or force to keep her subordinates in line when all they do is try to calm her down.

* ParentsInDistress: [[spoiler:The Lord of Hell is holding the souls of her parents hostage, ensuring she does not go against her duties as Hell Girl. Their souls are freed at the end of the second season.]]
* PlayingWithFire: Ai has the power to create fire.

* PunchClockVillain: She only serves as Hell Girl because the Master of Hell would send her parents to hell if she did not. Her job is to show up when summoned, explain the rules of the contract, and take the damned person down to hell (but not before tormenting them a little first).

* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Her SailorFuku has these colors.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Her blood-red eyes are her most striking feature. [[spoiler: In life, she actually had brown eyes, but they turned red the moment she swore her revenge upon her village as she and her parents were buried alive.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: After the townspeople buried her alive along with her parents, she came back and burned the entire town to the ground in retribution, leaving no survivors.]]

* TheStoic: She is forbidden from showing emotions by [[spoiler:the spider]].

* SugarAndIcePersonality: She appears emotionless at first glance, but Ai is actually forced to repress her emotions in order to carry out her job as the Hell Girl. She allows herself to show a more caring and compassionate side around her TrueCompanions during their heartwarming moments. Also, she can show sympathy to her clients, especially those who were betrayed by others. [[spoiler:This is because betrayal featured strongly in the incident that led her to become the Hell Girl]].
* TenderTears: Albeit, through manifesting in a painting, she openly weeps for Fukumoto before his passing.
* TranquilFury: She is quiet and wouldn't raise her voice, even when she's on a vengeful rampage against the people who made her angry.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: There was a time in which Ai was a sweet and innocent little girl. After [[spoiler:the villagers sacrificed her and her parents to their mountain gods, her cousin betrayed her and]] she was forced to become the Hell Girl, Ai became an EmotionlessGirl that keeps her emotions and pain hidden most of the time.
* VengefulGhost: [[spoiler:After the villagers buried her and her parents alive, Ai came back as a enraged host and burned the village to the ground as revenge. Carrying out revenge for others as the Hell Girl is her punishment. Nowadys, she has repressed her emotions, but she briefly reverts back to her original vengeful nature when she finds the descendants of her cousin who was the only survivor of the village.]]

* EtTuBrute: Her cousin and OnlyFriend Sentaro betrayed her when [[PeerPressureMakesYouEvil he gave in to the pressure of the townspeople, did nothing to save her and her parents and even helped the villagers to bury her alive.

* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:Her backstory; Ai was meant to be this as a little girl, but with Sentaro's help she was able to stay alive even when abandoned in the mountains - until the villagers found out and took it upon themselves to bury her alive along with her parents. In revenge, she rises from her grave and burns down her village, and is made into the Hell Girl as [[IronicHell punishment]].]]
* IronicHell: [[spoiler:She was forced to become the Hell Girl as punishment for burning her village down in revenge for her death.]]
* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:Upon returning to life as a demon, she burned her village down and killed everyone in it.]]
* KissingCousins: It's implied she had romantic feelings for her cousin Sentaro, [[spoiler:which made his betrayal even more painful for her.]]

** She also gives a very rare DeathGlare when Gil de l'Enfer brags about using his powers to send everyone he knew to hell in vengeance for his own murder because [[spoiler:despite the parallel to her own backstory, he is gleefully unrepentant about it]].

* DarkIsNotEvil: Dresses in black and red, is an agent of Hell, and has shadow based powers, but she isn't evil.
* DealWithTheDevil: Her duty is to offer these to humans.
* DemonOfHumanOrigin: Ai was originally a normal human girl. During her dying breath, [[spoiler:she cursed the villagers that sacrificed her and her parents to their mountain gods. That same night, she came back as an ''onryo'' and burned the whole village down, killing everyone in it.]] After that, she was sent to hell, and the Lord of Hell forced her to take the job of Hell Girl or else she and her loved ones would suffer in hell eternally. The job comes with a powerful set of powers, and over the course of 400 years she gains enough mastery of it to be able to confront the Lord of Hell.
* DyingDeclarationOfHate: [[spoiler:In the final moments of her life as a human, Ai vowed to hate the villagers that killed her and her parents forever, even after her death.]]

* EmotionSuppression: Despite coming off as an EmotionlessGirl, Ai ''does'' have emotions, but she must repress them in order to carry out her job as the Hell Girl. It's subtle, but she does rarely show emotions such as her TranquilFury toward Gil de l'Enfer.
* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler:Her cousin and OnlyFriend Sentaro betrayed her when [[PeerPressureMakesYouEvil he gave in to the pressure of the townspeople,]] did nothing to save her and her parents and even helped the villagers to bury her alive.]]
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: [[spoiler:She serves as Hell Girl because the Master of Hell threatened to send her parents to hell if she refused.]]
* EveryoneHasStandards: She will send most people to hell without blinking an eye. But she was not happy when an innocent young nurse, who had committed no crime, was sent to hell by a drug addict for no reason at all.

* GhostlyGoals: [[spoiler:{{Revenge}}. She killed the villagers who used her as a HumanSacrifice. Unfortunately for her, [[EverybodyHatesHades the spider]] noticed and made her the Hell Girl as [[IronicHell punishment]].]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:When she refuses to transport the soul of Takuma Kurebayashi, whose life situation somewhat mirrored her own. As a punishment she becomes mortal and later dies while trying to defend the boy from violent townspeople.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[spoiler:More than 400 years ago, Ai was a human girl living in a remote village near the mountains. She was frequently bullied by other kids, and her only friend was her cousin Sentaro. At the age of seven, Ai was selected to be the HumanSacrifice. However, her parents secretly asked Sentaro to care for her as she lived in the mountains. A few years later, Ai was discovered when a group of boys followed Sentarou into the mountains. Ai and her parents were captured and BuriedAlive as punishment. The villagers forced Sentaro to be the first one to shovel ground to the hole. Sentaro's betrayal brought forth an immense hatred in Ai. As the villagers buried her, she vowed to hate them forever even if she dies. A short time later, Ai returned as a vengeful spirit to exact her revenge by burning the entire village to the ground in her wrath. The Master of Hell then captured her parents and made a pact with her: in exchange for her parents not being sent to Hell, Ai should become the Hell Girl to carry out others' revenge as a punishment for her own revenge.]]
* DarkIsNotEvil: Dresses in black and red, but is a PunchClockVillain at worst.
* DealWithTheDevil: Her duty is to offer these and carry them out.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Ai's job as the Hell Girl forces her to repress her emotions to the point where it's ''very'' hard to make her angry... God help you if you actually succeed, [[DoNotTauntCthulu as Gil de L'enfer found out.]]

* BrokenBird: Ai wasn't always so detached and somber. The mistreatment she got from the villagers, the unfair death of her and her parents, the betrayal of someone she believed would protect her, and centuries of seeing people dragging others to hell in revenge are what made her emotionally numb.
* BuriedAlive: [[spoiler:After she was discovered to be alive, Ai and her parents were buried alive by the villagers to appease the gods.]]
* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: [[spoiler:She returns to the mortal world in this form at the beginning of the third season.]]

* CreepyMonotone: When not interacting with her minions, she speaks in an emotionless and morose monotone.
* CryCute: Because she's usually so emotionless, the few times we see tears in her eyes, mainly during the episodes showing her tragic past, are always heart-wrenching.

The titular Hell Girl. It is her duty to offer a devil's deal of vengeance to any who access the Hell Correspondence. If the "customer" accepts, she ferries the target of that person's vengeance to Hell. As part of the deal she will also ferry the "customer" to Hell after he or she dies.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In her backstory, she was ostracized and bullied by the people of her village. The only ones who treated her kindly were her parents and her cousin Sentaro. [[spoiler:It's implied that this is why she was chosen as a HumanSacrifice - the townspeople just wanted to get rid of her.]]
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Appearance-wise, Ai is a beautiful, doll-like girl with long, black hair who shows no emotion.
* BenevolentBoss: She does care for her minions in her own quiet way and they love her right back.
* BewareTheQuietOnes: Ai's job as the Hell Girl forces her to repress her emotions to the point where it's ''very'' hard to make her angry... God help you if you actually succeed.
* BloodbathVillainOrigin: [[spoiler:She became Hell Girl after transforming into a demon out of pure hate and [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed burning down her home village with everyone inside,]] in revenge for them tormenting her for her entire life, planning to sacrifice her, and finally burying her alive, killing her parents, and forcing her beloved cousin to betray her.]]

* AffablyEvil: Ai's teammates have a fairly even-minded opinion of humankind, and happily support their co-workers, students, and friends in their many, many jobs. It almost makes you forget what their real job is.
* {{Anti Villain}}s: Aside from Kikuri, they're actually pretty decent folks aside from their job.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Played with. They aren't happy when an innocent gets sent to Hell, but have no choice in the matter. Additionally, while their job is to send people to hell, they are contemptuous of deliberate human cruelty; for example, in episode 1, they're disgusted that AlphaBitch Aya Kuroda, who stole the money Mayumi Hashimoto was entrusted with and forced her into CompensatedDating to make it back, is writing off her behavior as "kid stuff"; and for another example, in episode 16, they sound very angry when telling off Yuki for how she treated her sister Yumi.
** Played straight in one instance where Ichimoku Ren attempts to prevent a child from sending her own mother to Hell because the mother is already Hellbound due to a previous covenant with Ai, only succeeding when the mother chooses to commit suicide in order to spare her from doing so.
** Hone Onna before she assumed her doll form, directly expressed a particular amount of disgust and anger at a girl claiming to be a fortune teller, who sent an innocent man to hell after being bullied into it by a popular girl in her school to avoid being an outcast.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Despite their efficiency and cruelty in sending people to hell, they can be quite kind-hearted and sympathetic to the turmoil of others. Not often, this may include gentle nudges to use Hell Correspondence if they believe it would save the person from further suffering.
** As well as stalling for time when the would-be victim is on their deathbed. One may only send someone who is still (technically) alive.
*** This is also the only confirmed instance of a character going to Heaven, though, like Hell, it is never seen.
** And in one case, physically stopping a moving vehicle to prevent revenge when the covenant was impossible, after the contract had already been invalidated and there was no obligation to stay.

* NotSoStoic: Inverted. They are not allowed to have their emotions interfere with their job, but act normally around each other.
* {{Punch Clock Villain}}s: Very much so. Ai ferries people to hell because [[spoiler: that's where her parents will go if she doesn't]]. Her assistants stay with her out of [[UndyingLoyalty loyalty]]. They treat the Hell Correspondence as their job and won't hurt anyone unless they're the target of their client's revenge.

| Hell Girl & Co | [[Characters/HellGirlMajorSupportingCast Major Supporting Cast]] | [[Characters/HellGirlHellCorrespondence The Hell Correspondence]] | -]]]]]

[[folder: Mutsumi Village]]

| [[Characters/HellGirlHellGirlAndCo Hell Girl & Co]] | [[Characters/HellGirlMajorSupportingCast Major Supporting Cast]] | [[Characters/HellGirlHellCorrespondence The Hell Correspondence]] | -]]]]]

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[[header: Hell Girl and Co.]]